Influenced by classic and modern games, World of Anterra is an innovative, open world roleplaying game.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Private showcase and tutorials
3 months ago
– Sun, Jan 25, 2026 at 09:40:25 AM
We showcased WoA at a recent private industry event. And this was the first time we let anyone play the game at an event! Not the first time we've had non-studio members try out the game, but the first time that we handed the controller to someone and just let them play.
World of Anterra playable showcase
This is a big milestone for us and the feedback did not disappoint!
The event was relatively small with about 20 other talented developers showcasing their projects. As much as we don't like to brag (or put down other developers), you'll be happy to know that many people came back to us to say that World of Anterra was not only the best project there, but the one that they were personally looking forward to playing to most.
Some player quotes from the event.
“This is the hottest game at the show.”
“I can't wait for this game! Just wishlisted it.”
“That’s the best game here!”
So what does it take to have the game playable for an event like this? Obviously the game needs to be playable and bug free (at least in the demo sections 😉) But for us, the most important thing was having a proper tutorial so that we could just hand the controller to players and let them experience the game on their own. And to do that tutorials need to be properly integrated, because most people will only have 10-15 minutes to play at an event like this (some people played for much longer) and you don't want to waste that precious time on tutorials and cinematics.
Tutorials
There are two kinds that we really don't like; tutorials that use popups full of text, and the ones that force the player to take actions with things like bouncing arrows. Although our goal is to build intuitive gameplay systems and UIs, tutorials are still needed to remove unnecessary friction and to support accessibility which is important to us and our community.
We've designed our tutorials to be contextual; they only appear when the player may need the information, based on their actions. Like harvesting berries.
Harvesting Tutorial
Another goal is to use the least amount of text possible.
Tutorial designs 1 and 2, and final version in-game.
We went through a few iterations before landing on what we have now. Not only did we have more text, we also triggered it as a call to action, which meant it appeared on screen once the player could see it and didn't go away until the action was taken. But as you can see, we only show the tutorial when the player is near the object.
Icons are also an important part of accessibility.
We decided to use animated icons that describe the action, rather than just showing the button. This works in WoA for a few reasons, 1. Interactions ALWAYS use the same button. 2. There are many different types of interactions in the game, so it makes more sense to let the player know what will happen if they press the button.
Some examples of animated icons are open doors, open containers, read, harvest, sit or mount... and all of these interactions use the same button.
Animated icon example
This icon animation may seem redundant, because you can see the door open, but there are situations where a door can be obscured by something like a roof. This is why we added an outline to all interactable objects and always show the icon.
Animated icons are also more fun to look at. 😉
Anyways, back to the tutorials...
The first area in WoA has a number of harvestables, containers and items to pick up, and in most cases the player won't trigger them until they approach something. However some tutorials are more complicated and require multiple steps to complete.
Here’s a look at our Tutorial Manager. In this tutorial, the player is asked to collect a torch which is in a container.
As you can see this tutorial has a few steps, but what happens if the player doesn’t complete them all? For example, a player could open the container and close it without taking the torch. Maybe they're just experimenting, or ignoring the prompts, or maybe they hit the wrong button. Rather than forcing the player to take the torch like most games, we let them break out of the tutorial. Because if they’re just hitting buttons to see what they do, it's far better to let that happen rather than force the player to do something. Everyone learns differently!
In order to support this experience we added regression steps to our tutorial manager so that designers can choose how and when to regress tutorials if the player doesn't complete all the steps.
The image below shows how regression is used in the case of the player needing to pick up a torch from a container. If the player doesn't take the required item and closes the container, the tutorial will regress to its starting point and guide the player in opening the container again.
Here's how that looks in game.
Here's another example of the player switching between abilities during the "Ignite Torch" tutorial.
Lastly, some tutorial beats can be completely avoided if the player has already figured it out. For example, there’s a tutorial for extinguishing the torch when the sun comes up, but the player is given the chance to take the action on their own before the tutorial triggers.
Let us know what you think about our approach to tutorials!
Founder's Journal #1
3 months ago
– Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 03:22:03 PM
My Kickstarter Story - Part 1
I almost cancelled our Kickstarter after 5 days, but then something extraordinary happened.
Many people know 81monkeys had a "successful" Kickstarter campaign (our backers certainly do), but few know how it all went down.
When I first picked our Kickstarter date, we had a good roadmap and runway including funds for marketing and growing our team during the 30-day campaign. We had around 700k of incoming funds and had recently moved out of my basement into our first office. Things were looking up. But a few months before our Kickstarter was set to launch, disaster struck. The funds we were promised were no longer coming.
We were effectively out of money with about 2 months to go. I couldn’t pay the team, let alone market our Kickstarter campaign. Our Kickstarter dreams looked dead in the water, but I wasn't going to give up that easily (not sure "easily" is the right word here). I spoke with the team, and amazingly everyone said they would stick it out until the campaign ended. Over the coming weeks I managed to scrape together a bit of money to help some team members pay bills - which included giving up my family's rent money. Thankfully I had a very understanding landlord (and wife) who agreed to let us go a couple months without paying rent. But all of this put way more pressure on our Kickstarter, because now we weren't just raising money for our game, we would also need to cover our growing debt.
Fast forward to our Kickstarter launch day. After many long nights preparing our page, assets, trailer... we started our campaign with a very small following. Day 1 felt promising! People were excited to back us and we managed to hit a modest 18k, but it didn't last. Day 2 our pledges dropped 40% to 10k. I decided to start some FB ads with a tagline I heard a publisher once called the game; "Skyrim with pixel art." I used what little room was left on my personal credit card (maybe 6k) in the hopes of turning the ship around, but it didn't seem to work. By day 5 our pledges were down to 5k and that was when I decided to cancel the campaign. At the rate we were going, I would barely have enough to cover our debt and I believed in the game too much to waste our opportunity on KS. I went to bed that night with a huge pit in my stomach, and spent sleepless hours going over my speech to the team... I fell asleep at some point, and woke up to a notification on my phone; someone on Discord shared a link to a GamesRadar article about World of Anterra. Our pledges jumped up by 200% to $15k that day... the next day, $48k.
It was like waking up to a new world. The campaign ended up taking in almost 400k. Another 12 articles would be written about World of Anterra before the end of the campaign, including a great one from Nintendo Life.
And as an added bonus, some of the funds we were hoping for came in and covered all the debt we incurred and then some.
I believe that tagline, "Skyrim with pixel art", along with the ads that I ran with my last bit of money, became a beacon for the journalists who wrote about our game.
And so it began...
Feature highlight: Breakables and non-combat mechanics
4 months ago
– Fri, Jan 16, 2026 at 12:30:25 PM
We haven't shared a detailed breakdown of our combat yet; don't worry it's coming! Based on what we have shared about, you should know that combat incorporates real-time mechanics with grid-based movement and strategic gameplay. But many people have asked how World of Anterra incorporates real-time combat mechanics into non-combat gameplay.
How players interact with the world is very important in WoA. Core systems and mechanics have been designed and developed by Stephane and the team to integrate with, and expand, interactions. UIs don't take you out of the gameplay, they enhance it! And the same can be said about our combat mechanics. Not only can you swing a sword, or shoot arrows outside of combat, there are many reasons to do it:
Shooting an arrow to distract a creature, or for a sneak attack.
Hunting to fill your ration packs with meat.
Hacking down bushes to expose new paths and secrets.
Smashing things like vases for loot.
The list goes on...
World of Anterra is not the first game to have these mechanics, but it's how they're integrated is what make them special in WoA.
Here's a look at some of these mechanics in action.
Breakables support our game's core pillar of exploration really well. For example, hitting a vase, or basket can expose some valuable loot, food or... other surprises.
Thorn bushes, vines or spiderwebs can reveal new pathways, hidden containers or entrances to caves... they may even make you feel like Indiana Jones!
Another aspect of using weapons outside of combat is attacking unsuspecting creatures. A great way to get the upper hand in combat is to sneak up on unsuspecting creatures to land a devastating blow. Just be careful you don't get spotted.
And of course there's hunting, which we have shared a few times now. Some creatures won't enter into combat with you, but that doesn't mean you can't kill them. You just may have to either be very sneaky, or just chase them down... and sometimes that's easier said than done.
That's all for now! Stay tuned for more.
Welcome to 2026...the year of Anterra?
4 months ago
– Tue, Jan 06, 2026 at 09:54:56 PM
Hi! Stephane here. Thanks for hanging in there while the team and I had our heads down working on the game. Although it's been a minute, I'm happy to be back with some new Kickstarter updates! I've been working on a bunch of content and writing in my spare time that I plan to share over the next few months. These updates will include a new type of post that I'm calling Founder's Journals.
Founder's Journals will be a true "behind the scenes" look at what it took to get WoA and 81monkeys to this point. These posts will go all the way back to when I first started this journey before our Kickstarter and continue to the point that we're at now. We will also share Feature Showcases with some meant for our Steam Page and I'm excited to share them here first for feedback.
If you've read this far without hitting the comment section, I want to thank you. Whether you've been quietly rooting for me and the team, or actively encouraging us, you should feel proud of the difference you make for 81monkeys. This community has become more important to me than I could have imagined. Those who continue to come without judgement, with patience and understanding even in the face of the challenges; your words of encouragement mean the world to me. I'm not sure I would have lasted this long and pushed so hard if it weren't for you and the excitement we share for World of Anterra. It turns out that money is not what I needed most, your support was.
To say this has become the journey of my life is an understatement. I've been open about most of the challenges I've faced, but something I haven't talked about much is the mental health side of things. I've gone through some dark times over the past few years. Thankfully those times appear to be behind me now. And although it's been a tough road, I want you to know that I am also having the time of my life. I'm bringing my dream game to life, I get to work with an incredibly talented team, and I have a wonderful community of supporters. What more can I ask for? ... well, maybe a few things.
We still have to launch a demo and get to our early access, but I'm committed that both of those things will happen this year. We're finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and this is mainly due to the hard work that has gone on over the last 6 plus months.
Here are some key milestones you may have missed:
We've landed some new funding partners, who joined our in-house 81monkeys project funding program. Yes, we created our own funding program.
We've hired a veteran Producer who has taken all the project management work off my plate along with some of our business development and operations. He's a rockstar!
We've brought on a marketing partner who has begun supporting us with our social media strategy, community management, marketing, and more.
And most importantly, we shored up many systems and tools that were holding WoA back. More on this soon.
Along with these milestones, I can also share that our team’s morale and productivity never felt better than it does right now! It's starting to feel like we've hit a "golden age" (civ reference!).
Anyway, that's it for now. Stay tuned for our next round of Kickstarter updates.
As a small token of appreciation, we’ve created some new high res wallpapers for you to enjoy. Feel free to share them with your friends! Hope you're having a great start to your year.
