Olden Era is not a remake of previous installments, but a new official game in the series created from scratch. The developers are preserving the core mechanics of Heroes while adding new features, QoL, its own tone, and visual style. Source: Devlog #15.
What the team heard from the community
During development, the team conducted more than 20 interviews with opinion leaders, including professional players, YouTube creators, Heroes streamers, modders, and map makers. The main conclusions: the game must run smoothly and be accessible; visual clarity is critical; familiar gameplay needs to be modernized; legacy is important, but players also need new content.
Sources of inspiration
The team studied the visual history of Heroes and neighboring strategy games. Heroes I-II inspired them with bright colors, a fairytale feel, and readability; Heroes III established the core game loop; Heroes IV showed the risk of experimentation if it harms clarity; Heroes V-VII demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of a full transition to 3D. Among external benchmarks, King's Bounty: The Legend was specifically mentioned; Disciples III was mentioned as a contrast.
Main visual principles
- Visual changes have always been part of the Heroes series.
- The team's personal taste is closer to the nostalgic look of Heroes II and King's Bounty.
- Changes must be made carefully.
- Readability and performance remain critical for the genre.
- Factions should have a leading color palette, but it should not dictate everything within the faction.
- Stylization extends the life of the visual style and the game.
Performance
The developers are aiming for system requirements below the current Steam median. The large 160x160 Jebus Cross map can contain tens of thousands of animated objects and effect-bearing objects, as well as millions of polygons on screen. To ensure smoothness, assets are loaded into RAM or VRAM. An SSD is strongly recommended for optimal performance and reduced loading times. The team's goal is for the only loading screen to appear at the start or when continuing a game, rather than when entering towns or battles.
Funding, outsourcing, and AI
The game is being developed independently using Unfrozen's own funds. Technical and artistic development is carried out by internal teams with almost no outsourcing. The developers state that they do not use generative AI for assets and do not plan to change this position: every model, texture, and animation is created manually by artists.
Why 3D instead of 2D
2D seemed appropriate for the fairytale visuals, but the team describes it as labor-intensive and expensive: separate assets are needed for every direction of movement, attack, and defense, while light and volume must be painted by hand. For more than 140 creatures with multiple animations, frame-by-frame 2D animation was called unrealistic. According to the developers' estimate, there is currently about one experienced 2D animator for every 20-30 experienced 3D artists. Therefore, 3D was chosen as more suitable for the budget and long-term support.
Feedback and changes
Based on player feedback, the team expanded the battlefield and adjusted the stats of most creatures. Visual settings have been moved to a separate readability tab: you can change the color and highlight mode, color profiles, outlines, highlighting of active creatures, colored cells under units, a full UI toggle for screenshots, cloud shadows, and background desaturation of the global map.
The UI has been updated to be more immersive and closer to the old games, but with a modern approach. A view of creature models with rotation and zoom has been added. Models for Angels, Archangels, Dread Knights, Grove, and Hive received changes based on feedback: Aqualotls were replaced by Naiads, and in the Hive, Gnats and Mantes were replaced by more distinguishable Parasites and Scorpions.
Future moddability
Olden Era is being created with high moddability. After the full release, the developers intend to give players the ability to change or customize visuals and create their own content.
