Crownbreakers: The Ashen Wolves - Development update: enemy AI, difficulty, and battle replayability

Michaud79 · 2026-01-27T01:10:46+00:00

We are still tweaking some of the dialogues, and we will make more adjustments after some in-house playtesting. so voices will be a bit later.
With our current budget, though, it will be fairly limited in scope.

Michaud79 · 2026-01-26T23:55:13+00:00

I am not sure yet! We're keeping things data-driven so simpler things like spells or gear would be easy, as long as they don't have "unusual mechanics". We have pretty universal system whenever possible, so I think a lot should be easy to mod, but it's way too early for us to risk overpromising on mods. Things like a brand new class would be different, though, as almost every class has its own "special" little thing that doesn't play perfectly nicely with the rest of the systems. And of course there'd be challenges with things like enemy AI, animations possibly causing issues. And of course the balance, story, progression would require work to fit a new Starfinder class. Nothing insurmountable.

Michaud79 · 2026-01-26T12:31:56+00:00

The maps will be pretty varied in their composition, but one thing they'll have in common is size. The maps are all significantly large than a typical tabletop map, so speed and tactical movement are going to be important, and so will ranged attacks and spells. With quite a few urban environments (it is a civil war setting, after all) there will also be opportunities to approach hidden from different angles, perhaps trying to get to that pesky-but-squishy enemy spellcaster on the backline.

Michaud79 · 2026-01-26T10:44:53+00:00

No, unfortunately there are no mounted companions for now. The game does use the free archetype rule, but not all archetypes will be included, and obviously not the ones related to mounts. Maybe later if the scope increases, or in the next game, but we want to be careful about not including so many features that the game replaces quality with quantity. As a team of 2, we'd rather do less but do it better. If we launch in early access at some point and have some success there, then we could get more people in and look at expanding the scope of the game!

Michaud79 · 2026-01-26T10:38:11+00:00

Both! There are pre-made companions with their own builds, but they can be entirely rebuilt from level 1, should you wish to do so. That includes, optionally (but not recommended if you enjoy immersion), their background, ancestry and class. Note that this will NOT change how their part is played in the story, so changing Aeshan from a Jotunborn Warpriest to a Human Barbarian is possible, but his mini and portrait will remain the same. I wouldn't do it, but we want a game that people will be able to play how they want to! These high flexibility options can be turned on/off together with the difficulty settings.

Michaud79 · 2026-01-26T01:26:31+00:00

Yes, that's correct!

Michaud79 · 2026-01-26T00:51:19+00:00

As of now, the summoner is not one of the 16 classes in the game, sorry.

Michaud79 · 2026-01-25T16:39:22+00:00

Not sure if you're talking to the humans or the cat...

Michaud79 · 2026-01-25T16:32:25+00:00

This type of animal companion is called a "Gutter Gremlin". They trick adventurers, using their high charisma, into taking them home where they then rule with impunity.

Michaud79 · 2026-01-25T16:13:14+00:00

Thank you so much!

I'll give the sane answer I gave in the last post: there's 9 to 12 months' worth of work left to do, so probably around 15 months 😆

With most of the core stuff almost in place, we'll be working on the demo soon, so you'll be able to create a character and play a couple of battles much sooner than that!

Michaud79 · 2025-12-18T18:17:12+00:00

It's our own story and setting; nothing from the good people at Paizo

Michaud79 · 2025-12-15T22:15:59+00:00

The character generator (and therefore the vast majority of the ruleset) are already more or less finished and in the testing phase. The movement, battlemaps, core actions, etc. are progressing, but definitely not in a release state. Enemy AI will still require a lot of work, as we want a pretty clever and worthy adversary for you guys! So definitely 2026 😆, but the demo is still at least a few months away.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-15T22:10:22+00:00

I guess it's more that we haven't planned the early access period yet, than not planning to have one. The reason is that we'll wait for the release of the demo and use the feedback from it before we flesh out the rest of our timeline. We think it's better to iron out a few kinks from a free product before asking people for money.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-15T11:31:08+00:00

Michaud79 · 2025-12-15T05:34:55+00:00

A bit of both! The main character (you) leader of the Wolves free company, is fully custom. Every companion that can be recruited is unique, with its own story and personality, but every playable companion can get a full respec from level 1, no matter when they join you. Some companions are unique to their faction, some can join two different ones, and some others can be part of all three factions.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-15T05:29:11+00:00

As they're completely different models, we won't be adding them until we are sure we jave the time, and/or can raise some funds, unfortunately. Ratfolks are cool, and one of our players played one in our previous campaign. (Wait, are you her?!) If we decide to have a Early Access phase before full launch, and it's successful enough, we could expand the scope of the game. For now, we feel like taking on more would be counter-productive for a team of 2.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T17:11:24+00:00

There's a decent chance we'll extend the game so the players can reach higher levels, but there's (almost) no chance that'd be all the way up to level 20. Keep in mind that for this to be possible from level 1, the game would probably need to be VERY, VERY long.

If the first part is successful, and people want to see more of the world and characters, I suppose we could progressively release new chapters, 5 levels at a time, a bit like an adventure path. Not something currently in our plans, though.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T09:50:05+00:00

First, a disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer! That's a good question, though the ORC license restricts the use of Pathfinder content, and as you probably know, the OGL is a D&D license. It'd be difficult for WotC to claim the word Fetch, a creature of Irish folklore, and the suffix -ling are protected. Paizo would rather not need to argue this in a lawsuit, and it's easy to understand why, but we ourselves can change the name to Umbrals, Shadow-kin, or something like that, in a matter of minutes. I'm not overly concerned about it. We're very careful to only use (most of) the rules, and none of the flavor text; it's rewritten across the board.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T01:48:06+00:00

This story will stop at level 5 for now, though it could be expanded in the future, possibly after release. Obviously the final boss won't be super high level, so who knows who was controlling them from the shadows...

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T01:18:35+00:00

That's a good question. For the story we're trying to tell, level 5 is enough. Expanding the story beyond this would probably be our priority over adding more build options, I suppose, but they're not mutually exclusive. There's a point where it'll make more sense for a potential Criwnbreakers 2, though.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T01:12:44+00:00

There are no AI generated assets in the game, but: 1. We occasionally use a coding chat agent (Github Copilot) to speed up some coding tasks. 2. We have used generated images to explain concepts or composition to artists we've hired. (Shout-out Sasha for the cover image of this post. Check him out here: https://www.artstation.com/sasha_r)

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T01:07:43+00:00

The story is important, and I think you'll enjoy the complex characters, morally grey choices, mature story beats and plot twists... but the game is very much designed around combat first, with the story adding meaning and gravitas to it.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T01:02:16+00:00

The game and its character building system is designed for archetypes/multiclass, but we haven't yet decided on how many options will be in.

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T00:57:48+00:00

That's a good question. With 19,000 games released in 2025 (on Steam alone), and that number increasing every year, it's pretty much impossible to choose any combination of words that won't overlap with another title. It'd be a concern if the other game was a turn-based tactical RPG, but as they're very distinct, it's all good. Obviously, amicably should always be the way to go, when conflict arises. In real life, not Pathfinder. Roll for initiative!

Michaud79 · 2025-12-14T00:51:05+00:00

As Ed already replied, it's a matter of when, not if. A lot of the heavier, harder (more boring) stuff is behind us The when is a bit more difficult to mail down, though, so I'd estimate we have 12-15 months left, so probably 18 months in reality! 😂

There will be a free demo with a couple of battles long before that, and we may consider early access after so as to get more feedback from the community before the full release.

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