Pixelmage Games is shutting down and the development on Hero's Song has been cancelled:

Hello Hero's Song Players,

It's with a heavy heart that I have to report that Pixelmage Games is going to be shutting down and we have ceased development on Hero's Song. For the last year, our team has worked tirelessly to make the game we've dreamed about making, and with your support, and the support of our investors, we were able to get the game into Early Access. Unfortunately sales fell short of what we needed to continue development. We knew going in that most startups don't make it, and as an indie game studio we hoped we would be the exception to that rule, but as it turned out we weren't.

We sincerely value our customers. You’re our most important focus and have been from day one. We’re going to offer 100% refunds to all of the people who bought Hero’s Song.

For our Indiegogo customers, please email refunds@pixelmagegames.com with your name and information about which one of the packages you bought so we can make sure you get your money back. Our team will respond to confirm we received your email and we'll make sure you get your refund quickly.

For players that purchased via Steam you will be able to claim your refund through the normal Steam refund process. Go to https://help.steampowered.com and you can get your refund right away.

Thank you for all the support you showed us. We're sorry things worked out the way they did, but we feel strongly that we gave it our all and we're proud of how far we came with the game. The fact that we weren't able to finish the game is painful, but the journey of making Hero's Song has been a great experience for us and we’re just sorry we couldn’t take it all the way.

Thank You,

The Hero's Song team

PC Gamer got hands on with Hero's Song and like its ambitious, emergent RPG concept.

If my first attempt at Hero's Song had actually been a song, I barely would have had time to reach the second chorus. It took me far less time to die in my world than it'd taken to make it. I spent half an hour creating a world I'd enjoy for this roguelike RPG, weighing the pros of chaotic gods who manifest themselves as swarms of rats and the cons of blonde elf goddesses who bring forests and abundant life. I pored over descriptions of its 10 races and 15 current classes, and scoured webpages with Celtic baby names for my elathi monk.

And so it was, naturally, that I hopped across huge puddle north of the town where I spawned and got killed by two arrows from an orcish archer within seconds. I had a single chance to revive by making a trip through the Underworld, but a swarm of zombies got me as I pushed for the door. Permadeath. Poor Conloach Niocha wasn't even a one-hit wonder.

That's roguelikes, of course. The next five characters I made across multiple servers fared far better, particularly once I learned to lure enemies to where I wanted them. And even though my other characters had the spans between their births and deaths filled with more exploration, crafting, and skill unlocks, that's about as exciting as Hero's Song gets right now. It's so 'Early Access,' in fact, that it flashes a screenwide notice that Pixelmage Games is "just at the beginning stages of our vision" at launch. and it doesn't even take an hour with Hero's Song to see just how true that is.

The Early Access version of the rogue-like Heroe's Song is out now:

Hero's Song is an open world roguelike fantasy action RPG with a beautiful 2D pixel art style. Create epic fantasy worlds uniquely shaped by your choices, the power of the Gods, and thousands of years of procedurally generated history. Adventure alone or with up to 25 friends (during Early Access) on your own server and crush your foes. Become a legendary hero in a dangerous and mysterious world of magic and monsters. Explore endless dungeons and ancient cities in long-forgotten lands in search of knowledge, treasure, and the power of the Gods!

A hardcore action RPG for hardcore gamers

In Hero's Song, you use the familiar click-to-move and attack controls of classic action RPGs to navigate the battlefield, and outwit, overpower, and overcome your enemies.

• Challenge yourself to use a wide variety of melee, ranged, and magical abilities and defeat the intelligent tactics of your enemies.
• True to its hardcore nature, combat in Hero's Song is dangerous and has very real consequences, including the chance of permanent death.
• Friendly fire is always defaulted to "on," so positioning and precision are very important considerations. Death will come quickly if you think this is a simple clickfest.

Create and explore epic fantasy worlds

Within a universe crafted by Patrick Rothfuss, the New York Times bestselling author of The Kingkiller Chronicle, the worlds of Hero's Song are living ecosystems with deep histories.

• Choose a pantheon of gods to dominate your world, influencing not just the physical geography but thousands of years of compelling history, including your hero's bloodlines.
• Adventure far and wide across grasslands, forests, deserts, tundra, oceans, and other procedurally generated environments.
• Stumble upon your own stories by following a merry band of warriors, rescuing a traveling merchant from a pack of wolves, or slaughtering an entire village.

Become a legend

In worlds so vast you will never encounter every living being, worthy heroes can accumulate wealth and power beyond imagining, ultimately ascending to godhood themselves.

• Discover hundreds of crafting recipes and thousands of hard-to-find resources while contending with a horde of dangerous creatures and self-interested factions.
• Loot, craft, and steal nearly 8,000 handmade items, including ancient and magical artifacts passed down through the generations and lost to time.
• Struggle to survive in a harsh fantasy world, attending to basic needs, camping in the wilderness, and treating injuries and illness.

Join a community of heroes online

Hero's Song offers an online community of heroes from which you can recruit other players to join you on your adventures, or battle for supremacy on the field.

• Host your own persistent worlds supporting up to 25 simultaneous players.
• Customize your public world, including PvP, permadeath, and the day/night cycle.
• Join a public world without a separate game client.