- News: 1.0 Update + Closed Testing starting soon! - 6 May 2026
Ave Aspirants!It's time for a news update from Aegic Entertainment!The 3 of us are in the deep-end of the 1.0 Update but I wanted to share some news about the status. It's going to be a bit vague still because it's too soon to really reveal specifics, but I'll tease some screenshots as well so you can see we've been busy!1.0 ProgressIn general development is going very smooth - we anticipated a lot of time between the last Major Update and 1.0 but we are currently ahead of schedule. For the 1.0, just like with all other Major Updates, we're not shy about bold & fundamental changes. For the 1.0 we really are taking it up a notch adding a whole new fundamental layer to the game related to Meta-Progression which I will reveal later on, closer to release.Adding this main new "feature" (really a collection of a bunch of features) was the largest puzzle we had and we're past that puzzle now.…
- WWAATD EA v0.88 Balancing Patch - 26 November 2025
AVE ASPIRANTS!WWAATD Patch v0.88 is out now!Changelog - BalancingDoubled Max Stamina Recovery (When you take damage, your Max Stamina also goes down, but recovers over time - twice as fast now)Minimum Stamina from Max Stamina damage changed to 60 (from 50)Slightly reduced the effects of character body physical animation (creating more stability)Adjusted camera height up a bit (and fixed bugs related to camera height on Vertically Challengd & Giant)Adjusted camera pivot (aiming up towards the head should be easier and feel more natural now)Made the AI transition from entering the arena to fighting more smoothlyImproved lighting on Inner City - MarketBugfixesFixed a bug where characters didn't properly enter the battlefield on DraftFixed a bug that caused Draft variations / daytime conditions to not trigger (Rain, Sunset)Fixed a bug that would cause some dialog events with multiple outcom…
- WWAATD EA v0.87 General Patch (AI, Balancing, Bugfixes) - 20 November 2025
AVE ASPIRANTS!V0.87 is OUT NOW!v0.87 is primarily another balancing patch but we also addressed some of the more pressing bugs.From our testing, the difficulty and general flow of the new AI is in a much better spot now. We've added breathing room, new attack movement logic, and custom code to improve flow of 1vsMany situations and reduce team damage. Additionally, Commoner, Gladiator and Lionslayer now all feel very distinct and the pressure ramps up dramatically as we've scaled the AI's abilities more based on the difficulty setting. Give it a go and let us know if you agree it's playing better! Best place to do so is on Aegic's Discord (though I regularly read Steam discussions and comments as well!)AI behavior and Combat balancing changesAI now hangs back a bit and moves in to attack instead of being in melee range all the time.Melee range itself is a tad further out, adding breathi…
- WWAATD EA v0.86 Balancing Patch - 16 November 2025
AVE ASPIRANTS!1 day 1 patch! The Anniversary Update was released yesterday and met with a lot of kind words and valid feedback - thank you! On DifficultyI've been rebalancing the game (trying to avoid resorting to dumbing down the AI) to match the added difficulty, this patch continues that.First - I want WWAATD to be a challenging game, it's part of the DNA of the game - but it has to be hard in a fun way, and not feel 'just unfair', of course. The previous version had the AI very passive and static, so this is definitely an improvement, we just have to finetune it.There's 3 pretty fundamentally different difficulty modes and a very detailed Sandbox Mode for you to tailor your experience as well. Everyone has different skill levels, time-in-the-game, preferences and so on, so I figure more options helps as we refine the "base game".New Combat ChangesBalancing a physics based animation…
- CONTENT UPDATE: Anniversary Update OUT NOW! + 30% discount - 14 November 2025
Early Access v0.85 - Anniversary UpdateHello all! Today is a special day in the life of We Who Are About To Die, as well as in my life, to be honest. The game was in solo development for 7 years until Early Access launch, and has been in Early Access for 3 (with wonderful teammates for most of that!). Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the project.The game is also 30% off to celebrate, please help share the word! I started this project having absolutely no idea that it would come this far, changing my life the way it did and become my full time career. This thing has been with me for the better part of my adult life (I'm 34!) and the way it has evolved - especially the last 3 years - is nothing short of mindblowing to me. If you agree, let me hear some echos in the arena for my team who have been kicking ass! I'm so happy with the fundamental and fearless changes we've been doing si…
- Anniversary Update: Preview #3! Update dropping TOMORROW! - 13 November 2025
AVE ASPIRANTS!Welcome back to the third and last Preview on the upcoming Anniversary Update. First, a surprise - eagle eyed gladiators will have noticed the Anniversary for the game is actually ... tomorrow. Well, sharpen your daka's and chaka's:The update is dropping tomorrow! AI Gravitation PointsA quick second dive into the AI!The AI in WWAATD uses "steering behavior" - basically, the AI doesn't have logic to go from hardcoded A to B to C, they instead have a list of general desires steering their movement every second. They want to move towards their enemy, away from allies, away from traps, etc. All this gets added up and that decides their movement. It makes for super interesting movement, emergent surrounds and much more - all dynamically.But, it's a bit too predictable. It ends up being too precise - perfect placement, almost robotic. We noticed once the AI finds an optimal plac…
- Anniversary Update: Preview #2! New AI overhaul - 11 November 2025
AVE ASPIRANTS!Welcome to Preview #2 of the upcoming content update. (Celebrating the anniversary of the game!)In Preview #1 I gave some info about 1.0 and look at some of the new traits, attributes system as well as some of the new items.Today I'll reveal more content and dig into the big overhaul this update will have: the AI overhaul (the second one if anyone's counting!)Total AI OverhaulAfter the last Major Update (Blood & Sand) where we massively improved combat and animations, the AI started to fall behind again in terms of quality. For me it was the one big weak link in the game's combat. We set out to overhaul the AI again (staying fearless!) with some specific goals in mind:To get more movement and lethality in the AI. Make them more aggressive and fix them being static and passive. Make the AI go between much more clear "tired" and "not tired" statesBring back some bite - the A…
- Anniversary Update: Preview #1! - 5 November 2025
Ave Aspirants!Today the team and I bring you Preview #1 on the next update - we're doing another (regular) update to celebrate the anniversary of the game, as every year so far.Before we take a look, here is some important news about Aegic Entertainment & We Who Are About To Die!BIG NEWS: 1.0 is coming!First - over the summer I've hired 2 new full time devs, we're now 4 full time devs working @Aegic on We Who Are About To Die. Production has picked up!This is partially in preparation for the 1.0 release of We Who Are About To Die and for whatever new game after we'll make. (thinking far ahead!)This next update will be v0.85. It's pretty big but I don't quite want to call it a Major Update. I decided that the update after will (almost certainly) be 1.0. It's going to be a while before 1.0 is ready, even with 4 devs now, so I felt we should definitely release some cool stuff we've been wo…
- WWAATD EA v0.81 general patch - 2 July 2025
A patch with bugfixes and optimisations!V0.81 out now! v0.81 is primarily a bugfix patch, but we also wanted to reintroduce the teeth in the game a bit: Blood & Sand made things a bit too easy! Aside from a small army of bugfixes, in this patch, the AI is generally more competent and active, stamina has been rebalanced and Controller controls have gotten some upgrades.AI behavior and combat improvementsAI now attacks more frequently, is generally more active.Fixed a bug that prevented AI from throwing weapons or taunting Fixed a bug that made AI dashes basically have no effect, reintroducing dash avoids and dash-attacksIncreased chance for AI to throw weapons. (AI now also has a chance to throw and pick up weapons of one tier lower)Improved AI behavior to reduce erratic switching between blocking and dropping block AI now has different behaviors to recover from low stamina (less stuck a…
- Blood & Sand OUT NOW! - 18 June 2025
Early Access v0.8 - Blood & SandFull ChangelogWe Who Are About to Die Early Access v.0.8 is here! It's finally time to share this major update with you!We wanted to overhaul combat, add Sandbox Mode and tackle the most common feedback by the community. There's lot to explore with the Blood & Sand update! For more details, check out Preview #1, Preview #2 or Preview #3, or check out this overview video, which is a complete look at all the new stuff in Blood & Sand! (I recommend watching on Youtube!)MAJOR new content & featuresNEW: Sandbox ModeSandbox mode allows you to customize dozens of settings in the game, changing it fundamentally, and make a Sandbox Profile to playMake your own flavor of the game! Make challenge runs and experiment!NEW: Sandbox Steam Workshop supportShare your Sandbox profiles with other players on the Steam WorkshopBrowse and download other players' runs! https://…
- Blood & Sand Update: Preview #3! + Release Date for Blood & Sand! - 8 June 2025
Ave Aspirants!It's already time for Preview #3 of the Blood & Sand update! We're getting closer and closer to the update release - we'll reveal the release date for the Blood & Sand update at the end of this post!In this Preview, let's dive deeper into the Physics Overhaul, Optimizations and more Career changes!Combat - Physics Overhaul!Blood & Sand brings a pretty extensive Physics Overhaul. Now I want to preface this by saying, this kind of stuff will still happen: The game is designed like that! Goofy antics intact.As seen in Preview #1, Blood & Sand has hit-reaction animations now, where in the past this was a pure (often crazy) physics impulse. This has been made far more subtle and that's what lead me to the physics again. In the end, I rebuilt the entire character-physics and physical animation systems in the game. I took some time to more properly understand the engine and imple…
- Blood & Sand Update: Preview #2! - 4 June 2025
Ave Aspirants! Lino here, co-developer on We Who Are About to Die. Like Jordy, I wear a lot of hats: coding, art, design,... The main difference? Unlike Jordy, I usually do my work with pants on! I'll be showing some of my work in this post! For Preview #2 of the Blood & Sand update, I'm excited to share some of the latest updates to the Career management and combat visual effects, as well as a call for closed testers! Patrons Upgrade! From the start, we’ve always intended for Patrons to play a meaningful role during a run. I'm happy to announce that, with the new Blood & Sand update, you can now make more meaningful decisions regarding which Patron to support and see a clearer impact on your gameplay. The Patron system has seen lots of little broad adjustments. Patron Events are more likely, Favor gain pacing is higher and there are more ways to earn Favor now too. Many of the new feat…
- Blood & Sand Update: Preview #1! - 26 May 2025
Ave Aspirants! Since the last update, we've been working non-stop - there's a lot to update you on, so let's jump right in. We're now Aegic Entertainment! I'm very proud to be introducing you to our studio. It has been 10 years in the making. It's been a crazy journey, from solo dev in my underpants to game studio (in our underpants). I'm glad to finally have a name now too. https://aegicentertainment.com/ (We're also hiring!) Want to keep up to date, join our discord here and subscribe to our newsletter (No spam, only big announcements and giveaways etc!) The next Major Update: Blood & Sand! Some amazing news I can share first is we've designed most of game all the way to 1.0 now. We're very much in the end-game now. Sandbox Mode is part of a larger plan related to 1.0 as well. We've also brought WWAATD up to the last viable engine version which should provide stability. The next updat…
- CONTENT UPDATE: WWAATD EA v0.73 OUT NOW! +30% discount - 22 December 2024
Ave Aspirants! For the holidays, here's our last present of the year to you - a new update: new content, general game-improvements and bug-fixes!. The game is also 30% off for the Winter Sale! Before we get into it, I want to take a moment to reflect on 2024 and thank everyone for standing by the game and by us: thank you. It has been an incredible year of massive updates and I feel like the game has been absolutely transformed this year. I'm really happy with the our progress and how far it has come, and that we've still been making bold choices and overhauls in development. It's been a long year with many all-nighters! The Animation Overhaul and the Character Traits system are my personal highlights, both from a player and developer POV. The Spectacles Update in particular was record breaking and it has been so satisfying & assuring to see that the work we put into this game is absolu…
- WWAATD EA v0.71 small patch/hotfix - 25 November 2024
Gladiator's Revenge v0.71 changelog Ave Aspirants, 0.71 is here: a small bug-fixing patch! Bugfixes Fixed an issue where players saw a debug backstory Fixed issue where you couldn't claim victory on Condemned after your target week has passed Fixed an issue where passing Baegar as Veteran Aspirant without defeating him would trigger victory condition Fixed an issue where you could roll Condemned and switch to a lower difficulty mode Fixed an issue where item rank-up rewards could fail Fixed incorrect sounds on bronze scale arms & leg armor Fixed an issue where windows would jump when navigating from options to start in the main menu. Resolved an issue allowing the pause menu to open during loading tips and the game to continue. Corrected a problem where the HUD did not automatically set gamepad icon keys. Adjusted the loading screen to prevent showing the key-formatting when using a gam…
- MAJOR UPDATE: Gladiator's Revenge Update OUT NOW! + 40% discount - 23 November 2024
Early Access v0.7 - Gladiator's Revenge Full Changelog This update celebrates the 2 year anniversary and doubles down on the gladiator theme of the game by introducing new backstories as well as many new items (50!) and unit types that fit this theme. In addition to that, the game has also finally been translated to 11 languages and we've overhauled the loading screen to provide tips as you play! NOTE: Due to a change in the way the save game is structured, this update will reset your current live character and roll a new one. Your options and meta progression (Victories, stats, settings, etc) will not be reset though. MAJOR new content & features NEW Backstory: Veteran Aspirant An accomplished gladiator coming back to the arena to finally take revenge and claim his place as Grand Champion of Terantia! This backstory comes with 3 subclasses, each hailing from a different culture and tra…
- Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #4! - 22 November 2024
Dear Aspirants! Time for the final preview on Gladiator's Revenge before releasing it tomorrow, November 23rd, along with a Daily Deal discount! Gladiators Revenge: Preview 4 Loading screen Tips The loading screen has been overhauled. You now have to press a key to continue, and a Tip will show. We have many tips written out that we sorted in two categories, Combat and Career Management Tips. (and they also all come in 11 languages now!) The tips are more or less in order starting from simple mechanics and gameplay tips to more complex concepts. Every loading screen you automatically see the next tip, or you can cycle back and forth manually. When you enter battle, a combat tip appears and when you go back to the Career menu you get a management tip! The tips in the battle screen have been removed and a bunch of unnecessary info in the tutorial has been cut. This is a major first step i…
- WWAATD Anniversary + Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #3 + release date! - 14 November 2024
Dear Aspirants! Time for another preview on Gladiator's Revenge as well as a release date reveal! Hint: it's very soon! Today marks the anniversary of We Who Are About To Die! 2 years ago today I released my 7-year-solo-dev project. It was an absolutely life-changing experience. Since then, we're now a game studio -- over 15 people have worked on the project by now, and we've added countless features and refinements to the game. Special thanks to the core teammembers: Lino & Yosha who have now been working hard on the game full time for over a year and a half now. Show some love in the comments everyone!
- Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #2! - 5 November 2024
Dear Aspirants! Time for Preview 2 and more details on the new backstory: Veteran Aspirant! In this backstory you are a Veteran fighter with an already established career as an Aspirant. You are hellbent on revenge after an Aspirant called Baegar was the only one to defeat you, knocking you off your throne and becoming Aspired before you. Your only purpose in life is to defeat Baegar the Aspired. When you roll the backstory you also roll one of the 3 subclasses at random and the associated backstory's traits, the equipment loadout and starting skills will adjust based on the subclass. 3-in-1! The Dormorian The Dormorian is a trident-wielding class originating from Dormorum. To facilitate progress in this class we've added a full set of Tridents and Helms across all tiers of the game specifically tailored to the Dormorian, on some of some unique chest armor. Notice the new Character Trai…
- Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #1! - 22 October 2024
Dear Aspirants! I almost can't believe it, but we are quickly coming up on the second anniversary of the Early Access launch of We Who Are About To Die! The game has grown a lot, and we aren't done. To celebrate the anniversary we are releasing a Content Update in November - one I'm personally very excited for! The game will also have a Steam Daily Deal discount on November 23rd. Gladiator's Revenge The theme of this update is very simple: we want to add some really classical feeling gladiator content, with a heavier inspiration from ancient Rome itself. It's long overdue we gave players more ability to dress up and roleplay as your favorite real-world gladiators. Of course, all of this content has still been designed so it still fits the game's lore, cultures and general vibe. Backstory: The Veteran Aspirant We will reveal a lot more details about this in the following Preview Posts, b…
