Horizon Bound [BETA]

You arrive in Solvaren on a hill outside Aldenhall, under a strange ring of light in the sky. The only people who will take a stranger are the Adventurers' Guild of Solvaren.

Horizon Bound is a cel-shaded fantasy action RPG. Register at the Guild, have your Talent read by the appraisal crystal, take commissions off the board, and climb from E rank toward S. Go alone, or bring up to three friends.

Six callings

Swordsman, Mage, Assassin, Archer, Knight and Cleric, each with a masculine and feminine take and a moveset of its own. Your calling is chosen in the character creator and stays yours.

Fights that reward timing

• Monsters flash a glint just before a blow lands. Deflect on the glint and their guard cracks; break it and they're open for an execution.
• Dash through attacks, lock on, and chain light and heavy blows.
• Three Arts on E, C and V, and a Burst on Q when your energy is full.

A skill tree you can read

Every calling has a Core path, three specialisations and a Secret Tome hidden somewhere in the world. Spending points unseals new tiers. Every skill shows exactly what it changes before you learn it, and refunds are free.

The Guild

• Talent appraisal: a grade from E to SSS that decides your starting Skill Points.
• Commissions: hunts, gathering, and the six-part Chapter I story.
• Rankings: an online leaderboard of every adventurer, ranked by Guild points.
• Grimoires: found on roadside lecterns, they teach spells and techniques.

Better with friends

One player hosts and shares a six-letter party code; up to three friends join over the internet, no port forwarding. You fight the same monsters, every kill counts for everyone nearby, and each of you gets your own loot.

Early beta

This is a hobby project in active development. Expect rough edges, missing armour sets (coming as hand-made models) and the odd bug. Feedback in the comments is very welcome.

Controls, install and credits

Installing

• Windows: unzip and run Horizon Bound.exe. If SmartScreen appears, click More info, then Run anyway.
• Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel): unzip, then right-click Horizon Bound and choose Open the first time. If macOS still blocks it, go to System Settings › Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.
• Playing together: Settings › Co-op. The host presses Host and shares the code; friends type it and press Join.

Uploading the builds

• Windows: zip the whole Builds/Win folder, not just the .exe (the game needs the files beside it). Name it HorizonBound-0.3.0-beta-windows.zip and tick Windows on the upload.
• Mac: right-click Horizon Bound.app › Compress, rename to HorizonBound-0.3.0-beta-mac.zip and tick macOS. Compressing in Finder keeps the app runnable.

Known issues

• Armour isn't in yet; trinkets are.
• In co-op, each player keeps their own story and commissions. If the host quits, the party ends.
• You don't yet see a party member's Art effects, only their moves.

Credits

Made by Void with Unity.

• Characters: VRoid Studio sample models by pixiv (CC0).
• Animation: Kevin Iglesias (Human Animations) and Quaternius, Universal Animation Library (CC0).
• Music: SketchyLogic (War of the Arcane, CC BY 3.0), Leonardo Calvo / thesoundrack (CC BY 4.0), cesisco (CC BY 4.0), Viktor Kraus (Secret Sanctum, CC BY 3.0), plus CC0 tracks by RandomMind, Emma_MA, Cleyton Kauffman and Kenney.
• Sound: Leonardo Calvo (Swords & Blades and Archery packs, CC BY 4.0), congusbongus and swuing (footsteps, CC BY 3.0), plus CC0 packs by Kenney, lentikula, Still North Media, LEGIT Audio, bart, JaggedStone, Thimras, Wolfgang_, cicifyre and HaelDB.
• Icons: game-icons.net by Lorc, Delapouite, Skoll, Carl Olsen and others (CC BY 3.0).
• Fonts: Cinzel, Alegreya Sans, Barlow, Chakra Petch, Nunito, Shippori Mincho and others (SIL Open Font License).