Age of Fear: The Undead King GOLD — patch notes and updates
Stored observation / content update:
Dated developer announcements recorded from Steam. Open the source for the complete update.
| Update | Date | Excerpt / source |
|---|---|---|
| HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026!! | 2025-12-29 | New year, new questline. In 2026, I wish you the confidence of a Goblin attacking an Elite Paladin. Go get 'em! Let's make this year an epic win!Take care, Les |
| COMPATIBILITY PACK!! | 2025-11-02 | Hi all!As some of you know, our series has a great modding workshop, and many aspects of the games can be edited. Over the years, we’ve tried to maintain backward compatibility — and I’m proud to say we’ve mostly achieved that goal!However, as with any software development, we didn’t get everything right, and some of the more complex mods stopped working or had issues.No more! Thanks to the hard work of Risewild, we’ve patched all incompatibilities and just released a major Backward Compatibility Pack. All our games will now work with previously created mods (over 100 and counting!).Take care, Les |
| GLOBAL BATTLE STATE | 2025-06-08 | Hi all, after a long while, we’ve finally managed to squash a few bugs and implement several optimizations. Nothing critical, but the UI should now feel noticeably more responsive, especially on Windows and during AI turns. Almost everything has been moved to a few simple arrays, reducing overhead when dynamically creating collections.We’ve also introduced a global battle state system, where the AI evaluates whether it should act more aggressively or defensively. This is a new subsystem, so your mileage may vary - in some battles, the impact is quite noticeable, while in others, it might make little to no difference.We are starting to patch a |
| MERRY X-MAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!! | 2024-12-25 | Hi all, whether you’ve helped us fix bugs, shared feedback, or simply enjoyed the Age of Fear series, you’ve made this year truly legendary. This Christmas, we hope your days are filled with joy, laughter, and a little extra XP in whatever adventure you’re pursuing. May your loot be epic, your companions loyal, and your journeys unforgettable. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Game Year! Take care, Les & AOF Team |
| UNIQUE AI SKILLS!! | 2024-11-29 | Hi all, building on the last patch featuring AI heroes, we've added even more unique skills to their arsenal. These include rare and powerful abilities like Meteor, Calling Reinforcements, Dance Macabre, and even Dragon Transformation! Originally, we intended for these unique skills to remain exclusive to players, so we hadn’t created AI scripts for them. However, after some catching up, we’re now ready to unleash everything needed to make the AI an even bigger nuisance. Take care and enjoy your winter break, Les |
| AI HEROES!! | 2024-10-05 | Hi all, with this patch, we are introducing procedurally generated AI heroes. We've been working on this feature for some time, and while some mechanics were released earlier, the feature is now fully complete in this version. The AI heroes have unique skills (some of which are quite OP!), and the AI is very protective of them. I hope we've struck the right balance, and TPKs won't happen too often. Take care, Les |
| PIRATES & SAILORS!! | 2024-08-20 | Hi all, with the recent update, we've introduced an AI-only Pirates faction that will randomly attack your ships. The Pirates are fast units with ranged attacks and are occasionally armed with cannons, making them a challenge even for advanced armies. To balance this, we've also added Merchants who will appear on the seas with precious items. I'm also working on a Sea Storm mechanic, but that feature isn't ready yet. Take care, Les |
| MINI-GAMES!! | 2024-07-12 | Hi all, with the recent update, we have added or improved a collection of mini-games such as Dice, Poker, Roulette, etc. These are simple random-based scripts that let you win (or lose) small amounts of gold. The games can be accessed in many places throughout the campaign, with the most prominent being the Black Castle Casino. Take care, Les |
| MASTER LET'S PLAY!! | 2024-05-16 | Hi everyone, recently, a player named Fliedner has shared a link to his recorded let's play. While there are several videos on YouTube, what sets this one apart is Fliedner's mastery of Age of Fear mechanics. I believe I've seen almost all abilities and skills utilized, along with a few combinations I never anticipated. Additionally, such videos assist us in identifying and fixing bugs, enhancing AI, and sometimes even inspire ideas for new features. Please enjoy the serious showcase of the complexity of Age of Fear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t-PO-S3Jf0&list=PL-GPZ3WPf9ex2QMWj0ZDW8xcDe9XsUxz6&ab_channel=Fliedner Take care, Les |
| RATMEN ARRIVED!! | 2024-04-12 | Hi all, after a long wait, we've finally added a completely new faction with complex stealth mechanics! Please enjoy our latest release. Have fun and take care, Les & AOF Team |
| RATMEN!! | 2024-03-11 | Hi all, it is with immense pleasure that we announce the completion of the Ratmen faction, which will be introduced to the Age of Fear series on April 12th! Hidden beneath Sorodon, the Ratmen are a clever faction that excels in stealth. In the dark corners of their territory, these elusive creatures have perfected the art of staying unseen and unheard. Though their units may seem weaker than those of similar factions, the Ratmen make up for it with their unmatched skills in backstabbing and surprising attacks. Living in an underground world full of tunnels, the Ratmen can move quietly and strategically. Their expertise in covert tactics and s |
| HAPPY NEW YEAR!! | 2023-12-23 | Hi everyone, with this post, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This year has been quite busy for us; we released a new game while working on the upcoming Ratmen campaign. The Age of Fear series was enriched with several new features, such as continuous area effects, burrowing, and a whole new array of spells. We have also added a new mini-boss, Sandworm, and a new minor hero (playable by all factions), Dancer Zarah. Also, yesterday we released a complete pack of voiceovers for the Ratmen campaign. Therefore, the scenario is almost complete and requires only a few minor tweaks before full release. As always, all fe |
| VOICEOVER AUDITIONS!! | 2023-11-02 | Over the last few months, we have finalized the story and battles for the Ratmen campaign. There is still a lot of polishing to be done; however, the campaign is now playable from start to end. We have also introduced new mechanics, such as end-of-turn auto-invisibility for Ratmen, added a brand-new hero (Zarah, the dancer), and fine-tuned the AI to better utilize stealth. We are also in the process of ordering a voiceover and conducting auditions. We have selected a few options that align with the theme of the game. I kindly ask for your feedback on which one is the most suitable. The auditions are provided below in a zip file (10MB): https: |
| RATMEN CAMPAIGN UPDATE!! | 2023-08-23 | Hi all, after a bit of waiting we have pushed another update to the Ratmen campaign. Right now, around one-third of content is playable and includes a few interesting additions like stealth missions (where your units need to remain undetected), sewers maze and Sorodon's bazaar (with obligatory drunken dwarves fight!). We have also added a few items which improve the morphed form of heroes, e.g. Spider form of Lexa can be made quite powerful. I hope to add ever more items and work on polymorph mechanics. We also re-numbered all campaigns as chapters so new players aren't confused about the order of campaigns. For modders - we have modified bat |
| YOU ASKED AND WE LISTENED! | 2023-06-09 | YOU ASKED AND WE LISTENED! After a long wait we finally released the stand-alone version of our series! This package includes not only all games in the series, but it will also be updated with any and all future releases and DLCs. This means a purchase today entitles you to everything coming down the Age of Fear pipeline once it arrives! (please note that the Day of The Rat campaign is being actively developed and not all content is available yet.) We are now adding Workshop and finalising other bits to enable all features (it should be ready in an hour or two). For current series owners - please visit the bundle for a neat upgrade option. Ta |
| SANDWORM!! | 2023-06-02 | Hi all, It has been a while since the last update, but now we are back! In this patch we introduced a new mini-boss - Sandworm! Sandworms are colossal, worm-like creatures that live in the desert. As it tunnels through the sandy dunes of the desert, the sandworm leaves a trail of destruction in its wake. This mini-boss will be unlocked as the game progresses and has quite a few interesting properties, e.g. it stays burrowed and can swallow your units in one turn. There are a few possible strategies to defeat it, but I leave it for you to discover. Btw, Sandworm will be playable as a separate hero in the coming release of a new addition to the |
| SENTRY GUNS!! | 2023-04-11 | Hi there, there are a couple of new enhancements we have done while refactoring ui for Steam Deck compatibility. All our games are now fully compatilble with Steam Deck! All DLCs were updated with battle tasks - that concludes the backporting of this feature to older games. Identify is a new option in Crafting. If you have an Alchemist in your team, you will be able to discover new items from Crafting options. If an item is craftable, you will learn its recipe afterwards. Upon loading a saved game, the current turn log will also be restored. Units' descriptions can be expanded / collapsed (by clicking them). A New World Map tutorial was creat |
| CRAFTING REVISITED!! | 2023-02-28 | Hi all, over the last few days we have released a number of patches focused on further ui enhancements (e.g. gesture scrolling of listings) and also substantial changes in crafting. Changes: Gesture scrolling has been added to listings, e.g. team units, items' list, bestiary, etc. Items have been consolidated into fourteen themed sets (from the previous thirty one) which should make the crafting interface easier. Required attributes like Alchemy, Blacksmith, etc. display hints about units that provide them.Resource items provided after battles will be geared towards craftable items (i.e. ones which you know and also have all needed attributes |
| STEAM DECK ENHANCEMENTS!! | 2023-02-18 | Hi all, over the last few weeks we were working on customisations required to play the series on Steam Deck. You must have noticed after this patch are larger fonts, buttons and other interactive elements. Larger UI is necessary for much smaller screens; however, we hope to strike the right balance between desktop and console UI. Other changes are activated only in Steam Desk mode and include sensitivity settings to select units and zones (my thick fingers...) and a whole new way to show help and tooltips (by long-press). While at it we have also fixed a number of issues and back-implemented a few pending mechanics: Chaos Demons and Greenskin |
| HAPPY NEW YEAR!! | 2022-12-28 | Happy New Year to you all! That was quite a year, both personally and also in series development. We have made many fixes and patches, and also added a few great additions like pushing mechanics, illusions, AI heroes, taunts, light sources, just to name a few. Our to-do list is still quite long and we still have many awesome features to implement. We have also made good progress on the next game in the series with a completely new Ratmen faction. I am also about to upload a new trailer (hopefully you can watch it now). If it all goes well, we should be able to release it in 2023. That said, I would like to wish you all the best in New Year 20 |
| LIGHT SOURCES AND BLACK FRIDAY SALES!! | 2022-11-19 | Hi everyone! Recently we have been focused on improving stealth mechanics and also adding better support for items in our series. First of all, some of you have played games with items enabled on all units and you might have noticed additional attributes like Armour Proficiency, Mage Master, etc. added to those units. That should help with better immersion and make your allies more interesting to equip. Secondly, we have introduced the Light Sources trait on some units and static objects. Night battles have now a few fire stands placed which makes sneaking around much more difficult. Thirdly, the Forest faction has a new unit - Dryad Blade Da |
| BERSERKER'S RAGE | 2022-09-13 | Hi all, today we released yet another patch with a few new features and several bug fixes. Meanwhile we continue to work on the next game in the series (we aim to release in 2023). Please keep watching our page for the new trailer (soon!). CHANGES: Natural Wisdom also gives +1 base HP when morphed (Cave Bear, Dire Bear, etc.) Divine Intervention is a new skill for Paladins and Inquisitors and gives them extra chance to auto-resurrect after battle A number of helmets and armors were made unavailable to spellcasters (also description was altered) Berserker's Rage is a boost for melee units (with Berserker attribute) which lasts while unit is in |
| STEAM DECK (ALMOST)!! | 2022-08-24 | Hi all, recently we have been working on making our games launch on Steam Deck and we have first results: (the photo is courtesy of Micah - thank you very much for all your help!) It required re-implementing substantial portion of our graphics rendering engine and we still have a few edges to smooth out. Aside from that, Steam Deck is quite flexible in terms of controls and our game can use both touchpads as well as the main touchscreen. For the brave souls that want to try it on Steam Deck: we have tested it on Proton Experimental as of 2022/08/19 (not Proton default!) go into Compatibility mode and set it to Steam Linux Runtime As usual - a |
| BUG FIXES AND HOLY PROTECTION!! | 2022-07-15 | Hi all, this patch is full of bug fixes and tunings. We are slowly refactoring our code for the new Java 17 and the overall performance should be better. Change log: Traps (as well as a few other special objects, e.g. cauldron, barricade, explosive barrel, etc.) can be placed without using turn. We are still tuning AI for this logic update. Slippery is less potent (10% slip chance and 30% chance of pushing away in melee). We track a few last triggered Global Events and make sure the same ones won't be triggered. AI moving invisible units is much faster (previously animation time was the same as normal move). Holy Protection attribute for Inqu |
| BUILDINGS AND TAUNTS!! | 2022-06-19 | Hi all, I hope you are well in the current heatwave. Don't forget to drink a lot of water! In this patch we are releasing quite a few new features (list below). The most noticeable are changes to Sea People and their base - we are introducing the new mode where you need to purchase buildings in order to unlock advanced unit types. We balanced that with adding more resources and gold to the campaign. Further optimisations for AI processing speed - we took advantage of several Java 17 features and managed to speed up some AI routines. This is still work in progress, but I hope the effects are noticeable already. The above changes to the Sea Peo |
| JAVA 17 AND MORE!! | 2022-05-26 | Hello all, I hope you are having a good time. Recently we have been frequently patching all games in the series and it's a good moment to list all changes. Those are substantial chances, therefore please keep reading. We upgraded to the more recent Java 17 (previously we embedded Java 10 with our games). That gave us access to many new features and optimisations. In our tests, the game engine is working around 40% faster. Complete attack types are displayed in the lower part of the screen. Our items system often results in layered effects for an attack, for example, a strike could be Fire- and Cold-based (at the same time), could be causing a |
| PUSHING UNITS AND AI HEROES!! | 2022-04-24 | Hi all! Over the last few weeks we have deployed a few new features and other patches, and it's time now to produce a meaningful change log (I am sorry for not being up-to-date with those!). Pushing units around it the major mechanics we introduced about two weeks ago. Many explosive spells will now move units a bit, just enough to make space for your units to squeeze between and reach those vulnerable shooters and mages. Several units also received Pushing attacks due to their size, e.g. Ogres, Troll Throwers, etc. A few existing skills like Shield Bash or Power Attack are also moving enemy units upon hit. Knights have now a more effective G |
| COW AND BALLADS!! | 2022-03-22 | Hi all, we have just patched our games again, this time with a number of additional units, improved skills and enhanced traits system. We continue to work on new faction (Ratmen) and also on its unique Stealth mechanics. First of all - new units: Cerberus is a new fast-attacker for Chaos Demons. Just like Wolves, it can be upgraded to a hit-and-run unit, however Cerberus also deals extra Fire damage. Elder is yet another upgrade for floating Evil Eyes from Chaos Demons faction. We have packed it with anti-magic skills, therefore all spellcasters beware! Crabman joins the Sea People as a durable blocker with Power Strike ability. It's definite |
| MUTAGEN CHANGES (AND MORE)!! | 2022-02-28 | Hi all, the last couple of weeks were busy as we were finalising the Ambush feature for the Age of Fear series. This is the part of wider Stealth mechanics and will be ready for the next game in the series. To accommodate new logic, we had to refactor huge amounts of code and, among other things, we managed to cross a few things from our todo list, i.e. enhancements to traits system, deploy-turn actions and random generation of maps. Let's start with the traits system. The common request was to give an option to remove unwanted traits - to address that we expanded the Mutagen potion functionality and, while it is still accelerating traits, it |
| ILLUSIONS!! | 2022-02-01 | Hi all! I hope you enjoy ongoing Lunar Sales and find many interesting games. Meanwhile, we are working hard on adding a few specific mechanics related to Stealth. As a side-product of experimenting with the Ambush feature (in which invisible units can surprise enemy groups) we created yet another stealth-specific skill - Illusions. A spellcaster can create multiple copies of itself and those copies can move and attack (but won't cause any damage) as normal units. Now the guess-game begins... On another note - we soon plan to increase prices of some of our games. The main reason being record-breaking inflation and, as such, rising costs of de |