So the first playable version of HOBL has just been released – Alpha 0.1.0.  Try it out here.

What does Alpha mean? First it means the game isn’t finished.  However it doesn’t mean you can’t play and enjoy it.  There’s still lots you can actually do right now:

• Create new worlds of a variety of sizes – none are ever the same
• Countless of dungeons to explore, fight and find loot in
• Wide variety of monsters to battle
• Recruit a variety of heroes to your cause, and form multiple parties
• Huge overworld maps to explore for treasure and secrets

So if that’s what the first verions has, what exactly is missing?  Well the next version will add:

• Capturable towns – like dungeons, but when you capture them you’ll be able to manage them just like your home town
• More traps – currently the only trap is a floor spike trap.  A variety of trap types will be added over time.  At least one new trap type will be in the next release.
• Better balance in monsters a player classes
• And of course, a variety of bug fixes

Longer term, I plan on adding

• Non-human hero races (and not elves or dwarves!), which you’ll have to befriend or conquer before recruiting
• More dungeon variety, including secrets, multiple floors and puzzles
• More content in general: items, monsters, skills, world map events and interesting dungeon objects

Stay tuned, and have fun!

You can read some more detailed plans in the forums: http://wingedpixel.com/forum/