- Performance Enhancement - 16 September 2026
Warlords,We are coming up on a week since launch, can you believe it? To me it feels like it has been a month. I don't think I have worked this hard since the launch of Britannia.I was planning on diving into optimizations later, next week when I return from the wedding, but this has been bothering me. The performance of the game just hasn't made sense for a while. When testing the game it ran very smooth, but in actual builds it had stutters and seemed to be overall less performant. I was convinced for the longest time that this was due to the characters. It turns out it was something far more mundane...After a long day spent profiling and testing various optimizations I figured out the #1 public enemy: the trees! Not the trees themselves actually, they are quite fast, but rather their colliders. It turns out that the engine's built in tree collider system is extremely lacking for this…
- Fixes and QOL - 13 September 2026
Warlords,Thank you for an excellent first weekend! The game is performing wonderfully on Steam and the future of Warlord and Darkmatter Games has never looked better.This morning (starting at 4AM) I sat down to work on some lingering issues from the launch week. I hope this resolves a decent amount of quality of life issues people have been encountering. See here for the change list!DarkmattervR105Fixed ghost armiesFixed not being able to conquer some settlements (thank you bug reporters!)Fixed projectile errorOptimized projectiles' flight routineFixed fire arrow looping soundOptimized arrow after effectsFixed progression changes so they apply even without making a new saveFixed fast travel miles marched exploitFixed armed support so they follow closer to the front of the formationFixed “double it and give it to the next temple” trade and raze exploitAdded extra info to last tutorial st…
- Trading Improvements - 12 September 2026
Warlords,After yesterday's patch, I still felt like something was missing from my original design intent with this game. Way too many players seemed to be ignoring the option to trade with monk factions. I finally realized that this was not because they didn't find it interesting or useful, but because they simply had no idea you could do it! Beta testers were told ahead of time that it was possible, so that raw first-time-user experience was lacking. The only way to discover trading was to get lucky and have your mouse over a temple marker on the map while it was discovered.This morning's patch is designed to bring this immersive and useful feature to light. I have included a few other improvements here as well. Like I said in the previous post, I will be continuing to monitor for any more growing pains, but honestly, I need to rest today and tomorrow, this has been a crazy week!When I…
- Post Launch Patch - 11 September 2026
Warlords,Thank you all for a wonderful launch week. Although it is too early to tell how the game will pan out commercially, so far I am delighted to see players thoroughly enjoying the game and embracing the new Warlord setting!As with any new release, there are always growing pains. In the past ~48 hours since launch I have kept a careful eye on reviews, forum posts, and discord issue reports. Thank you to everyone participating in this way, I appreciate the swift feedback. I take this very seriously and work hard to address issues as fast as I can. I want everyone to enjoy this game as much as possible!I had to move very quickly and make a series of patches over the past few days without a proper news article, so finally I will list them here for your convenience.September 11th, 3PM (Now) - vR103Improved starting region pacing by adding bows and naginata to checkpoints and temples, a…
- Patch vR102 - 11 September 2026
Patch vR102 Added follower counts and icons to promote buttons Added discovered settlement and POI types to progress panel, a couple POIs are not included as they are easter eggs Changed how the unlock panel looks so now most items will be greyed out instead of hidden completely Changed how the camp and army inventory looks so items are greyed out instead of hidden completely
- Patch vR101 - 10 September 2026
vR101 Moved the player closer to nearby homestead, to keep the tutorial focused Added a note in the tutorial for the player to confirm they are attacking the correct nearby homestead Lowered the tutorial nearby homestead distance check to 70 meters so the player must get closer to trigger it Increased starting resources slightly to compensate for players overbuilding in the tutorial Removed leftover K and J testing note debug buttons Fixed tutorial soft lock when you capture the nearby homestead before setting charge and battle mode, now it is non-sequential Amended “capture the farm” string to be “capture the nearby homestead” to avoid confusion with which settlement to attack Fixed the pause menu so it does not noticeably pass time while paused
- Warlord: Awaji Now Available - 9 September 2026
Warlords,First, a message from me:Thank you all for the support over these past 3 years of development and even before that with Warlord: Britannia. Darkmatter Games remains a single full-time developer leading an incredibly small team of skilled contractors. Warlord: Awaji is a fully handcrafted adventure made with the utmost care and attention to detail. Darkmatter Games has no outside investors or publishers. This is all possible thanks to YOU the player!Today marks the end of a 3 year journey for me, and the beginning of a brand new adventure for you all. I hope you will have a blast playing! Whatever happens when this game launches, rest assured I will do my best to resolve issues quickly so that the maximum amount of people can play and enjoy the game.Second, as Warlord tradition dictates, your in-universe launch message:The Emperor's fledgling regime is on the brink of collapse.…
- Warlord: Awaji Releasing September 9th! - 19 August 2026
Warlords,The battle for Awaji is about to begin. Get a first look at Warlord: Awaji's gameplay in this new trailer!To highlight the announcement at the end of the video, Warlord: Awaji is releasing on Steam on September 9th! I am very excited to share this new adventure I have been crafting with you all.As many of you know, I take no donations, have no investors, do not work with a publisher, and draw no incomes aside from the sales of Warlord: Britannia. Darkmatter Games is funded purely by YOU, the player! Thanks to your support I have been able to bring this game to the finish line. Now I humbly ask that you pick up a copy of the game on launch day and leave a kind review if you enjoyed it. Grabbing a copy of the game as close as possible to release day helps the success of the game on Steam immensely, and insures my future ambitions for Darkmatter Games will come to fruition!The nex…
- World Teaser - 12 August 2026
Warlords,Thank you for your patience. I am proud to announce that Warlord: Awaji's first new trailer in over a year, a World Teaser is now available! Get a sneak peak at Warlord: Awaji's open world, including temples, villages, mansions, shrines, and more.And as announced at the end of the video, get excited for the Main Trailer, coming August 19th!More to come very soon. Thank you all for the support.Darkmatter
- Development News - 18 July 2026
Warlords,I hope you all have been having a fun summer. I sure enjoyed the 4th of July, and I survived it with all of my fingers intact (can't risk Awaji's release at this point). It is hard to believe we haven't had a dev log since March. So much has been finished and the game is truly in the final stage of development. A discord user started keeping track of the days spent "waiting for Warlord Awaji" right after the last dev log. He is on Day 133. I can safely affirm that the remaining days we will have to wait is far less than that number. The time until a release date can be announced may be measured in mere weeks, not months. Please have a little more patience as I bring everything together at the end here!This dev log will detail what I have been working on over the summer. That is, filling in the open world of Awaji. I will also discuss what remains to be done before release and t…
- Development News - 8 March 2026
Warlords,Greetings. I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday season and a good start to the new year. For this development log I decided to skip the last two-month cycle so I could include more interesting information as I began to implement the campaign features in earnest. Instead of the typical paragraph text block, this time I am trying to create a more satisfying article with headers and images. So please enjoy!Also a quick note, although assets are finished, the following images are of arbitrarily set up scenes which do not necessarily represent the layout of locations in the final game. Trees and ground scatter are also disabled, so the background will look unusually bare.3D Assets CompleteBuddhist monks praying in a temple's main hall. An armed monk looks on.Getting back to work after the holidays I quickly set out to wrap up the 3D assets and animations required for the launch of…
- Development News - 16 December 2025
Warlords,As usual, thank you all very much for your patience. I know I was supposed to deliver a news post in October (2 months after the last), but as suspected, end-of-the-year business crept in on me, and now here we are midway through December.In the last post I touched on some changes and improvements coming to the open world mechanics of Warlord: Awaji. Today I would like to share some news regarding the scope of content to be found in the new game.Just this past week I officially completed all environment assets for the game. What does this mean exactly? Well for starters, it does not mean the game is finished! What this means is that all of the models and textures I planned to create for the full game are completed and "game ready." These "environment assets" I speak of are mainly structures and props, but also things like lighting objects (torches, lamps, lanterns, fires) and t…
- Unity Engine Vulnerability Patch - 6 October 2025
Warlords,A few days ago ...just as I was heading out on a backpacking trip over the weekend... Unity announced that there has been a lingering security vulnerability in engine versions 2017 and later. They claim that there is no evidence to suggest any users or developers have been negatively impacted by this issue (afterall, the vulnerability it has been present since 2017), but have urged developers to immediately patch their engine versions for games in active development and any existing builds they have already published.Just this morning I patched the Warlord: Awaji Demo to secure it from this threat. I have also patched Warlord: Britannia, but since I haven't published an update for that game in almost 2 years, Steam is making me wait 72 hours. I have appealed to them just now, so hopefully they can approve my emergency build request by the end of the day or tomorrow, then it wil…
- Development News - 20 August 2025
Warlords,Thank you all for your patience. I wanted to provide a brief update regarding Warlord: Awaji's development. I plan on releasing some news like this once every 2 months, so everyone knows I am still alive and kicking. I would love to provide a dev log in a more entertaining and digestible format, like a video, but I am a game developer first and foremost, not a content creator, so please understand this is the best I can do! Anyways, let's get to the news.The last demo update went very well. I feel like the combat ecosystem of the game is in a decent place, and it is fun to play, but you have not seen everything yet in terms of weapons. I have noted some suggestions regarding the melee combat, things like adding a basic parry/perfect block system. This could be interesting should time allow, but overall I feel like the combat is already a quantum leap above Warlord: Britannia, a…
- Demo Update 2.0 - 17 June 2025
Warlords,First off, thank you all for your extreme patience. I try my best to reduce the wait between announcements, but this time was a special case. Shortly following the release of the demo last fall, I traveled throughout Japan for almost 3 months over the holidays. It was an enlightening trip, and I was even able to visit the eponymous (and mysterious) island of Awaji! I will share more about this expedition via Discord shortly.(Central Awaji... looks like a fun place for a Warlord game)While in Japan, I was able to research and plan out much of the remainder of the game. So immediately upon returning to the States in January, I got back to work developing. Although I was debating on whether I should release another demo, or save everything for the full game, I decided it would be more fun for all of us to have something exciting to try out while waiting.Almost every file in the ga…
- Next Fest Update - 14 October 2024
Warlords, Steam Next Fest has officially begun. To kick off this event, I have prepared a final update for the Warlord: Awaji’s Demo! As of now the Playtest is deactivated. If you were using the Playtest app, please switch to the Demo, your data will automatically carry over! To make the new-user experience even more smooth, I have added unit highlights to help distinguish friend from foe. The level XP and damage scaling has also been adjusted to make early levels more forgiving, but still provide a good sense of accomplishment at the end of the Demo’s progression. In addition, there is now an extra level, with a cool new armor color. Full changelog: Added level 13 with a new oyoroi armor color Added character highlights with option to disable Added option to disable radar Added chance for spears and naginata to break instead of drop when out of stamina Added ability to break props down…
- Demo Update 1.1 - 4 October 2024
Warlords, Thank you all for jumping right into the playtest and sending me helpful feedback. I have been very happy with the reception of the new combat mechanics and graphics. I hope everyone has enjoyed the quantum-leap from Warlord: Britannia, and is excited for more info regarding the campaign. Over the past week I have been updating the Playtest and Demo builds frequently with small hot-fixes, which are posted on Steam and Discord, and I will link them below here. This update however adds something totally new, so it warrants a full announcement. I quickly recognized the main friction people have had with the demo is identifying friend from foe, as well as the lack of overall battlefield awareness. To combat this, I have added two new things: a color-coded dynamic cursor, which soft-launched the other day in a hot-fix, and now, a radar system. My idea is that this radar gives the p…
- Playtest Released! - 28 September 2024
Warlords, The time has come… Warlord: Awaji’s Playtest is officially live! If you already signed up, you should be receiving an email and playtest access from Steam. Players signing up going forward should have immediate access. As a reminder, the Playtest will be replaced by the Demo on October 14th so the game can join Steam Next Fest. Be sure to download and try the Demo app too, so Warlord: Awaji can stand out in the festival! Thank you all for your support. Enjoy the game!
- Demo Trailer - 21 September 2024
Warlords, The first gameplay reveal of Warlord: Awaji is here! Check it out now on Youtube, and get ready for the Playtest starting on September 28th! Join the Playtest first, then continue your experience in the Demo version during Steam Next Fest, starting October 14th. The Playtest and Demo versions will be largely the same. Player progression carries over seamlessly. Until then!
- Warlord: Awaji Revealed! - 17 August 2024
Greetings Warlords, I am so excited to welcome you all here after the reveal of Warlord: Awaji! Thank you to those who have supported Warlord: Britannia throughout its launch and roadmap updates, and those who tested out The Crater tech demo. I could not have done any of this without you! Sign up now on the homepage for the Instant Action Playtest starting this September! Also, don’t forget to add Warlord: Awaji to your Wishlist and share with your friends. I can’t wait for you all to dive into the visceral world of samurai warfare I have created, this will be a truly unparalleled experience. Please stay tuned here and on Discord for further announcements! As the playtest gets closer, I will share some more images and details, as well as dates the test will run for. Thank you all. Until then!
