Wayfinder Studios’ Wyldheart alpha demo is live now, showing off a cleaner look, along with more playable areas to get a feel for the world.
The tabletop and RPG-inspired indie game is back with an updated demo, and the visuals are way better! CGMagazine checked in with Wayfinder Studios for updates on the Wyldheart alpha demo, prior to today’s launch. This demo has been meant to give players a sort of ‘one-shot’ campaign player experience. Not only did the graphics and art improve, but the amount of the world players could explore also increased. Music has been added to immerse players, along with various sound design attention too. Players can set out to do various quests or “rumours” to get a feel for completing main campaign missions, as well as side quests. Wyldheart is shaping up to be a game worthy of playing with friends in 2027.
Upon booting up the alpha demo, I saw and heard the visual bump and audio bump. I last played the game and spoke with the Wayfinder Studios team of 12 employees back in March this year, and they have evidently been working hard in the last six months. The menu looked more visually appealing, with an unnamed person sitting down and the sun beaming in the background. There was also menu music that gave off cozy fantasy vibes, featuring some ethereal harp, sombre and hopeful singing, and lute action popping off.
In-game, the graphics and audio had great improvement too. The 3D sound design felt more intuitive, and the attacks registered properly in real-time. It was funny to hear a torch make a metallic sound when hitting enemies and walls, but I am confident that will be polished on full release.
The Wyldheart Alpha demo includes:
- 4 ancestries, 19 story backgrounds and hundreds of customization options
- The Whisperwoods region of Caerwyn: four dungeons, the village of Rivermere, random encounters, ambushes and NPCs with gossip to share!
- Choose to combine skill trees traditionally unpaired in RPGs, in a uniquely classless skill system. Pair the art of melee or ranged weaponry with the Oldways of Magic, with four paths of magic to choose from: Blight, Pyre, Rime and Storm.
The predominant enemies of The Whisperwoods were goblins, skeletons, slugs, and mushroom nightmare fuel-looking creatures that came out of a first draft of The Last of Us. On top of these, random animals like boars and wolves could be out in the wild too. I did not get bored of the monster types until about the third hour, but the random encounters with animals were a nice change-up. Again, this was just a taste of the full game, so I was not too upset.
The four dungeons were pretty large, but not exhausting to explore. I appreciated not having a map and just the compass because it allowed for more natural discoveries, something akin to what I liked about what Hell Is Us focused on—which was the story-driven experience versus the ultimate player hand-holding experience. The compass worked similarly to Elder Scrolls games, which was all I needed for this game.
A quick note on what I would like to see in the next round of improvements for Wyldheart would include the inventory management debacle. Gamers who play AAA RPGs are pampered with quick sort inventory options, and I am aware this is a small team, so the features will take some time to roll out. But I was spending way too much time moving inventory around.
I would also like it if my pony’s inventory was included at campfires because it was more work to go back and forth to grab the slug meat from it. I was also confused about how the “Followed” status worked because it never left me while travelling between hexes on the world map. Also, I was not sure if it was a regional lock, but spawning ranged weapons was near-impossible even though there were plenty of dropped arrows.
For a game with such a small team and heavily reliant on Kickstarter backers, this one-shot campaign demo provided an enriching experience. Yes, it was filled with bugs and such, but that is to be expected at this point in the game development process. This will be the first time public players will be able to test out and explore this sandbox/game board. The Wyldheart alpha demo is now live on Steam, so go check it out now and see for yourself the RPG mischief you can get up to.
