Welcome to this very first HerdVision post !
The goal of this blog is to share news and juicy anecdotes about Herd’s development, to showcase the game and its updates, and to keep you posted on community happenings!
On today’s agenda: a quick tour of our brand-new website, a snapshot of the current development status, some info about the latest Alpha update, and the project’s refreshed roadmap.
It’s shiny, it’s new, it’s here!
It’s official: the Herd website is now live! It will be your one-stop platform to
- Stay up to date on project news
- Follow the latest patches and updates
- Learn about the game, its gameplay, its lore and its community
- Access the marketplace, where you can support development by purchasing our first packs
- Download the game
This is an amazing tool that will help the project shine across the web, so feel free to share it far and wide.
Herd in Alpha 0.44
The current Early Alpha build is version 0.44. We’ve just added the final gameplay layers: ultimates, super attacks, and combos. It’s the first time these features appear, so they’re still in their infancy (picture a baby feature that just wants to grow and mature!). But they’re in—and that frees the team to focus on other key areas of the game.
Remember, we’re still very early in development—most studios wouldn’t show anything, let alone ship public builds, at this point—so what you can test is still extremely raw.
Why go public so soon?
Because the project’s DNA is community-driven development. Everything is open to the public: early prototypes, the budget, strategic decisions—basically anything that will help the game come to life is available. (Can’t find what you need on the site? Just email us or hop on our Discord and ask the devs directly!)
Yes, it’s a constraint—publishing builds that anyone can play brings risks and extra work—yet it also has huge upsides:
- Early user feedback every sprint keeps us on course.
- Goals stay aligned with real player needs.
- Testers quickly spot the game’s potential and help us develop it to the max.
In short: play the Alpha and tell us what you think!
So where are we, exactly?
At this stage, it’s hard to have a crystal-clear picture of the final game, but the site and these blog posts exist precisely to explain what’s happening, where we are, and where we’re headed—so you can get involved and steer development with us.
We’re now in a production phase whose outcome will be the stable builds for Early Access. We’ve already passed through Ideation, Design (an iterative process still ongoing), Pre-Production, and into Production proper. This production phase isn’t about shipping final content yet; it’s about bringing the game to an Early Access-ready state.
Targets for that phase:
- 5 playable characters
- Deck-building
- Combat vs AI
- Multiplayer
- Polished core loop
- FTUE and tutorials
These essentials will be enough to showcase Herd’s long-term potential and let you influence its future direction.
The roadmap
We’ve updated the roadmap based on user feedback, medium-/long-term goals, project constraints and more.
The Little Update – late July 2025
- Character-selection screen
- Deck-building screen (equip abilities, read descriptions, theory-craft killer decks and sound combos)
- First SFX layer (thanks to Wwise integration)
- New animations for Jasparu and Lois
- Various art improvements
Goal: highlight the game’s strategic/tactical side and the enormous replay value of our system.
The Big Update – September 2025
A massive overhaul (our 4th gameplay/UX iteration) that simplifies and clarifies mechanics, reinforces synergies, and lays the foundation for Early Access. Design is locked; now we “just” have to implement and refactor.
Early Access – Q4 2025
Once the Big Update ships, we’ll add the remaining characters and multiplayer so the game is feature-complete for EA.
Timeline recap
→ The Little Update – late July 2025
→ The Big Update – September 2025
→ Early Access – Q4 2025
What comes next?
One step at a time! The current budget carries us through year-end, with Early Access as the primary milestone. After that, we’ll move into the next phases on a rock-solid foundation—future blog posts will cover those stages in detail.
That’s all for today.
Thank you for your support, and see you soon!
Herd dev team
