Masters of Albion news & patch notes

Hi everyone, we are pleased to announce Update 1.4 is now live. This one's an interim update, focused on stability, quality of life and laying some important groundwork behind the scenes. We know some of you are hungry for a bigger update, and we hear you. The good news is we've got something really ambitious in motion, and there's a hint about it waiting for you at the end of these notes.

As always, thank you so much for all of your continued feedback and support as we continue improving the experience throughout Early Access.

Combat Mana & Hero UI

• Heroes no longer use mana to block or perform certain actions. It was too restrictive in the heat of battle. Mana can still be collected by Heroes for use in God Play.

• Removed mana from the Hero level up screen.

• Removed the mana bar from the Hero GUI.

Combat Tweaks

• Exploding Zombies no longer destroy the Crypt in one hit.

• Altered projectile trails to improve readability, particularly around crypt and beacon attacks.

• Fixed an issue where Heroes would not stand back up if thrown while dead.

• Fixed an issue where arrows could register a hit on the wrong target.

• Fixed weapon and arrow trails casting unwanted shadows.

• Fixed an issue with the Damage Indicator.

• Fixed issues with Night Challenge rewards.

World & Navigation

• Fixed an issue where characters in cave transit could be targeted or would search for targets, causing them to surface above ground and get stuck.

• Fixed an issue where ranged characters would not use their attack radius correctly when moving to an objective.

• Fixed an issue where escortees would take an awkward path.

• Tweaked the Spire district to stop unintended entry and Hero drops.

• Fixed an issue that occurred while dragging the Arena Torch Block from a design drawer.

Audio

• Added new audio SFX for paints

Misc

• Tourists can no longer be possessed.

• Save system improvements to support upcoming content.

• Plus a big batch of small (but lovely) technical fixes so minor even we struggled to stay awake writing them!

Finally, an exciting announcement...

New Beginnings is the official title for MoA's upcoming first major update. Featuring the full performance overhaul you've been waiting for, plus game changing new content & systems. We'll share more when we are ready...

You can watch our Title Teaser below!

Hi everyone, we are pleased to announce Update 1.3 is now live. This update primarily focuses on combat feedback improvements, with the addition of features such as the ‘last chance mechanic’ along with a range of new VFX to support combat readability and impact feedback.

Alongside this, Update 1.3 includes improvements to hero movement and behaviour, additional audio and animation polish, quest progression fixes, environmental improvements, and a variety of stability and gameplay adjustments across Albion

As always, thank you for all of your continued feedback and support as we continue improving the experience throughout Early Access.

GAMEPLAY & BALANCE

• Last chance mechanic added - possessed heroes at critical health receive temporary damage reduction

• Armour break mechanic implemented with visual and audio feedback

• Low health indicator added for heroes - visual effect and heartbeat audio trigger when approaching critical health

• Undead melee attack range fine tuned

• Fixed weapon type defaulting to axe when using sledgehammers (preventing incorrect achievements and sound effects)

• Wild blocks in water can no longer slide or move too far away, preventing them from dropping below the world

• Bandit spawn locations behind bandit camp reworked

• Stocks and gallows workers now correctly drop carrying items

VFX & EFFECTS

• Undead hit and destroy VFX implemented

• Undead VFX directional improvements and tweaks

• Armour break VFX added with feedback tweaks

• Damage VFX separated from impact VFX

• Hero trail VFX brightness tweaks

• Possession damage effects added

QUEST & PROGRESSION FIXES

• Day 2: Blocker fixed by skipping wheat drag task if farm stock output is empty

• Day 8: Hero button tutorial improvements

• Fix for game recognising if royal order has already been completed

• Reorganised some tasks on Days 17 & 18

• Valmey now reacts when beacon is attacked on night 13

• Wyrmscar gate now locked until Day 8

• Character details panel added for Brian Eastbane

HERO & CHARACTER IMPROVEMENTS

• Hero walk animation improved

• Possessed character movement refined - smoother turning and movement

• Possessed heroes can no longer turn excessively on the spot

• Fixed issue where hero weapon damage multiplier was 0 after selecting level up reward while using default weapon

• Improved hero pursuit behaviour when pursuing enemies

• New male and female animations added for clothing testing room

AUDIO & VO

• Combat armour destroyed sound effects added

• Footstep audio improved

• Dialogue fixes for Alwen and turrets

• Heartbeat audio implemented for hero low health and last chance moments

VISUAL & ENVIRONMENT

• Cliffs added to Wyrmscar to prevent unintended player access

• Briar Lake drawbridge animation refined

• Fellwhisper entrance cleanup and district fixes

• Fellwhisper and Oakshade half-buried treasure digspot fixes

• Walkable path fixes in Spire Ruins and across small bridges

• Danger map updated to prevent navigation issues

• Mineshaft rogue cart fix

• Green blood no longer appears alongside black blood on undead destruction

• Pirate waistcoat textures and assets updated

• Lo-res Fresco textures fixed

TECHNICAL & STABILITY

• Paint collider issues fixed on specific blocks and arena entrance

• Dispatch door window light fixes

• Pathblock added to non-pushable characters

PERFORMANCE Below you can find a note from Peter which provides a bit of transparency on our current situation with performance and optimisation. We want to remain upfront about where we are at and ensure everyone that we are taking this situation very seriously.

That concludes update 1.3. Theres lot of exciting things to come that the team cannot wait to share with you all, thanks for sticking along for the ride!

Join our Discord and check the announcements channel for this week’s Caption Competition! The winner will have their forename and surname added to the game’s random name generator, which we use to name all of our in-game workers. To enter, click on the link and leave your details, together with your caption for the week’s image. The winner will be notified and announced on our Discord this Friday.

Join our Discord to enter:

https://discord.gg/hW83WTcHmx

The Photo in question:

Join our Discord and check the announcements channel for this week’s Caption Competition! The winner will have their forename and surname added to the game’s random name generator, which we use to name all of our in-game workers. To enter, click on the link and leave your details, together with your caption for the week’s image. The winner will be notified and announced on our Discord the following Friday.

Join our Discord to enter: https://discord.gg/hW83WTcHmx

Hi everyone, we are happy to announce Update 1.2 is now live. This update addresses some known bugs and QOL improvements, as well as making more specific changes based on the feedback from the community.

While a range of optimisation improvements have been made, this update unfortunately does not include any significant performance improvements. Rest assured, performance remains a top priority for the whole team, and we are working tirelessly to get MoA to a better place in this regard.

It’s been a pleasure seeing our communities grow and interact, please do join our Discord if you are interested in more information about our development through early access.

GAMEPLAY & BALANCE

• Added additional empty plots across multiple regions of the map.

• Hero behaviour improved when pursuing enemies.

• Improved solution to heroes being placed in unnavigable areas of the map.

• Day progression now stops at 2:30 to improve lighting.

• The quantity of resources in a stock pad beyond 30 items is now displayed with a number.

• Clicking the scroll wheel button no longer takes the player back to Oakridge.

• While moving buildings such as turrets, their range is still visible when being repositioned.

• Fix for workers not recognising that their action block has changed location.

• Fix for certain armour parts being incorrectly shown as overused.

QUEST & PROGRESSION FIXES

• Dog Foreman quest updated with improved guidance, visuals and music handling.

• Singing Stones 2 quest updated with a new save point.

• Fixed an issue where the Mine Engineer could enter a petrified state, blocking bridge-building progression.

• Fixed Valmey quest progression when not exiting the correct Oakridge gate.

• Fixed an issue where Black Hood did not despawn after the final tournament round.

• Fixed an issue that could occur if the player changed their dispatch building type ahead of a special order.

AI, NAVIGATION & ANIMATION

• Tourists now able to correctly use kick animations.

• Improved hero pursuit behaviour during patrol and guard states.

• Improved character movement animations and fixed animations twitching issues.

• General character navigation improvements.

• Fixed multiple NPC pathfinding issues across bridges and elevated structures.

• Fixed issue where characters could use incorrect animations when picked up.

• Fixed several camera collision and clipping issues.

UI & QOL

• Improvement made to Turret cooldown GUI.

• Calendar flickering fixed at high resolutions.

AUDIO, VO & DIALOGUE

• Added and corrected several music triggers and cooldowns.

• Updated Wyrmscar bridge plank audio.

• Improved surface material handling for correct footstep sounds.

• Updated dialogue references for Valmey, Black Hood, and Dog Foreman quest lines.

• Fixed several missing and duplicated audio triggers.

• Fixed multiple voice-over and character dialogue issues.

VISUAL & ENVIRONMENT UPDATES

• Multiple texture, terrain, cliff, and tree fixes.

• Updated pirate waistcoat textures and assets.

• Removed problematic rocks around Oakridge.

• Fixed floating Briar Lake statue issue.

• Fixed visual flickering issues on Wyrmscar double bedroom blocks.

• Fixed beacon visibility obstruction caused by trees.

STABILITY & TECHNICAL FIXES

• Fixed crash after changing graphical quality settings.

Thats all, for Update 1.2.

Thank you all for the feedback you have provided and your patience as we continue to work towards bringing performance up to an acceptable level.

Hey everyone,

We’ve got a small update rolling out today for MoA. Update 1.1A fixes a few sticky issues and sets us up for our upcoming larger Update 1.2.

Changes

• The Founders Paint Pack is now available in all future saves for players who purchased the game within the first week of release rather than the previous game-save based approach. It will unlock after activating the Wyrmscar Beacon. -Thanks to the community for raising this with us. We agreed that the original setup didn’t feel quite right, so this should make the pack feel more fitting going forward. Enjoy your paints from now until the end of time.

• We’ve also fixed a crash that could happen when picking up a hero whose weapon had two or more runes applied. You can now apply runes with intended freedom.

• Turrets built before the Day 13 task should now be recognised correctly, preventing a block in intended progression.

Thanks again for all the feedback and bug reports. We’re continuing hard work on Update 1.2 and will have more to share soon.

If you want to get involved in the discussion and speak to the devs, come join us on Discord.

Hello everyone! We recently ran a little build competition over on our Discord, and thought it would be fun to share some of our favourite entries here on Steam.

It was great to see what people had been making, and there were some really creative builds.

Let's get stuck in and look at some submissions.

First up is Absent, who turned their Arena into a mighty spectacle, using the large plot to build a beautiful little market, complete with stalls and thriving gardens built atop yesterday’s massacre. Lovely.

Here Cyardor has created an all-round industrial powerhouse. Chunky and efficient. Part metal mine, part smelter & part family home. I hope you're treating those workers well?

MAK has transformed the once quiet town of Oakridge, choosing to expand not outwards, but upwards! We hope his people are alright with the long drop down to ground-level.

ShyShaman made the cosiest of them all. A cute seaside BnB equipped with flower gardens for guests to have a gander at. Perfect place to relax after some good ol' Undead slaughtering.

Some very satisfying colour coordination at Leonscotch’s Heroes Guild. Armour on theme and everything. We like it. It's going to be an absolute bloodbath over at HumanGammaBomb's arena. Let's just hope the Undead evolve to carry shields, otherwise they might be done for.

We never thought anyone would build up in Fellwhisper Highlands but Jake proved us wrong. He used the crumbling monument on the mountain top as a centre piece, placing multiple buildings around it.

The award for tastiest building goes to PurplePillz’s Steak & Ale Pie Factory. Just don’t mind the dusting of soot… or the suspicious aftertaste. Unlocking Weird Designs in the Arcadium lets players mix and match any parts they like... From pies to factory blocks.

EllaMama’s towering build proves there’s no such thing as too many floors. Only not enough ladders. In MoA, Possession mode lets you step into the boots of your people and really appreciate the scale of what you’ve built!

Those were just a few of our favourites. Huge thanks to everyone who took part and shared their builds with us.

If you’d like to get involved in the next competition, or just want to show us what you’ve already built, come and join us over on the MoA Discord.

In other news, we’ve got a small patch rolling out tomorrow to squash a few sticky bugs and help get things ready for Update 1.2.

See you then!

Hello everyone, Update 1.1 is live now for Masters of Albion.

We’ve been reading all your feedback this past week. It’s helped shape this first update and what we’re now working on for 1.2!

We want to be upfront, performance still isn’t where we want it yet in this build. It’s a big focus for us right now, and the team is hard at work on improvements we’re looking forward to sharing with you soon.

Now, onto the patch notes!

GENERAL QOL

• Added invert camera controls while in Possession mode 

• Added fullscreen exclusive support with resolution options 

• Locked certain items in the Arcadium until the correct point in progression to prevent softlocks (thank you for all your reports on this)

• Heroes now respawn outside Briar Lakes, getting you back into the fight faster on Day 15

• Fixed an issue with bandit spawns in the Spider Cave 

• Fixed an issue when exiting certain caves 

• Fixed drawbridge navigation issues

• Fixed bug where character incorrectly leaves map

• Condiment balance pass

• Fixed a frame rate issue during the opening Helm cutscene 

• Fixed Workers getting stuck after being hit by a rock and picked up

• Buoyancy is no longer applied to in-world items while the game is paused 

• Support added for moving heroes back into tournament boundaries

UI

• Fixed the currency display

• General nice GUI fixes

• Cleaned up the helper UI

• Fixed an issue when dragging a hero from their tag UI

• Fixed the broken stock UI display for weapon/armour and cloth shop

• Card and dragging text improvements

• The north pole has been correctly placed on the minimap

• Added 3D backgrounds to order cards to improve readability during camera movement

• Better helper tags text

• Fixed an issue with the first hero level-up UI

• More dynamic order card helpers

COMBAT

• Fixed inconsistency in weapon weight

• Fixed undead melee attack range

• Improved enemy reactions to successful parries and charge attacks 

• Fixed a null ref that could occur when a hero equips a weapon 

• Removed unintended sideways movement during attack animations 

• Tuned input buffering to make combat combos feel more responsive and consistent 

ENVIRONMENT / TEXTURES

• Fixed visuals on Female Evil Worshippers

• Fixed mana balls having no visuals in caves

• Gave the floating trees above Oakridge a firm talking to and put them back where they belong

• Fixed unlock tray lighting

• Fix for Oakridge roads ending too soon 

• Fixed shadows clipping unnaturally near the throne in the Crypt

• Various lovely landscape fixes

• Various textures updated

BUILDING

• Improved performance while building walls

• Store blocks now have fixed visuals

• Fixed an issue where some blocks got a bit jumpy when placed on the floor

• Wall building in The Arcadium no longer costs any favours

• Fixed an issue where stacking door blocks on top of each other would confuse Workers

• Fixed wall building gates over roads

• Fixed an issue where painted buildings would change colour after actions like load, move, or undo

SCRIPT

• Various grammar and punctuation fixes

• Fixed wrong message when player fails a night

• Fixed text issues on signposts

ANIMATIONS

• New and improved Zombie Spawn/Despawn animations

• Fixed an issue where the female hero’s weapon appeared in the wrong position during possession animations 

• Fixed an issue during the Night Fail sequence where falling bricks were not visible. The player’s Crypt will now collapse properly. 

AUDIO

• Added Zombie Nest SFX

• Fix Cricket VO event mis-name, extend Chicken Farmer 'Lucky stars' line 

• Unlock selection door on SFX bus

• Stop Grotesque insults from playing while dialogue is active

• Fixed SFX for Zombie body parts stopping too early

• Quick button Sounds

• Fixed Card-spawned characters footstep issues

OTHER

• New banners have appeared in the Crypt… some of you might recognise them.

• Added game credits

• Updated game icon

• Fixed incorrect achievement tracking

• Achievement icon update

• EDIT: We have locked the Founders Paint Pack for new game saves to protect it's Week 1 Exclusivity. The Founders Paint Pack will be available in all game-saves that were started within our first week of launch. It has not been removed from the game entirely. 

• Added Steam Community Items (Trading Cards, Badges, etc.) 

That's all for Update 1.1. Thank you for an amazing first week post-launch. More news on Update 1.2 coming soon!

Trading Cards, badges, emoticons and profile backgrounds are now live on Steam for MoA! Collect cards through play, complete sets, craft badges, level them up and customise your profile with the rewards.

More to come tomorrow with our first post launch update!

It’s been 48 hours since launch and we just wanted to say a genuine thank you. The support and constructive feedback around Masters of Albion has been incredible to see and has given the team a real boost of motivation.

We’ve been closely reading everything you’ve been sharing, from bugs and balance to ideas and small details. It’s all helping shape what comes next.

We’re excited to continue the work next week, moving effectively towards our first update, that aims to bring loads of QOL changes as well as reactive fixes to some of the top issues the community has spotted so far!

There’s a lot ahead, and we’re looking forward to showing you more as we go.

If you haven’t already, jump into the Discord It’s the best place to chat with other players, share feedback, and report any issues you run into.

Thanks for sticking with us these first couple of days and your patience as we navigate the new environment of the community post-launch. It all means a lot to the team.

What We're Hearing

We’re seeing your reports and feedback, and we’re on it. Here are a few of the most common issues right now.

Performance & Stability

Improving performance and stability is a top priority. This will be a main focus of an upcoming update. Optimising across a wide range of systems is something we’re continuing to improve, and we know there’s more to do. Masters of Albion is running a lot under the hood, from close up detail to large scale simulation, and we’re working hard to make that experience smoother for everyone.

The Heroes Guild

Some players are unlocking the Heroes Guild earlier than expected by progressing quickly. In certain cases, this can stop the game from recognising its construction as part of the main flow.

As a temporary fix, you can reload using the Load Day feature on the title screen. Make sure to load a day before purchasing the Heroes Guild.

We are addressing this issue directly in our first update. Inverted Mouse Controls (Possession Mode)

We’ve heard the requests for inverted mouse controls in possession mode.

This has been passed on to the dev team and we are going to be addressing this in the next update.

Thanks again for all your feedback. It is already helping shape what comes next.

The day is coming to a close here in the UK, we'll be continuing to monitor your feedback first thing tomorrow so please stay tuned!

It's time. Masters of Albion is now live in Early Access. Step into Albion and shape the world as you see fit - build, guide, intervene and experiment in a living system where there is no single solution, only yours.

🕕 Available Now

This is Just the Beginning

Join the Community

Masters of Albion will be in Early Access from 6PM BST this evening - and it will only be the start of the journey. We wanted to share a look at the direction we’re heading in, the systems we’re expanding, the areas we’re refining and the new experiences we’re working towards.

The Road Ahead

Built with the Community

Join the Conversation

If you want to help shape Masters of Albion, join us on Discord - it’s where we’re talking directly with players, gathering feedback and sharing updates as development continues.

What This Means

Founders Paint Pack (Early Access Bonus)

Early adopters will unlock something a little… unusual.

Play Masters of Albion during the first week of Early Access to receive the exclusive Founders Paint Pack, featuring six distinctly questionable colour choices:

Orange Juice. Yellow Juice. Green Juice. Blue Juice. Purple Juice. Red Juice. All the colours of the juice rainbow.

What is it?

The founders paint pack is a selection of 6 vibrant paints that can be used to brighten up your Albion. Not so pretty by themselves but they will likely be cornerstones of your creative arsenal in Albion.

How do you unlock this?

Players can unlock these quirky colours by purchasing the game within the first week of launch and playing through to ‘day 8’. At this point they will unlock the old mining town of Wrymscar along with the ‘Founders Paint Pack”!

🕖 Launching April 22, 6PM BST

💰Includes a 10% launch discount for the first 7 days

Get in early, unlock the colours and make Albion look exactly how it... probably shouldn’t 🙃

24 hours to go.

Not long now! Masters of Albion launches into Early Access on April 22 at 6PM BST.

At launch, the game will be priced at $24.99, with a 10% discount available for the first 7 days.

Step back into Albion... try not to drop anything.

This is your opportunity to step back into Albion early - shape the world, explore its systems and be part of how the game evolves through Early Access.

Our Discord is the best place to engage directly with the developers, share your experience and feed back on your time in Albion.

🕕 Launch time: April 22, 6PM BST

💰 Price: $24.99

🔥 Launch discount: 10% off for 7 days A town takes shape. What happens next is up to you.

Wishlist now to be notified at launch!

We'll see you in Albion...

Return to Albion.

With the Windows launch of MoA tantalisingly close, we wanted to answer a question that’s come up about Steam Deck Compatibility. We have spent a significant amount of time setting this up, making sure that Masters is a smooth, playable experience on the Deck, and it is time to let you all know that – YES! – Masters of Albion is Steam Deck Compatible.

But… right now we are in the official Valve verification queue. While we’re in that, we wanted to highlight the specific optimisations included for handheld players.

MoA running on a Steam Deck in the 22cans Studio.

Control & Precision

We built MoA with mouse use in mind first and foremost, but the Steam Deck’s hardware is fabulous at mapping mouse keyboard to the trackpad and controls.

• The Trackpad: We recommend using the Steam Deck’s default controller configuration, which uses the Right Trackpad for mouse control.

• Full Steam Input Support: We add a custom Steam Input profile which means that you can pick up and play instantly with no need for any pre-play set up.

• Thumbstick Mapping: If you prefer to use the thumbsticks, no problem, we have included generic mapping that handles mouse movement through the sticks.

• Automatic Keyboard: Steam’s virtual keyboard opens automatically whenever you’re asked for text input.

Visuals & UI

Talking of text, and since many of us in the studio have eyes that have run far from 20-20, we know there’s nothing worse than squinting at tiny, unreadable text on a teeny, 7-inch screen.

And so…

• Auto-Scaling UI: The game detects your Steam Deck hardware on boot and automatically sets the UI Scale to a larger, handheld-friendly preset.

• Native Resolution: Masters of Albion is optimised for the Steam Deck’s 1280x800 aspect ratio, which means some sweet, crisp, full-screen images without any of that irritating letterboxing.

Out-of-the-Box Performance

Auto-Detected Settings: MoA auto-detects the Deck’s APU, then sets your graphical presets to the sweet spot of visual fidelity and long battery life.

What to expect at launch

Until we receive the official "Verified" badge, Masters of Albion may show as Unknown or Playable on Steam. However, we consider the game fully optimised for handheld. As far as we are concerned, the game is playable on the Steam Deck from launch, regardless of the badge showing or not.

If, however, you play on the Steam Deck or other handheld, and have some feedback about the controls or UI, please jump into our Steam Forums and post there. We will be looking out for your messages!

Headphones on.

Take a moment to step into Oakridge - where Albion slows down.

From the rustle of leaves to the sound of water on the shore, this is a glimpse of the world simply existing around you.

Even in a land shaped by gods, there are still moments like this.

🎧 Sit back, relax, and listen.

If you haven’t already, wishlist Masters of Albion to follow development and stay up to date!

We recently hosted a live AMA with Peter Molyneux, answering questions from the community and digging into Masters of Albion.

• What’s inspired Masters of Albion

• The design thinking behind core systems and mechanics

• Combat, fail states, and player freedom

• The creatures and threats you’ll face in Albion

• Early Access plans and how the game may evolve

• Personal reflections on making games - past and present

We’re opening this one up to the community!

Wishlist Masters of Albion now! Coming to Early Access on April 22nd.

What does it actually look like to make a god game? Not the pitch, not the plan... the reality.

Some days it's systems, decisions, deadlines.

Some days it's... chasing chickens.

In this dev diary, we go behind the scenes on the development of Masters of Albion - sharing the process, the people and how the game is coming together day by day.

It's not always predictable, because the process is rarely linear, but it's real.

Watch the full dev diary here:

We'd love to hear what you think - and what you'd like to see more of as we continue to build!