The Hand of Merlin News

Hey there!

PAX Online is currently ongoing, and it’s integrated with Steam, so a bunch of cool demos are available for playing. Our demo is also available, so make sure you try it if you haven’t already. It contains the entire zone of Albion, and includes an epic fight at the end of the zone! Some people on our Discord have even managed to win that fight without losing any units!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Speaking of units, in the demo there are six units you can start your run with. Our current idea is to have only three units available at the start, and the rest have to be unlocked as you play through the game. The idea was inspired by FTL, where you unlock ships as you play the game, as a meta progression aspect. There were mentions within the team that unlocking heroes isn’t ideal and there were some issues with it, so we’ll have to discuss what the final form of hero meta progression will be.
That said, there are three heroes in the game that are not available in the demo. Their descriptions below are pulled from our document describing them, as written by the writers.

The Warrior among them is Zahra al-Zakiyya: a young Arab woman, she has no use for faith and as such doesn't bother wearing a veil. Instead, she wears trousers and a revealing blouse, reasoning that if her sword fails her, she might have to rely on her feminine charms to get out of a tricky spot.

The Mystic’s name is Rumayla al-Qriqiyya: An older woman of Greek descent, grey-haired and wise. She is seeking to understand the cause of the Cataclysm.



The Ranger is called Salim al-Darir: a young archer in the caliph's army who lost his job when he accidentally shot his superior. Tall, gangly, maybe a bit goofy. He has been stripped of his rank and uniform, and as such his outfit is that of a commoner, but he still has his trusty bow. (dude is still missing a texture - he'll get there!)




You’ll be able to play with these heroes in the final game. Mat made sure that each hero has unique stats and interesting starting Skills, so every run should start differently, coupled with the fact encounters and special node locations are random in the world.
Thanks for reading! Come join our Discord server and tell us what you think about the game!

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Wait... we're at PAX and The Hand of Merlin is a PAX Rising title? All of this feels surreal, and we're beyond excited to hear your thoughts on the demo.

Yes, the PAX Online demo is tweaked and ready, so download it now and drop by our Discord server and let us know the things you liked, and - we know this sounds farfetched - perhaps there are also things you didn't like!? We'll gather all the feedback at PAX and then tweak it some more until it's perfect! ːsteamhappyː

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hey there!

As you continue walking the earth an inching closer to your ultimate goal, you’ll have to pass through the region of Al-Andalus. As you progress through the game, we wanted to show as many distinct regions as possible. Albion is a region of greenery and pastures. Marca Hispanica is a region of mountains and snow. At some point during discussions on how the story might be structured, we settled on the third zone being a sand/desert/oasis type region.



Naturally, as you progress through the world, the Cataclysm becomes more violent and pervasive. The presence of alien enemies and environmental destruction is much more apparent and frequent. While Albion should have a fairly low amount of alien encounters, Al-Andalus will have a lot more of them. Each subsequent zone also introduces a new alien enemy, along with those previously seen (who should pose less of a threat due to upgrades and gained abilities). The world itself should have more corrupted nodes, and most encounters will tell a story of shit hitting the fan. Bandits are less frequent compared to Albion, but will probably still be there - likely in the form of infrequent opportunists, who should pose no threat to your ranked up and boosted party.



The maps themselves are much more corrupted by default. Since we are making a corrupted and non-corrupted version of every skirmish map, this means that the non-corrupted version will have some amount of corruption (let’s say 30%), while the corrupted version will be almost completely covered with alien goo (let’s say 70%). The contrast between the vibrant colors of the region and the alien corruption should be interesting to see.



Thanks for reading! Come join our Discord server if you wanna chat! We’re open to suggestions and answer all questions!

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hi folks!

So how did you like this year's Gamescom? While we prefer the actual event and getting to meet everyone in person, it sure was nice seeing The Hand of Merlin featured in the RPG section as one of 35 selected games, out of hundreds that applied!

More than 500 people played The Hand of Merlin Demo and we got some great feedback on our Discord server. Did you miss the chance to grab the demo? Read on!

We’ve talked about it and decided that the demo will be available only during the events in which we’re participating, ending with the Steam Games Festival: Autumn Edition. The demo will always be limited to the first zone, but we’ll keep updating it with any crash fixes, typo fixes, and gameplay rebalancing if needed. If you have anything to report, your best bet is to tell us over at our Discord server, where we’re always listening and trying to gather feedback for improvement. There will most likely be minor content additions as well, like an intro cutscene when the game starts, a couple of new skills, etc.

Half of the team is currently on vacation, so the rest of us has now moved on to making the rest of the game. The status of the rest of the game is as follows:

• The world map of zone 2 (Marca Hispanica) is done (but will receive visual tweaks), and zone 3 (Al-Andalus) is partially modeled and needs to be finished. Our lead artist assures me it’s quick work to finish it, and after that, it needs to be textured.
  
• The node network layouts for zone 2 are being worked on, but in general, they’re not difficult to create and aren’t a development bottleneck. The node network layouts for zone 3 will be coordinated with the world map model itself, but we have a good idea of how it’ll look in general.
  
• The encounters for zone 2 and zone 3 have to be written since each zone has its own unique setting and stories. Our quest designer Mia has created a bunch of templates for zone 1 which can be reused for all the other zones, and it comes down to our writing duo Verena&Jonas to write them in their specific style.
  
• There are 10 combat maps for each of the second and third zones, and our plan is to create around 5 more unique maps for each zone, and then create the alternative versions of them all (corrupted and non-corrupted version).
  
• There are 3 more monsters that haven’t been seen yet, and we have their abilities on paper, so those need to be created, and after those are working the AI needs to be done. Our tools allow us to quickly create both the abilities and AI, so those should be quick once we work out how the monsters should behave.
  
• Every ability available to player units has been created, and what’s left is mostly creating their upgrades, which should also be extremely easy for some (decreasing cooldown or cost), and just marginally difficult for others (ones that change how they work mechanically).
  
• Moar relics! Creating them is also pretty straightforward and fast.
  
• Particles and destructions of environment objects.
  

So as you can see, there’s work to be done, but everyone knows what they’re doing and we’re getting used to our tasks so the speed of production is increasing, we should have little trouble meeting the deadline for release. We’ll see what our plans are for post-release, and I’m sure I’ll communicate our plans once we get closer to that period of our lives.

If you haven’t tried the demo, don’t worry, there will be more opportunities for that during the coming weeks. If you have, come join our Discord server and tell us what you think!

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Have you ever been to Gamescom? It's the biggest game show in the world. It's hot, humid, loud, exhausting, and expensive. Sometimes it rains, too. And we miss it all!

Well, maybe not all of it, and certainly not the crowds, but we do miss talking to everybody, watching people when they get their first victory in The Hand of Merlin, and cackling nervously when they ragequit after the wipe. :)

This is why we'd like you to at least drop by our Discord server and let us know how did you like the game:
https://discord.gg/ej8sjxx

Oh, didn't we tell you? The complete Albion Demo is available during this year's Gamescom as a limited time Demo on Steam - grab it today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

PS Please take a moment to support us by wishilisting and following The Hand of Merlin on Steam. Cheers!