It is time for another update from our team at Black Garden Studios to keep you informed and up to date with all going-ons in Necrofugitive development.

In the art department, our team has expanded our ranks and recruited an additional artist to help produce the necessary animations to get our cast of NPCs out the door. The first characters this artist has been working on can be seen in the next section below.

As you all know, in Necrofugitive, players can assimilate and then disguise themselves as various NPCs in the game. These NPCs enable the player to move around undetected and use enemy abilities to make their great escape. We have two NPCs we'd like to talk about in this update, both of which have been worked on by our new artist and art lead in tandem. First up is the Avencian Peasant.

This Avencian Peasant is a lowly serf who makes a meager living working the land. Equipped with a pitch fork, he is capable of fighting back, but is more often than not going to be terrified of the things happening around him. Most families see their sons conscripted to fight in the Avencian military, so peasants in particular tend to occupy the lowest caste in Avencian culture in terms of influence and authority. Theirs is a critical role all the same. Maintaining the food supply to keep the army fed is among their chief responsibilities, often enabling the otherwise able-bodied to be exempt from military service during times of lean.

The next new unit we want to introduce is the Avencian Sergeant. This high ranking soldier commands no small amount of authority in the field, often appointed as the local commanding officer in deployment zones and other critical military installations. Trained to battle with the best of them, the Sergeant is a capable warrior whose sword-fighting techniques are rooted in the traditional schools of swordplay found among Eldergrove's famed mercenary companies. Avencian Captains who survive long enough to attain promotion and distinction alike will often be the first contenders for the next generation of Sergeants. As far as disguises go, few will get you further amongst the common troops than the appearance of an Avencian Sergeant.

We will share more about the Avencian Sergeant in a later update.

For those waiting for new stages to finally get their hands on, we've plenty to report. Though we've talked about the levels briefly in previous updates, we haven't actually provided a metric for how many levels have been made up to this point in development. Let's do that now.

First, let's establish some what constitutes a stage by using the public demo as an example. The current public demo has three total stages or "screens" of varying length, to give you a sense of scale. After tallying up the total stages that have been blocked out and have their first iterations designed for the game so far, the number is currently over 50 stages of varying lengthcommenced for the main game with even more to come in the future.

These stages are all at varying levels of completion. Some are just the map itself with no enemies or objects. Others have enemy and alarm bell placements, as seen above. Some are in between. A handful of additional stages outside of those mentioned above have also been created explicitly for the playtest group as well, which were designed to test out specific mechanics and features in isolation that might not otherwise appear in the main game.

As with any art, we expect to make several iterations to the designs of these many stages and will no doubt cut some while adding others. Ultimately, the goal is to create a game that is full of satisfying content rather than padded with content that isn't fun. Striking that balance is very hard to achieve, but we'll be doing our best all the same. 

The Fortress Havenhold scenario will likely have somewhere between 9 to 12 stages total once we have completed our testing and adjustments. Unlike our current three stage demo, there's a lot more in store for Havenhold in terms of interconnectivity and overall design. Because of these new features, the data we collect from players once we roll out the Havenhold scenario will help us to really hone in on the best design practices for the rest of the game.

Recently, we've also recently finished the process of recreating the base tilesets we use for Necrofugitive as we aim to optimize our production pipeline for future stages. This process took a great deal of deliberation over the last few months as we tried to hammer down what precise shapes and patterns we want to be able to use in levels. With that complete, the next step is finishing up the new coat of paint across those shapes. With this in mind, we are now working with six general terrain types to play with on a given stage. This change also requires us to revisit our recently created levels and begin to update those environment assets with the new sheets. We're very excited to see how everything looks once the process is complete.

Distribution for our Private Playtest will take place via Kickstarter by way of Steam Keys. To provide a visual example, we previously tested out this methodology when our studio released DEAD MAN'S HAND: Card Roulette Action to a small playtest group. Those eligible for the play test will receive a Steam Key that creates a new title in their Steam library as depicted below.

Please be advised that the Steam Keys used for this playtest feature will NOT be the keys used to give access to the full game. If you write us a message asking about this, you will be directed to either this post or a future post that reiterates the same message.

Once again, the Steam Keys used for the playtest will NOT be the keys used to give access to the full game.

Composer Edwin Montgomery has been workshopping a few different tunes for the game as we work on the Havenhold scenario. Most recently, he has been working on a suitable track for the Order of Orelia Paladins. These champions of zeal and justice are among the greatest heroes of the realm. As such, they deserve a theme that befits this title.

We want to make sure players hear the full song only when it is completed. For our backers, however, we have a small teaser available for you. Edwin has put together a solo track featuring what he calls the Paladin Fanfare. We've produced a small video to let you hear it for yourselves.

Of course, this solo audio track featuring the fanfare cannot capture the full scope of what this theme is all about, but we're confident when you hear the whole thing together, you'll quickly come to know the awe inspiring might of the Order of Orelia.

For this installment of the community spotlight, we'll be giving a shout out to another member of our Discord community that has been active in the last few months: Tezy!

Tezy has spent a good amount of time putting together custom sprites for their own character concepts. We'll be sharing some of these fanworks below!

It's always really exciting when we have fans in our community taking the initiative to think about the world and its overall settings. It's even more exciting when we get to see custom OCs or character concepts that fans have placed into the scenario. One of the most entertaining parts of this is looking at the different ideas and considering how close to our official plans they might be. 

While Tezy's designs fall under the category of fan-art, you never know what might end up inspiring our team...

This time, our quick question is... do you prefer shorter games with very condensed levels, or longer games with content spread out across more levels?

Some players prefer a very short game with all of its content jam packed across a few short but memorable levels, while other players prefer a grand adventure with sprawling content that gets drip fed over time. Retro games tend to be good examples of condensed gameplay, often padded through increased difficulty, while other titles have a flatter difficulty curve but take longer to finish due to the sheer volume of content. 

Which do you prefer? Let us know your answer in the comments section or via the poll below!

That's all for this update! If you have any questions about the game, please be sure to leave them in the comments! We'll be checking back in with another update in the coming weeks. Thank you all once again for your continued support.

Greetings and salutations! It is time for another update from our team at Black Garden Studios to keep you informed and up to date with all going-ons of Necrofugitive development that took place in the last quarter of 2025.

As a reminder, the first act of Necrofugitive was successfully funded on Kickstarter. This means content specifically found within the first playable region, The Duchy of Castor.

Development for the Duchy of Castor, as well as its first scenario Escape from Fortress Havenhold are still underway. The first drafts of the various stages are complete, with things such as encounter design and broader functionality still being added. We've also been working on new NPCs that will appear in this opening act as well as some additional characters that will be in subsequent areas of the game.

As development continues for the game, the world of Avencia has some new faces we look forward to welcoming into the roster.

Pictured above are some of our pending NPC units for Necrofugitive. Each of these characters fulfills a different role in the broader realm of Avencia. Naturally, each of these NPCs also doubles as a new potential disguise for the shapeshifter.

We've also got a trio of champions this time around. Above you can see the distinct regional variants for the main three factions of the civil war: Castor, Valloria, and Eldergrove. Something you'll want to remember is the importance of faction relationships. During the events of Necrofugitive, warring factions will be hostile to one another. This means your disguise will provoke different reactions depending on the faction you present it to.

Also pictured above is our paladin unit running to mete out righteous justice. This Order of Orelia oathsworn will be a tower of defense against heretical forces across Avencia— including you! If you think he looks beefy, that's because he is. The paladin is one of the few enemies that can take a hit from the monster and still remain on his feet. He will prove to be very formidable against the Seed of Skoroz.

Necrofugitive composer Edwin Montgomery has been workshopping new tracks to help elevate the Necrofugitive experience and create that perfect musical accompaniment. Most recently, he's been tasked with exploring the theme of Avencia itself. In this piano piece, you can hear a sampling of the process with a preview of the theme below.

We're excited to hear where he'll take this theme next. Seeing as this is just a work in progress, we've got much to look forward to.

In an upcoming demo update, we will be adding dedicated translations for at least one other language. We intend to formally localize the game in the future, so please stay tuned for more information.

That's all for this update! If you have any questions about the game, please be sure to leave them in the comments! Thank you all once again for your continued support.

Over the last few weeks, we have become aware of bugs that exist within the Necrofugitive demo and routinely push hotfixes and updates to resolve them. One of our persistent bugs that seems to happen between these updates is a misalignment of hitboxes due to some niche quirks between the engine and our tools during export. Simply put, we are constantly tuned in for your bug reports (there's a SUBMIT REPORT button in game) so that we can fix these problems as they arise.

Below is an itemized list of all of the changes in this latest build:

• Added missing knight transform animation.

• Knight overhead attack now inflicts KNOCKDOWN instead of KNOCKBACK.

• Restored missing hitboxes in footman shield guard animations.

• Fixed blink ability not granting invincibility during use.

Our special promotional keys for DEAD MAN'S HAND: Card Roulette Action will be going out this week! Our team will be distributing them via email to users who have backed the game at $25 or more. A second key will also be delivered to our VIP backers from the pre-campaign.

The official distribution for the DMH keys begins this Thursday, August 14th.

To celebrate the success of our campaign and all the new players, we are hosting the very first Community Game Night that very same day! We are also adding an exclusive Emblem of Skoroz Trigger Flair to DEAD MAN'S HAND, which is only available during the day of the key distribution. To unlock it, sign into the game at any on time on August 14th.

We hope to see you there!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/2858790/announcements/detail/530980289128694817

That's all for this update! If you have any questions about the game or the campaign, please be sure to leave them in the comments! We'll be checking back in with another update in the coming days. Thank you all once again for your continued support.

After thirty days in the gauntlet of Kickstarter campaigning, we are pleased to announce that Necrofugitive has officially been funded! Thank you to each and every one of you who has contributed to the campaign.

Now that we have concluded our campaign, we are very excited to announce a few things. Please read along for more information.

We are very excited to share this regional map of Necrofugitive's Kingdom of Avencia. In the full version of Necrofugitive, we intend to make each of these regional areas accessible to players for their escapes. For now, we'd like to direct your attention to the Southwest corner of the continent— the Duchy of Castor.

Necrofugitive's opening act will take place in a place called Fortress Havenhold, located on a remote plateau within the Duchy of Castor. Learn more about this region in the excerpt below.

Forged in the fires of war and steadfast adherence to the Avencian Code of Arms, the Duchy of Castor sits in the southernmost region of Avencia. Tasked with generations of stalwart defense against threats from beyond her borders, the children of Castor know what it means to fortify, protect, and hold the line. Theirs is a harsh, obedient doctrine, where one's potential is not defined by the station of his birth, but his ability to obey orders and unflinchingly devote his entire being to the preservation of the Avencian way of life. With noble birth, high walls, well-trained hounds, and the zealous devotion of his troops, their duke's claim to the throne is most certainly irrefutable...

We will share more about the Duchy of Castor in a future update. Please stay tuned.

For those who are late to the party, Kickstarter rolled out a feature called Late Pledges that we are very excited to have learned about. With Late Pledges, the studio will be able to continue to accept pledges for the game even after the campaign is finished! This also includes contributing toward stretch goals, so keep the momentum going and we might just see something awesome happen.

We will only be accepting late pledges for select tiers while supplies last and for a limited time, so don't hesitate to pull the trigger!

Click Here to Visit the Kickstarter Page[www.kickstarter.com]

As detailed in the campaign, we've got a handful of backer exclusive skins available for Necrofugitive. Below you can see not just the human form, but also the monster form of these exclusives. Be sure to take a look.

These skins are each included at different tier levels, with the full set of them included in all tiers priced at $75 and above. We hope you'll enjoy spreading your colors all across Avencia.

In addition to the content coming as part of the Necrofugitive campaign, our team is also creating a special game mode where players will need to fight to survive against waves of oncoming enemies. We will have more to share about this game mode in a future update.

We are so thankful that Necrofugitive has been a game that can help bring players together all around the world. Included in the $50,000 level of funding is also localization for Simplified Chinese, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese! As we have noted in the past, players from these three countries represent a sizable portion of the Necrofugitive Wishlists on Steam, so we are making sure to bring the game to these regions as quickly as possible.

That's all for this update! If you have any questions about the game or the campaign, please be sure to leave them in the comments! We'll be checking back in with another update as the campaign continues. Thank you all once again for your continued support.

This post is a mirror of a post from our Kickstarter campaign.

Necrofugitive is now 90% funded on Kickstarter! With under $5000 remaining to reach the goal, we are on the cusp of victory with your help! Please continue to share the project and help us to not only smash through the goal, but also bring the game to consoles sooner.

Just 10 days remain. Show the world that you're as ready for Necrofugitive to finally be made as we are.

We've outlined our plans for the development timeline of Necrofugitive on the main story page, but we'd like to revisit it once again in this update to review our plans for the game's production.

As outlined in the above graphic, our plans for Necrofugitive's development, pending the success of the Kickstarter, are based around bringing players content within 2025. This begins with those who belong to our Private Play-Test Group. These players will receive access to exclusive first-look builds of new areas and encounters that we are developing for the game. The first of these will release in Q3 of 2025. That means sometime within the next 90 days if all things go to plan. It is not typical for videogame Kickstarters to deliver content to players so swiftly, but we are dedicated to getting the game made as quickly as we can. We want to likewise make sure that the content itself is fun. 

We wish to also draw your attention to the final note on the infographic: these timeline projections are based upon our funding levels, as well as platform limitations. Many console platforms do not provide early access options for titles, and even then, porting is its own process for each platform. We will be rolling things out as quickly as time permits, but likewise thank you for your patience in matters that are beyond our control to influence or change. 

If you wish to gain access to the Private Play-Test Group, it is available as an add-on when you back Necrofugitive. It also comes included with all tiers priced $75 and above. It will also be distributed to all of our pre-campaign VIP supporters who have met the pledge requirements. Even if your platform of choice is not on PC, we will still provide you with Private Play-Test access on PC while you wait for an official console release.

We will share more about our development timeline, which is subject to change based upon the level of funding received through the Kickstarter campaign.

For this installment of the Community Spotlight, we are giving a special shoutout to one of our most passionate fans, coming all the way from China. We speak of our dear friend Katana Guy!

Katana Guy has been part of the Necrofugitive community for several years, and is by far one of our most vocal, dedicated players from the Chinese region. How dedicated? Katana Guy put together an entire guide in the Chinese language so that players overseas could play Necrofugitive for themselves, even without an official localization from our team. You can see the image below.

When putting together our Chinese version of the Necrofugitive Pre-Alpha gameplay trailer, Katana Guy was the one who helped us to confirm the content was accurate for Chinese viewers. 

That isn't all, though! Katana Guy has also impressed us many times in the past with incredible combo videos uploaded to our Discord. We truly, truly pity any Avencian archer who crosses paths with this raging demon, and have uploaded one of these brutal combo clips to demonstrate why.

We are blessed to have such a dedicated player in our community. Unfortunately, Kickstarter does not support Bili Bili embeds, so instead we will just attach a link to one of Katana Guy's many Necrofugitive videos on the platform. Be sure to check it out below.

Katana Guy — Necrofugitive Trial Gameplay Footage[www.bilibili.com]

Have your own Necrofugitive content you'd like to share with the team? Let us know on our Discord! Feel free to send a message to BlackGardenDev if you'd like to get it to us directly. You can also email us at team@blackgarden.games.

Finally, for this update's Quick Question segment we'd like to ask you... what new powers would you like to see added to the game?

Being a powerful shapeshifter, there are all sorts of amazing new ways you could potentially face down your foes and sneak toward freedom. We want to hear your ideas for some of them! 

A reminder for those backing the Skilltree of Skoroz tier— your answer can be made a reality in the final game!

That's all for this update! If you have any questions about the game or the campaign, please be sure to leave them in the comments! We'll be checking back in with another update as the campaign continues. Thank you all once again for your continued support.

Click here to visit the Kickstarter page![www.kickstarter.com]