Scars of Honor – June 2025 Development Update Recap

The latest live development update for Scars of Honor delivered a comprehensive look into ongoing progress across the studio, art, talents, gameplay systems, and exciting reveal of the mobile version. Here's a full summary.

Studio Updates

The update began with a studio-wide overview of our development philosophy and player-focused goals. We reaffirmed our commitment to delivering a free-to-play experience with no pay-to-win mechanics. It is important to let players define their own path and evolve their characters without being gated behind monetization walls.

We originally planned to give away just 3 massive gaming mouse pads during our stream, but the energy and excitement of our community were so great that we couldn’t stop at that! In total, we gave out 10 - we handed out 5 ourselves, and shared a few with awesome streamers who restreamed our broadcast so they could surprise their own communities too. Huge thanks to everyone who joined in and made it special!.

We also announced the creation of our brand-new Discord Forum channels. These are designed as a space where players can share feedback, suggestions, and ideas, while also enjoying early sneak peeks at lore bits, concept art, and in-game models.

Another key highlight was the growth of our team. We’re proud to share that over 90 passionate individuals are now working on Scars of Honor. And speaking of new faces, our next segment introduced one of the newest additions to the team - our new Art Director - through a short but insightful interview.

Art Update

This segment featured a short interview with our Art Director Rasmus Hansen, who brings nearly two decades of experience from studios like Jagex, Riot, and Social Point. He shared his impressions of Scars of Honor, especially the openness of the team and the ambitious direction we're heading in.

Rasmus is focused on unifying our visual style, improving visual hierarchy, and ensuring clarity in player feedback. Character reworks are a major priority, with significant improvements to both style and consistency across the game.

We’re aligning characters and environments more closely to enhance immersion and polish. Upgraded VFX, improved combat readability, and a tighter design language are also in the works.

Exclusive Talents Preview

We shared insights into our modular and layered spell system, where each spell ends with an effect like damage, healing, silence, or stun. This structure allows us to build complex behaviors through extensions like the talent system, which modifies how spells behave.

One of our game designers recently created 60 new talent nodes in a single day, showing how flexible and fast our internal tools have become. Talents are designed to give players meaningful choices rather than obvious ones, and we continually review them through playtesting to ensure balance and engagement.

We want to avoid a meta where one character can "do it all." Instead, we encourage trade-offs: build for damage, survivability, or utility - but not everything at once. We also talked about our approach to balancing: we prefer to buff underused talents rather than nerf dominant ones unless absolutely necessary.

We went in-depth on the talent system, which is built as an extension of the modular spell system. This structure lets us quickly create and iterate on new talents, offering vast customization options.

Players will only be able to use 20 - 25% of the total talents in a single build, which encourages meaningful specialization. Choosing to boost damage, for example, might come at the cost of mobility or survivability.

We also talked about how newly added mechanics, like modifying core stats, help us expand talent options. Examples like the Black Hole spell and Avatar sparked a fun debate in chat about which ability looked more impressive.

Balance is an ongoing process. Some builds might be overpowered for a time, and that’s okay. Our goal is to expand options rather than restrict them. Instead of turning down the fun, we want to lift up what’s underperforming.

New Gathering Gameplay Preview

Gathering has come a long way in Scars of Honor. It’s no longer about clicking and waiting - each gathering activity is a fully interactive mini-game.

• Mining involves timing-based skill shots where players hit critical zones.

• Woodcutting requires players to aim and consistently hit the same area.

• Fishing (specifically spear fishing) asks players to react and pull in the right direction.

Resources are tiered, and higher-tier materials come with increased difficulty. Player expertise and tool upgrades help ease the challenge over time.

We introduced "party nodes" - high-value resource spots that require cooperation. These nodes provide better rewards and encourage social gameplay. The spawn system is also dynamic, adapting to server activity to ensure a good balance between scarcity and abundance.

It’s all part of our goal to make gathering engaging, social, and fun. We're even experimenting with "party crafting" in future updates.

Mobile Version Exclusive Look

To wrap things up, we revealed the mobile version of Scars of Honor. While PC remains our primary platform, the mobile client is a cross-play extension that lets players gather, craft, or hop in for quick sessions on the go.

It’s not a separate game or a simplified version - it runs the same systems and data as the PC client. The idea is to provide accessibility, letting players stay connected while away from their main device.

We believe healthy MMOs thrive on active populations. By opening the game up to mobile users, we ensure that more players are online at all times, making the game world more vibrant and alive. While we’re PC-first, we’re also exploring console possibilities down the line.

Looking Ahead

This update was a great opportunity to share where we’re headed and why. Whether it’s deep gameplay systems like talents, interactive gathering mechanics, or expanded access through mobile, Scars of Honor continues to grow as a player-driven MMORPG shaped by our community and vision.