After the announcement of the turn-based strategy Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era, the developers received many questions from players. They collected the most frequent of them in a separate article and answered them. We have put together a short summary for you with all the answers.
- Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is the official prequel to the Heroes of Might & Magic turn-based strategy series.
- The title of the game means that we will see the backstory of the classic world of “Heroes” – Enroth. It also hints at gameplay that relies primarily on the game mechanics of HoMM II-III.
- Olden Era is a full-fledged new part of the series, which has or will have everything you expect from the new “Heroes”.
- The game will go into early access in the first half of 2025, with a release date to be determined later.
- The developers believe that when creating a game as mechanically complex as Olden Era, Early Access is a great way to work on and polish certain aspects such as balance and UX. To do this, they will actively collect feedback from the first players.
- Founded in 2016 by industry veterans, Unfrozen Studio is made up of professionals who have previously worked on popular games such as League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Disco Elysium, Pathologic 2 and Disciples 3.
- The studio’s first game, Iratus: Lord of the Dead, is known as the spiritual successor to Darkest Dungeon. The project was released in April 2020, it sold more than 500,000 copies on PC, and the rating on Steam exceeded 85%. By 2024, the Unfrozen team has expanded to 50 people.
- Unfrozen has a lot of hardcore fans of the Heroes of Might & Magic series. The studio demoed potential new “Heroes” and pitched its vision to Ubisoft. The publisher liked the idea of a new part of Heroes of Might & Magic from an independent studio – a game from the fans and for the fans. This is a good first step for Ubisoft to reboot the franchise.
- Development of Olden Era began in 2020, after the release of the Iratus: Wrath of the Necromancer DLC.
- In Early Access, the team will focus on PC (Steam), because it is most convenient to collect feedback from players there. Other platforms will be announced later.
- The price of the game will be determined closer to the release of early access, based on the cost of similar games. If the size of the game increases significantly during Early Access, the price may increase by release.
- Now Olden Era interfaces are optimized for PC (keyboard and mouse), because this is how strategy games are most often played. There are many interfaces in the game, so integrating gamepad support is technically difficult. But the authors are considering adding such an option.
- The developers’ plans include supporting the game after release. In addition, content from the community will be supported – maps, templates, and so on.
- The story will unfold on the continent of Jadam, where a mysterious demonic force invades. The rulers of the Dungeons are trying to create a defensive alliance with other factions, but this is not easy because everyone has a grudge against everyone. The campaign will be non-linear, and the player’s decisions will determine the fate of the continent and its inhabitants.
- There will be six factions in Early Access: Temple (classic knights), Necropolis (undead and vampires), Sylvans (elves and forces of nature), Dungeon (dark elves and subterranean creatures), Swarm (insect-like demonic creatures) and a sixth mysterious faction, about which we’ll tell you later. More factions will be added in future DLC and updates.
- The game offers three single-player modes: campaign, random maps and skirmish (custom maps).
- There are three multiplayer modes:
- Classic Mode: Control multiple heroes, upgrade your castle, and explore the map.
- Single Hero Mode: A challenging mode where you control one hero and his survival is everything.
- Arena: Focuses on direct combat, where you choose a hero, upgrade them, and engage in battles.
- A visual and accessible map editor will be released in early access. It will allow you to create maps for single and multiplayer games and share them with other players.
- The main mechanics of the combat system include the classic hexagonal field with an orthographic camera, active abilities for both creatures and heroes, as well as factional abilities (hero abilities unique to each faction).
- The game will feature matchmaking, ratings and leaderboards – separate for each game mode.
- The developers are actively working on introducing the observation mode into multiplayer and hope that it will become available in early access.
- The random map generator was one of the team’s top priorities.
- The game will have many map templates – they will be rotated in the official matchmaking, and in the lobby they will allow you to create a custom game using any template.
- Dungeons and Navigation are planned to be released during Early Access.
- Olden Era takes place on Enroth. There are no plans yet to add the ability to explore other worlds.
- The studio is also working on a new game in the Iratus universe. The team hopes to share more details about it soon.
- The HoMM and Iratus franchises are completely independent from each other in terms of plot and gameplay – with the exception of a couple of Easter eggs.
Previously, the developers held a QA session on Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era, in which they also revealed many details about the game.
