Half Sword news & patch notes

Another Italian export; this cuirass is based on the oil painting Saint George the dragon slayer by Friedrich Herlin, ca. 1460.

The cuirass is of an alla tedesca design, probably originating in south Germany around 1460-1470. It features longer foulds than what we see in later cuirasses of a similar style of alla tedesca cuirasses. An elegant piece befitting a richer lord or knight.

Hi everyone!

No new content as we're focusing on 0.6.2, but a Quality of Life & Balancing patch thanks to your feedbacks. We know we say no more patch but... feels like it should help you having fun while waiting for the big one!

Patch notes 0.6.1.5

Abyss

• Reworked Zombies. They are weaker in some things but stronger in others. Biting is weaker, but they swing their arms better when unarmed. Also they try to crawl towards you more effectively when their legs are broken and overall more balanced. Also more of them spawn at the same time

• Coffin in Abyss nerfed, shouldnt be annoying anymore

• Bone breaking and dismemberment turned off for player in Abyss

Physics & Combat

• Reworked how death works for player. Now you can control your character to his last breath. That also means you have more chances to give up before dying. Even if you are cut in half, you still dont die instantly. Also its harder to die in Abyss again

• Enemies grab less often,

• Game generated greatswords are more sane in size and more historically accurate,

• Greatswords for Blossfechten are optional, set in game settings,

• Crossbow is now the best it ever was. Very reliable, easy to aim (relatively), well balanced against armor,

• Fallen bodies are made heavier, dead weight should feel more like dead weight. Let us know if grappling feels worse like this

• Reworked weapon sfx,

• Draw cutting should be much better and effective,

• Weapons now get stuck in wooden surfaces,

• Nerfed base blunt damage,

• Nerfed naked fists damage,

• Nerfed Pollaxe shaft damage,

• Bone dislocation in armor is a little harder, bone dislocation while standing is a little harder

• Some more stuff, Ai tweaks, Physics tweaks

Settings

• Added Camera Settings. They are vast, try yourself,

• FPV Camera offset for every helmet, now you will see form the slits (better),

• Added slider for fallen body weight scale. In Game Settings,

• Added slider for FPV FOV,

• Minimum damage value on the slider changed to 1% (from 10%),

• Split Screen -- disabled hair for split screen mode, because they caused crashes. Disabled Volumetric clouds for split screen, because they caused visual glitch for player 2 cam. Split screen should work properly now,

• Added option to disable hair in general -- if your game still constantly crashes this might help. In Game Settings,

• Gameplay settings such as Bone Fragility and Dead Weight kick in instantly and doesn't need restarting the round anymore,

Thanks again for all the feedback, we hope that solve some of your issues and we will continue to fix the others in the future.

It's is Wednesday my Ragamuffins! No matter the century, Milan was setting the standards for fashion! This Milanese cuirass dates to approximately c. 1475 - 1480 and is modeled after a museum piece from the Musée de l'Hôtel de Ville.

This week, we have an Italian-style cuirass influenced by elements of English styles and some Central European harnesses.

Based on a recreation of historical references throughout Central Europe, it dates to approximately 1475–1480.

Hey hey hey! Just like the last time we have uploaded a bit outdated version of patch (new one was sent to testing when this one was uploading) So lets call THIS patch 0.6.1.4.(1) I will write all the changes for 0.6.1.4 and 0.6.1.4.(1) here together:

• Tweaked bone snapping, should be much more stable. Not completely stable, naturally, its Half Sword after all. But much better

• Added Bone Fragility slider to Gore Setting. It affects both bone dislocation and breaking bones by impact. Turning it down completely will turn off bone snapping, while "bone breaking" will be just twice harder. Turning it up to the max will give you glass bones. Enjoy

• Added Greatswords! You can craft them in Swords tab. Available size of the sword depends on your rank. Greatswords will also spawn starting from Veteran Tier (rarely on Soldier Tier)

• Added Longswords and Arming Swords to spawn list on Commoner tier

• Added Blossfechten Combat Scenario to the Progression Mode. Only swords and clothes! You need to have at least one sword equipped (in hands or belt) to enter. The UI banner depicting armored combatants is a placeholder, it will be changed

• Added Blossfechten modifier to the Free Mode. Now you can have unarmored combat independent from the skill of the fighters. In Free Mode you can use any weapons in Blossfechten

• Brawling and Carnage modifiers can work together in Free Mode. Blossfechten modifier negates Brawling though

• Added ability to choose random gear in the inventory in Free Mode

• Added option to switch to Classic Alt Thrust controls in the Controls Settings. It will make Classic Alt Thrust to work on alt key hold and Thumb Grip on toggle

• Added option for Classic Halfswording controls in options (when u just press RMB). In case anyone doesnt understand how it works with new controls, you need to hold down both RMB and LMB

• Made Crossbows more reliable. Tweaked animations for better aiming and reloading, collision detection of bolts is much better, they will not fail so often. Simplified reloading for now, you dont need to drag bolts to crossbow in UI, just click the bolt in the quiver. Will rework that later

• Reworked AI again, should be even more responsive and fun

• Made fighting from the ground better

• When choking enemies they will fight back

• Fixed Collisions on new axe heads

• Smoother dismemberments, fixed collisions

• Fixed explosive damage when you grab someones arm while they are holding shields

• Less random explosive damage in general

• Less damage on body slamming (for less random headbutting)

• Fixed bugs

• Some more stuff

Now, this is (((definitely))) the final patch before next big update, 6.2. Hope it will give you enough to play with while we work on some big features < 3

Patch notes 0.6.1.4

Hello! Thank you for breaking so many bones already. This patch is aiming to tune this new feature based on your feedbacks, on top of various asks from the community:

• Bone snapping tuned, added Bone Fragility slider to Gore settings

  • IMPORTANT: Bone Fragility settings don't kick in instantly. Character spawned after you changed the settings will have them applied.

• Gear randomization in Free Mode Inventory. UI will be changed at some point

• Made fighting from ground more effective

• AI will try to fight back when u choke them

• Pain makes AI give up, so breaking limbs will end the fight for them

• Made crossbows more reliable, tweaked animations for better aiming and reloading. Simplified reload for now, you dont need to drag the bolt, just click it to load. More works on this coming later

• Added ability to forge really big swords

• Added Longswords and Arming swords to - Commoner tier equipment

• Fixed various bugs

Patch 0.6.1.3 is out, and with it we will probably finish working on 0.6.1 and switch our attention to 0.6.2.

We have several huge features planned for the next big update, so it might take some time again. That doesn't mean that we will not throw in some small weapon and armor updates while you are waiting. We might, if it takes too long.

We hope that with the 0.6.1 set of updates we managed to regain some of your trust and that you enjoy playing Half Sword again. Letting you down is the last thing we want.

Now I want to speak a little bit personally, not as a team representative, but as someone working on the main project of his life (so far). I hate apologizing and always prefer to actually do something meaningful instead of just saying I'm sorry.

The 0.6.1 update, for me, is a way to apologize for the rough launch of Early Access, and I wanted it to be as good as possible. I understand that working on a project with such a huge following, and especially selling it for your hard-earned money, is a great responsibility, and going forward we (and I personally) will try to do everything to make Half Sword a game that you will love and enjoy playing. I think that throughout this week you noticed that we (and I personally) pay attention to your feedback, and the patches represent our willingness to make you happy.

We might have long periods of silence again, but know that the only thing they signal is us working so hard that we just can't communicate properly. When I am deep into development, the whole world around me ceases to exist. And guys stay at my place (that is also our studio) at weekends at nights grinding on our game forgetting about anything else as well, not because I ask them or because they must, but because they want to make a great game. I know well that this is not a valid excuse for keeping you all wondering for so long, but at least now you know that we are not abandoning this game. For me, this Half Sword is a dream coming true in more ways than I could ever imagine, and this is all because you love it as much as I do. Thank you for your patience and for being here with us.

< 3 - Frank

• Breaking limbs on picking up objects fixed. Still be careful when picking up heavy objects,
• Heads meshes clipping fixed,
• Match setup on Begin Play was flawed, respawnable objects spawned too late, you could fall through bridge if the bridge was broken in previous round, stuff like that. Also Level loading is a bit faster.,
• Fixed some issues with sheathing/unsheathing weapons. Including breaking limbs in process.,
• Unknown force pulling a body on torso dismemberment partially fixed, should happen less.,
• Barrels being unbreakable with weapons fixed,
• All armor materials and color available at Armorer despite the rank fixed,
• Breaking limbs by just grabbing should happen less,

• Armor attachments material customization (WIP),
• 2 new visored sallets, 1 old sallet from demo (didn't add it to spawn list in last patch),
• Opponents' weapons selection in Free Mode,
• Better grabbing/grappling,
• Painted shields (not new shields, old ones but now they are painted). Each one is a masterpiece drawn by one of our artists, Filippo. Now you can take some art with you in the battle,
• Excessive hips rotation on low framerate fixed,
• Crashes on knocking off helmets fixed,
• Further graphics and physics optimization,
• Some other stuff

Patch notes 0.6.1.3

• Alley map optimization and making barrels physics logic more elegant

• Added rocks u can pick up. Randomly thrown on all exterior maps

• New Shields and Pavises

• Joint dislocation, snapping bones by pulling and twisting, snapping neck, back, arms, legs. Planning to add ability to tear them off as well

• Neck grab doesn’t snap from so far. Now you can grab heads again if you aim well

• Made body slamming make more damage. Using other Willie’s as weapons, using their severed arms and legs to bonk their friends, and ramming them: all of this is much better at cost of their bodies doing damage to you as well

• AI self preservation should be better. They will still aggressively push you but the will parry, riposte, sidestep and back step more often

• OG Willie is back! You can select his lovely face during Character Creation and he will also spawn randomly in Free Mode

Thank you for all your feedback on this update. We will gladly continue reading them as we're now going full speed on... 6.2! See you soon...

WIP Wednesday has returned begun on Steam! We are returning to our weekly WIP posts. This content was previously not posted on Steam prior to Early Access Release. Starting off we have a German cuirass. With no surviving examples, we modeled this piece based on wood sculptures and manuscripts from northwestern German regions as well as the south Flemish areas close to German speaking lands and the Hanseatic regions. This piece also shows up in some Scandinavian altarpieces and woodwork of soldiers c. 1460-1470.

Patch notes 0.6.1.2

• Fixed Height and Weight sliders resetting to wrong values after reentering Inventory

• Added Height and Weight sliders for the opponents in Free Mode. They are multipliers, so a Knight with full Weight will still have more muscles than a Beggar with full Weight

• Fixed Alt Thrust modes/stances switching. Holding Alt Thrust key gets you to Thumb Grip (as it was), tapping Alt Thrust key toggles Classic Thrust (as it was). From Classic Thrust releasing mouse button momentarily will bring you back to Swing Mode. From Classic Thrust holding down Alt Thrust key switches to Thumb Grip. Fixed toggle not working correctly.

• Made grabbing throats much easier. Now character will prefer to grab throat over any other part of body if you aim somewhere around throat area. Now choking is maybe too OP

• Added back 2 helmets missing since Demo

• Also removed momentary noclip from weapons on unsheathe. Now you can samurai

• Some other stuff

Have fun, keep that feedback coming!

• Reduced run speed. Faster than 6.0, slower than 6.1,
• Less equipped characters are much less likely to rush a better equipped opponent,
• Returned classic Al Thrust. Tapping Alt Thrust key will now toggle Classic Alt Thrust, while holding it down brings you to New Thrust Mode (thumb grip),
• Added Brawling option to Free Mode. Currently it doesn't work together with Carnage because how Level Manager sets up fight (these two are two different modes for it). So choose one at a time,
• Height and Weight sliders for Free Mode expanded. You can be very very small or very very big now.,
• Fixed (hopefully) lighting in Forrest map. It was good on my machine but I saw that it was too dark for others.,
• Made sword pommels and guards more effective for striking to make Mordhau grip even deadlier.,
• Knives and other bladed weapons that I forgot to set up correctly for reverse gripping should work properly now. Vertical reverse grip,
• Disabled Wood Tint and Leather Color options in Weapon Forge temporarily. They didn't work with new materials, but once they are set up correctly they gonna be back,
• Leather Straps can be dyed in Armor Customization menu now. Materials were not set up correctly before, now it should work,
• Blued Steel should apply correctly to armors now,
• Added an option to reset your game completely at the Innkeeper. We still don't have multiple save file support yet, we will add it later. Now total reset will delete your current save file so better back it up.,
• You can strangle people to death now. First they lose consciousness and if you keep choking them they die, It takes time,
• Fixed bug when character loses weapon but thinks they still have it (hopefully fixed),
• Some other stuff

Kept you waiting- It's been a while since you heard from us last time, and we sincerely apologize for such a long period of radio silence. More than anything, we want to make a game that you will love to play, and we want to thank you all for your support, because it is the main force that lets us continue working towards that. We always preferred to speak with our actions, not words, and today we have something to show. The result of all our work during this silent time is finally here!

Update 0.6.1 Major changes:

Combat

• Reverse gripping. Added the ability to rotate your weapons (vertically for bladed weapons and horizontally for the rest) by holding down the Swap Hands key. With swords, you can go to the mordhau grip if you do that from the halfsword grip. But be careful, without proper hand protection you may cut yourself :3

• Alternative stance. Reworked alt thrust so that you can perform zwerchau. With two-handed swords, you also rotate your weapon horizontally to the ground. Can't wait to see what master strikes you perform. This particular feature was inspired by the mod The Art of Combat by Seancarter78 We are sure that with this update you can make even more cool stuff, fellow fencer.

• Stronger wrists. Made wrists more rigid so that your weapons flop less. Basically returned wrist mobility to Demo settings, but also reworked animations so that you can cut from more angles. We will continue exploring more historical techniques and refining the feeling of combat even more to bring Half Sword as close as we can to the ultimate medieval combat simulator.

Performance

• Active Ragdoll Total Overhaul. Massively optimized ragdolls and rebuilt the whole structure from the ground up. Gonna be frank, I made this system years ago and it worked well, but was too performance-heavy. Now it is twice as good performance-wise and hopefully feels the same (or even better).

• New foliage assets. Optimized the hell out of the trees (thanks to our new hire - Eldar). The guy is really good, you will feel it in the Forest Map. - General asset optimization. Removed things that worked badly and replaced them with stuff that works better. It is an ongoing process. We slowly but surely optimize our stuff. Step by step, we will make this game run on toasters (fingers crossed).

Armor and Weapons

• Armor material customization. Now you can change the metal and color of your armor at the Armorer. Better metal gives more protection and restricts your movements less. Also, you can dye the fabric of your garment in any medieval color. We plan to expand armor customization even more in upcoming updates.

• Equipment affects mobility. Made characters faster and more nimble in general, but heavy equipment (including both armor and weapons) will affect that. The heavier you are, the heavier the movement feels. Increasing physical strength makes you move more lightly in armor.

• Axes. Added lots of new axes both as premade weapons and as new modules for crafting. - Armor protection rebalance. Refined the math for armor protection. It should be harder to one-shot a fully armored knight now.

• Rigging and skinning. Gradually refining how our armor looks in motion. Arm armor in particular should look much better and have less clipping (thanks to our new hire Danny). It is an ongoing process. We also have lots of new and ready assets for armor and weapons awaiting implementation, so we will be able to give you new tools to play with soon.

Game

• Expanded Free Mode. You can choose maps and time of day now, and the maximum amount of opponents has increased to 10. Your character's height and weight can also be customized in the Inventory (the UI for that will be changed soon).

• New map. Added a new map, Pit. Basically a Yard map but with a hole in the center. We will start adding more unique maps soon, but first we are reworking and optimizing the existing ones. - Bridge Fight. Added the combat scenario "Bridge" for Pit and Slums.

• Better AI. AI is more responsive and aggressive now. Next, they will learn how to fight in groups.

We have a lot planned for the future, and there will be more changes to the overarching gameplay loop soon. Fight well <3

Let's address some of the most common feedback we have received from our community since the release of Half Sword into Early Access.

Firstly, we would like to thank everyone playing, giving feedback, and reviewing the game. We would not be where we are today without all the passionate support and feedback you have given us.

Performance and Optimization

We have seen a lot of feedback regarding performance and optimization since the Early Access launch. We understand that performance issues can be frustrating and they directly affect the gameplay experience.

We always iterate on our work, and always will. Since we started our internal playtesting period with a select few we saw where we could improve, the feedback we received during this period was crucial for us to understand where and how we could improve the game. Now we see it on a much greater scale and larger player base, and feedback is what makes the game improve as well as us as developers.

This type of feedback is why Early Access exists hence, the disclaimer on EA titles on Steam. Certain issues only appear when the game is tested across a wide range of hardware and playstyles, and we are very happy that we have this opportunity!

Since the Early Access launch, our main focus has been performance and optimization. While we control as many variables as possible during internal testing, public releases always introduce system configurations and conditions we cannot fully replicate beforehand. When new issues appear after updates, we work to identify and address them as quickly as possible. This has been an ongoing process since the original Itch build released in 2022.

Combat Differences Between the Demo and Early Access

After development branched into Early Access and away from the tech demo, the locomotion and combat systems have changed significantly. The player model operates as a unified dynamic physics system. Every new procedural animation such as grips, stances, or damage reactions introduces new variables that must be tested and rebalanced. Because of this, combat can feel different between updates while these systems continue to evolve. An improvement in the controls on our end can sometimes feel like a massive change for players that are used to the older mechanics. For us in development, the changes are gradual, but we understand the experience as a player these can be much bigger changes once used to them.

The tech demo was created to showcase early core mechanics, particularly the combat system. It was not intended to represent the final version of the game.

We read all feedback and it helps guide development. Every part of the game is still a work in progress. Combat balance and weapon handling will continue to evolve as new features are added, and those additions will naturally require further adjustments.

Early Access Trailer Content

The Early Access trailer was not intended to showcase everything that would be available on day one of Early Access. We wanted to tease a little bit with what is to come in the future. Our work continues as we are excited to work on new stuff too!

Thank you to everyone who has supported the game so far. Your support allows us to continue development with full focus, and it directly impacts how far we can take the project.

The game is still in an active development phase and will remain so throughout Early Access. Systems such as combat, movement, and overall feel will continue to evolve as new features are added and refined. Changes between updates are expected and are a normal part of this process.

As development continues, the final version of the game will differ from what has been shown previously, including Early Access trailer content that represented work in progress at the time. Some of those elements may change significantly as the game moves toward its full release.

Cheers,

-Half Sword Team

• New Wall decals splatters,
• New floors decals splatters,
• Better blood particles on weapons trails,
• New and more optimized particle behavior,
• RT blood splatters are now spawning in a much more responsive rate,
• Some fluid blood particle were removed for now for performance and are being worked on

• Messer hilts redesigned,
• Various minor optimizations,

Hi everyone, In this new hotfix, we focused on blood optimization, alongside other performance improvements. Blood: Reworked blood with partial implementation of in-house next gen blood system (RT Blood) that should offer better performances alongside more realistic environment interaction. This include: - New wall decals splatters - New floors decals splatters - Better blood particles on weapons trails - New and more optimized particle behavior - RT blood splatters are now spawning in a much more responsive rate - Some fluid blood particle were removed for now for performance and are being worked on Overall, do not forget that Blood settings can be adjusted for amount of blood force, particles, overall decal amount! Other: - Messer hilts redesigned - Various minor optimizations To talk a bit about the future, next update will not be a hotfix but a bigger patch, including new content. We're tackling stuff that require more work, and thus will require more time. We thank for your patience as we keep improving the game during its Early Access. Thank you again for your support and patience, Half Sword team

Hi everyone,

In this quick hotfix, we focused on some bugs that appeared with the previous physics changes:

Physics

• Muscle progression wasn't always triggering when spending stamina, it is now fixed

• Stealing an ennemy weapon was sometime not updating the weapon's owner, and such forbidded you to hit the ennemy with it. It is now fixed.

• Unsheathing your weapons now should feel less janky

Optimization

• Applied more foliage optimization to outdoor maps

Balancing, Weapons & Armors

• Added gambesons to Peasant tier

Sorry for the inconvenience, and we shall see you very soon for more fixes and tweaks,

Thank you again for your support and patience,

Half Sword team

• Lowered character physics substepping intervals. Expected results: better physics precision. Character control and combat should feel better.
• Disabled collision between character and their weapons. Weapons should less get stuck during combat and longer weapons shouldn't cause wielder to fall over when stuck.
• Kicking is now possible when you are on the ground

• Lowered gravity effect on blood particles, now they fly around more dramatically and are more noticable.
• Reworked decals spawning
• Fixed more AMD blood polling bug.

• Cleaned up various materials

• Fixed special characters in various languages which weren't part of the font

Hi everyone,

In this hotfix we started looking at your feedback on physics + rolled some additional fixes on the AMD blood polling, as it seems some AMD GPUs were still impacted:

Physics

• Lowered character physics substepping intervals. Expected results: better physics precision. Character control and combat should feel better.

• Disabled collision between character and their weapons. Weapons should less get stuck during combat and longer weapons shouldn't cause wielder to fall over when stuck.

• Kicking is now possible when you are on the ground

Blood

• Lowered gravity effect on blood particles, now they fly around more dramatically and are more noticable.

• Reworked decals spawning

• Fixed more AMD blood polling bug.

Optimization

• Cleaned up various materials

Localization

• Fixed special characters in various languages which weren't part of the font

Let us know on how you feel about those changes, and in the meantime we will continue working on improving the game,

Thank you again for your support and patience,

Half Sword team

Hi everyone, In this hotfix we focused on the outdoor maps, as it seems to cause you a lot of troubles, and did some more blood optimization on performance. In this third hotfix you could find:

• Further foliage optimization, notably on Forest and Slums map

• Blood optimization

• Slums map colliders set up correctly. Now you the round end properly when you go out of map

• You can talk your enemies into submission via the taunt mechanic, NPCs will react

• Minor bug fixes

We're aware that some of you still have the blood splatering issue on AMD cards and are working on it as fast as we can. And of course, we continue the work on other fixes, tunning, and feedback implementation.

Thank you again for your support and patience,

Half Sword team

Hi everyone, As promised we're starting on optimization & content updates. In this second hotfix you could find:

• Partial Slums map foliage optimization, more to come soon.

• Retirement bug fix (Constant new character creation window)

• Forged weapons weird physics bug fix

• Ball crushing nerfed (still OP) and sound effect added.

• Liver hit added

We apologies for the inconveniences and thank you for your feedback as we keep working,

Half Sword team

Hi everyone, thank you for your feedbacks, we read, listen a lot, and started to work on it right away.

We noticed that there is a lot of performance issues. Be assured that we are looking into solving this as good as we can with our tiny team. Our first hotfix to resolve some AMD issues is now live. We will then go through the feedback and gather as much information that we can on how to get some better performance. We didn't expect that so many of you would jump on and play our game the first 4 hours! Thank you so much for playing our game, it means the world to us and everyone involved! In the meantime, from early feedbacks please try this as it solved issues for some people:

Optimization temp quick fix

• If you have not already please update your GPU drivers.

• Try switching to dx12 if you have a dx12 enabled gpu.

This resolves many of the performance issues for users. However, this will have limited affect on the Slums map, it's clear now that this map needs a performance overhaul and we're already on it. We thank you for your patience as we'll rolling out updates in the weeks to come, Sincerely, Half Sword team.

Hello everyone! The wait is finally over! Half Sword is officially releasing into Early Access today!

We made it to the 30th of January! We are extremely happy to finally open the gates. We know you have been sharpening your blades (and your patience) for a while now, and we can’t wait to see you in the arena.

As you understand, this is just the beginning of our Early Access journey. We have packed in as much new stuff as we could, but the work doesn't stop here. Bugs, funny physics glitches, and performance tweaks are things our tiny team will be tackling non-stop as we move forward towards the full release. Please, feel free to inform us of any issues that affect your immersion in the skirmishes of Half Sword directly on our official Discord.

For those who wish to support our development even further, we have also released a Supporter Pack today. It contains the Soundtrack and awesome extra stuff. It is entirely optional, but it helps our tiny team continue working on the game we all love.

Thank you so much for your continuous support and enthusiasm. It really means the world to us to see you play what we have created.

Now, go plunge your swords!

See you very soon, The Half Sword Team

Known issues (we're working on it!)

• Hair migh wrongly render sometime

• Slums perf issues

• Blood splaterring on AMD GPUs (fixed)

• While in a Free Abyss run, a Press G to give up prompt apeears, while you're not supposed to give up fight for you soul in hell

• Some localization are still placeholder

• 2h handed weapons might have wrong handling if you swap hands

Hello everyone!

Half Sword is finally releasing into Early Access! Release Date: 30th of January

You have a whole week to prepare! Thank you for waiting for this extra month, we hope you rested well on your holidays and now you are ready for all the new stuff we prepared for you!

As you understand, we are still working on the game and new content will be added as we continue our way into the full release.

Bugs, performance, occasional crashes and other things are being actively ironed out as fast as our tiny team can handle.

Please, feel free to inform us of any issues that affect your immersion in the skirmishes of Half Sword.

See you very soon,

The Half Sword Team

Hello everyone!

We have an important announcement about Half Sword’s release this year.

We’ll start with the bad news, we won’t be making it before the end of the year.

Now the good news. The game is almost ready for release and only needs a final polish push. We’re delaying the launch, but only by a short time. We’re currently running tests and resolving issues so that your first experience with Half Sword Early Access is as good as it can be.

We know many of you were hoping to play Half Sword before the New Year, and trust us, we wanted that too, but we need just a little more time before we can all plunge our swords into our Willies.

We’re now aiming for a release in Q1 2026. We’ll be announcing the official release date soon, so stay tuned.

We are extremely happy we made so many of you happy with our Demo and we want to continue in this direction with what we are working on.

Thank you so much for your continuous support, your patience, and your enthusiasm. It means the world to us, and we’re determined to make the wait be worth it.

See you very soon.

The Half Sword team

Day 7: The Fool’s Wheel

The Jester brought the idea from Burgundy, or so the talk goes. Said he’d once seen such a thing at a duke’s tourney, a marvel of iron and noise that scattered knights like dice from a cup. The Baron liked the sound of that. He told his fool to build one, and soon enough the smiths were melting scrap for the barrels.

It’s a cross of timber, four mouths of cannon fixed on a turning post. When fired, it spins like the devil’s own toy, hurling shot wherever fortune pleases. The Jester calls it the Wheel of Justice. The Baron laughs and lets it stand near the lists, where men bleed for sport.

Folk say it’s luck decides where the iron lands, but those who’ve watched the Jester’s eyes know better. He spins it when the crowd’s loudest, so none can tell if it’s fate or his hand that chooses who dies.

Origin: Central European design, likely Saxon or Burgundian influence. Workshops in cities such as Nuremberg and Augsburg were already experimenting with clustered small-bore barrels.

Purpose: Used as anti-personnel or anti-charge deterrents, firing multiple small iron balls at close range. They were cheap, terrifying, and easy to reload compared to full bombards.

Mechanics: Four small barrels fixed to a rotating timber frame, the rotation allowed rapid repositioning or sequential firing. Some were experimental siege or defense devices; others ceremonial or for executions.