Today, I am delighted to announce that Salt and Sacrifice will launch on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2022.
I started working on the original Salt and Sanctuary nine years ago, and looking back, there is still a lot of mystery to me. Development started after I already shipped a few games with what I humbly claim to have adequate combat and play. Like so many other indie developers, I had recently become obsessed with the Dark Souls formula: its many seemingly impenetrable systems, its beautifully dark and imaginative world, and its tense moments with thin margins for error. have emerged with elegance.
I had built some pretty proficient combat systems in The Dishwasher series (which now has amazingly two generations of consoles), so the idea of using it as a base for exploring an independent soul made sense. From there there were a lot of world coins, monsters, weapons and After: all hand drawn, hand animated, scripted and placed; a progressive journey to see if the bones of 2D brawl could animate the flesh of this dark fantasy RPG.
Looking back, I’m certainly a bit of a guess at what has worked best for Salt and Sanctuary, not that there is just one right answer. For some, the tradition stood out. For others, it was the skill tree developed. The fighter’s DNA resonated with some people. But for a very large number of people, the lack of online cooperation was the most glaring omission, which brings me to Salt and Sacrifice.
Salt and Sacrifice expands the world of Salt and Sanctuary by exploring a new era and region, as well as a new role: a Marked Inquisitor. A marked Inquisitor is a convicted criminal, but spared the hand of justice in exchange for a life of service in the endless war against the Mages: twisted and irremediable creatures of elemental malice. Mages roam the world, summoning minions and wreaking havoc. Hunting a Mage is a multi-stage chase where your prey is just as likely to face rival mages as they are with you.
For those of you who have played Salt and Sanctuary, imagine chasing The Queen of Smiles through the village: she summons two rotten crossbowmen, retreats, stumbles right on The Sodden Knight, gets rid of it a bit with him. , defeats a bronze knight and launches a volley of swords at you before retreating to her lair, where – cornered, desperate, fierce – she awaits you, for a final battle from which there is no escape. It’s a chaotic dance of blades and bolts, swords and spells.
And while there are still questions about which systems and themes will or won’t make the cut, one thing is certain: Salt and Sacrifice will absolutely have online multiplayer.
I had sent screenshots of a new game I started in 2019 to my friend Shane Lynch, a fellow coder who had played the role of unwitting victim in a number of my D&D campaigns over the years. . “You should add online multiplayer,” he said. “I’ll do it,” he joked (or at least I thought so). He has a very good experience in network programming. I do not.
It probably took me longer to get used to the idea of co-programming (and learning git) than it took Shane to implement a bare bones netcode. Within a week or so he had something working. It was a problem at first, but there is something magical about this first virtual contact. After spending months creating a whole new world, it’s an odd pleasure to see someone else hanging out in it somehow.
Salt and Sanctuary had a co-op that was intentionally obscured and as rudimentary as it gets: local only, same screen. It was hard, but it was still loved. Because Shane and I are building Salt and Sacrifice from the ground up as a multiplayer game, the co-op is much more intentional than it was in Sanctuary. There is a “full” co-op mode, playable online and locally, in which you and an ally can progress together throughout the campaign. Unlike Sanctuary, which only assigned progress to the main player, Salt and Sacrifice allows both players to share their progress.
Taking inspiration from the Souls series, we’ve also implemented summon mechanics. It’s easy, smooth and quick to summon a random ally or join a random host and embark on a perilous expedition together. Sacrifice emphasizes exploration as much as mage hunts, so you may be summoned to help a player explore a new area, or you may be summoned for the sole purpose of directly launching into a battle of difficult boss. As Sacrifice takes shape, witnessing the impact of multiplayer on a world that continues to rapidly grow in density and complexity has been an especially cool experience.
We still have a long way to go, but this has already been one of the most exciting developments in my now strangely long career. I can’t wait to talk about the Mage designs, the different multiplayer factions, and the world of Salt and Sacrifice, but for now it’s so exciting to introduce the game! Stay tuned for more information on the road to its launch next year on PS4 and PS5.
