We are happy to announce a new version of Blade of Agony is underway. Version 3.2 will focus on multiplayer. Ever dreamed of stepping into B.J. Blazkowicz’s shoes with your best friends at your side and rushing through countless nazi bases and secret facilities? The wait is over...

So what can you expect in the v3.2 version?

• multiplayer compatibility for up to 4 players in coop mode including:
  - directional indicators as overlay for bosses
  - other players’ indicators
  - displaying other players on compass
• ability to kick-open doors for a faster gameplay experience
• numerous quality-of-life improvements for the hud including
  - graphical inventory selector
  - statistic and objective widget styles
  - graphical key press hints instead of texts only
• checkpoint system for single and multiplayer
• new and improved boss battles
• additional secrets to discover in operation "Regenschirm" (optional mission)
• heavy performance improvements (higher fps rates on weaker machines)
  - including latest stable GZDoom
  - language improvements for various translations
• and of course, as always, countless bugfixes, adjustments and improvements suggested by all of you – which are worth enough to replay all three episodes

Stay tuned, we can't wait to get the release done and look forward to your feedback.

About three months have passed since the release of Blade of Agony and the feedback so far has been impressive. We would have never expected such a global impact with so many positive, encouraging and kind words, so thanks to all of you for this.

Not only highly reputed gaming sites have been showcasing our game, YouTubers all around the world have been uploading Let's Play videos of our game which is kinda fun to watch as you finally can experience the maps from a player's perspective which is very different from our personal point of view as developers.

And even though we are happy about every single video being posted, we want to mention one particular person who spent a lot of effort to record a full 100%-completed walkthrough of all three chapters which we want to consider as definite source in case you encounter a dead-end or if you just want to find all the secrets and easter eggs that we've scattered around. Thank you pagb666 for your dedication - we really appreciate this, and we are sure that this set of videos will help a lot of players out there.

Since the release of v3.1 of "Blade of Agony" we have received numerous messages, comments and emails. Besides positive messages and words of support, we have also received a lot of opposition and disappointment.

"You have given up", "You have given in to the shitstorm", "You have lost my respect".

After more than 6 years of working on a project of the heart, these words of course hurt and disappoint us very much and after we had answered some of the comments on ModDB and by email, we now feel that an official statement is necessary to gain understanding and shed light on the matter.

The changes and mitigations we have implemented for version 3.1 do not stem from cowardice we have shown towards some users of the Doom community. Blade of Agony is a creative, free and artistic interpretation within the Wolfenstein universe. And as long as we are unpaid developers working on such a project in our spare time, it must be ensured that we realise our vision as we see fit. This is exactly the motto we have been working by for the last 6 years, releasing the last 3 chapters. So why the adjustments to v3.0 now?

As some of you know, the team around "Blade of Agony" consists of a colourful bunch from all over the world, including Israel and Germany. Wolfenstein 3D and swastikas have long been banned and punished in Germany in the field of entertainment. Since 2018, these laws have been defused, but games of this kind are still under the strictest observation by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (FOftPotC).

Although we as developers strictly condemn any form of discrimination, racial hostility, anti-Semitism and glorification of the Second World War, there were concerns on the part of various German gaming sites and news sources about whether we had not crossed a line with some content (including the depiction of a concentration camp, the explicit mention of affected population groups or the World's Fair in Paris with historical anti-Semitic content). From that point on, it was clear to us that we would have to reconsider the content in order to weigh up possible personal damage (for example a punishment from the FOftPotC if they deem the game unacceptable) from all the developers of the project concerned.

The Second World War was the most horrific conflict in our history, and we as a development team do not want to ignore, censor or even deny these atrocities. However, we have asked ourselves what position we are in as entertainers. Wolfenstein is and always has been a fictional scenario, so we have no duty to educate the people who play our game. We want to tell an exciting story. So our yardstick in defusing the game was "What content is necessary to achieve that and what content can we do without?"

Blade of Agony has been released in several versions before and as we changed, removed and added content from version 1.0 to 2.0 based on experience gained and advice received, this is an organic process that has now also taken place between 3.0 and 3.1.

While we can understand some of the disappointment, we hope players will understand why some changes had to be made and why we can no longer officially support v3.0, and ask that you do not share public links on our ModDB page. Of course, we have no influence on what happens in the private area.

We hope that you continue to have as much fun with Blade of Agony as we had during its development and we still wish you a good time.

Thank you,
Daniel Gimmer
and the entire Blade of Agony development team

Comerades, it's Friday 9th of July and we hope you are ready to get psyched once again! The new version 3.1 of Blade of Agony has just been unleashed on ModDB's project page. So what can be expected? Is it all censored? Are swastikas gone and are Nazis only generic soldier cannon fodder? People expected the worse, but we can promise you there is no need to fear radical changes.

New features in v3.1

• New launcher (written from the ground, with additional options)
• Addons (a total of 12 gameplay mutators, featuring interesting replay-possibilities, loadable with the launcher)
• Ultra-Widescreen support (for 21:9 screens)
• New damage and powerup screen indicators (including indicators for grenades, damage direction, damage types, powerup cooldowns)
• Completely revamped fullscreen hud (powered by a new widget system, with transparent backgrounds)
• New additional boss battles and enemies
• Achievements system (total of 34, achievement board in the briefing room)
• Performance improvements (higher fps rates on weaker machines)
• Improvements to make the player-placed mines more useful
• Sprite improvements (additonal rotational sprites for 1-directional enemies, hires sprites for numerous lowres variants)
• Options menu simplification (making it more accessable to people outside the GZDoom community)
• Includes latest stable GZDoom 4.6
• Countless bugfixes, adjustments and improvements (over 400 Github commits)
• Replacement and improval of edgy and sensitive content (e.g. removal of historical references towards the Holocaust, character renaming, content replacement)

So what does the latter point mean? After feedback from the players all around the world, we took a closer look at some of the design-choices that we made and asked ourselves if some of the content, that has been considered to be "edgy" contributes to the story and the atmosphere, or actually doesn't. We have made some minor choices and even though some people believe that we went too far or "bent the knee", we think that our vision is still intact without these nuances and we really hope that you will enjoy the new version with all the additions we made.

Enjoy, and get psyched (you know how that works!)
Best regards,

Tormentor667 and the Blade of Agony Team

After the original v3.0 of Blade of Agony has been taken down one month ago to calm things down, we are proud to announce the release of the updated version 3.1 which will be unleashed on Friday 9th 2021 - yes, already next week. As we have gone already into details about unfortunate coincidences and mistakable controversies in past articles, it's about time now to showcase what has been changed and improved. The new version is not just about changes, it's also about completely new features, but let's take a look:

What's new for v3.1?

• New launcher (written from the ground, with additional options)
• Addons (a total of 12 gameplay mutators, featuring interesting replay-possibilities, loadable with the launcher)
• Achievements system (total of 34, achievement board in the briefing room)
• Performance improvements (higher fps rates on weaker machines)
• Replacement and improval of edgy and sensitive content (e.g. removal of historical references towards the Holocaust, character renaming, content replacement)
• Sprite improvements
• Includes latest stable GZDoom 4.6
• Countless bugfixes, adjustments and improvements (over 400 Github commits)
• and many more...

Is this enough to keep you psyched? Well, we are, and we can't wait to release the new version of Blade of Agony to you - it was worth the wait and it is worth to play it (again).

PS: A very special thanks goes to our beta testers x3003, hawkwind3, Shockwave508 and everyone else who was active on our GitHub issues page. Another thanks goes to mgrinzPlayer for the new launcher. Thanks to all of you helping us improving the game. This wouldn't have been possible without you!

During the last days and weeks we, the development team behind "Blade of Agony", received a lot of emails, comments and news about the release of the project. While the overwhelming majority found the result and the execution of our work successful, there were also critical voices, among others, which we take just as seriously.

First of all, Blade of Agony is a fictional scenario based on the alternative narratives of the Wolfenstein game series by id software and Bethesda and the corresponding canon. It does not represent accurate history, our political stance or thinking of the development team. We reject any form of racial hatred, discrimination, (Neo-)Nazism, anti-Semitism or glorification of the Second World War.

We have invested a lot of time and work to communicate this message in our game, to deal sensitively with the content and to create a respectful game experience without discriminating against people or groups of people. Despite meticulous care, we have not succeeded perfectly in all points, which is why we have taken the current version of "Blade of Agony" offline until further notice.

We are currently working on a revised version in which we will correct these mistakes and respond to the players' comments and reasonable demands. Until then, we ask for your patience and understanding. Stay psyched!

The final release of Blade of Agony has been unleashed more than a month ago now and the feedback has been amazing so far. We are currently working on the 3.1 version and several hundred issues have already been adressed as well as various new features, that have been added during the development. Now, to stay in contact with you and all the players out there, we decided to create our own Discord channel where we can discuss your ideas, your feedback and well... talk about the game. Join us, we are hyped to see you there!

Some days ago a Blade of Agony player named Evilhalfer stumbled upon one of the super secrets, prudently placed by the developers into one of the maps. We congratulate Evilhalfer for finding the super secret and praise his attentiveness!

The super secret contains a link to a hidden webpage with a form, where you can post your personal experience with Blade of Agony, and also questions to the developer team if you want to. Please do not hesitate to write us there if you manage to find the page: we will be very pleased to hear from someone who played our game this thoroughly. These feedback messages are treated by us with the highest priority.

Good luck in secret hunting!

What a crazy night that was, and an even crazier first day. It's been barely 24 hours since the release of Blade of Agony and it couldn't have been more exciting for us developers.

Last night we sat together in a video meeting, equipped with a couple of bottles of beer, a bottle of wine and some cigarettes, and talked about the last 6 years. 6 years of building wonderful friendships, of working hard side by side on a vision that is now available to a wide audience. And: we couldn't have imagined the response any better.

Ozymandias81, DoomJedi, DoomJuan, MaudDib90, Tormentor667 (fltr)

Just a few hours after the release, the first Twitch livestreams were running, a few moments later we cracked the 2.500 downloads (!) mark on ModDB and reached number 2, and this morning no one less than John Romero himself sent out a tweet about our work.

The feedback so far is insane, and we are very happy about the kind words and messages that have reached us in the last 24 hours. Thank you to everyone who has downloaded and played Blade of Agony so far, and thank you also to all those who have donated a few dollars

We, in turn, will be enjoying the spectacle in the upcoming days, collecting bug reports and continuing to work on the project, as we have a few more surprises in store for you, so: Stay psyched!

After a total development time of 6 years, 1 month and 20 days, we proudly present you the final version of Wolfenstein: Blade of Agony, a standalone fan-game in the spirit of first-person shooters from the late 90's, set in the WWII and powered by the Wolfenstein canon. This is our vision and creative freedom how a official sequel of Wolfenstein 3D might have looked like, inspired by games like RTCW, Call of Duty and Medal of Honor but with a twist.

Blade of Agony is much more than just a pastiche of the classic shooters that inspired it; the project offers a unique experience with many features not often seen in free fangames:

• 30 playable and unique levels in 3 different chapters (plus secret maps)
• Orchestra-quality game music
• Voice acting and ambient soundscapes
• Available in 10 different languages (en, de, es, ru, pt, it, tr, fr, cz, pl)
• A combination of low-poly models and hi-resolution sprite assets to create the perfect retro feeling
• Devastating armaments from the battlefields of WWII
• Interactive NPCs that support the twisted plot's progress and help you understand the game
• Improved enemy AI for more dynamic and challenging fights
• Beautiful special effects (weather, elements, explosions, etc.)
• Modern post-processing shaders (motion & effect blur, noise, flares, etc.)
• Much, much more!

The team was working hard to create an experience that is dedicated to all those oldschool gamers born in the 80's and 90's; not only when it comes to the visuals and gameplay but also for the easter-egg and reference hunt, for the retro feeling the nostalgia and the attention to detail. There is so much to discover for you, and we really hope that you enjoy what has cost us a lot of sweat, nerves and life time. May it be as fun to play for you as it was for us all to create it!

Check our downloads page for the complete standalone package, download it now and get psyched!

A few days ago, the czech gaming magazine Score published a full preview article of Blade of Agony's Chapter 3 release after we've given access to a release candidate version to them. What can I say - it was worth it and the whole team is totally excited by the article, the kind words and the overall score of 92%. It is a great honor to see interest in our project and that even professional gaming journalism takes care of this.

If you aren't speaking czech yourself, don't worry - click on details for a full translation of the article done by MuadDib90, no spoilers included.

One of the most important ingredients of a good game is to make it accessible to a large audience of people. Using English as the base language for Blade of Agony was already a step towards this, but before starting with the development of the third and final chapter of our project, we thought about making it available in other languages as well - common languages for people who aren't native English speakers, or who have problems with enjoying a game written in a different language - other than their mother tongue.

The developers behind the game can be considered a potpourri of nations, from countries all over the world, so why not use this to our advantage? Said and done. The final version of Blade of Agony will be translated into over 10* different languages, including German, Italian, Russian, French, Spanish and many more. Our team and numerous volunteers spent months manually translating every single sentence, every single word into the appropriate target language, giving the opportunity to almost everyone who wants to enjoy the game in their native language. Viel Spaß damit!

*a few languages aren't completely finished yet. If you want to help us, check our Google Spreadsheet and drop us a line!

The war is balancing on a knife's edge. It's not taking much longer for one side to win. Both sides have exhausted their forces, their morale is down to earth, and it's just a question of time when the war ends. While the Allied Forces have been leading their efforts successfully against the Thor's Hammer project and Hitler and his scientists continued to examine the Spear of Destiny, the only thing you are looking for is revenge...

Wolfenstein | Blade of Agony's Chapter 3 (including an completely overhauled Chapter 1+2) will be released in the first quarter of 2021. For now, check our teaser trailer at YouTube or on our media section, we are looking forward to your comments. Stay tuned, get psyched!

Video by Twitter @theswabiangamer, Thanks so much for your effort and dedication!

After almost 6 years of being in development, we reached a special milestone today. With the latest commit on Tuesday, November 10th, 2020, the mod is fully playable, that means: all chapters can be played through from start to finish.

Because any of us in the dev team lives several thousands miles apart from each other (not to mention COVID-19 restrictions), we had to celebrate this with some good old German beers in our chat group, exchanging a few photos and videos to make sure everyone was drunk to celebrate this glorious moment - well it wasn't that glorious anymore after beer number then but... well, we had some fun, now on to the news people are waiting for.

In the middle of the year, we were certain that a release in the fourth quarter of 2020 was realistic. But during our own playtests, a large number of issues came up, and we needed to adress those first. This was also the reason why finishing the maps took us longer than expected. We fixed game-breaking bugs, we improved the storytelling, and we added new content to the first two Chapters - we polished like crazy.

Now that all of the maps are done, we will start to balance, fix, and finish the mod in order to make the best possible experience available for all you players out there. This also means that we need to spend some more time on the mod in order to achieve that. As of now, we are confident that a release in the first few months of 2021 is a reasonable target. Until then, we will make sure to keep you informed and entertained when it comes to Blade of Agony.

I recommend subscribing to our YouTube channel. We will be posting some interesting content on our YouTube channel over the next few weeks for those who are really impatient. Until then, stay safe, and have a good time.

Public inactivity doesn't necessarily mean inactivity behind the curtain. After months of tireless commitment, we can finally announce that the third chapter of Blade of Agony is finished - well, at least the rough outline. Chapter 3: The Final Confrontation, renamed for story-consistency, as well as an homage to the original Wolfenstein 3D, is playable from start to finish now. I admonish people not to cheer and ask for the download link though.

Even though we are making big steps towards the release of our game, there is still a lot of work left to do: Translations, ensuring plot and lore consistency, gameplay testing and implementing further improvements for the best possible experience.

A few days ago we added a custom help and info system directly into the game, that resembles the areas of our page. This will definitely come in handy for all those playing the mod for the very first time but somehow missed the website. On top of that, a new epilogue and cutscene system has been implemented, beautifying the old text displays with a nice frame and some custom art images.

One of the bigger tasks that needs to be finished before the final release is translating all of the in-game text. There is already a team of translators working on a Google spreadsheet that we've prepared, but if you (or anyone else you know who is a native speaker of Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Turkish or French) might be interested in helping out, let us know and drop us a line.

Well, we don't want you to visit this page for paragraphs of boring text, do we? We've added 18 brand new screenshots of chapter 3 to the media section, so before you leave, you might want to check these out - and stay tuned!

People who are familiar with the id software universe already know that Commander Keen, Doom Guy and B.J. Blazkowicz are somehow related to each other. For anyone else not in the know: Billy "Blaze" Blazkowicz aka Commander Keen is William "B.J." Blazkowicz' grandson.

It's obvious that this fact is the perfect hint when it comes to the question: "What kind of secret levels does Blade of Agony offer?". Ever since the Chapter 1 release, there was a game console prototype in Professor Gutenberg's lab, but it did nothing. For the release of Chapter 3, you will finally be able to do something with it. In all 3 episodes, the player can find a single, unique prototype of a game cartridge that can be put into the console, and you will be able to do the impossible: Play a game based on your future grand son's destiny. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

For the development of these levels, AFADoomer analyzed the reverse-engineered source code of Commander Keen - Goodbye Galaxy, and with the help of the dedicated and skilled community of the Public Commander Keen Forum, we were able to replicate the look and behaviour of all the items, enemies and game mechanics from the Shadowlands, and implement these into our game using ZScript. After making some mapping magic happen, we believe it truly feels like a 3D Commander Keen title. We are proud of what we've achieved by working with the Commander Keen fandom, and we can't wait to hear your feedback on the secret missions. Stay tuned, it's closer than you might think.

After the past three months have been pretty silent when it comes to public news, the team had been working unweary on the final chapter of Blade of Agony. We made huge progress leaps in the mapping department and there is only one map left to be finished in the main part of the third chapter - Airport Berlin Tempelhof (without mentioning our secret operation and the three specials that can be played at the console, but more about that in the future). After that we will concentrate on polishing the storyline and the structures, adding sidequests and making sure everything works without any flaws and is playable from the start to the end.

"And what comes next? A release?" Well, it's not as easy as that. One of our additional goals for the final release is the localization and the voice acting. For the localization we plan to release the game in various different languages (german, italian, russian next to english) to reach a wider audience. On the other side, we want to improve the atmosphere with a special audio addition, therefore we plan to add voice actings to the briefing, the dialogues and the ingame messages. But this all can only be done as soon as most of the game is set in stone to avoid gaps or redundancies. Anyway, we won't be able to do all this on our own.

So if you are used to translating texts in the languages we aim for, or if you are interested and skilled in doing some voice acting for a specific character in the game, drop us a line, get in conctact over the forums and let us know. We are looking forward to any kind of support in this area.

From the beginning, we followed a certain philosophy when it came to map design: "Every mission has to be unique." Taking a look at the first two chapters which have already been released, I can say we managed to keep up with that. From a desert excavation in Tunis, to a snow-covered volcano in Iceland, to the liberation of Paris - no single mission is like another; there is so much to discover, and I can still promise you that there is little or no repetition through all the places you have already visited.

Chapter 3 doubles down

Ideas for the first chapters have been quick at hand. For the third and final chapter, things have been more difficult at first - that's why we can't estimate a release date yet. How can we go above and beyond peoples' expectations for missions like Operation: Astrostein? Don't restrict your imagination. For The Final Confrontation (the new title for Chapter 3, as well as an homage to Wolfenstein 3D), we will push GZDoom to its limits once again, but we're still staying within the limits of what GZDoom can reasonably handle. In the upcoming version of Blade of Agony you can expect the unexpected.

The process of bugfixing and improving our previous chapters of Blade of Agony is something that we have already written about. We want a polished final product with the release of Chapter 3. This also means that we are considering ways to enhance the replay value of our project. Youtube and Twitch have revived the competitive spirit of gaming, and encouraged players to out-perform each other, no matter whether it is by speedrunning, or just maxing out their kills, loot, and secrets. So how can we implement features that support these kind of people?

Mission Summary

At the beginning of the development, I decided to get rid of the intermission sequence because it ruined the atmosphere which is so important to this project. Regarding the aspects from the introduction paragraph though, I was considering renewing the concept of showing your stats at the end of the mission, but in a way that is more integrated with the game just as most of the other aspects are - that's our philosophy. The idea of a mission summary in the Allied Headquarters was born, and AFADoomer brought these ideas into a working implementation.

After completing each mission, you will be able to check this blackboard in order to find out: Did I kill everyone? How much loot did I collect? How many secrets did I find, and how long have I been playing this game? It's competition time! Share your results with a screenshot, or just try to do better on your second or third run. Maybe you will even find a hidden bonus if you are good enough...