In Windblown, players become Leapers – warriors fighting to protect their home, The Ark, from the gigantic and deadly Vortex and its Sentinel minions. Like a bolt of lightning, players will freely dash through stunning open stages where each run is teeming with secrets to uncover. Players will be challenged to overcome the odds in relentless battles against the Vortex's Sentinels, hell-bent on taking them down and starting their run anew.  

Leapers absorb the memories of the fallen warriors who came before, learning how to master the fighting styles of their predecessors to unleash their full potential. Players will swap between multiple weapons and adapt to every situation by shifting their build on the fly as they progress through vibrant, layered environments. As players unlock more memories, they will be able to collect stronger and more complex weapons that will turn them into the ultimate killing machine. 

Additionally, players can choose to go it alone or unite in online three-player co-op play throughout their adventures. Windblown’s combat is tough but always fair - every run is a lesson, so learn from your countless deaths, memorize enemy movements and leap back into action stronger than ever. 

Motion Twin announced that Windblown is now available on Steam Early Access.

Players who play Windblown from today until Nov. 8, 2024* will unlock the exclusive, and perhaps strangely familiar for Dead Cells fans, Intern skin to show off their unique style. Additionally, fans who previously played the limited-time single-player demo of Windblown as part of Steam Next Fest can continue to play with the exclusive Guinea Pig skin from today too, with any progress made in the demo carrying over into today’s release.

Throughout the Early Access period, the team at Motion Twin will look to add new biomes, weapons, features and more to Windblown based on community feedback and suggestions.

You'll be dashing through 5 different biomes (4 on a run), get to choose from a bunch of different characters, and equip over a dozen different weapons each with their own Alterattacks! You'll have a mountain of different gifts to help shape your runs, plus loads of trinkets and passives. Couple that with the procedurally generated environments, and you'll have a hard time to experience the same run twice.

Plus, did we mention you can do all of this in online co-op? Grab some friends and leap through the world of Windblown with up to 3 players, each choosing their own weapons and builds for some crazy combinations!

And for all you hardcore Roguelite fans, we recently introduced difficulty settings to the game! Complete a run on one difficulty to unlock the next one up (to a cap). You're gonna need to be sharp to tackle the toughest challenge Windblown has to offer.

Now, as is tradition, players want to know what happens next with Early Access games, so let's take a look at what's on the horizon for Windblown!

What's to come...

Initial Steps

• We first want to gather initial feedback on the game to ensure that any big refactoring / core issues / awesome core idea suggestions are tackled before releasing new major content for the game (e.g. a biome or set of new rewards like weapons, gifts etc). Our focus here is to make sure that the game is stable and working as intended, and if we've missed anything incredible, we want to prioritise that.
• Polish everything that we think is in a rough state! (There's a lot... 👀)

New Content

• Of course we want to expand the world of Windblown both in terms of adventure and sense of progress. That means: having more biomes, more enemies, more weapons, trinkets, gifts and magifishes! We can't put a date or timeline on this, but know it's definitely in our plans once the game is stable!
• Add new skins! (Yep, simply that).
• We want to add more interesting choices for players in how they navigate from biome to biome, (e.g. having branching choices not solely at the ark but also at the end of some biomes) and ensure that they are original and diverse enough to make that choice really relevant.
• More synergies and crazy builds - Windblown is all about the thrill of combat, and the speed in which you tackle the sentinels! So of course we'll be looking at how mechanics work together, and introducing new ways to dish out pain!
• We want to have more useful interaction between single and multiplayer, meaning we ensure the right balance between those modes’ difficulties is found (this is something that needs to be considered with almost every change to the game). Basically, exploring new ways of making single-player useful for multiplayer and vice-versa.
• Have the time to check suggestions from the community and have the same approach we had in the alpha, during which we prototyped and iterated some of their crazy ideas! This takes time though, to ensure everything works and is polished.

Lore

• We know some players are hungry for lore, and want to know more about what's going on and why the Vortex is being such a d*ck!

QoL and stability

• Add QoL changes that would enhance the overall experience (e.g. moving emotes to a menu? Being able to use the text chat anywhere… yeah that's not the case yet!)
• Ensure the games’ stability, enhance its performance in all the possible ways we can think of (including Steam Deck, of course).
• Add accessibility options (to be transparent this could take some time, as it's not a small thing to do if you want to do it right. We don’t want to add features just for the sake of saying "hey we added something"! They have to be right, and work correctly for those that need them).

Consoles

• If we are successful enough, then of course we'll look at console ports!
• We’ll have to parallelize them though. Sadly it's not as simple as clicking a few buttons, the process takes time. We are only 8 people internally, around 12 counting the freelancers (kudos to them, without them the game would have been so hard to deliver).

We will put the love in

We won't rush things. As we said back in the reveal announcement at the TGAs: making a good thing, whatever it is, takes time. Especially when you want to have the time to gather feedback and think about it seriously and respectfully. We don’t want to exhaust our team and the people that work with us just for the sake of an artificial calendar date set.

And a huge thanks, to all of you!

As we've stated countless times in our lead up to this moment, Windblown is a game that will be shaped by its players. We'd like to welcome each and every one of you to our next adventure, and hope you have an absolute blast either playing solo, or with your friends.

From everyone at MT, Merci!

Windblown is coming to PC (Steam) in late 2025.