All the thinking comes first
Fights play out by themselves. There is nothing to tap during one. Your choices are who you bring, where they stand, and who they go for first.
A demo is coming
Unbarred
Before the Seal Breaks
A strategy auto-battler for PC and phone. You never play the fight. You win it before it starts.
It is a game of strategy: read the enemy, pick your heroes and set every detail to win. One small mistake can snowball into a loss.
A Kickstarter is coming to help fund development.
- DemoPlay in your browserComing soon
- App StoreiPhone and iPadPlanned
- Google PlayAndroidPlanned
- SteamWindows and MacPlanned
From the demo
What makes it different
You see what you face
Before each run you are shown the enemy. A team that wins one fight can lose the next, so you change your team and try again. When you lose, you can tell why.
Every fight is built to have an answer
Some teams cannot win a given fight, but each fight is built so that a team that can win it exists. So every hero is worth growing, not just a favourite.
How it plays
A run is a short road of fights that ends at a boss. It plays in three steps. Pick a step to look closer.
1. Read the enemy, then pick your team
Before a run you see every enemy and where it stands, and any danger the fight holds. Read it first. Then pick up to five of your heroes who answer it.
2. Prepare every detail
Seat each hero on your two rows of four places. Set the tactic: which enemy your heroes go for first. Choose their talents, each hero's build and the twist it gives their skill, and the gear they carry. One small mistake can snowball into a loss.
3. The fight, and the road between
The fight plays itself; there is nothing to tap. After a fight you take one blessing from a small choice, for the rest of the run. Before the boss, a stall sells a few items for gold. Health and fallen heroes carry from fight to fight. Win if you can.
Your heroes, below The enemy, on top
The strategy, in short
A fight is won by many small choices made before it starts. Here is what you set, and what you read on the other side. Pick one to read a line about it.
Your side: what you set
Team
Up to five heroes. You start with five, and more join as you clear runs.
Seating
Two rows of four places. The front row takes the first hits; the back row is safer, until something reaches it.
Tactic
Which enemy your heroes go for first when they can reach it: the boss, the frailest, the most wounded or the toughest.
Talents
Each hero unlocks talents as it levels up. You pick one of two at each step, to suit the fight ahead.
Twists
Every hero has two builds: Onslaught, for attack, and Aegis, for defence. Each gives the hero's skill its own twist.
Gear
Bosses drop gear. You choose which hero carries it, and you change it between runs.
The enemy side: what you read
Enemy types
Every enemy is a demon with a job: some shield, some stun, some shoot your back row, some jump on your weakest hero, some force your attacks onto themselves.
Elites and bosses
The same demons come in three strengths: normal, elite and boss. Some runs put an elite in the middle; every run ends at a boss.
Boss zones
A boss can strike marked places on your grid. You see them before the fight, so seat nobody there.
Fields
Some fights take place on hostile ground. A field always works against your team, and you see it before the fight.
The road
Health and fallen heroes carry from one fight to the next, so a costly win early can lose the run later.
Three factions, twelve heroes and one demon lord
There are three races; each race created its faction. Any hero can fight beside any other — a faction is what its heroes are good at together.
The Emberkin
Burns enemies down: sets them alight, and every round the whole enemy team takes burn damage.
The Verdant Pact
Outlasts the enemy: heals and regrows, and every round its heroes heal a share of their health.
The Hollow Order
Cripples the enemy: stuns, slows and marks them, and enemies hit softer — but your own heroes lose some max health.
A fourth way
Not every answer wears one colour. Some fights are best answered when the three factions stand together, mixed just right. Which ones, and how, is for you to find.
Four classes
Bulwark
Tough front-liner: taunts, so enemies attack it first, and hits the enemy front row.
Blademaster
Hard single hits (and crits) on the enemy front row.
Assassin
Leaps over the enemy front row to strike the back row.
Mage
Area damage: hits several enemies at once and can reach either row.
The Unbarred and the demon army
Long ago the world was united. Then the Fall came: the Unbarred led the demons, and the world burned. The Unbarred was sealed away, and the demons scattered and fell silent.
Now the seal is weakening, and the demons are gathering again.
Each enemy has its own job on the field: some guard and shield, some stun, some shoot from behind, some leap at your weakest hero.
Fair by design
No ads. No loot boxes. No random-pull hero draws. Money can save you time, but it never decides whether you can win a fight.
Planned for Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android. Nothing is released yet, and dates are not promised.
What's new
The demo is being rebuilt
The first playtest showed that a fight was hard to read. The new demo is built so that what you see before a fight is enough to plan a team that wins it.
A home on the web
Unbarred now has its own web address: unbarred.games.
The game has a name
Unbarred: Before the Seal Breaks.
Development started
Work on the game began.
Get the demo launch email
One email when the demo opens, then at most one a month, a few more around the Kickstarter launch. You can unsubscribe at any time.
A Kickstarter is coming. It will help fund the rest of the game's development. The emails will tell you when it starts.
You get a confirmation email first. You are only added after you click the link in it.