The Artificial Lobby - Heroes of Hammerwatch, Part 1

Welcome to The Artificial Lobby, a series of blogs where I examine titles across the gaming industry and analyse their core design principles. In this post, we will overview the small indie title Heroes of Hammerwatch. Hopefully, by the end of this 6 part series, we will be able to understand how this simple game can provide countless hours of entertainment.

Table of Contents for the whole Series on Hammerwatch:

1. The Mines
2. The Prison
3. The Armory
4. The Archives
5. The Chambers
6. The Town

What is Heroes of Hammerwatch

Developed by studio Crackshell, Heroes of Hammerwatch is a traditional hack and slash adventure game which follows a medieval fantasy theme of sword and sorcery. The rules of the game are similar to those of a rogue-like, where the player is asked to attempt multiple runs and expect progression to happen linearly with each additional attempt. While simple in the way it controls, the game provides a wide range of accessible mechanics and features to play with inside the endless dungeons and keep players entertained throughout their adventure.

Let's talk about the dungeons.

Crackshell has developed 5 distinct level layouts for the player to experience while on his journey up the dungeon tower, all of which scale in difficulty, have unique enemies, introduce new core mechanics and contains bosses.

Act 1, The Mines
The first layer of the dungeon is a narrow underground passaged filled with beasts, bugs and a giant Rock Golem. The level design is well structured, tight narrow corridors grand the player clear visibility and sense of direction. Additionally, the restricted pathways limit the possibility of newcomers to get surrounded by enemies, which happens quite often in this game. The bugs and beasts on this level are slow, predictable, and most importantly, of a single type, allowing the player to get a better understanding of how core functions within the game operate as well as set his own pace.

The Mines serve the critical role of tutorial and introduction into Heroes of Hammerwatch where the combination of clear visibility and predictable enemies allows players to engage with core functions within the game, creating a more natural learning experience for the player and removing any need for lengthy tutorials.

Act 1, The Mines - gameplay

Thank you for reading,

Please let me know if the chapter felt too short or if there is something I missed