Holdfast: Nations At War News

Greetings good fellows of the community! We now step ever closer to the next update for Holdfast. The team are working endlessly to polish off this first of larger updates coming in 2023 all of which will aid in expanding and maintaining this great community we all love so dearly.

Soon we will be undertaking closed BETA sessions to test and gather feedback prior to the update's full release. While there is indeed a lot of change coming with this update it is a very important stage of our plans to ensure that players new and old can continue enjoying Holdfast for the years to come.


The newest members Gest, Matt and Grandayy slotted into the team effortlessly and have all already begun directly working on multiple sections of this next update coming to the game. They are all very excited for you to see what they have been working on.

Speaking of which, we’re pleased to announce that the long-awaited Howitzer artillery piece will be added to the game with this update. This new foe on the battlefield makes up what it lacks in range with devastating shrapnel explosions and blasts that will knock back those who are near.

Here’s a sneak peek of this beast of the battlefield.



*The above footage is a work in progress and may not be representative of the content upon release.

One of the changes coming to Holdfast with this update is an entire redesign of the game's user interface. Holdfast is a game that has been in development since 2013 and over the years, it has come to be rather dated in a lot of ways, often limiting the development of many features due to its lack of modularity.

Part and parcel of the above-mentioned redesign are customisable player cards. You will be able to brilliantly showcase your hard-earned achievements through a selection of customisable medals, portraits, titles and banners in your own style and liking. It will show to players you kill and also within the game’s leaderboards. These will be visible across all fronts of the game including Naval, Nations At War and Frontlines.

The initial introduction of these cards will have a limited pool of portraits, banners, titles and medals to pick from. Other updates will see the inclusion of a wide selection of customisable elements that can be unlocked by completing service challenges and feats of strength.

We’re doing this to limit the scope of the upcoming release ensuring that we’re able to deliver it to you as soon as humanly possible.



Our systems backend which cares for stats and experience collection as well as the regiment registry was similarly rudimentary in its construct. This severely limited our designers from enlisting features aiding with both community building and player retention. Needless to say, this was quite the involving task to see come to fruition but was a necessary step forward.

Thanks to these changes, the team has brought to life a more robust and responsive regiment registry along with various tools to bolster and assist with community building. The registry has also been made accessible whilst playing a match enabling new players to join a clan with ease.

Here’s a hint at some of the features that will be complimenting the new regiment registry in this coming update. Anvil Game Studios is determined to bring Holdfast into the new age all the while staying true to its core design values and pillars.

*The above image is a work in progress and may not be representative of the content upon release

[h2]Holdfast Game Sale[/h2]

Should you have yet to enlist and fight for Emperor or King, now’s the ripe moment to do so as Holdfast and all of its cosmetic DLCs will be on sale up to 55% off for a limited time! We hope to see you with us soon on the battlefield.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

We’ll have plenty more to show soon enough. On behalf of everyone at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. :oheart:

discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

Welcoming in the joys of spring Holdfast: Nations At War is now on sale at 60% off! Alongside this all of Holdfast’s dashing uniforms, loyalist and collectors edition DLCs can now also be picked up at 35% off their original price.

Since the release of the major update that introduced Austria, the DLCs for the games Napoleonic front have been expanded upon to include additional free uniforms for both the Austrians and the Italians. Check out the Napoleonic Pack and other DLCs below to get yourself suited and booted for the wars to come over the hills and far away.

Base Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

Collectors Edition
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

Napoleonic Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

Great War Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25824/Great_War_Pack/

Complimenting this game sale players new and old to the community can gather an additional haul of 1.5x experience points on official servers starting today and lasting for the remainder of the Steam Spring Sale ending on the 23rd of March 2023.



Speaking about community, feel free to join us on Discord for a chat. It's a great pleasure of ours to chat with fellows having a go at our game! As always and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

We're working on the next update.

discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy & Winston (The Cat).

Greetings good fellows of the community! Continuing with our commitment to bringing Holdfast: Nations At War into the new age the team has been hard at work laying the foundations for our 2023 plans which are just as much exciting as they are ambitious.

Holdfast has always strived to break through boundaries and revolutionise this genre of roleplay shooters and our year ahead will remain focused on this target. Bringing forth the next chapter of Holdfast will ensure its continued growth and expansion of a community that we have all come to love so dearly.

Once more, we want to ensure that you can continue enjoying Holdfast for the years to come.

With this goal in mind, the Anvil Game Studios team has welcomed 3 additional talented individuals who will be joining us on this journey to uplift Holdfast, and community-focused games from the team beyond to newer and greater heights.



Those eagled-eyed fellows in the official Holdfast Discord server would have already noticed these new faces but as an official introduction, we now have the pleasure of introducing to you the latest members of the team.

Gest - DevOps

Joining us as part of our development operations he's the one that makes systems happen for developers to work efficiently. It is an instrumental role that will enable the team to produce larger, more inspiring releases.

Matt - Game Developer Int.

As an intermediate Game Developer, Matt will be heading the charge forward in our primary efforts to polish up the game ready for the current and next generation of Holdfast enjoyers to get their fix of musket and trench warfare for many more years to come.

Grandayy - Game Developer Jnr.

Covering all things Holdfast, Grandayy will be getting his hands dirty in bringing additional gameplay mechanics and content into the game to enhance the overall experience on the battlefield and at sea.

While the onboarding process of these new fellows does of course take time, especially with Holdfast’s impressive 1 million+ lines of codebase, through the mentoring of our seniors all these chaps have made excellent progress.

You can expect to see content in the game from them very soon.

[h2]Increased XP Event Announcement[/h2]

Serving as a small show of thanks from us for enabling our creative visions to come to life and making a dream come true, starting on the 15th of March 2023 until the 24th of March 2023 players can hop on Holdfast and get an increase of 1.5x for all score earned on all official servers.

Join us on the above mentioned dates and feel free to say hello if you spot these new chaps in the game to bid them welcome!

[h2]What We've Been Up To[/h2]

Even with the team being busy to the brim onboarding these new individuals in the increasingly complex but awe-inspiring and rewarding field of game development, we're still set on bringing you more Holdfast content.

Be on the lookout for our next community-focused update targeting a late April release making accessible the regiment registry (clan system) while playing a match, bringing additional features to the said registry, a game-wide regiment chat, new leaderboards and much more.

This will all be coupled with a complete backend redesign of all the above-mentioned systems enabling us to continue expanding on similar features in the future. Holdfast is built on community and we want to continue showing our support as you have done so generously throughout these brilliant years.

On behalf of everyone at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. :oheart:

discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

We’re looking for the next Holdfast: Battlefield & Uniform to be added officially into the game!

It’s been almost a month since the 2nd Battlefield Forger contest kicked off and the time has come for a small update on the contest. The dedication of the artisans participating in the contest this year has encouraged us to further extend the contest by an additional 2 months making the new end date March 18th 2023.

This is to allow those partaking the time to truly explore and create their entry as they wish without the worry of a tight time constraint. Coinciding with this extension is the release of the new Holdfast: SDK Tutorial Series. These short but informative tutorials will provide an easy route for those interested in creating battlefields for Holdfast.

Holdfast: SDK Tutorial Series - View On YouTube

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The submissions so far have been rather outstanding and we look forward to seeing what can be created within this new additional timeframe for the contest. Check out the Battlefield Forger 2.0 blog for more details on the contest and how to enter.

Battlefield Forger 2.0 Blog

Feeling inspired to get creative? Head over to the official Holdfast Discord server and obtain the Artisan role by visiting the #getting-started channel. There’s plenty of good fellows in there who can lend a helping hand should you need it too. :rheartr:

As always and until next time, may good health be yours.

discord.gg/holdfastgame





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Wrexial, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Headbusta, Gest & Winston (The Cat).

Greetings good fellows of the community. As another delightful year for Holdfast comes to an end, everyone at Anvil Game Studios has their sights set on yet another exciting and ambitious chapter.

It's been a whole 5 years since Holdfast saw a release on Steam Early Access back in 2017. Wondering about whats next for the team? Our commitment to Holdfast and its most-beloved community hasn’t changed.

Staying true to our vision that will bring Holdfast into the new age, in 2023 the team will continue focusing their efforts on a series of planned updates targeted at improving existing content to deliver a smoother experience. You will also not be left wanting new gameplay additions while all of this is ongoing. We have updates in store on that front as well within the same year.

Our strategy is fine-tuned with something big in mind for 2023. We want to ensure players of generations both old and new can continue enjoying Holdfast and all it has to offer for the years to come. To fully enjoy the beauty of multiplayer titles, it is instrumental that at any point during the day one can find like-minded individuals to play with.

You’ll soon have the pleasure of meeting talented new developers joining the team. Those in our Discord have seen some of these new faces cropping up already. We’ll be leaving official introductions for the coming year offering them some peace and quiet as they get accustomed to the codebase and everything else required to make games happen.

Stay tuned for more Holdfast. On behalf of everyone here at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. May your 2023 be filled with great joy and happiness! :oheart:

discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.