Greetings gladiators!

As many of you know, I'm taking a (hopefully well earned) break from the long running Swords and Sandals series to recharge and restore my creative capital. I am definitely keen to return bigger and better than ever with more gladiatorial action in the next few years, but until them I've been working away at another game dev project since May this year.

Behold, Gorgon Shield! This is an idea I've been sitting on for nearly a decade. Imagine if you will, four heroes climbing a tower on a shield. For much of the game, you don't control the heroes directly, instead you rotate the shield. If your barbarian faces the Melee platform, they will automatically attack. Face the healing platform and they will heal, and so on. YOU must manage these heroes in ever-more challenging situations as the tower rises.

Waves of enemies throw themselves at you, you will encounter mysterious NPCs, shops and scenarios that could be the difference between a successful run and the shield collapsing into ruin.

But that's not all. Expect top down dungeon crawling where you control up to FOUR heroes at once. Side scrolling auto-battling against the relentless creatures of Greek mythology. And much more. It's rogue-lite gameplay meets puzzle action, RPG lite, fast paced action.

I'm confident you've never seen anything quite like this.

The gorgon Medusa and her sisters await you!

So, please come and check out the Steam page and if it interests you, help me out with a wishlist! . Wishlists are of course the life and blood of a game's success on Steam, and I'd hugely appreciate the Swords and Sandals community's support with Gorgon Shield as I work hard to get this game out.

Gorgon Shield is planned for launch in April 2024, with a demo hopefully coming next month.

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/2446920/Gorgon_Shield/

Hey gladiators, this is a small maintainence patch for Swords and Sandals IV.

When Steam updated its UI recently, it broke compatibility with the S&S Classic Collection - I've been able to fix that, let's hope this fix doesn't open the floodgate to other issues! I think it should be alright, I tested all the games and the Steam Overlay shows up again.

Also a small fix for enemy gladiators in S&S IV appearing to have no armour/weapons.

Thanks as always for your continued support of this ancient and hallowed series, haha :)

I've taken a break from the series for a little while ( as I've been working on the remakes, sequels, spinoffs pretty much non-stop since 2016 ) to work on my new game Tower Shield but I hope to return to Brandor in the days ahead!

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

• Potential fix for Windows 10/11 Black Screen Bug
• Swords and Sandals IV : Gladiators now gain correct amount of gold after each game played

Gladiators, it's time to return to the world of Tavern Quests! One of the most requested features I've been asked over the years is for the ability to save all four human players in S&S IV. This was a major challenge to add into the game, but I've finally wrangled it together!

Check out Tavern Quests, play a game with up to 4 human players and at the end of the game, all human players will be able to visit the shops, and if you have enough XP, level up also - as well as all their progress will finally be tracked. You can now properly compete against family, friends and foes to see who the greatest Tavern Quests player of all is.

In addition, I've added a ton of Steam Achievements to the games ! Lots to unpack - most of the patchwork was for S&S IV but here are the full patch notes:

Global:

• Sped up Whiskeybarrel and eGames logo screen animations
  
• Removed universal quit button as it sometimes blocks the screen when not playing windowed mode. Each game now has it's own individual quit button, either found on the title screen or in the game's options panel

Swords and Sandals IV:

• Added Steam achievements
  
• MUCH REQUESTED FEATURE: The save game system has been completely reworked. You can now save the progress of every human player in the game. Please note this new system may not be able to find old gladiators, **meaning there is a small chance previously saved gladiators may be lost**.
  
• All human players can now visit the shop and upgrade stuff at the end of each play session - also note that only characters who have the 'Save Char' tick at the start of play will be able to visit the shop and level up ( because otherwise they are disposable characters)
  
• Fixed a bug where gladiators that were edited in the Adventure room were being reset to a random gladiator
  
• Since human players can be saved now, players get XP based on where they finish instead of auto-levelling up each level.
  
• Reduced bonus gold earned for finishing each map
  
• Fixed a bug where landing on a 'Fake Sandal' tile would still grant the player a Golden Sandal

Swords and Sandals I:

• Added Steam achievements

Swords and Sandals II:

• Added Steam achievements
  
• Fixed bug where enemy gladiators only used swords at higher levels
  
• Fixed bug where trivia shown in tournaments was of the Arena Champion, not regular gladiators

Swords and Sandals III:

• Added Steam achievements
  
• Fixed a bug where gladiators could slip after the 'spare/kill' panel appeared and cause fights to glitch

Swords and Sandals Crusader:

• Added Steam achievements

Gross Out:

• Fixed a bug where you could not fight Big Jim Longhorn at the end of Chapter 7

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

Gladiator! Grab your sword, equip your sandals and take on the world in multiplayer Swords and Sandals! Brutal turn-based combat where gladiators can lose limbs, wield guitars and yell so loudly enemy heads will fall off. This is the most fun you'll ever have in the arena!

After six months in development, I'm proud to announce that Swords and Sandals Immortals now has a coming soon page and trailer here on Steam.

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/1707650/Swords_and_Sandals_Immortals

The game isn't due until around April of 2022 but I have huge plans for it, including a full single player campaign that continues the story from Swords and Sandals III as well as proper PVP multiplayer against people from all over the world!

Stay tuned for more information on the new game, this will be the greatest S&S ever!

Visit the Coming Soon page and wishlist the game here!

Greetings gladiators! This is a patch I've been planning for the Classic Collection for quite a while.

Firstly, the most controversial arena champion in all of S&S by far is the Yeti Project! So many people have asked me to nerf him ( ie to make him easier to kill ). However, many purists argued against that, preferring the challenge. Now the option is yours - before the fight, you will be approached by someone who offers to sell you a potion for 1000 gold. This potion will then be used to 'nerf' the Yeti Project, essentially making him a lot easier to kill.

Secondly, and probably most important of all is this : many users have brought up the issue of the games not running as fast as they could - and the reason was basically the games were designed in 640x480 (or lower) resolutions and the 'game hub' scaled them up to fit modern monitors. Because they are vector based Flash games, your computer had to work extra hard to run them (simple as they are) because they're scaling them up x4. Now, however, I've come up with a solution to play the game in other various resolutions.

By default now, the game will try to run them at 1280 x 960 (double scaled) - which on most modern computers will run the games very fast. Swords and Sandals 3, 4 and Crusader benefit from this the most. You can change this in the Settings Menu.

Thirdly, and this is really for fans of the series' lore and my own backstory - I've added three art galleries of Swords and Sandals related art, my own drawings and images from the early RPGs I made as a kid. I hope you enjoy them.

Not every game received a big update, there are still some bugs in there I still haven't been able to iron out ( some of these games date back to 2006!) but I'll keep patching them as I find solutions in the months and years to come - just write up what you find in the discussion forum and I'll take a look as I can.

Cheers everyone, thank you so much for being fans of Swords and Sandals.

Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

Global changes

• Added a SETTINGS screen that is accessible from the main game hub. Settings changed here are now properly saved, eg if you turn the sound off it will stay off next session. (Hub only, in-game sounds are toggled individually)
  
• There's now a setting to change the screen resolution of the games themselves. This will improve performance greatly on many systems! It's an option players can select if they find the games run slowly.
  
• [ The tech reason behind this: The old games used to run at 640 x 480, but when running fullscreen on modern PCs, that has to scale up the games themselves to fit the higher res, and so it takes a lot more processing power to run them. By allowing users to change their screen res to 640x480 or 1280x960 from the settings options, the old games will run much closer to the originals did. ]
  
• Added a Tome of Lore button that links to a huge amount of information about Brandor, the world of Swords and Sandals
  
• Added new game box art to the game selector screen
  
• New Art Gallery where you can check out drawings and images from Swords and Sandals' past
  
• In all games where he appears, Bargle has been renamed as Bhaargle

Swords and Sandals 1

• Fixed a bug where you could not name your character properly

Swords and Sandals 2

• When your gladiator is far away from the enemy, your option buttons panel will now appear in the middle of the screen (with your portrait showing) so you can select a move. This solves the issues of taunts and big hits knocking you too far away to perform an action.
  
• Reduced the volume of the Molten Death spell so it's not so ear splitting
  
• The Fearful Prisoner can no longer defeat you with an accidental taunt
  
• Enemy gladiators can no longer wield weapons they do not have the stats for ( eg daitakanas when they don't have the agility)
  
• Updated Bhaargle's description to make him mysterious rather than outright evil
  
• Fixed a bug where Arena Champion trivia facts did not appear
  
• Psyche Up attacks are always critical hits now (eg critical hit protection does not work against them)
  
• Added little rocks at the borders of the walkable area in the arena so you know how close you are to the 'invisible wall'
  
• Fixed a bug where you couldn't switch between melee/ranged weapons

Swords and Sandals 3

• Fixed a major bug where deleting a gladiator would often actually delete a different gladiator!!!
  
• Fixed a bug/exploit where talent points gained from items would sometimes be stacked after level-ups (lol!)
  
• Added an option for players to 'nerf' the Yeti Project by giving it a special potion before the battle. This is entirely optional and will make that Arena Champion easier to defeat.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Bard class had no name.
  
• Fixed an associated bug where the Bardiche weapon was just called 'iche'
  
• Increased the cost of Shocking touch from 50 to 100 gold
  
• Fixed a bug where rolling over gladiators armour in the pre-battle screen would show information as 'undefined'
  
• Fixed a bug where healing spells fixed armour before healing health
  
• Fixed a bug where "Holy Smite/Unholy Rites" actually restored enemy essence rather than took it away
  
• Fixed a bug where items that granted you bonus experience only worked if you were of evil alignment
  
• Fixed a bug where items that granted you bonus gold only worked if you were of good alignment
  
• Possible fix (hopefully!) for items mysteriously looking grey and bloodied
  
• Various typo fixes

Swords and Sandals 4

• Player 1's gladiator is guaranteed to level up when completing a board game, no matter what position you finished in. (Working on a solution to allow players 2, 3, 4 to level up in a future patch.)
  
• Gladiators receive bonus gold depending on what position they finished in.
  
• Reduced the level requirements to access each new board. You now unlock new boards at every 4th level.
  
• Arena Champions are now much more likely to spawn in games - they will start appearing once you reach character level 4.
  
• Fixed a bug where healing spells fixed armour before healing health
  
• Possible fix (hopefully!) for items mysteriously looking grey and bloodied
  
• Sped up fade tween on shops for faster shopping
  
• Sped up some other in game tweens
  
• Various typo fixes

Continue your journey through the Swords and Sandals archives with the bizarre, hillarious curiosity, Gross Out : Battle For Sludge Valley!

As another special thank you to everyone who has bought the Classic Collection over the years, we have decided to include Gross Out : Battle For Sludge Valley in the collection! This oddity of a game was a joint project with Kryptix Entertaimnent to promote their line of Gross Out trading cards. It was built using the Swords and Sandals 2 combat engine way back in 2007.

While the game itself has nothing at all S&S universe, it is a much-requested game that has been included in the Classic Collection for posterity. It's aimed at younger kids and the humour isn't for everyone, but if you've never seen it before it may be worth checking out!

You will find many similarities with S&S 2 in terms of gameplay, but instead of swords and axes, you are fighting with dead fish on sticks, fart cannons and toilet plungers. Join a cast of young misfits as they try to save their beloved Sludge Valley from the evil Big Jim Longhorn.

I've also done a few quick fixes to S&S Crusader and S&S IV. It's not a massive patch but there is another, larger patch coming sometime in June/July that will also include some performance boosts for the games and a number of fixes for S&S 2 and S&S 3 ... this is a bigger patch, taking time to put together as well as juggle finishing off Swords and Sandals Crusader Redux, which should be dropping late July.

General Changes

• Added a new game to the collection, 2007's Gross Out : Battle For Sludge Valley.

Swords and Sandals IV

• Fixed a major bug where gladiators names appeared as undefined before or after duel tiles
  
• The lions cleaning cages message should no longer appear on duel tiles as you should always now have a rival gladiator to fight.

Swords and Sandals Crusader

• Fixed a major bug where enemy lords casting Leadership would bug out the game
  
• Added a level cap of 50 to the game to prevent Crusaders running out of skills to use and being stuck on the level-up screen.
  
• Fixed incorrect enemy taunts on the end of Survival mode

Until the next time, I salute you!

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

Begin the new year with a new addition to the Classic Collection, Swords and Sandals Mini Fighters!

As a special thank you to everyone who has bought the Classic Collection over the years, we have decided to include Swords and Sandals Mini Fighters in the collection.
This previously mobile-only game was originally designed as an ultra fast, slimmed down version of Swords and Sandals 2. It was released as simply 'Swords and Sandals' on iPhones and Android phones way back in 2011, and then re-released in 2018 as Mini Fighters. We hope you enjoy this simpler, slightly different take on the classic!

(Please note, this game is 480 x 320 resolution because it was made for ancient phones, so you will see it plays in a smaller window than the other games.)

The other major change in this patch is this: After reading many bug reports from users who have mentioned oddities after exiting one S&S game and loading another, I have decided to make it so the 'QUIT' button exits to desktop. I realise this is a bit inconvenient and I apologize, but the reasoning is below.

Basically, old AS2 Flash games tend to keep all their variables floating around in memory. When I made the games back in 2006 , 2007, I didn't really know how to clear the variables and so on, and many of the games used the same variable names - so switching between games in the Classic Collection meant that some variables from the other games were still hanging around, leading to strange and unpredictable results!

Anyway, once again I thank you for supporting the series over the years and for your patience. I'll try to patch the Classic Collection a few times a year in between projects - it can be a real challenge just because the code is so old for some of the games and there are just some bugs I have never really been able to solve. I'll keep going though!

For those who wonder what's next? I'm starting work on a REDUX version of Swords and Sandals Crusader this month , look for it around April / May! Then after that, work begins on the big one ... Swords and Sandals VI!

Here are the full notes for this patch. It's not a massive patch but we hope you enjoy the new addition!

General Changes

• Added a new game to the collection, 2011's Swords and Sandals Mini Fighters (re-released in 2018).
  
• When you press 'QUIT GAME' now, the game will exit to the desktop instead of the main menu for the reasons mentioned above.

Swords and Sandals III

• Trivia text can now be edited when creating gladiators
  
• Exclaimation points and fullstops can be used in names and trivia
  
• Removed erroneous 'demo' notification on S&S 3 and other typos

Swords and Sandals IV

• Gladiators now are properly leveled against your gladiator! This took a long time to fix, many apologies for the long overdue patch. When you load a gladiator into slot one, enemy gladiators should scale accordingly now.

Swords and Sandals Crusader

• Fixed an exploit where characters could get unlimited skillpoints ( thanks to Swords and Sandals Discord fan 09ymmit071 for the find! )

Until the next time, I salute you!

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

Good morning gladiators!

One of the big complaints about the Classic Collection was that in S&S 3, you could only save one gladiator. In the old Fizzy versions, you could save up to ten, so understandably a lot of people were confused and annoyed about the restrictions on the new one.

Long story short, technical issues with S&S 3 had kept me from being able to save more than one gladiator in the game, but I've completely re-written the save game system using the same ancient code as the old game.

After installing this patch, you'll be able to save up to 10 gladiators. For those who already have a saved gladiator in S&S 3, I am *fairly* confident this will automatically convert to the new save game system, but I can't guarantee it. My huge apologies if your character in S&S 3 is lost after this update, but the trade-off for the multiple saves should hopefully help.

Other small fixes:

• In S&S IV, I hopefully have a fix for the 'undefined' gladiators / closed arena tiles in the game. Let me know if this still keeps happening for you!
  
• In S&S 3, the Juggernaut skill now properly shows your height and weight increasing on your character sheet.

Many thanks to everyone who has played the game! As always, I'll keep patching things as I find solutions ( though sometimes it can be really tricky as some of these bugs are a decade old or more!)

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios