Hellish Quart | Update: Story Mode | The first part of Jacek's Story
5We decided to release the more polished half of the first Story Mode quest – Jacek Dydynski's side story. You can play it right now. As a bonus, we made an interactive tutorial that should teach you the basics of fencing. The playthrough should take roughly 30 minutes – it's not much yet, but all the ingredients for making more story chapters (mechanics, models, systems, cutscene pipeline, animatics, voice recordings) are ready, so we'll keep adding more chapters frequently.
The second half of Jacek's Story is in the final stage of production, so keep an eye out for new chapters. Right after Jacek' Story is complete, we'll start the Main Quest, which Jacek's Story will connect to.
So why did it take 3 years for us to start adding the Story Mode?
Story Mode is a cinematic adventure that consists of characters, cutscenes, adventure gameplay mechanics, fighting mechanics, voiceovers, UI, etc. All those elements needed to be made before starting to combine them into a story. Without the fully developed combat system, characters, adventure game systems, storyboards, mocaps, voices – we would not have any ingredients to build the story with. Those elements needed to be designed and made first, and it took 3 years.
The Early Access period of the game is longer than initially planned because Hellish Quart is bigger than planned on the Early Access premiere. This is what the game features now. Many of those features were not planned - we just made them because they made sense and seemed cool.
14 characters (of promised 12); 9 new ones were added
Immensely improved fighting system as a whole, with new features: taunts, blade binding, weapon pulling, working boss armor, axe combat, better physics
Greatly expanded move sets - initial characters had around 200 animations each, and now most of the fencers have more than 350 animations each. Those 9 characters add up to more than 3,000 mocap combat animations.
8 game modes – story, quick fight, survival, arcade, training, long sparring, history buff, AI vs AI
Added 2 additional ways of resolving double kills: +1 and ROW
Added customization system for characters – skins and unlock system for arenas
21 arenas: Added 13 more arenas
Added FPP mode
Added Free Camera Mode (pausing and looking at the freeze-frame from any angle in 3d)
6 AI modes (added 3)
Added modern HEMA weapons and HEMA skins
Added mod support and a modding kit that doesn't require any coding skills
Added game currency (ducats) and unlocks systems for skins and arenas
Redone the character selection menu
Added axes and armor fighting features
Added VR support
Added localization to 7 languages (computer translation for now)
Added AMD FSR support for more FPS
Produced and released an original soundtrack that consists of more than 30 minutes of live instrument music
Added a robust Right of Way ruleset
Expanded gameplay options for customizing your preferred combat rules
Added Xbox and PSX controller glyph support
Ensured Steam Deck compatibility
Added Steam achievements and trading cards
Note that some of the features from this list are not finished, as this is still an Early Access.
Three years seems like an unimaginably long time to make a video game, but in game development, three to five years is a normal time for a team of two people to make a small video game. There is no way around that – these things take time, and the bigger the game, the smaller the team, the more time is needed.
With the Story Mode finally taking its shape, we are heading straight for the full release of Hellish Quart.
Enjoy and keep an eye out for new chapters of the story!