Asgard's Wrath -- Rivers of Blood and Ripped out Eyeballs

I got a bit caught up in releasing UNSVR lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been playing a lot of the OG Asgard's Wrath! It's been a lot of fun to be honest. I could only play it in short bursts lately because I haven't had the time and stamina to do otherwise, but I've made a lot of progress doing just that.

So, first off, I finished Part 1 of Stikkan's journey, and it ended with solving a God Puzzle where you filled up the channels of a canal his boat was stuck in. It was a river full of blood mind you . . . I guess it was kind of like the Nephilim version of working the locks of the Panama Canal. Kind of weird, but I'm rolling with it.

Filling the river with blood!

The main challenge in this puzzle came from a couple of fights with a bloated, poison spitting garbage-heap of a woman. I was kind of reminded of an uglier version of Grummus from Everquest. That may be too esoteric of a reference for the kids. Anyway, at the end of the fight, you rip out her stomach. Don't ask me why, but that seemed to be the only way to kill a bloated, poison-spitting garbage-heap of a woman.

The Draugar Queen, otherwise known as a bloated, poison-spitting garbage heap of a woman.

After this, you royally piss off the Norse royalty, and Odin throws you in Asgard's jail.  It's ok though, because you can possess a half-giant whose missing an arm and restore him to his former glory and free yourself from Odin's bondage. (You can't make this stuff up . . . unless you're Sanzaru, then, ok, nice imagination Sanzaru! I like it!)

Half giant / Half machine!

The half-giant's name is Risi, and he's your fourth hero you can play as.  While escaping Asgard's Jail (it's name is escaping my brain right now), you find Risi's mechanical arm and unlock a super cool raven character named Runa that helps you sneak past these evil statues that one-shot you with a death ray.

By the end, you free yourself from the prison and have an epic fight with the Warden. So, reader, if you rip out the heart of the first boss and you rip out the stomach of the second boss, just guess what you rip out of the Warden? I SAID GUESS!! Well, I gave it away in this post's title, but if you guessed eyes, you guessed right! You just grab on to those suckers and rip 'em right out of his skull. Fatality!

They're glowy eyes too!

After all this, the game did something really unexpected, and I say this as a game designer. Check it out . . . the game splits into three paths and unhooks you from the main quest line!  It feels really risky to me to do this, but I can respect the decision. 

Your paths are as follows:

1- You can play as a champion running around in Asgard's Bar, the Aegir Hall. This is incredibly fun, btw. You get to see the bar from a totally different perspective and arm yourself with sewing needles and acorn shell shields.

2- You can play part 2 of Stikkan's journey.

or 3- You can play part 2 of Risi's journey.

For me, I finished up option 1 as much as I could (some fun battles there) and then started on option 2, Stikkan's journey. I'm not sure what my decision did or did not do for me since surely I'll be playing Risi's journey as well, but they gave me an interesting choice.

The "safe" designer in me wonders why you would ever detach someone from the main quest line, even for a moment.  The "creative" designer in me loves the "surprise and delight" moment of even being offered a choice.  You definitely don't see this same type of choice being offered in AW2 (as far as I remember correctly).  Part of me wonders if the metrics showed them that people stopped playing at this area when they did that?  It's something I'd love to know just to answer my own curiosity.

So far in Stikkan's follow-on quest, I've unlocked a new wolf companion.  He's a brutal dual wielder that can howl at magical ice crystals and break them so you can proceed. In this quest, I'm finding myself swapping back and forth between companions a lot to solve puzzles and break through blocking mechanics. This feels really good in late game. I like re-using companions in this way.

All in all, I'm having a great time playing Asgard's Wrath. I feel like I'm getting close to beating it and I'm even wondering if I'll have it done over the weekend here.

I'll be sure to let you know.

Happy Dueling!

Unnatural Selection VR Pitch Slides

​​Back in 2022, WIMO Games was starting to investigate VR games. At the time, my job was to work closely with an outsourcing team in Spain to build a vertical slice of a mobile game called Unnatural Selection (UNS). The object was to get a viable product out there as fast as possible, to put it out for public consumption, and to see how close to expected metrics it was. Most mobile games are failures, but if you can "fail fast," your company is at less risk. When you do find something that works, you can go all in (as they did with our game Dice RPG).

When I got wind that we were transitioning to VR, I instantly wanted to try making our UNS mobile game as a VR game (UNSVR!). To that end, I drew up a PowerPoint pitch deck and presented it to our executives. They were interested and happy I had taken that initiative, but they wanted something a bit less risky and strange for our first VR project.  I can't say I blame them!

Below are a few of the slides from that PowerPoint deck:

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​

Later, in 2023, WIMO hosted a game jam internally and encouraged all teams to make VR games. Ryan Chapman and I were co-captains and decided to make UNSVR a reality. To be perfectly clear, the Unnatural Selection base game (whether on PC or Mobile) was originally Ryan's brainchild. Ryan had been dreaming of making a fish breeding game FOR YEARS. This game just wouldn't have happened without Ryan. That said, as the sole VR designer for the team (in this instance), I borrowed from the original pitch deck and created something more manageable for us to create in the span of seven days.

I wrote up both a design document and a less pitch-oriented, design PowerPoint deck that would help us define the boundaries of our scope while keeping the original flavor of the game we wanted to build. Below are a few slides from that Powerpoint.

​Unfortunately, we were still very ambitious and a few items had to be cut halfway through our game jam because we realized we wouldn't have time to implement them. For example, we didn't have time to build a way to remove decoration items (only place). We didn't have time to make the final whale that swims through the environment something you can grab onto or "ride," instead, proximity would move the whale along as you swam next to it.   The quest cave map couldn't be something that was slowly revealed as you played, instead, it was just a "mall map" on the wall of the quest cave. 

If there was to be an update someday to this game, we always envisioned a second saltwater environment and adding in a few of these wanted features.  We're pretty happy with how the game turned out and how good the game looks for seven days of work.

As cheesy and obvious as it is, PowerPoint (good ol' PowerPoint) remains a great tool for communicating ideas with your team.

If you're interested in downloading and playing UNSVR on PC, Click here.

Happy Dueling!

Unnatural Selection VR -- Now Available on itch.io!

Hello friends, come download my game!

I've uploaded a VR game to itch.io that a few ex-WIMO employees and I made for an internal game jam back in 2023: Unnatural Selection VR. Please click that link to check it out! 

UNSVR can best be described as a lighthearted, quest-based, underwater fish breeding and decoration game. You'll be taking on the role of an underwater field technician whose job is to breed new, hybrid fish for headquarters, decorate the freshwater lakebed with decorations, spruce up the underwater environment, and explore the world below the surface. 

Just put any two fish in a spawning cloud and BOOM, instant quirky hybrid fun!

In UNSVR you’ll unlock decorations, make hybrid fish mashups, and slowly uncover hidden decorations in the lake. The game features:

🐠 -- 10 hidden decorations scattered throughout the environment

🌈 -- Special clouds that give fish new skins

📻 -- A grab-and-go underwater radio in the entrance cave that plays music as you explore

🧠 -- A light quest system with a few secrets to uncover

🪸 -- The ability to decorate and personalize your lakebed with unlocked items

Ultimately, it’s a chill, underwater VR experience with a sense of humor and a lot of heart.

That's how the magic happens!

A little backstory on this release: After WIMO closed its doors, I received permission from the old CEO to use the game and the assets from the game for personal projects. At first, I was going to recreate the game, polish it a bit, and release a modified and simplified version of UNSVR, but that proved incredibly difficult. 

1- I didn't have the original Unreal files, only the game itself. 

2- While I could use programs like Fmodel and Blender to crack it open to try and recreate it, I'm being real: I'm more of a designer, audio engineer, and a team lead than a solo all-in-one design/art/code wizard. (I'm working on it!😅)

3- We used Unreal instead of Unity, and my Unreal experience is still growing.

Our team worked incredibly hard on it over a period of a week and used a lot of existing assets (even improving existing assets) from a mobile game project that never saw mass release. (You can read about the original incarnation of Unnatural Selection in my game portfolio.)

Collect decorations and make your environment your own!

Notes about playing UNSVR:

• The game is free and was built for Oculus Quest using a Link Cable to a PC.
• It might work with other headsets like Vive or Index, but no guarantees—if you try it, I’d love to hear how it goes!
• The game saves automatically any time you complete a quest or breed fish. So hopefully you won't have to worry about crashes or lost progress.
• Playtime is roughly 30–60 minutes, depending on how much exploring and decorating you do. Once you complete your environment, you could probably spend an hour or so just swimming around with the radio and looking at all your crazy fish collection.
• SHOW ME YOUR CRAZY FISH!  I'd love to see what kind of strange mutant fish you can create.  Feel free to tag me on social media if you make something special.

Just a few fun secrets to unlock within!

Why release it now? Well, because it’s fun, quirky, and a fantastic snapshot of what our team could do in just a week with some wild fish ideas and a shared love for underwater experimentation.

And mostly, because I think this little project deserves to be played. Let me know if you give it a shot—and if you feel you qualify to be the Employee of the Quarter at UNS. 

👉 Download Unnatural Selection VR here

Special thanks to the team: Ryan Chapman, Tom Purdue, Paul Constantine, Cory Haltinner, Kyle Marcum, and Sean Macintosh.

Happy Dueling!

Whhaaaaaat? Mythic Rank in Brawl Stars?

I had to make a quick Brawl Stars post today because it actually happened, and it's something that I said would never happen for me back in December of last year.

OMG . . . whaaaatttt?! Mythic!?!?!

Crazy, I'm trying to think of the difference, and I believe it has to be the new Ranked Pro Pass system. I certainly haven't gotten any better, and I definitely don't have a set team I play ranked matches with.  No, I'm just doing random battles in ranked and playing like I always do.

The win that sealed the deal . . . and hey . . . I was the star player even!

I suppose I have ranked up quite a few new heroes, and if there is a difference in my play, it's that. I've found myself playing a lot of Carl for gem battles, Jacky for hockey (a new mode they've allowed to be played in ranked matches) and Brawl Ball, Pearl and Cordelius in knockout, and Jessie and Barley in Heist. 

As for what's going on in Brawl Stars itself these days, we're about 10 days away from finishing up Month 1 of the new Ranked Pro Pass. I'm not quite sure what's going to happen when that rolls over? Also, we wrapped up the Dark Sands Season and have moved into the era of the Super Brawl Season. Super Brawl seems to be all about heroes and villains. I'm sure we shall see a whole slew of hero and villain skins happen here in the next few weeks.

I was tempted to buy Dark Sands. I kind of loved that mummy skin for Frank.

Of particular note to me, I've got quite a few heroes to level now that there are a ton of hyper charges that seem to be dropping like candy. I picked up Tick, Mico, and Sandy's hypercharges from random legendary Starr drops. It's just a never-ending gold drain trying to level these heroes. I suppose once I finish Tick, I'll probably move on to Mico. He's a pretty hip monkey man with a fun pouncing hit, which also seems to make him challenging to play.

Check, 1, 2, Check 1, 2.

So, I guess there you go. I feel lucky to have made it into Mythic, and I guess the new goal would be to see if I could push into Legendary, but . . . LOL . . . yeah, I don't think it's going to happen.

It seems so impossible to reach

Happy Dueling!

Stikkan it to 'em in Asgard's Wrath

Our third hero we unlock in Asgard's Wrath is a dark elf named Stikkan, who's no stranger to traveling in Niflheim. Yup, we've made our way out of Midgard and into a world of cold ice and magical bears known as Niflheim. Stikkan is a smuggler who knows a thing or two about being stabby stabby with bad guys.

He's got quite the hairstyle.

Upon entering Niflheim you get to see Sikkan fighting off an angry horde on his merchant ship. Unlike the other heroes you save, Stikkan can see you in your godly form. After possessing him, you now have access to his kit, which includes a crossbow and a spear that, much like our old buddy Darth Maul's dual lightsaber, can be split into two short swords connected by a strand of energy. These short swords, or rather short spears, can be thrown to activate simple puzzles where energy passes between magic orbs and powers up unpowered spheres, unlocking doors and raising obstacles.

Raising the Hraenathra to power open a doorway

The first companion Stikkan unlocks is an angry bear mama known as Bjornhild. Bjornhild has a metric ton of hitpoints, but it hasn't stopped me from constantly using revival mead on her. Ahh well. Bjornhild lifts giant logs that can be dropped down on pressure plates that also open doors and raise obstacles . . . and she just looks cool holding a giant log.

"Where you want me to put this log, boss? Or should I just carry it around looking cool?"

I've enjoyed playing in Niflheim so far, and I wonder how long I will spend there. Will the adventure be kind of shorter like it was with Frodi, or will it be a bit longer?  I'm not sure, but so far the battles have been relentless and unforgiving as we make our way through Hel's armies. Hopefully, there will be even more surprises along the way.

Happy Dueling!

Death to Hel's Bane in Asgard's Wrath!

 As predicted yesterday, I finished up the fight with Hel's Bane this evening. I did spend a bunch of time this morning upgrading Frodi's gear, which helped pad my health with 100 extra life or so, which really helped my survivability. 

Yesterday I was theorizing that I would shoot this guy in his heart when it was exposed, but what the game had in mind was much much cooler than that.  Once I had him down on his knees with his heart exposed, you run up with your controllers and rip his heart right out of his chest. 

Such a cool way to end a fight, and it was super visceral . . . me likey.

After this an elevator took me down to a lower level where an army was invading into the tower. I was then asked to play a little bit of tower defense with some cannons and blow up the army that was marching toward me.  I wasn't expecting that, but it was a really nice touch.

Manning the control panel that throws cannon fire down on to the invading troops.

In the end, Frodi redeemed himself and defeated the ice giant that was trying to break into Midgard while I pulled out of his body and watched from a distance.  He thanked me and gave me his stone.

I shall chop off your hand foul giant!

As for my thoughts, to be honest, it felt like maybe the Frodi story wasn't as long as I thought it would be once I figured out how to end the boss.

He sucks

I liked it, but it felt like there should have been a bit more. I would have enjoyed running up the ice giant's arms and zapping him in the head, but I'll take slamming a door shut on the ice giant's arm and chopping it off. It's still pretty satisfying.

I'm excited to see what character I get to play with next. 2 down and probably 2 more to go? I love this game so much. I just wish it didn't wear me out haha.

Happy Dueling!

Small Victories, Big Losses -- Back to Asgard's Wrath!

 As I'm typing this to you, my face is covered in sweat.  Sec . . . need to go take care of this facial drench. 

. . . and back. Whew. That's better.  So today has been a crazy day. I woke up in the morning and just decided to go for it. I don't know why I was so blocked on starting back up on Asgard's Wrath, but I was. For the past few months, it's kind of like every time I'd turn on the computer, I'd look over at my Quest 2 headset and think, "Asgard's Wrath, maybe? Naaaaaah!" NOT TODAY!

At first it was definitely weird. My controllers wanted to continually walk in reverse like I had some kind of horrible controller drift. After fighting it for five minutes or so, the drift just kind of went away and I was back in the game.

I'm coming for you Loki . . . gimme some time

The last I played, I had just unlocked Frodi and solved his first god puzzle. I had to learn how to use his staff weapon all over again, but eventually, I got it. I'm not sure I like it yet. It's kind of weird and I'm not quite sure how to use it correctly against enemies. Since parrying is such a huge part of combat, I just haven't figured out how to use it in that way. Instead, I've been opting to use Frodi's short sword.

Today's adventure took me deep inside The Great Column of Midgard. Frodi kept talking about how impressed he was that we had come this far, so I believe him.

That's a nice tower.

Inside the tower, there was another God Puzzle that involved shooting a Bow at some swinging legs of a Bull and making my way through a complex puzzle around the edges of the tower.

Gotta hit the horsey legs with the magic bow!

Also, I unlocked a new companion. She's an owl lady with a crossbow.  I like her.

And whoooo are youuuu? (She's Sigrid)

If you point her at an owl totem, she will reveal hidden secret messages that tell you the order to press runes to open secret doors.

Anyway, when you take 5 months off like me, you forget how taxing the game can be. You're going to work up a sweat and probably die a few times to bosses while you figure it all out. I'm currently stuck on this dude in the Rotund of the tower.

He sucks. 

Basically, you have to get up in his face and dodge his attacks until his eyes light up red, and then you have to parry his sword swing from above.  It's not a perfect science for me yet, and I'm not exactly sure what to do now that I've got him low with his icy heart exposed.

Logic seems to dictate that I would shoot his heart with an arrow or perhaps use my handy dandy soul staff to strike him in the heart. It's just a sweaty arm-swinging fest to get him to that point, and then I usually forget what the heck I'm doing and die.

I'm thinking tomorrow I'll have him dead.  If not, I'll be raging all the way to YouTube to see if there's a strat video to help me.

Happy Dueling!