Herald

The making of Herald, the Interactive Period Drama for PC, Mac & Linux.

[heraldgame]

Not Looking for Voice Actors!

We’ve been receiving quite a number of great voice reel demo’s again as of late. We assume because someone reblogged our casting call from two [ 2! ] years ago. Unfortunately we are no longer looking for submissions as we’ve already cast everyone and the game has been released with said voice talent. Thanks again everyone for their interest and when we do need voice actors again we will be sure to post it here!

[heraldgame]

Herald Animation Horrors

Animating is a funny business. Here is a collection of the wonderful bloopers and horrors created during development...enjoy! [we sure did]

Haven't tried Herald yet? We promise broken animations are not included! :P

Herald: Book I & II available on: Steam | GOG | Humble Store | Itch.io

[heraldgame]

"We also welcome Roy van der Schilden, the lead writer for a period adventure game that’s getting a great deal of critical acclaim. Herald focuses on a lead character with mixed heritage, so the conversation with Roy starts there before spiraling into much more!"

Roy van der Schilden, our lead writer, was invited to do a podcast with the Coins 2 Continue crew! Great conversation about some very important things.

Main Topics

Diversity in games

Improving the games industry

Racism in the gaming community

Dutch blackface

And more!

Interview starts 32 minutes in.

[mimiadraws]

Hey gang! If you haven’t already, check out Herald: An Interactive Period Drama! I got a chance to play the first two books, and it’s quickly grown to be one of my all-time favorite indie games. I can’t recommend it enough for people who love games with gorgeous visuals and great story! 

You can check it out on Steam or on GoG for 20% off this weekend!

[heraldgame]

Take a look at this fantastic art by Amelia! 

We’re so stoked with how she drew Devan and the Rani, such personality!

[heraldgame]

We’ve got new promotion art! Mystery, adventure and of course DRAMA!

Didn’t get the chance to get Herald on Steam sale last weekend? We’re running another sale this weekend, this time on GOG! As of today, we also have a FREE DEMO!

[heraldgame]

Check out this awesome cover by  VGMusic Explorers of Tabatha’s song “Vows”! We love their interpretation of the song, which is actually the first song our writer ever wrote. What did you think of it?

One more hour left to get Herald at 20% Off on Steam!

[heraldgame]

Hey everyone! Haven't had a chance to buy Herald yet? Now would be the time to get it as we’re having a weekend flash sale to celebrate our first patch!

Get Herald on Steam now with 20% Off!

The patch will add support for dual analog stick controllers such as the Xbox 360 controller, the XBox One controller and the Sony Dualshock 4. We’ve also fixed some various minor things. The patch will be live later today.

Want to help us spread the word of this sale? Reblog or join our Thunderclap!

[heraldgame]

We’re at EGX Rezzed In London!

Come meet our writer and play Herald at the Tentacle Collective! 

We’re also holding a free game raffle over at Twitter.

We hope to see you there! :D

[heraldgame]

We visited the Utrecht University Museum to research 19th century science and medicine for Book III & IV! It was very informative as well as a little creepy. Not pictured: horrid looking medical tools used on actual people. We’re very glad we don’t live in that time period...

[heraldgame]

Last week, Masayuki of Live2D visited us to talk about the future of Wispfire using their software to create our animated portraits. After a nice dinner we took this picture before we said goodbye.

We're glad to have spoken, and we learned that the future will be very exciting!

[heraldgame]

A nice little non-spoilery video review of Herald! For those of you still on the fence, this might give you some idea of what to expect.

Thanks Ready Up!

[heraldgame]

Herald journeys into the heart of injustice and oppression

How effective is this historical adventure?

Polygon gave Herald a nice feature with their thoughts on the game.

Havn’t tried Herald yet? Herald: Book I & II is available on: Steam | GOG | Humble Store | Itch.io

[aquapupper]

casual note that the creative director of “Herald” game that recently came out made a pretty ableist joke, so if his mindsets are reflected in the game you should be concerned

Image is a receipt. Response is my own, which was never mentioned by anyone on the dev team and there was never any apology or acknowledgement issued.

Why am I bringing this up? Because I’m tired.

I’m tired of ableist microaggressions and flat out aggression being okay because it comes from so-called progressive circles.

I’m tired of people thinking this garbage is funny. 

And I’m honestly tired of not making a loud angry stink about it. Differently abled and neurodivergent folks suffer so many abuses because it is still acceptable to use us as the butt of the joke. And I am not okay with that. I never will be. I will fight until it isn’t okay.

So fuck you if you make a triggered joke, I don’t care who it is about. I won’t be purchasing your game. 

Also if you call me racist/sexist/whatever else for making this assertion about a game with a very racially diverse cast and with a female protagonist, you’re missing the point entirely and you will be swiftly shown to the door. Just because this game might be good in some axes of diversity does NOT make it cool for this shit to go on. 

[heraldgame]

Heya! We regret that there wasn’t a response on twitter, marketing a new game can be pretty hard as a small studio and we’ve all been super swamped. We couldn’t find the tweet anymore so we’ll respond here. From our Creative Director: I'm sorry. As you said, it was a joke where I tried to turn the word back on the kind of person that uses that kind of language, but it's hard to be subtle in 140 characters. I certainly didn't meant to belittle or hurt, but I do understand my tweet could have done exactly that. With Herald our company tries to tackle many difficult subjects in a respectful way, but our employees are people too, and people aren't perfect. We're always open to criticism though, and are here to listen when it's needed.

[heraldgame]

Questions Answered!

We’ve had a lot of amazing response from you guys, so we thought we’d answer some of your burning questions!

siryl replied to your photoset: Herald: An Interactive Period Drama - Book I & II...

It’s a maritime dating sim, right?

Yes that is totally what Herald is! ;p Kidding aside, flirting is not out of the question, but the focus of the game is more about making friends...or enemies! scatteringmyashes reblogged your photoset and added:

The real question: can you be gay in it

You can be as gay as you like, but whether Devan is, is up for debate! thisblackwitch reblogged your photoset and added:

Another “half white/half other” game? Lame. Can’t folks do anything else?

We’re sorry you feel that way! For Herald it was a very deliberate narrative choice as to place the player between two worlds and explore the identity struggle many people face in a multicultural society. 

We had a great time going through some of the tags you left! If anyone has any questions about Herald, it’s themes and story, feel free to ask us!

Herald: Book I & II are available on: Steam | GOG | Humble Store | Itch.io

[heraldgame]

We never did post our launch trailer here did we? Here it is!

Nothing to do yet this Sunday? Like a good story with a vibrant cast? Herald: Book I & II are available on: Steam | GOG | Humble Store | Itch.io

[ineeddiversegames]

Herald Books I and II by Wispfire is now out! We had a chance to play through Book I on stream, and it was great. As expected from our run through the demo version, Herald is pretty damn great. It doesn’t shy away from issues of race or Imperialism in the games setting.

Like we said the game does not shy away from these issues. Also, POC characters are voiced by POC actors! Vivek Bhurtun voices your protagonist, Devan Ludlow. We had him and lead writer, Roy van der Schilden on Fresh Out of Tokens to talk about the voice acting and writing the game before release.

Vivek also wrote about his experience voicing Devan for Gamasutra!

Listen to to the episode

You can buy Herald ($9.99) on Steam, GOG or direct from Wispfire which gives them the biggest profit!

[heraldgame]

Thanks so much again for hosting us and your continued support! We’re thrilled that you liked the game after playing the demo earlier! 

[heraldgame]

Hi, i loved the first two books on Steam but I was wondering if there was anywhere I could go to find the release schedule for the other books.

We’re super glad you liked the game! Our release schedule for the last two books are currently being planned, but we are aiming to take no longer then a year on it. Once we know more, we’ll be sure to announce it!If you loved Herald, you can support us out by leaving a review on Steam or GOG and telling your friends about it, every sale we make will directly go towards funding the next installment! :)