Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms Goes Episodic

An announcement on the official Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms website brings word that bitComposer and Games Farm are now planning to break the game into two separate epidodes – Book I: Devourer of Souls and Book II: Age of Demons – in order to allow for additional time for the second book and to allow for further episodic expansion afterward. Their plans detailed:

The Early Access version of the action RPG Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms has already met with extremely positive feedback from players and the media alike. For this reason, the German publisher, bitComposer, and the developers at Games Farm have agreed to invest additional development time into this exceptional title. However, to prevent fans and supporters from having to wait for the extended edition with its new, increased scope, the game will be released in two books:

• Book I: Devourer of Souls (November 2014)
• Book II: Age of Demons (February 2015)

The two books will be sold together for the reduced price of €29.99, so all Early Access supporters and buyers of the first book will receive Book II in spring 2015 for free. Further books to expand the Heretic Kingdoms universe are planned.

Peter Nagy, Head of Development at Games Farm:

(It was clear to us from the start that Shadows had the potential to be a great game. But at the beginning of development, we realized that Shadows was going to surpass even our expectations and would be the biggest and most ambitious project we’ve ever worked on to date. The hugely positive feedback from the players and the great previews of the Early Access build did the rest.

However, the increased scope of the game has also increased development requirements. We had to ask ourselves a difficult question and make a decision: How can we meet the fans’ expectations without taking away the features and the content that make the game so unique?

So we made the following decision: to leave Shadows as it is and at the same time meet the high expectations of our fans. We’ll split Shadows into two large segments/stories and call them ‘˜Books’.

To show our gratitude to the players who have supported us during the Early Access phase and who continue to support us, we have also decided to give them free access to the predecessor of Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms – Kult: Heretic Kingdoms as soon as the Steam port is ready.)

The recent decision to split Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms into two Books and the afforded additional development time allow for increased scope and significantly increased playing time. Overall, the gameplay time with only single one of the three main characters exceeds estimated 20 hours. Each main character offers an own personal story which brings great replay value.

At a glance:

• Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms will be released in November 2014 for the price of €29.99, including Book I: Devourer of Souls. Players will be able to download Book II: Age of Demons for free as soon as it is available in Spring 2015.

• Anyone wanting to support the Early Access of Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms now can get Books I & II at the reduced price of €27.99.
• All supporters will receive the predecessor Kult: Heretic Kingdoms as a thank-you gift from bitComposer Games and Games Farm as soon as it is available on Steam.