Humans are weak when they start out in Wildman, and to make them better your hero has to gain new technology. Wildman handles this in a way that sounds both historically accurate, but also more than a little tongue-in-cheek. For instance you could boost the health of your hero and your allied units by discovering soap for mankind, or gain additional damage by learning to attach a rock to the end of your clubs. Even early things like slings will make a huge difference, because despite being inaccurate Taylor notes that they gave humanity a way to attack at range.
Technology is gained in the MOBA-style gameplay, which will be called War Zone. Here you’ll take your hero into combat against an enemy race’s hero, battling it out alongside AI-controlled minions. Normally in MOBA games you accrue gold and use it to purchase items for your hero, but in Wildman you’ll use this to build RTS-like structures that pump out the specific unit types you want, countering the unit types your enemy produces. If you manage to out maneuver them and win, you’ll reach into their base and pull out a technology. Matches against AI opponents can be repeated for a chance to gain additional techs.
In between War Zone matches, you’ll play Wildman as an action-RPG, in a mode Gas Powered plans on calling Overland. Here you’ll have all the traditional elements: a skill bar, experience you can use to get new abilities and, of course, lots of loot to collect. You won’t control your hero any differently here than you do in War Zone, either, since Gas Powered doesn’t want to make players learn two alternate styles of play; Overland simply serves as a way for you to build up your character during their journey to the next Warzone.
Wildman is also has a multiplayer mode, which Taylor described to us as being what, “you might expect.” As part of the core game there will be some sort of cooperative game where 2-5 players face off against enemy heroes, doing a larger-scale version of the War Zone battles.If you’ve liked what you’ve heard up until now, Taylor hopes that you’ll consider chipping in on Wildman’s official Kickstarter. Depending on how it goes they’d like to expand the game’s feature set, though Taylor was adamant that they were trying not to let their ambitions overtake their capabilities. Wildman is slated for release for some point in the next year, perhaps even after just six months, at the cost of $20. Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on @Chufmoney on Twitter and on at Ant-IGN on IGN.