About the Game
Features include a deep skill based combat system, complex and smart AI, fully interactive environments, an advanced damage model with accurate collisions and locational protection, roguelike elements and an arena mode to hone your combat skills.
"Those who would enter the underworld shall not only forfeit their lives...

WARNING: THIS GAME IS ACTUALLY DIFFERENT!
This game features a very deep, truly physics based combat system. This is not just some animation feature, it is a fundamental difference that is central to gameplay. Real momentum, forces and collisions are always at play here, every nuance of your inputs is crucial to the outcome. This will likely be unlike anything you've played before and may take some practice, but can be hugely rewarding and the skill cap is virtually infinite. It is not particularly fast paced or difficult but it does require you to pay attention, it is very tactical and just casually pressing buttons won't get you very far!Our goal is to create a deep and immersive RPG world based on a more advanced simulation supporting an unprecedented level of dynamic and emergent gameplay. All of the technology we use including the game engine is our own, developed from the ground up to realise this vision.
Exanima is born as a prelude to Sui Generis (SG), our ambitious open world RPG that has been in development for over two years following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Exanima is a smaller yet complete game in its own right, a dungeon crawler that takes place in SG's Underworld some twenty years prior to its events. Both games are being developed in concert, many of SG's more ambitious features will make an appearance in Exanima as development continues.
Exanima provides a reasonably complete and meaningful game experience, but many more features are on their way! We have met our most challenging and significant development goals, now we are ready to bring new features to light and make an even more fun and compelling adventure. Here are some of the planned features, with many already being close to completion:
- Per session and global character skill progression
- Large non-linear main game following early content
- Build and permanently save characters by completing early content
- New encounters, items and environments
- Ranged combat and new close quarter manoeuvres
- Numerous moddable thaumaturgic powers
- More complete arena game modes featuring outdoor arenas
- Complex NPC interactions and dialogue
- Cooperative and competitive LAN multiplayer

Screenshots
12 imagesVersion Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
Following the last patch's improvement to weather effects, we've increased the variety of weather conditions and added various ambient soundscapes, including dynamic 3D positional sounds like birds and crickets and wind sounds to match the wind effects.
- Increased peak muscle power for various motions
- Fixed a cause of abnormally long recoveries preventing attacks
- Improved parry motions for two handed weapons
- Increased variety of weather conditions
- Added ambient soundscapes to outdoor arenas
- Randomised 3D positional ambient sounds
- Reduced frequency of night time matches
- Fixed environment cloth objects not moving with wind
- Fixed some issues with feet dragging or getting stuck
- Performance improvements
EXANIMA 0.9.5.2c BETA
A patch with various improvements and fixes before we move on to testing changes to combat mechanics.
- Improved stagger mechanics (less stunlock)
- Adjusted combat AI aggressiveness (reduced)
- Fixed some character mass inconsistencies
- Adjusted grip of spetums, glaives and guisarmes
- Fixed incorrect assembly of falchions
- Remastered some more items
- Performance improvements
- Fixed incorrect rendering of wet hair
- Fixed missing rainfall sound effects
- Fixed some incorrect fog effects
- Fixed characters sometimes not gripping weapons properly
- Fixed NPCs doing weird poses when first engaging
- Fixed odd leaning in characters screens for tall characters
- Improved item icon highlighting
- The game now caps to 30 fps when it doesn't have focus
- Fixed double click on NPCs causing crashes under some conditions
- Fixed double click on NPCs not working under some conditions
- Fixed a foot devouring walkway in Gentry
- Fixed a rare cause of feet not updating positions
- Many content fixes
- Various bug fixes
Regarding the combat AI aggression, we felt that as an unintended consequence of the combat AI improvements in 0.9.5 the AI had no chill and attacked almost relentlessly, which just made the combat less fun. With these changes the AI should be a bit more varied in behaviour and not just be constantly on the offensive.
Thanks!
Bare Mettle
FLAILS!
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/771722041466457671/66128F5A54CA083D400B77E97EE2F6C3BEE0F8CB/
We've heard again and again how much you want flails, so we've added... Surprise mechanics! Just keep opening those Happy Player Boxes and maybe, eventually, you'll get a flail!
What..? Don't you people have credit cards?
Jokes aside, flails didn't exactly come cheap to us, with a surprising amount of issues to overcome with physics, animation, inventory functions, world interaction, blood decals, sound mechanics, damage, parrying, combat AI... Oof! But they're a lot of fun so we think it paid off, and along the way, touching on all these systems, we've paved the road for other upcoming features and mechanics.
In arena, set that merchant to look for adept weapons and you should have one in no time. They can also be found in the main game mode.
DIVINATION
You can now find Diviner's Decks. The cards expose various elements of the lore through the beautiful art of Burgzaza, but can they also expose what the future may hold? Keep an eye out for cryptic messages in future release notes...
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8614037/cf6d1ec7538cb8d849583e81eecea8e7a085ffb6.jpg
Changes in Exanima version 0.7.3:
- Flail weapon
- Diviner's Decks
- New encounter type in newest area
- The proctor has a fancy new sword (yes, changing grips is on the way)
- Improved hair physics
- Characters can no longer initiate attacks while in a weakened or staggered state
- Improved weapon sticking and penetration mechanics
- Improved character striking motions on successful hits
- Improved character balance on uneven ground
- Removed a cause of frequent tripping during locomotion
- Improved dynamic and rapid recovery from tripping during locomotion
- Greatly improved stagger and impact response during locomotion
- Smoother transitions into and from locomotive states
- Smoother recovery from staggers
- Fixed some AI being overly passive / peaceful
- Fixed AI almost never fleeing
- Characters are less reluctant to position themselves in tight spaces in combat
- Improved mechanics for staggering from shield blocking
- Shield blocking speeds are now correctly dependent on weight and stamina
- Improved various shield combat motions
- Various small animation and combat tweaks
- Improved keyboard running controls
- Improved arsenal and shop window loading times
- Fixed characters sometimes becoming stuck in a crouched position
- Fixed keys not working after being carried to another area
- Fixed equipped unique weapons sometimes transforming into other items
- Fixed occasional discoloured and black icons
- Many content fixes and tweaks
GRADUAL ASYNCHRONOUS TEXTURE LOADING
In an effort to fix some issues with loading heavier zones we've been making some fairly big changes to how our engine handles loading content. Textures are now loaded gradually in the background after a new zone has loaded. Peak RAM and video RAM usage are greatly reduced, and loading times are improved.
While doing this we took a thorough look at loading performance, and found various ways in which loading times can be further reduced, by a lot. We will likely implement and roll out these changes over the next few updates, and hope to eventually see some very fast load times. This should help make the late game feel more like one big area rather than a set of distant locations.
CHECKPOINT AND SAVING ZONE CHANGES
The way saving works when changing zones has been improved. The game would previously save and load on the transition zone, forcing you to immediately enter the next zone when reloading, and effectively producing a double loading screen.
Now when loading you will appear just before the entrance, and can choose whether to enter the next zone or not. In the case of checkpoints, you'll be able to continue playing on the current zone, then create a new updated checkpoint when entering the next zone again.
COMBAT MOTION UPDATES
The muscle changes in 0.7.2 have affected many motions in unpredictable ways. We're gradually looking what's changed and hearing feedback, reviewing the motions and updating them. Two handed and one handed weapons have been updated to correct unwanted vectors and things have been smoothed out and refined.
This, as with all animation and combat related things, is an ongoing process, so keep giving us feedback.
List of changes in version 0.7.2.1:
- Asynchronous texture loads reduce resource usage and loading times
- Improved zone change saving mechanics
- Adjusted many combat motions to new muscle systems
- Improved and optimised numerous assets
- All things skeletal got some visual upgrades
- Scales finally have physics!
- Player placement of articulated bodies now works correctly
- Improved subsurface scattering shaders
- Updated some creature materials and textures
- Fixed many headers preventing texture detail setting from working correctly
- Fixed some double doors being difficult to open
- Fixed some shadowing issues with night vision
- Fixed some weapons sometimes not rendering correctly
- Fixed tokens sometimes spawning later than when they're useful
- Fixed becoming stuck when climbing the collapsed entrance on level one
- Numerous content and small bug fixes
UNDER AND BELOW
The crossroads has received some changes, and while you're there look out for dark tunnels...
A large new area features an all new environment, new creature types, new items and takes advantage of various new level building and engine features. We won't spoil anything, but we hope you enjoy the atmosphere and different pace of gameplay we've introduced here. This also reveals important aspects of the game world.
This level represents the final core set of assets required to complete the game, built using new tools and overcoming various development challenges. This is the first of multiple of its kind, which will begin to play an important role. In coming updates we'll be adding more features, mechanics and creatures to the body of content we're introducing here.
DIALOGUE PART TWO
In the last update we introduced a very basic version of our dialogue system. Since then we've been expanding its functionality to support future content. We want to create a dialogue system that integrates seamlessly with the rest of the game and feels dynamic, rather than being a separate mode. The idea is that you can talk while doing anything else, discuss what is happening as it happens, point to things and say something about them, or ask someone to interact with them, converse with multiple people at once, join or leave conversations that are already under way, use contextually appropriate dialogue, even in combat, and generally treat dialogue as a functional and natural part of interaction, just like in real life.
Some of this doesn't have a role in Exanima yet, but the core functionality is now all there. We will soon be introducing more NPCs, and new mechanics that will take full advantage of the system. In this update we have added new dialogue with Derrin, using new scripting, role functionality and AI system interactions. There's a lot of moving parts to making the dialogue feel spontaneous and dynamic, so we'll be keeping an eye on this and refining the mechanics for more dialogue to come. Note that you may not experience all dialogue on every playthrough, as the conditions can be complex.
Our dialogue authoring tools have also received big upgrades, allowing us to more easily create and modify large complex dialogue structures and automate common scripting tasks, which can all be quite difficult and daunting!
MUNDANE ITEMS
Those that have followed us more closely may know that our priority is to create a believable and immersive game world. Everything we do, from physics to itemisation is with that goal in mind.
In this update we introduce a huge number of "mundane" items. These are items that do not often have a practical use for the player, but help create the setting and tell a story. We design our environments to have practical purpose and reason, accurately recreating real world locations, devices and processes. Now we've built a system for randomly introducing a vast number of items in appropriate contexts, whatever those might be in a detailed game world.
We've now reached over a thousand items in the game. The new items make the many containers in the game much more interesting to rummage in, rather than being simply empty or holding a single item you've seen many times before. There are many new improvised weapons among these (including some that may not seem to be weapons until you try to use them as such). In future we will also be introducing new practical applications for more items.
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8614037/0604d9c452ffb406fc5d2a9fcdef0a40e46b84c2.jpg
IN GAME MAPS
We've always been opposed to an overlay navigation system that would cause you to focus your attention on a UI rather than the game world itself, but what's an RPG without maps? In this update we introduce maps as objects that you can find in the environment, and consult as you would in the real world.
Using our constantly improving texture tools, we've developed a system to procedurally create appealing maps with a hand drawn style. This allows us to easily produce and update maps for locations in the game, and make each one of them look unique in every detail.
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8614037/ce4e308aae535dee68665466afc0360ce30d99d7.jpg
ANIMATION IMPROVEMENTS
We are trying to avoid investing even more time into it, but Exanima's character physics system is a huge beast in need of constant upgrades and maintenance. In this update we introduce new creatures whose proportions and movements proved very problematic. We've had to make extensive changes to some core aspects of character motion, resulting in some great general improvements to how characters move. We didn't quite stop there either.
Characters are much better at controlling their virtual muscles, resulting in smoother, faster and more precise movement. This corrects a lot of wobbly and floppy looking motion. We've also made legs move more precisely and perform less jittery corrective movements. Characters pause less between steps and turns, resulting in more fluid and responsive movement in combat. Head movement was also improved, becoming much more stable and tracking more accurately. The dynamic balancer and various other things have also been improved.
You can see a quick video of the improved animation in action here. A greatsword is used, which due to its size was particularly prone to wobbly movements in earlier versions:
https://youtu.be/mgam61SG3-c
GRAPHICAL IMPROVEMENTS
Exanima has a unique aesthetic that is built on our own graphics engine and produced using our own content creation tools. We are constantly improving our engine and tools, and updating the game's graphics to reflect the current state of them, as well as increasing standards of quality. In this update we have various new rendering features and improvements, and we've built new graphics and updated assets using some new tools and upgraded versions of existing tools.
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8614037/e490997e2d881b737e18a7d17b79b0eae7bd6f4f.jpg
List of changes in 0.7.2:
- Large new level featuring all new environment
- Two completely new encounter types
- Many new items, including some with special properties
- Huge amount of mundane items and objects
- Various new dialogues, from quick comments to lore discussions
- In game lootable maps
- Item randomisation system for large quantities of items and contexts
- Significant additions and improvements to crossroads area
- Two new arena music tracks (and one in story)
- Improved character muscle control
- More fluid combat movement
- More precise and decisive leg movement
- Better head motion and tracking
- Dynamic balancer improvements
- NPC initiated dialogue with reply mechanic
- Emotion and context driven dialogue interactions
- Ability to change topics during conversation
- Dialogue can be progressed faster with rapid response
- Ability to resume interrupted dialogue
- Combat AI adjustments based on community feedback
- Adjusted thrusts to have similar timings to other attacks
- Improved slash damage mechanics
- New environment features and structure
- Better interactivity with many objects
- Improved quality of many assets
- Improved shading quality and many materials
- Improved physics performance
- Improved AI path-finding and moving object avoidance
- Improved post-processing and effects
- User interface improvements
- Improved behaviour and stability of articulated bodies
- A certain gentleman has refined his combat skills
- Tweaked energy mechanics of a certain unique armour
- Fixed incorrect role configurations on certain characters
- Fixed relations with AI characters not evolving as intended
- Fixed NPCs having incorrect dispositions towards new encounters
- Improved the effects of certain items that help you see
- Fixed health values not saving correctly
- Fixed ongoing healing effects not saving correctly
- Fixed missing procedural item textures when loading many items
- Fixed some systems experiencing freezes after inventory interactions
- Fixed potential black icons from window and task changes
- Fixed a crash occurring when opening an already open container in the inventory
- Fixed corrupted 3D grass on Intel graphics
WHAT'S NEXT?
This update is only a part of what we've been working on. There are multiple levels already in the works, thaumaturgy is nearly ready to be added, more creatures are coming and various other features are at various stages of completion. We've done a lot of "housekeeping" over the past months, still upgrading engine systems and tools, but we hope to focus on more gameplay relevant features and content from now on.
The next major update will feature thaumaturgy and more story content. This will likely be followed by a smaller arena focused update that also introduces procedural weapons. The remaining updates will focus adding the last story content, more in depth NPC interaction and various less critical gameplay features.
This update features a large number of improvements, largely based on recent feedback and to balance recent changes. We've also finalised some features that had been incomplete for some time.
Cumulative changelog from 0.6.5.3 to 0.6.5.4:
- Increased parrying speed
- Increased impact mitigation for many armour types
- Item quality now affects trade values
- Exceptional items now come in all colours and variants
- Reintroduced superior soft leather goods
- Correct lacquered materials for all quality levels
- Match prizes substantially increased
- Added dynamic brightness adjustment for darker arenas and weather
- Reduced output lag and improved visual accuracy of simulation results
- This was already good, but now it's even better!
- This was already good, but now it's even better!
- Improved cursor tracking accuracy during rapid player movement
- Fixed weapon masses being calculated incorrectly and inconsistently
- Improved two handed sword overhead attacks
- Added many new items to early story content
- Redesigned many early story encounters
- New undead voices
- Fixed torch easily getting caught in the environment
- Fixed cloth collisions not working
- Added a warning when entering manager in a match
- Added colour coding to fighter names in match view
- Many fixes, tweaks and performance improvements
Best,
Bare Mettle
Current Release
Build 25701113
Uploaded Oct 05, 2026
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How to Install
Exanima.exe to play
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
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