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Greetings, adventurers! We hope you enjoy your first experiences with our modern reworking of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. This is an early access title and we're hoping a lot of your questions are answered in the FAQ, which you can read here. That said, we wanted to discuss what we have planned for the first content update, which is tentatively slated for an October 2023 release.
Mouse Support
We know PC players often prefer mouse controls when playing RPGs, and while we prioritized controller support during early development (in part because it was more straightforward to assign Apple II keyboard input to modern controller buttons), we haven't forgotten tradition. We're working on mouse input at the moment.
Additional Character Portraits
The Training Grounds feature many varied human character portraits at the moment, but more fantastical races are on their way. Look for additional portraits in the next update.
Identification System & Bestiary
During combat in the original Wizardry, your characters would roll to identify enemies that were only represented as a line of text. If you successfully identified Skeletons, for instance, you might discover you were specifically battling Undead Kobolds. However, that system doesn't work as well when enemies are high-res 3D models instead of text strings. If you've seen a kobold before, you'll probably recognize it as a kobold the next time around, even if it's in silhouette or obscured by the dark.
To bring Wizardry into the 21st century, we're reworking the enemy identification system and adding a large Bestiary in the process. Each time you successfully identify a new creature, you'll learn a little more about that enemy and what it can do; the monsters you've identified will also stay identified, creating a visual guide in the Bestiary, which you can review at any time via the pause menu.
If you prefer the original game's feature, you can turn this new system off, but we think that most players will find it satisfying to build their Bestiary of monsters as they progress through the Maze. You can make the call next month; we're planning on implementing the new identification system and the Bestiary in the next update.
Additional Sounds
Our sound designer Bob Baffy is adding more audio for enemies and various additional sound effects in the game. So while you will hear some heroic audio during your dungeon crawls this month, you should hear even more in October.
Bug Fixing
Oh, we know we didn't get everything right the first time. With additional playtesting — and the assistance of players reporting and documenting what they see — we hope to have a pile of bugs squashed by the next update.
Please keep in mind that this is our plan, and that when it comes to game development, plans can never be promises. It's possible some of these features won't be ready next month, but if they can't make it, we'll update you with a revised roadmap. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.
Until then, we're eager for your feedback! Drop your thoughts in the GOG and Steam forums, and please be as detailed as possible — that really helps us track down issues. Thanks for your support, and we hope we can bring you an even better Wizardry experience next month!
- The Wizardry Team at Digital Eclipse
