Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant Feb 24′ Update

We are halfway through February and we have our latest Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant update. Last couple of months the team has talked about the struggles of finding a publisher. We also heard about the team delaying past the initial predicted Kickstarter release. The team remains hopeful about their progress and discusses more about that in this update. In this update, the team discusses Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection, Monster Progression, and more Revenant details. So let’s get into it.

Greeting the Community

This month the team started by greeting the fans and community. They started by saying this to the Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant community:

Hello everyone!

As we said in our last update, we have temporarily shifted the main focus to developing Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection, the remake of the original game. Remember that this doesn’t mean that we have stopped working on Revenant. Seeing the positive reception of last month’s news has motivated the team a lot. We have made significant advances in both projects during this month! We would like to thank you for your understanding and support, and all your encouraging words. It means a lot to us as developers. Having said that, let’s go to the meat of the update!

Resurrection Update

As we know the team is working on Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection in addition to Revenant. This is so they can find another avenue to inject more funds into the Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant project while waiting for a publisher to help get it over the finish line. This is what the team had to say:

First of all, we have made a Steam Store page for Resurrection, which you can see if you follow this link. As always, wishlisting the game helps us a lot, so if you have a Steam account, that’d be much appreciated!

As you can see, we are using the same engine and monster models as in Revenant, that’s one of the reasons we can work on both projects in parallel. Like in the original game, all of Resurrection will happen inside the Necromancer’s Crypt, which is only one dungeon (remember that dungeons will work differently than in the original, using the same mechanics as in the sequel. To compensate for that, it will be larger than the regular dungeons in Revenant, and it will be divided into several “zones” with a boss at the end to match the “floors” in the original Sword of the Necromancer. Each of these “zones” will have its own style and challenges, but as it’s inside the same “brick and mortar” dungeon, don’t expect radically varied environments (as would be in the case of Revenant‘s dungeons; featuring forests, caves, volcanoes…).

We are working hard on remaking these dungeons to feel familiar but at the same time taking advantage of the additional dimension to make them more interesting. Same with the bosses: they were designed for a 2D game, so making them work in 3D requires changing the battles a bit.

Monster Progression

The team wanted to discuss the monster progression for both Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant and Resurrection. This is what they shared with everyone:

One of the new features in Revenant that will also be available in Resurrection is the new Monster Progression mechanics. In the original game, monsters had only one ability (normally attacks, but some monsters like the Restorebbit could do other things), but in Revenant (and Resurrection) they will have up to 4 abilities! Otherwise, having the option to customize their behavior (with the “Tactics” feature, explained in the Campaign section of this Kickstarter) wouldn’t make much sense, right?

This means that there should be a way for monsters to get more attacks, and that way is, you guessed right, leveling up. By fighting alongside your summons, they will gain experience points and level up. Besides new Attributes, like in the original, monsters can gain new Abilities, and even elemental variants of Abilities they’ve learned! To not interrupt the game, when a monster levels up, it will automatically gain the stat boosts, but to “learn” the new Attributes and Abilities you will need to do some management in the Status screen.

If a monster can learn a new Attribute/Ability, you will see a notification on their Status screen. Select if you want it to substitute a previous Attribute/Ability or discard the new thing. A monster can have up to 4 Attributes/Abilities, so if you want it to have more attack options you will need to give up on additional Stat boosts or Passive Abilities. The things a monster can learn will depend on their level and what attributes they already had when they resurrected it.

So no monsters will be the same! Also, monsters raised from low levels have a wider range of options than one got at a higher level that could seem powerful from the get-go. We hope this new feature, in addition to Tactics, helps players to get the most out of their summons, and to have them work the closest to what they want.

New Revenant Details and Special Attack

I will say there is something I have enjoyed a lot about Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant. That is how much they have involved the community with designs through contests and the like. The team wanted to reveal some more details and shared this:

Last time, when we introduced the Revenant’s Special Attacks, we showed you Castel’s Roar of the Lion. Now it’s time to show you a new one! Today it’s Ozuzo’s turn. Ozuzo will be a powerful Light-element Bow user who will take advantage of her speed to get rid of enemies. Once her summon time runs up, you will be able to command her to perform a last attack. In her case, that would be Rain of Light.

As with all the other Revenants, you will have to find Ozuzo. Then defeat her in order to be able to summon and use her powers. Speaking of Revenants, we have been working on the models of the backer designed Revenants, and finished one of them: Ophelia (designed by Storm). She will be a Wind-element Revenant that uses one of the weapon types we unlocked in this campaign’s Social Stretch Goals: the knives.

We will probably start working on her Special Attack animation next. By the way, we are thinking of looking for a more epic name for these kind of attacks. Instead of “Special Attack”, do you have any idea? You can tell us in the comments here or in our Discord server!

Wrap-Up

At this point, I have backed four Kickstarter projects to date. Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant was the second project. While none of the project development cycles have worried me, I have a very small worry about this one. The developers don’t worry me. But I worry some about the difficulty of finding a publisher. While the team has done an excellent job and is focused on releasing the best possible game they can. They have said they needed a publisher to get over the final hurdle to release. There are other avenues they are going through to make the process easier. This is a big reason I believe in the team. I will say though I am confident the team will be successful in finding a publisher. Also, they will release a great game. Stay tuned for more updates in the future!