The towers of powers!

As Chinese tacticians, Viking warlords and Aztec emperors keep commanding their forces into new territory, defending these lands becomes a must. In protection of those newly acquired lands, structures are popping up almost as quick as they'll be getting razed by bands of warmongering competitors!

No war can be fought without defensive emplacements and Swords & Soldiers is no exception to this rule! Every faction in the game has it's own tower. These buildings can be build on special building spots in the levels. Towers are a great way to conquer land and hold on to it. Using them defensively or offensively is up to the player, making this choice wisely can make all the difference in the course of a battle.

Head over to the factions page! to learn about towers in S&S, and discuss it in the forum!

Swords & Soldiers' growing web presence!

Since yesterday you know that the Aztecs and Vikings no longer rule the battlefields alone. The Chinese are the third faction struggling for dominance, and today you can see them in action!

Swords & Soldiers at IGN.com

As you can see, the Chinese pack quite a punch. Did you catch the suprise at the end?

On the game itself, we are inching closer and closer to the final release. It shouldn't be too long for the game to come out! And that means of course you guys need some place to comment on the game. To post your highest scores and discuss the finer strategies of the game. Therefore added a brand new forum to the site!

In other great news, we have our own site on the official Nintendo website! There's some content on there that's not (yet) available here, mostly about the Chinese!

So check it out here:
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/wiiware/swords__soldiers_12235.html

The Chinese Empire Arrives!

At long last the veil of our secrecy is lifted! Emerging as the third contender for world domination is the CHINESE EMPIRE! Ruled by their child emperor, the Chinese care little for Viking barbecue feasts, or Aztec Vegetable growing contests. The Child Emperor tasks his subjects with gathering the the most exquisite toys from the corners of the world. Of course this will lead the Chinese empire onto a collision course with the other two factions. The Child emperor's army consists of disciplined warriors, ranging from martial arts specialists and spiritual zen-masters to firework-strapped rocketeers, and will prove to be evenly matched to the brutish Vikings and insidious Aztecs!

It has been a long wait for some, but your patience has been rewarded! As we introduce to you the Chinese empire, you will find we have updated the factions page with a sample of their military might: say hello to the Footsoldier (putting the swords in Swords & Soldiers), the Rocketeer, Yin Yang and Arrowrain. Check it out on the factions page! And when you're done with that, feast your eyes on some new screenies and wallpapers featuring the Chinese in action!

And if you're still hungry for info, check out the new "meet the team" video up on the Nintendochannel. The video features an introduction of our studio and an interview where Jasper, me and Fabian talk about the hows and whats of S&S. So head over to the NintendoChannel on your Wii and look for We Are Wiiware: Swords & Soldiers.

2 days left...

Lost  in the dry hills of the desert an uneasy friendship between Viking Arnie and Aztec Dave is tested to the extreme when they encounter an unknown adversary!!! Oh who might it be, appearing from behind the shroud of shadowy darkness??? 

Yes! A new challenger is entering the ring! Keep your eyes on this blog... only 2 days left!

Best for last: Slave and Skeleton

The dream of every Aztec slave is to be once sacrificed for the gods and to be resurrected from the underworld as a skeleton, to fight as a real warrior in the armies of the jungle.

Just a few days until the reveal of the third faction, while you wait, enjoy the story of the slave and skeleton!

With all the hectic final testing and rounding up development of Swords and Soldiers, we forgot to post the real last two units which are the Aztec slave and the special skeleton soldier raised by necromancers in the game.

Boulder & Sun Giant

Huge vegetables means hard work for the harvesting Aztecs. Large giants carry the vegetables from the fields and when the harvest is done they plough the ground with a huge rolling stone, life is good!

Here is the last faction update until the reveal of the third faction. Introducing the super spell of the Aztecs: Boulder, which also is made into a challenge with the same name. This huge stone crushes anything on its path. In the boulder challenge you need to kill 100 Vikings without squashing one of your own units.

You can also read about the giant, a slow ground pounding unit that knocks every enemy back with his smashing fists. Go to the factions page!

Third Faction ETA + GDC

In far away lands an ancient power stirs. Drums of war echo in the distance. Crimson banners held high, a third faction readies itself for the coming conflict! Swords shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered... a sword day... a red day, the dawning of the...

...yet to be revealed third faction will be on April 22nd! 15 more nights of sleep before we will release those guys, and you bet your mother on it they're worth it! ;) And, uhh, yes... for those of you who didn't get it yet, that means the space marines were a cleverly-thought-of april fools joke...

This year's Game Developer's Conference was great. We did a lot of business stuff, talked to a lot of press, and still had time to go to some parties, eat some hamburgers and bike the Golden Gate bridge. Everyone liked S&S a lot and we can't wait to get it into the WiiWare shop...

Some of GDC's press coverage on S&S is already up on the internetz. Check out these three hands-on reports! And oh, by the way, these links are all 100% guaranteed rick-roll free (only the finest for our blog-followers!): 

http://wii.ign.com/articles/968/968399p1.html

IGN hands-on

http://blog.wired.com/games/2009/04/preview-swords.html

Wired hands-on

http://www.infendo.com/all/gdc-wiiware-hands-on-swords-soldiers/

Infendo hands-on

That's all for today, keep checking the blog for updates, we still have some Aztec skills to show you before we release the third faction! Skøll!

Show and Tell

As some of you might've noticed, we have some fresh footage of Swords & Soldiers! This time it's more direct footage of gameplay. The first video shows off some single player gameplay in one of the later levels of the Viking campaign.



And second video shows a splitscreen multiplayer match in which two skilled opponents do battle!



Hopefully you'll now have a better idea of the depth that goes into humiliating your opponent in Swords & Soldiers.

Next week we'll deliver the promised battle report on the GDC. We're also finalizing the revelation of the third faction and that includes the actual date we're going to reveal them. And don't worry, there's still plenty of other cool stuff heading your way.

(April fools) Hell, it's about time...

...to release Swords & Soldiers' 3rd faction!From beyond the galactic nebulae comes the Space Marine Galaxial Confederation Force to oppose the brutish Vikings and nefarious Aztecs. They are armed to the teeth with turbosteel plating and have technology far superior to any other faction on the planet! High up in orbit around the planet the Space Marines have watched the various undertakings and insignificant struggles of the pathetic Vikings and Aztecs.

Determined to rid the planet of this ridiculous barbequeing and vegetable-growing, the ever-steadfast Space Marines decided to engage their enemies in an all-out planetary offensive. Charge up your Ion Cannons, put on your power armor and load your machineguns, for the Space Marines have landed! To find out more about the space conquering, turbosteel plated, chaingun wielding Space Marines check out the factions page! Or check out some of the new screens at the media page!