Development blog Swords and Soldiers

Prioritize

2009-06-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

We heard a lot of people saying it is hard to select the right unit in a group. Throwing a heal on the wrong unit can be very uncool and could well be a losing move in your strategy. Of course we found this problem way early in the development of the game :)

That's the reason why we implemented a priority system that will choose the right guy from a group when you throw a spell on a bunch of fighters. It's quite subtle and it is time to explain this a bit more! When you select a spell and then throw it on a group of units, every spell will go through a set of rules to decide which unit was intended by the player. It will always choose the best unit from a strategic point of view. This is done to overcome miss clicks.

Below you can see the decision flow chart of an lightning bolt when it is targeted on multiple units.

“best unit”in this chart means the unit with the highest attack priority number. Every unit has a number giving it a priority. For instance the priority of the swordsman is lower than the priority of the rocketeer, the opposing team will hit the rocketeer instead of the swordsman if they are both in range. Although their amount of remaining hitpoints is also counted for, so units will try to kill the most efficient enemy first.

NTSC Winners!

2009-06-11T05:26:00.000-07:00

The first three Überpwners have stepped up from the crowd! Achieving the ultimate secret code in an even faster fashion then the European competitors.

The winners of the Swords & Soldiers goodie bags are:

1. Chris David, Canada
2. Roberto Israel Hernández de la Garza, Mexico
3. William Koepke, U.S.A.

Congratulations guys! We will send the prizes as soon as possible.

And as you may know: For all the other guys who send us their codes, we will keep collecting codes for the second goodie bag extravaganza! In the second round we will randomly pick a bunch who we will send the package. So keep sending in your codes you might win a goodie bag after all!

S&S Crosses the big pond!

2009-06-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

Swords and Soldiers is now out on American Wii's. That's right, nothing stands between you and fullfilling your deepest, darkest Sidescrolling Realtime Strategy desires!

After a great reception in Euro-Australia we hope the folk from across the Atlantic will also have a blast with S&S. Once again: thank you playtesters, blog visitors and everyone involved for your enthousiasm. Also thanks to keyboardcat for perfect rythm and ofcourse Chuck Norris for laying down the law. Enjoy S&S and may Thor's thunder light your barbecues!

Conquest of paradise!

2009-06-03T02:01:00.000-07:00

America will get Swords & Soldiers next Monday!

After a long wait, you guys can enter the battles between the Viking horde, the Aztecs and the Chinese empire on Monday the 8th of June. Of course some of you lucky guys have already been playing the game at the E3 at the Nintendo booth, where Swords & Soldiers is being demonstrated!

The game has been received really well in the past few weeks by all kinds of media and we are really grateful for all the support we are getting.

Also the forum is doing really nicely and the group of S&S gamers is growing. Therefore we are thinking about setting up a tournament for everyone who calls himself King of Thunder, Lord of the Undead or Ninja Monkey Master! We want to know if you guys would like that and if you got specific ideas on this event, including place, date and rules. Discuss it here!

Don't forget we got three goodie bags waiting to be shipped to the U.S. So if you think you are the toughest and smartest strategist in America, get all the achievements and send us your secret code, as soon as the game comes out. For more details about the secret code see our faq.

Movie Poster Wallpapers

2009-06-02T05:40:00.000-07:00

The American release is almost there, and to give you guys a small treat for waiting we have made something totally cool!

Swords and Soldiers movie posters! The first two are Indiana Jones and Kill Bill inspired :)

In the media section you can download the wallpapers in the format you like.

Discuss which other movies would be cool on the forum.

More cool stuff is incoming!

Harder, better, faster, stronger!

2009-05-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Want to make Swords and Soldiers a bit more challenging?
Or is the game proving to be a bit TOO challenging for you?
Rejoice!! For there is a game option to alter the game speed.

There are several game speeds that reside in S&S. The entire game will be affected by this option. This setting can be altered at any time and can be found in the options menu (obviously).
Here is a quick list detailing each game speed:

-Slow-

If you are having trouble playing at normal speed, you can switch to this game speed. It will make it easier for you to target spells and you will have more time deciding what units to build.
Please note that with this speed enabled you won't be able to get ANY achievements.

-Normal-

The default game speed u will start with. Designed for the medium skilled players of S&S.
We recommend you starting with this setting first. From there decide what speed suits you best.

-Fast-

When your skill level grows and you feel like the action could be a little bit faster, this is the option for you! Try beating all campaign lvl's on this setting if you have cleared it on normal.

-Turbo-

This option will be available when u finish all campaign levels.
This option is designed for those that want to get the most challenge out of the game. It will require some insane uber micromanagement to play with this speed but if u want to impress some friends or even us,
this IS the way to do it.

Now with all this revelating information go forth and battle at your leisure u diabolical warmongerers!
Thou still has a chance to be a proud owner of a Swords and Soldiers goodiebag!

And the winners are...

2009-05-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

The lucky guys who were hardcore enough to be the first beating all the achievements in the game are!

1. Henryk Huhn, Germany
2. Jesse Hartog, Netherlands
3. Marcel van Duyn, Netherlands
4. Denis Tessier, France

Big surprise! We have 4 European winners instead of 3. The last two guys send their codes in almost at the same time, so we decided to give them both a goodie bag :)
We will send you the goodie bags as soon as possible, it will probably take a couple of days because of the holidays here.

As for all the other guys who send us their codes, we will keep collecting codes for the second goodie bag extravaganza! In the second round we will randomly pick a bunch who we will send the package. So keep sending in your codes you might win a goodie bag after all!

Euro-Australian Launch Aftermath

2009-05-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

So, Swords & Soldiers has now been out in Europe and Australia for some time and so far we've been blown away by how good the game has been received. We already posted a link to the IGN review, but there's a couple more out there now:

Gamingunion.net

Edge-online

Nintendolife.com

Oh, right, you've probably seen it somewhere already but at the top of this post is our releasetrailer, enjoy!

Out now!

2009-05-15T00:38:00.000-07:00

Swords & Soldiers is available in Europe and Australia in the Wii Shop Channel! All hail Aztecs! All hail Chinese! All hail Vikings! It is the completion of a cycle! Omega! Full circle!

This actually is our first released commercial title and we're proud of it beyond words. We hope this is just step 1 in a long journey. For us, one of the most exciting parts of making a game just begins: seeing how people like it. So far the response during development of the game has been great and we can't wait to hear how people feel about the game now that it's finaly out there. The first review is up on IGN and they awarded the game with an editor's choice award, omgbbq!!!11one.

We would like to thank all of the blog visitors for being patient with us, providing us with feedback and a good laugh here and there. Worthy of special mention are the playtesters, who contributed immensely to the realisation of Swords & Soldiers! Another roar goes out to Sonic Picnic, for breathing life in the sounds and music of the game and to U-trax for their outstanding translation! Wait a minute, you shouldn't be reading this! Get back to your Wii and kick some serious Realtime Sidescrolling Strategy butt!

Secret Code!

2009-05-14T03:03:00.000-07:00

As you may know we have added a secret code to the game. It unlocks after you get all the 25 achievements. We added this code to do something special, as this is our first big game and we want to celebrate it! Yay! :)

In the last few weeks you guys got the opportunity to send us ideas for the code and we have chosen some really cool stuff and combined them into a Swords & Soldiers Goodie Bag!

We are giving the first 3 European/Australian people who send us their secret code this awesome goodie bag. Because the American release is a bit later, we'll also give goodie bags to the first 3 guys from the States.

Depending on how many people actually manage to achieve the code we will send more goodie bags later on, so keep sending in your codes as you may win big in the second goodie bag extravaganza!

Here is how you submit the code:

1: Achieve your ass off in Swords & Soldiers, getting all 25 achievements.
2: Go to the achievement menu, at the top you will find the code.
3: Send the code to SECRETCODE@RONIMO-GAMES.COM
4: Don't forget to add your postal address in the email, otherwise we don't know where to send the goodie bag :P

happy achievement hunting!

Discuss this on the forum

Chinese Faction Update

2009-05-13T05:11:00.000-07:00

As the day of judgement draws near, the full might of the Chinese empire is revealed. 'Tis the day of the dragon, the day of the Monkey and the day of Zen. All hail the Chinese empire!

It is the last of the last updates, and it's a big one. As we've only shown you half of the capabilities of the Chinese there was still a lot of unrevealed stuff. We're making up for it now by releasing it all at once, finally completing the Chinese faction page!

Head over to the factions page and read about Invulnerability, Ninja Monkeys, Dragon, the Monk, Terracotta Warriors and the Zen Master or discuss 'em on the forum! Go go go!

Release date for Europe!

2009-05-08T04:40:00.000-07:00

The artists are done painting, the coders wrote their last lines of code and the designers finished their last level tweaks. We finished our titanic struggle and the result is a beautiful lump of bits and bytes containing some of the most epic battles ever to grace your screens.

And now you have one week to prepare. One week to sharpen your battle axes. To enter Rocky style montages where you run against the backdrop of a setting sun and go into a blank stare as you hit your punching bag. Then you will be ready when te game gets out!

Or you could just hang on your couch untill Friday. Probably just as effective.

So, let's get to business: in Europe and Australia Swords & Soldiers will be unleashed Friday the 15th of May and it will cost you 1000 Nintendo points. The US release will follow soon. Discuss it in our forum

Challenge mode: Berserker run!

2009-05-05T04:17:00.000-07:00

Challenge modes!

After fighting your way trough the campaigns, every swords and soldiers player wants to relax for a while. For this occasion we got exactly what they need, and no, this is not a backrub from Olga.

We included 3 different challenge modes, gametypes which are a little different from your average swords and soldiers game.

The first of these modes is:

The berserker run!

As Arnie the berserker, strolls trough his own backyard thinking about his lovely olga, he gets lost. While finding his way back Arnie, always in for a good rumble, encounters several foes from a long time ago.

This is not the only one of his problems Arnie also develops a multiple personality disorder which makes his quest all the more interesting.

The Goal of this challenge mode is to make Arnie run as far as he can, overcoming hordes of enemies using magical spells.

This may look like a simple task at first. However the more distance Arnie covers, the more diverse adversaries will try to ruin your game along the way. Fortunately for Arnie by running further and further he will unlock magical spells for u, which u can use to aid him in his efforts.

The sheer diversity and quantity of these adversaries will test your resolve in a game of wits and reflexes.

Feel free to discuss it in our forum.

The towers of powers!

2009-04-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-22T00:43:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-20T05:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-03T01:41:00.001-07:00

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...

2009-04-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

...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!

Achievement: King of the stone age!

2009-03-27T08:06:00.001-07:00

Danny our marketing monster has managed to get the epic score of 100 in "Boulder Mode". This mode is one of the three special modes in the game. Danny "cool" as we call him, thought he was the first to manage this perfect run of the mode, BUT I already did manage to achieve it 2 times before him, unfortunately for me I was disqualified because I made the mode...

In the meanwhile everyone is getting pretty addicted to this “spicy Aztec sauce”, the small handy flasks weren't enough so we sized them up a bit :)

The guys at the GDC have been very busy spreading the word on Swords and Soldiers, they will be back with all their news next week, so expect a full update on that including a special treat!

GDC09

2009-03-23T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hellooow Califorgnowgnaw

Again, the annual Games Developers Conference is being held in the city of The Rock and a red bridge that's called golden. Like true Vikings, Jasper and me have traveled the arctic to get here to spread the word about S&S. We'll be doing some interviews and other media stuff. Also, in San Francisco, for the first time, the final version of the game will be playable! (without including the 3rd, supersecret faction ofcourse, har har!)

What's that? Swords And Soldiers Hotsauce? That's right! From the cauldron of Aztec commander in chief Poisonbotl comes the spiciest sauce the Aztecs have ever made. Rumor has it that the secret ingedient has something to do with a ridiculously huge pepper. We'll be handing out these bottles of win to anyone San Francisco brave enough to face the spicyness of Swords And Soldiers Hotsauce!

Olga & Rage

2009-03-17T04:46:00.000-07:00

While the Viking men are busy organizing barbecue parties and fighting wars, the fierce viking women provide the Vikings with gold to fund their endless pillaging campaigns!

Yet another Factions update! This time, learn about the Viking worker, or Olga as we'd like to call her, and the Viking Rage spell. Watch out for their obvious charms as these Viking ladies are real golddiggers!

In the meanwhile the game is now all but finished. At the the moment it's going through a thorough last playtesting pass. We want to make sure the game is spotless before we send it off to Nintendo ;).

Anyway, to check out the new updates go to the factions page! Skøll!