Wizard of Legend 2 is an indie Roguelike from Dead Mage, the studio behind Children of Morta, published by Humble Games. You play as a Wizard attempting the trials to become Wizard of Legend. Gather your Arcana, grab a relic, and wear your medallion of choice as you brave the challenges ahead.
Getting Started in Wizard of Legend 2
To help you get started, take a look at Maxroll’s Wizard of Legend 2 beginner’s guide. The guide explains the different starting loadouts (don’t worry, you eventually unlock all the spells anyway) and you’ll learn all about the game’s combat system; how to navigate the trials, use your Arcana to defeat foes and unleash powerful ultimate spells!
As you make your way through the game, you’ll meet a variety of NPCs along the way. Some of them are vendors within the Trials, whereas others provide access to metaprogression systems in the main hub. In addition to these friendly NPCs, there are several formidable bosses to challenge, including powerful creatures and wizards who have mastered their element of choice.
Wizard of Legend 2 Metaprogression Systems
The metaprogression systems in Wizard of Legend 2 include Medallions, Runes, Arcana, and Relics, each of which contributes to your character’s power. You gain more Arcanas and Relics during the run, but can only select Medallions and runes before starting out. Check out Maxroll’s Metaprogression systems guide or learn more about individual topics with their deep dives below:
You’ll encounter a variety of events within the trial. This can include defeating challenging foes or helping a fellow Wizard. Complete events to earn a variety of rewards, including Relics, Arcana, Arcana Enhancements, or a boost to maximum health. In particular, keep an eye out for purple portals, as they often have lucrative rewards. Learn more with Maxroll’s Events Guide.
There’s a wide variety of NPCs and Vendors to interact with in Wizard of Legend 2. Several are found in the game’s main hub; interact with them to unlock Runes, Medallions, starting Relics, and Arcanas.
There are also vendors within the trials who sell you Arcanas, Relics, and Arcana Enhancements. Save up your gold to purchase something and give yourself an edge in combat — learn more with Maxroll’s NPCs and Vendors guide.
You’ll also need to know about Afflictions, status effects that deal additional damage to enemies or provide beneficial crowd control effects: check out Maxroll’s Afflictions Guide for more information.
Wizard of Legend 2 Boss Guides
During the Trials, you’ll face off against a series of wizards who have all mastered a different element. If you can defeat them, you’ll earn a powerful Forgotten Variant for your Arcana. Check out these boss guides from Maxroll:
Each zone in Wizard of Legend 2 culminates in a battle against a powerful boss, and the final stage ends in a fight against Hieronymus himself. Learn the boss’s patterns, or check out tips and tricks to defeat them with Maxroll’s boss guides.
Maxroll’s Wizard of Legend 2 Database has information on all of the Arcanas, Relics, Runes, and Medallions. You can browse Arcana by type and learn about the Forgotten Variants available for each spell. Relics are broken down by category; we recommend you keep an eye out for Legendary Relics, which are made by obtaining all of the Relics from a set.
If you’re playing Mario Kart World, you’ll likely be unlocking a steady stream of new vehicles simply playing the game as you normally would — progressing through Grand Prix Cups, Knockout Tour and hunting down challenges in Free Roam.
All in all, there are 30 karts to unlock on top of the game’s basic eight vehicles. Every 100 coins unlocks a new kart, so you’ll need 3,000 coins to nab them all.
It’s not a particularly tall order, but that hasn’t stopped fans from immediately trying to maximise their Mario Kart World time to get everything even quicker.
Most tips involve Mario Kart World’s Free Roam mode, where players are hunting down the most lucrative spots to grind for coins — or even go AFK and watch their coffers slowly fill.
If you’re happy to rinse and repeat loading the game over and over, fans are recommending honing in on any of the game’s giant stacks of coins you can find in Free Roam which respawn every time you reload the game.
IGN has tested this method with the stack of coins by the Boo Cinema fast travel spot. Load into Free Roam from the game’s main menu, turn around and you’ll see the coin stack to your left. After collection, simply reload the game and repeat the process.
For something less labor intensive, other fans recommend parking up at Toad Factory, behind the conveyor belt which continually spits out a stream of coins and item boxes. It’s going to take some time to collect individual coins this way, but as an AFK method when you wouldn’t otherwise be playing the game… it works.
Finally, if you fancy chilling in Free Roam while actually driving, keep an eye out for the coin cars which toss out coins behind them as they drive. You’ll need to follow these vehicles fairly slowly to collect the currency it drops, but as an activity to cool off from a heated few Knockout Tour matches, it’s quite relaxing.
After unlocking all of Mario Kart World’s 38 karts, players are reporting still receiving stick rewards for milestones at 18,000 coins and beyond. But beyond stickers, there does not seem to be any reason (yet) for continuing to farm coins beyond the 3,000 mark.
Could a top secret golden kart still be hiding in the game, as it has in other Mario Kart entries? If it is, players are yet to find it. But there’s clearly plenty to do in the game — 394 P-Switches, for one — and fans are still discovering more. Earlier today, we noted the secret method that’s been found to explore the game’s world in Mirror Mode Free Roam, for example.
IGN’s Dune: Awakening map is here! Our interactive map tracks essential locations across Arrakis, including Main Quests and Contracts, Enemy Camps and Enemy Outposts, and Trainer locations.
Meg Koepp is a Guides Editor on the IGN Guides team, with a focus on trends. When she’s not working, you can find her playing an RPG or cuddling her corgi.
Dune: Awakening won’t release on console until some point in 2026, developer Funcom has said.
The survival MMO launched as planned on PC on June 10, and it had been hoped the console version would release not far behind. But it sounds like fans will have a bit longer of a wait than expected.
Funcom failed to expand on why the survival MMO had been delayed on console, only writing in a press release that while the game “will be coming” to PlayStation and Xbox, that release is expected “sometime in 2026.”
The team was able, however, to confirm that the Dune: Awakening Season Pass is now live, offering the Wildlife of Arrakis DLC which boasts four in-game statues celebrating some of the planet’s most “tenacious” creatures: the sandworm, chiroptera, kulon, and Muad’Dib.
Three more DLCs are scheduled over the next year or so — expect one in Q4 2025, Q1 2026, and another in Q2 2026 — with free updates peppered between those bringing “new content, features, and enhancements.” Funcom also strengthened its commitment to “no subscription fees or microtransactions.”
We’re still in the process of reviewing Dune: Awakening. While there’s no score at yet, and we’re still a little unimpressed by the gunplay, our reviewer wrote: “After more than 35 hours I still feel like I’m fairly early into my Dune: Awakening adventure, and still have new zones to visit, haven’t gotten very far into the main story, and have only had a few encounters with PvP. There’s a ton for me to do, so look for an update sometime this week as I work my way through to the endgame.”
Did you know that you can (sort of) ride sandworms in Dune: Awakening after all? It turns out that if you’re super patient and don’t mind a little screen-tearing or clipping through assets, it can be done if you’ve the right equipment. Here’s how.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Nintendo has announced Splatoon Raiders, a brand-new Splatoon spin-off exclusive to the Switch 2. The surprise reveal was made with a trailer that was released first on the Nintendo Today! app.
Hey, everyone—you might have seen this in the Nintendo Today! app, but we thought you might want to hear it straight from the squid’s beak: SRL has prepared a little trailer for you. Take a look! pic.twitter.com/sOEaHor5yX
— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) June 10, 2025
Splatoon Raiders is the first ever Splatoon spin-off game. Nintendo failed to announce a release window, but said to keep an eye out for more information in the future.
Splatoon Raiders revolves around a mechanic adventuring with the Deep Cut trio to the mysterious Spirhalite Islands. This new protagonist for Splatoon Raiders is described as an “expert mechanic with a mysterious background.”
The new protagonist for #SplatoonRaiders is an expert mechanic with a mysterious background. That ink tank and walking robot look rather intriguing, wouldn’t you say? pic.twitter.com/XeP9t75JAW
— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) June 10, 2025
We’ve identified a variety of interesting findings, including a floating ship-like structure that serves as the mechanic’s base and an island with a unique atmosphere. We’ll keep investigating! #SplatoonRaiderspic.twitter.com/huFy5BlF4Z
— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) June 10, 2025
Meanwhile, a significant free update for Splatoon 3 is also coming, due out on June 12. Splatoon 3 ver 10.0.0 includes 30 new weapon kits from the Barazushi and Emberz brands (the Splatlands Collection), the return of the Urchin Underpass stage from the original Splatoon game on Wii U, and performance and visual improvements for Switch 2. Nintendo said Switch 2 players will notice more detailed visuals, and the game will appear smoother in certain locations such as Splatsville and the Grand Festival Grounds. Switch 1 and Switch 2 Splatoon 3 players will still be able to play together.
Plus, all weapon Freshness caps will be raised and players can earn new in-game Badges, Nintendo said. A new stat will be added for Anarchy Battle (Series) called Series Weapon Power. It will track a player’s effectiveness per weapon based on their win/loss ratio in battles – and will then match them with players of a similar power. This makes it possible for players to try new weapons without being disadvantaged and push the limits their favorite weapons.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
As the name implies, this not only comes with both Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, but with a special gold-themed steelbook adorned with Legendaries Koraidon and Miraidon, with dual cartridge slots, so you can store both games together.
What’s more, if you prefer the standard-coloured cover art of both games, the My Nintendo Store of this listing also includes individual Pokémon Scarlet and PokémonViolet steelbooks as bonus items.
This dual pack has been sold out everywhere else for quite some time, and is only available elsewhere via an at least £20 mark-up on eBay, making it the best time to buy both games and get a gorgeous trio of steelbooks at the same time.
As said, this is the perfect buy for new Nintendo Switch 2 owners, given the massive performance upgrades that allow the games to run in 4K at 60 FPS on the new console.
While plagued with performance issues on the original Nintendo Switch, our performance comparison video shows just how buttery smooth both titles look on the new system now, finally making them play as they should, two and a half years after release.
This only bodes well for the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Z-A, which is launching on both the base Switch and Switch 2 on the 16th of October, 2025.
Now available to preorder at retailers, you can preorder the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Pokemon Legends Z-A for just £52.95 at Amazon UK, an over £7 saving compared to other retailers like Very and Game UK.
While you can buy Pokemon Legends: Z-A for cheaper on the base Nintendo Switch, like for £49.99 at Amazon UK, the Switch 2 version comes with “improved performance with higher frame rate and resolution” on the newer console, as Nintendo states on its list of upgraded games.
While you’ll be able to buy an upgrade pack, it seems like it will be more expensive than just buying the Switch 2 Edition outright. Although the game isn’t out yet, Nintendo has the Legends: Z-A upgrade pack listed at £7.99, just like it costs for Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom.
So, if you don’t want what could be a repeat of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s performance problems at launch by basing the base Switch version, preorder the Switch 2 version of Legends Z-A for less by securing the physical version right now at a lower price tag.
Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.
As a “Soulslike” game, Lies of P can be punishingly difficult, especially for inexperienced players perhaps attracted by Lies of P’s dark story and setting. Director Jiwon Choi had previously said the team didn’t think Soulslike games should have difficulty options and it shipped without any, but has since had a change of heart, saying: “We wanted to make sure a wider audience of players could play the game.”
For those attempting the Overture DLC on the “intended” difficulty, Legendary Stalker, however, things seem tougher than ever. There have been so many comments — both for and against the DLC’s difficulty spike — that the Lies of P subreddit has had to merge them all into a “megathread” to stop the community from being overwhelmed by complaints.
Some comments and reviews on Steam echo this, with one writing: “I’m at level 300 and should not be getting 2-shot from basic enemies. It doesn’t help that the enemy grouping is designed for you to have to deal with multiple at once. This wouldn’t be a problem if even one of those enemies doesn’t take out half your health with one hit.”
“We’re reviewing all of [the player feedback] carefully and are already looking into when to implement some of your suggestions,” Choi said, as spotted by Eurogamer. “Among all the feedback, we are paying the closest attention to the combat experience.
“We identified areas that did not turn out quite as we intended. Therefore, we are reviewing various adjustments, including difficulty reduction. However, combat is one of the most fundamental experiences in Lies of P, so any modifications or changes require meticulous work and thorough testing.” It’s perhaps because of that “fundamental” issue that Neowiz has not given an indication of when the game will be patched.
We had a good time with Lies of P, awarding it 8/10, and Overture itself also secured a 8/10. “Even if it’s clearly dancing on the same old strings, Lies of P: Overture is an excellent expansion that adds a whole lot more to a game that was already great,” we wrote.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
While sandworm-riding is usually the first thing we want to try, and then fail at, in Dune: Awakening, it turns out that if you’re super patient and don’t mind a little screen-tearing or clipping through assets, it can be done.
No, it isn’t an official feature that can be unlocked — although developer Funcom did apparently consider it for a while before discarding the idea — but it turns out that if you have lightning-quick reflexes and study the sandworms’ behaviors and attack patterns like they’re an Elden Ring boss, you can climb aboard.
Redditor SgtDolphin has now shared not one but two videos of him riding the worm, using a combination of skills and equipment like the super-sprint Bindu Sprint ability, the Full Suspensor Belt, and Emperor’s Wings to help move quickly and better control his player in the air (thanks, PC Gamer). Once you’re on, no, you can’t control the worm any more than you can stop yourself flying off it from time to time, but Dolphin shows it can be done.
“It’s very glitchy at times especially on the sand that’s being displaced,” SgtDolphin explained in the comments. “Many deaths from the worm to get these rides, it’s a pretty dangerous sport!”
We’re still in the process of reviewing Dune: Awakening. While there’s no score at yet, and we’re still a little unimpressed by the gunplay, our reviewer wrote: “After more than 35 hours I still feel like I’m fairly early into my Dune: Awakening adventure, and still have new zones to visit, haven’t gotten very far into the main story, and have only had a few encounters with PvP. There’s a ton for me to do, so look for an update sometime this week as I work my way through to the endgame.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has reached a “tentative agreement” on the interactive media contract, potentially bringing to an end almost a year of industrial action across the video game industry.
The SAG-AFTRA video game strike was instigated back in July 2024 after the union and the major game companies — Activision, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Productions, and WB Games — that sit on the board failed to agree on AI provisions. Over 98% of members subsequently voted to strike.
Now, however, the union said it has reached a “tentative agreement,” subject to review and approval of its national board. It is expected that strike action will be suspended soon, although until the national board approves the draft agreement, SAG-AFTRA members will “remain on strike against these employers.”
“Everyone at SAG-AFTRA is immensely grateful for the sacrifices made by video game performers and the dedication of the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee throughout these many months of the video game strike,” said SAG-AFTRA National executive director and chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
“Patience and persistence has resulted in a deal that puts in place the necessary AI guardrails that defend performers’ livelihoods in the AI age, alongside other important gains.”
SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Epic Games, after the company implemented an AI-voiced Darth Vader NPC in Fortnite. The complaint alleged that over the last six months, Llama Productions (owned by Epic Games) had failed to bargain in good faith with SAG-AFTRA’s video game actors and had made “unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment, without providing notice to the union or the opportunity to bargain, by utilizing AI-generated voices to replace bargaining unit work” on Fortnite.
And in March, Horizon actor Ashly Burch addressed an AI Aloy video that leaked online, using it to call attention to the demands of striking voice actors. Burch said the AI Aloy video left her feeling “worried about game performance as an art form,” and used it as a jumping off point to discuss the video game voice actors strike.
“Currently what we’re fighting for is, you have to get our consent before you make an AI version of us in any form, you have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you’re using this AI double,” Burch explained.
“I feel worried not because the technology exists. Not even because game companies want to use it. Of course they do. They always want to use technological advancements. I just imagine a video like this coming out that does have someone’s performance attached to it, that does have someone’s voice or face or movement. And the possibility that if we lose this fight, that person would have no recourse. They wouldn’t have any protections, any way to fight back. And that possibility, it makes me so sad it hurts my heart. It scares me. I love this industry and this art form so much and I want there to be a new generation of actors. I want there to be so many more incredible game performances. I want to be able to continue to do this job. If we don’t win, that future is really compromised.”
Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Medieval zombie survival game God Save Birmingham exploded onto the scene in April with an 8-minute “gameplay” trailer that sparked as much skepticism as it did excitement. Among jokes about its Birmingham setting, some said it looked too good to be true, with animations that suggested what we were seeing in the trailer wasn’t so much gameplay, more pre-rendered footage designed to hoodwink the gaming public.
After God Save Birmingham’s April video went viral, Korean publisher Kakao Games and its developer Ocean Drive brought a demo to PAX East and released an updated gameplay video that offered perhaps a more realistic view of where the game is currently at in terms of development. This latest video has gone some way to addressing the narrative established by God Save Birmingham’s explosive April promo. But still, those The Day Before “scam game” comments remain.
It was with this in mind that I interviewed Ocean Drive CEO and founder Jae Kim and head of publishing Jungsoo Lee to find out if God Save Birmingham can ever shake off The Day Before. What surprised me is that both seemed perfectly happy with the comparison. Read on to find out why.
IGN: Can you give us some background on Ocean Drive?
Jungsoo Lee: We founded our studio back in 2020 and it’s our fifth year. We currently have about 80 developers in Korea and about 12 people in the States working on business, narrative design, and localization. As Ocean Drive Studio, our first game was Lost Eidolons. It was developed using Unity, which was one of our mistakes actually on decision-making. But we tried to have a quality of Unreal, and that was story-driven, Fire Emblem style turn-based tactical RPG. That was our first project.
Currently internally we have four different teams. Two of those projects are pretty small-scale, more like an indie style. One of the projects is positioned as more like AA scale. It’s unannounced, but it’s an action RPG project based on one of the reputable IPs in Korea. Our last final project is God Save Birmingham. We started small, but as of last month we had about 28 people working on the project.
IGN: So how did God Save Birmingham come about? How did that project start? Where did the idea come from?
Jungsoo Lee: Overall our company’s vision is basically, we only work on the game that the creative director knows the genre as a hardcore player, because we believe understanding the community needs, what kind of game should be there for the genre, is the most important factor making a successful game there. And Hyeonseong Cha [creative director] really loves Project Zomboid.
We also had a test project from Mr. Cha, one of the prototypes — it’s on the Steam market right now — it’s called Dropkick Navvy. It’s a puzzle game using physics. So he was really into using the physics in his game design. So we actually mixed those two. And on top of that we had a Lost Eidolons medieval art style production experience. So all these concepts came together after one year of prototyping, and our past project became God Save Birmingham.
IGN: The surprise for me is Birmingham. Even British developers don’t make games set in Birmingham. But a Korean developer deciding to do it in Birmingham is very surprising. So I’d love to know why you decided to go there.
Jungsoo Lee: Last year at gamescom, we had a lot of interviews at the show, and the most-asked question was, why Birmingham? So I know the answer pretty well! What happened was, we are a small team and they were really into working on medieval, especially the art director who used to work on our first game and he loves medieval art style. So we were looking at medieval, and they were searching for a medieval city. We are based in Korea, right? We are not really familiar with any of the cities in medieval times in Europe. So they were just looking at the list of cities, and they had a condition which was, it shouldn’t be big because we’re not a big team, so we can’t create a huge town. So that was the first condition. The second condition was, we wanted to have some diversity in the city, meaning that city must have some trade, a lot of trade and things going on at the time.
So they were doing research and somehow they came to this YouTube video from the Museum of Birmingham, and they had recreated 14th century Birmingham there. They were looking at that and they loved how the town looked. They did some research on Google and they learned, oh, this background is perfect, let’s just do Birmingham. And our entire team was actually surprised after our trailer released at gamescom, because there were so many British people making fun of Birmingham, and we started to wonder, what’s going on with Birmingham? Because we had zero idea what was really going on at the modern day Birmingham.
So it was a coincidence how we picked Birmingham and the situation at Birmingham got mixed up together. It helped us gain more views there because on Reddit, like Birmingham Reddit and UK Reddit, the trailer was there and they were making fun of Birmingham, like it’s better than modern day Birmingham. So initially we asked Gary [PR] and the team, ‘Is it okay? Did we do something wrong?’ And Gary told us, ‘No, it’s part of the joke.’
IGN: Did any of the developers actually visit Birmingham to get a sense of what it’s like? I’m curious about some of the research that went on to try and nail the setting.
Jungsoo Lee: In terms of how the town looks, we referred to the video from the Museum of Birmingham. That video gave them a lot of inspiration, especially how the town was looking at the time and what was the biggest landmark at the time, like Moor Street. And another research they did, our team in Korea, they purchased all the books related to medieval Birmingham.
There was a case of, they had a potato as one of the foods, and they looked at the book, what was the main food there, and potato wasn’t there. So they actually took out the potato. We have a carrot now, but we learned the color of the carrot was different at the time. It wasn’t orange, like carrot-ish color. So we are in the process of changing that.
So for now, we are actually referring to all those materials that we could get from the books or online. Also we are working with Gary to see if they can find somebody who can actually consult us about medieval times. One of the key pillars we have is recreating 14th century Birmingham as accurately as possible. So we are trying to find ways to actually make that happen right now.
IGN: I know the game is about the last survivor, so it’s not like you’re going to have lots of voice acting for characters that you’ll meet along the way. They’re zombies. Will the character have a Brummie accent?
Jungsoo Lee: Yes. We are trying to have that for the final product. The current voice acting for the trailer and the game demo, we couldn’t actually find the right person in the short period of time. But we are planning to find somebody who can recreate that medieval accent, the Brummie accent. So that’s in the plan. And we have multiple different classes and we will try to have different voice acting for those.
IGN: The April gameplay reveal trailer had a huge amount of interest and comments. Some people were saying the animations were too good to be true, some of it looked scripted, it wasn’t true gameplay. You’ll have seen all of these comments yourself. Was that something you anticipated from that video? Or did it take you by surprise?
Jungsoo Lee: I say half and half. Meaning we didn’t think the impact of The Day Before… because lots of people are referencing The Day Before and saying it’s another scam, right? I mean we read everything! Even internally, Jae and especially myself were thinking some people might say something similar, it might be too good to be true. Because we acknowledge we never say it’s from the build, but the title is correct, meaning this trailer is there to show people this is what we are aiming to create in terms of gameplay experience that people will have at the final product.
So reception, we were a little bit surprised. There was another video from a YouTuber with almost 1 million views, ‘Another fake scam’ was the title. So in that sense we are a little bit surprised, but it wasn’t something we weren’t expecting.
IGN: Just to clear up for our audience exactly what is going on in that trailer, what are we seeing in that video in terms of gameplay versus things that you’ve created to give the impression of the experience you’re going for?
Jungsoo Lee: So the map, environment, props, everything is exactly as what we are working towards. So it’s already there in the build, the map and the objects, buildings, they’re all there. But as you have pointed out, some of the animations are not there yet. Some are a work in progress, and in the near future it’ll be implemented as a demo build. Some will take a longer period of time to actually get there.
But ultimately what we can tell you is we are actually working towards that direction, and nothing is really exaggerated there. Here’s one caveat though: if you play a sandbox game, you’re not going to move the camera like that. Yeah, we acknowledge that. But what we intended with the trailer was basically we want to show the environment, what kind of features will be there. That was the major intention. If the player wants to create a video like that, our final build will let you actually make the video look like that.
There will be camera options, especially for console controller players, it’s kind of common. So if you want to move the camera like that, you can actually do that. If you want to grab props like in the video, where the hand exactly grabs the objects, you can do it. But in sandbox gameplay, real-world players, what they’re going to do is open up the tab in the menu and drag everything into your inventory. You don’t want to pick one-by-one. So there will be that difference. But endgame, the animation where you walk and grab the apple, those are already in the works. So they’re actually working towards that right now.
IGN: So what you’re saying is that everything we see in that video will be achievable in the final game once it’s finished?
Jungsoo Lee: Correct.
IGN: This isn’t a situation where people are going to feel like the final product doesn’t have some of the things suggested by the video? You’re saying everything we see there eventually you’ll be able to do in the game?
Jungsoo Lee: Correct.
IGN: You had a follow-up video and took the game to PAX. From what I can see online, the reaction to that has been better, with people saying this looks a bit more realistic and not the same thing as the previous trailer. What is your assessment of the reaction and the sentiment now that that video has come out, and how different it is compared to the sentiment after the first video?
Jungsoo Lee: We definitely had much more positive comments there, but at the same time of course those people who talked about another The Day Before situation, some players are still saying, see, look at the difference between it. Our plan was basically, let’s share this, our end goal, and then we’ll regularly share how we are making progress towards that.
One thing we didn’t really expect was, we really underestimated how people perceived The Day Before situation, how hurt they were, because they were so excited. Because they were really excited, they got much bigger disappointment towards the project. And another thing was, we are not that reputable yet, so people don’t really understand what kind of pedigree we have, what kind of people we have here, how many people we have here working towards the game.
We had a lot of supporters, some of them said, ‘Why didn’t you just release this video first?’ And that part, we take the feedback seriously. But one interesting story there, Jae and I actually told the dev team not to make a pre-rendered video. We basically said, ‘Let’s just use our build and then share our current build video based on that.’ But our team, they’re so into the project that they were the ones basically insisting, ‘No, we are very confident we can do it and we have to show them how ambitious we are.’
So that was one of the interesting parts, because lots of people were thinking vice versa, where marketing and business folks were pushing them to create this marketing video to attract a lot of players into our community. But it was actually vice versa. They were very confident, ‘We can do it.’ Every week we kept asking them, ‘So this is our end goal, you have to deliver this, you’re making a promise to our players.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we understand, and we’re very confident.’ That’s how this video came about actually.
IGN: There have been multiple occasions in this interview where you’ve referenced The Day Before. It seems to me that what happened with that game has created a difficult situation for you. How damaging do you think The Day Before has been for you specifically? Are you confident you’ll be able to get to a place where people stop mentioning it with your game? Or do you think that it’s just something you are going to have to live with for the rest of the development and until the game comes out?
Jungsoo Lee: Jae and I had this conversation after the video. I don’t think it was just only giving us the damage. Because it went viral, although it wasn’t all positive, I think we got more views on the video because lots of people were actually saying, ‘Another scam here, there’s The Day Before.’ Getting more interest towards a small studio like us, every type of interest helps. So we don’t really think it’s giving us that damage.
Part of that is because we are pretty confident. The Day Before, they never had a test. They said they’re going to have a beta test, but they suddenly say only for volunteers. Everyone was confused at the time. And we are not doing pre-orders; we’ve never done pre-orders on any of our games. So while we are internally confident that by showing the progress that we are making regularly — for example we’re going to be at gamescom and we’re going to share another demo on-site, then people will see how we progressed from the PAX East demo to the gamescom demo.
So because of that level of confidence internally, I think we are fine with people actually comparing us to The Day Before, because if we can turn this around with actual gameplay and the demo, those people who are disappointed can actually be huge strong supporters of ours, and this is how you actually have to build a game with the community.
IGN: Do you have a target year in mind for when people might be able to play it via Steam either in early access or otherwise? Or is it too early to say at this point?
Jungsoo Lee: Our official communication about timeline is early access sometime next year. What we are internally debating is what volume of content do we want to have for early access? We don’t want to monetize the game too early with a very empty game, right? So we have been assessing what will be our optimum volume of the content where players can actually enjoy the game to provide us meaningful feedback about how we should evolve the game.
Project Zomboid is doing a great job. They started small and with the Build 41 update, they truly achieved commercial success from that update. And ever since they’ve been working with their community to actually create a feature that their community is asking. So we want to take a similar approach where we should have good enough of a game to… and especially with the video, we raised our internal standard bar for early access. So once we have that, I think we can get into early access. But Jae and we are targeting sometime next year. I don’t think it’ll be early next year, but probably between summer and the end of 2026.
Jae Kim: Actually, we are very impressed by the viewer count of our game reveal trailer on IGN. Our studio is the child company of Kakao Games in Korea, the big listed company. So maybe we can make the team bigger after discussing with Kakao Games, because this game has a lot of buzz right now. So maybe we can invest more into this project to make it better when we launch this game. The schedule is quite open, but personally I really want to do the early access within the next year.
IGN: For someone who has seen the April video and the reaction and dismissed it as a scam game or a fake game, or another The Day Before, what is your message to that gamer right now to convince them otherwise?
Jungsoo Lee: Actions speak louder than words. The only thing we can tell them is, we understand, we’ll try to prove it with our actions, especially with testing. Even though we have a trailer, there is a possibility people might think it’s scripted, although it’s actually the build happening. So I think hopefully they can at least wait for our future alpha, our beta tests, so that they can actually experience the game, and also follow us so that they can see what kind of progress we are making. Actions speak louder than words, so we’ll focus on our actions going forward.
Jae Kim: Our team is quite capable to deliver this quality of the game. We are not a newbie team. We have a lot of experience. It was mostly the free-to-play games, but the core members in my company, they really hate to make free-to-play games right now, because they’re all hardcore gamers, and they really want to make story based or a game with core play. So I’m quite confident to deliver this quality of the game.
My only worry is that the game should be fun, right? That’s the main concern I currently have. The quality, we can provide the quality. But I really want to provide a fun game. So please keep an eye on us, and I really appreciate all the comments on the video. Even if it’s good or bad.
God Save Birmingham is due out on PC via Steam in early access form in 2026.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
