Hey everyone,
Some of you know me from Vision AI Assistant...however, I'm not here to talk about that lol. I will say that although the app got quite a bit of success, the reality is that apps were coming out with better features and already on the meta glasses. I had to take a step back and think of what I really wanted to invest my time and money into. Something that I cared about a lot as this subject really holds a big place in my heart.
I have been secretly building a game for months. And it's almost ready.
It's called Thornhold — a full online multiplayer RPG running proper D&D Fifth Edition rules, a persistent living world, real players, real stakes, real consequences. It plays great with VoiceOver, and it plays great without it. Blind and sighted players in the same world, same servers, same game.
Soooo, TLDR, but let me actually tell you what's in this thing, because it's a lot.
The World
Thornhold is a big place. Hundreds of named regions spread across a map with real geography. You start in a rough town — The Battered Flagon tavern, a market square, an apothecary, a gate leading out to the roads beyond. From there it opens up.
Head west and you hit the coast: Salt Port, Tidal Harbour, Saltmarsh Village, Smuggler's Inlet, sea stacks, drowned ruins. The coastal towns have their own feel, their own quest types, their own economies. Head inland and you're pushing through the Whispering Woods, across the Riverside Crossing, past the Old Mill and into Stonehaven Ruins. Deeper in: a Goblin Warren, the Barrow Downs, Thornwatch Keep, a Blasted Heath that used to be something important, an Ossuary carved into ancient stone. Go north and you reach the city of Aurveld — Scholar's Quarter, Grand Library, Alchemist's Quarter, a place called The Forbidden Archives, a Spire. There's also a whole fey region: The Faerie Ring, Moonveil Grove, Twilight Glade, The Unseen Path, Courts of Amber, The Pale Throne.
Every region has a danger rating. Safe. Low. Medium. High. Deadly. You'll know what you're walking into.
Movement is tile-based. Every location is a real grid you walk through step by step using a four-direction D-pad. Roads between regions are actual corridors you walk, not instant teleports. Set a waypoint to any destination and your D-pad lights up with directions toward it — VoiceOver reads "Go South — toward Town Gate" so you always know exactly where you're headed. Arrive somewhere and the game narrates the tile: the name, what you see, what it feels like. The world describes itself as you move.
Character Creation: Full D&D 5e
You pick a race. All the classics: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Dragonborn, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Tiefling, plus Tabaxi, Aasimar, and Genasi. Every race has its real racial traits implemented — Elf Darkvision and Fey Ancestry, Dwarven Resilience, Halfling Nimbleness, Tabaxi climbing speed and Feline Agility, Aasimar celestial resistance, all of it.
Then you pick a class from all twelve: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. The full roster. Every class has its real progression — hit dice, proficiency bonus scaling with level, class features unlocking at the correct levels, and subclass selection when the rules say you should pick.
Your six ability scores are real and they matter. STR for melee attacks and Athletics. DEX for AC calculations, finesse weapons, Acrobatics, Stealth, initiative. CON for your HP pool and concentration checks when you get hit mid-spell. INT for Arcana, History, Investigation, and if you're a Wizard, your spell attack. WIS for Perception, Insight, Medicine, and spellcasting for Clerics, Druids, and Rangers. CHA for Persuasion, Deception, Intimidation, Performance, and spellcasting for Paladins, Bards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks.
Proficiency bonus scales from +2 at level 1 to +6 at level 20. Your saving throw proficiencies are class-specific. Skill proficiencies are tracked. Armor class is calculated from your actual armor, DEX modifier, and relevant class features — Barbarian Unarmored Defense adds CON, Monk Unarmored Defense adds WIS. It's the real system.
Combat
Turn-based, real 5e mechanics. Attack roll versus Armor Class. Damage with the correct dice for your weapon. Saving throws. Critical hits on a natural 20. Proficiency bonus added where it belongs.
Barbarian Rage gives you damage resistance and bonus STR damage. Paladin has Lay on Hands. Rogues get Sneak Attack dice. Monks spend Ki points. Bards hand out Bardic Inspiration. Paladins Divine Smite. Spellcasters burn spell slots. It all works.
When you're knocked to zero HP, you go unconscious. Now the clock starts. Each turn you're down, you make a Death Saving Throw — roll a d20, hit 10 or higher and that's a success, nine or lower is a failure. Three successes and you stabilize. Three failures and that character is gone. Permadeath. If an ally reaches you and stabilizes you with a Medicine check, or a healing spell brings you back above zero, the saves reset. But if your party can't get to you in time, you're done.
This is not a soft death system. Pay attention to your HP.
Short Rests and Long Rests
Also fully implemented. When you take a Short Rest — spending at least an hour catching your breath — you can spend your hit dice to recover HP. Roll your class's hit die, add your CON modifier, get that much HP back. Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, Monks — classes built around short rests get their key features back too. Monk Ki points, Fighter Second Wind, Warlock spell slots all come back on a short rest.
Long Rest is a full eight hours. You wake up with all your HP restored, all your spell slots back, all your hit dice refilled up to half your level, all your class features that need a long rest recharged. Barbarian Rage uses. Paladin Lay on Hands. Everything. Long rests are the difference between going into that dungeon at full strength or scraping through on fumes.
Rests aren't free, either. Taking them in dangerous regions costs you. Something might happen while you're sleeping.
Quests
Every region has quest types that match where you are. What you're handed in a goblin warren is not what you get in the Grand Library. Your party composition feeds into the quest too. A party of three Rogues and a Bard is going to get different work than a Paladin, a Cleric, and two Fighters.
Quests are full multi-scene adventures. You get a title, a hook, scenes that unfold as you push through them, and a thread at the end that connects to the next job. When a quest completes, your party gets the next hook. The story keeps moving.
Activities
Every location has things to do beyond questing and fighting. The tavern has dice games and arm wrestling. The woods let you forage for herbs and hunt. The Riverside Crossing has fishing. The market has bartering and appraising goods. Ruins are full of things to study and search. The keep has sparring matches with soldiers. The apothecary has remedies to research. The goblin warren — if you're bold enough to go in friendly — will let you negotiate trades and challenge the residents to bouts.
Every activity uses a real D&D 5e skill check. Go fishing and roll Survival. Barter with the market traders and roll Persuasion. Study inscriptions in the barrows and roll History. Your skill proficiencies and ability scores affect the outcome. Do it well and you earn gold. Do it poorly and you might walk away empty-handed or worse.
Jobs
Beyond activities, you can pick up work from NPCs — jobs that pay gold for services rendered. This is how you build wealth without combat. Run an errand, deliver goods between regions, do a job for the locals. It's a living economy and your character is part of it.
Gambling, Dice Games, and Card Games
The Battered Flagon has Farkle and Yahtzee right now. You can play them against the house, or against another player. Wager your gold, play the game, win or lose it properly. Your win-loss record is tracked. The gold is real.
This is expanding. More dice games. Card games. As new taverns open up across different regions — coastal taverns, city establishments, roadside waystation inns — each one is getting its own table games. The plan is for every tavern in the world to have a different set of games. Some of these will have bigger tables and bigger buy-ins.
PvP gambling is in. Sit down with a friend, pick a game, put gold on the table, and play. No house edge — just you and them.
their is also a PVP fighting system being worked on as I write this...and I do have some secret plans that I'm not sharing here yet!
Multiplayer
Real-time, always online. Other players are in the world with you right now.
Form a party with friends or people you meet in the world. Party movement is voted — someone calls a direction, the party votes yes or no, and you walk together. Sighted and blind players, same party, same game, same footing.
World chat reaches everyone in Thornhold regardless of where they are. Local chat reaches whoever is in your current region. Talk to NPCs, pick up rumours, find out what's up ahead. The locals know things.
Sound
Every region has its own ambience. Tavern hearth crackle and murmur. Rain on cobblestones at the market gate. Wind off the cliff face at Cliffside Watch. Dripping stone deep underground. The coastal towns have surf. The fey regions have something harder to name.
Footsteps change with the surface. Combat sounds different from exploration. The world has texture you can hear and their is also music to go along with the locations.
When Is It Out?
Soon. I'm in the final polish phase — navigation, interaction flows, making sure everything lands properly end to end.
Watch this thread. I'll post here as I update, maybe start a beta test,, and let you know when it opens up to the world.
Comments
@ BraD
It’s almost done. The reason why I asked is because the UI I had designed originally for navigation was just not quite sitting right with me. I mean it was decent but I think what I have now based on the feedback that I’ve gotten actually works quite better as well as the mapping end tracking system. These maps are bigger and a lot more intuitive than I had originally intended so I was looking for a better way to navigate rather than using a D pad. Now that I spent the day redesigning the UI, I’m just making sure the locations and NPC‘s are properly placed throughout the world.
@ @ BraD
Actually, that feedback helped me figure out another little problem I was dealing with which was AOE (area of effect) spells. The way I had it set up before, you couldn’t choose which area of the map got affected by a certain spell. Now, if you are in range, you can choose where you want to place that area of effect spell.
Testing
I would like to test.
Beta tester
Hello, if possible, I would also like to be a beta tester for this game. Thank you.
Interested in beta testing
Provided their are any available slots, I'd also be interested in beta test. I've been playing older rpgs recently, though I've never played Dungeons and Dragons.
Testing experience
I have extensively tested BC 4000 and DD heroes for the developer of those games, Mr Jianfeng Wu. Furthermore, I am familiar with DND fifth edition.
However, I must admit that I do not have much time right now. Thus, I will send any feedback I have 3 times per week at most. If that’s OK with you, I would be happy to also help you in testing the game.
I have a question
Since the game is based off dungeons and dragons 5th edition, when reaching a certain level. Would people be able to multi class?
@ HipporenO
Yes you can. :).
Awesome
Awesome! I actually have a Dungeons & Dragons session going on tonight, I’m the only player in the group that’s blind but the participants in the campaign are friendly and the first time I joined the campaign they were able to accommodate me!
Testing
I'd also love to beta test, I'm a big fan of DND so this seems right up my alley.
Beta testing?
Sadly, I cannot pay for this when it comes out. But I love beta testing. I would be happy to do it if it ever goes on TestFlight
An idea for music
I'm not here to add the company but when you buy suno premium subscription, monthly included, everything you create there is fully completely yours so you can just use them in your game. you just describe the type of music you want and it creats. then you can download and use it as if you created it, cause you did lol
but if you create a song after your subscription ends, it's theirs not yours, so use the songs created during your subscription.
I wont able to pay it either :(
@ Sysskuu
Hey thanks for that idea. I’m actually very familiar with Suno. I’ve been using it since 2023 when it was just on the discord server before they actually had the website. The reason why I’m not using it is because there is no publicly available API key, and there training data. I decided to just use my ElevenLabs API to do everything that I need for the sounds for the game. I’ve actually come out with some nice scores for the game, can’t wait for you all to hear them.
Beta testing
I want to thank each and every one of you who’ve put your name forward for the beta testing. I am just wrapping some things up on my end, then I will eventually reach out to some of you folks on here. Stay tuned 😊.
Sounds fun
I like the idea of building a little place where I can heal peple, but would i be able to get notified when a person needs healing? like, let's say I was doing another thing like picking berries, i'd get a ding and would be able to auto teliport to the place and heal and then go back to picking berries? Same with if my phone is locked and i'm doing other things, getting a notification when someone visits my hut for healing would be nice. is that doable?
I want to join beta
If there's a slotsavailable, I'm ready to participate in the beta.
Character slots
How many characters are people able to create in the game? With D&D Beyond the free version, I believe you’re able to make up to six characters and the unlimited version you can have as many characters as you want.
@Hipporeno
So, Thornhold works very differently from D&D Beyond, and that difference is by design.
D&D Beyond is a character management toolbox. On the free plan you can build up to six characters. On the Hero or Master subscription ($6–$7/month) you can create as many as you want. That makes sense for what D&D Beyond is — a digital replacement for a character sheet that you bring to your own table. Your characters sit in a list, they don't know each other exists, and the world around them is whatever your Dungeon Master invents at the table.
Thornhold gives every account one character, and that's a deliberate choice rooted in what kind of game this is.
Your character lives in a shared world with everyone else's characters — in real time. When you log in, you're that person. You carry your history: the dungeons you've cleared, the titles you've earned, the messages you've carved into dungeon walls, the factions that respect or despise you. NPCs remember talking to you. Other players across the world see your name when you do something worth noting.
That kind of weight only works if you're committed to one character. The ability to roll up a fresh character the moment things get difficult would hollow out everything the game is built on — the stakes, the progression, the sense that your choices actually meant something.
D&D Beyond gives you a toolbox. Thornhold gives you basically a life to live in a world that keeps moving whether you're logged in or not.
Fascinating
Hello! Thanks for explaining how characters work in your upcoming game! I already have a character in mind that I will be sticking with in the game, I’m not gonna give too much away but I’ll just say this my character will be a spellcaster!
Beta testing
I would like to test this game
This game sounds fun
This game sounds really fun
I am looking forward for the game
server Alpha Test Run
Hey everyone!
I want to take a moment to genuinely thank each of you — especially those who were willing to offer their time to beta test. Without this community, places like AppleVis wouldn't exist, and neither would games like Thornhold. You're the ones who keep the doors open for creators like me, and I mean it when I say thank you from the bottom of my heart.
To show my appreciation, I'm planning to open the Thornhold server this weekend so you can jump in and see what's been built so far. Keep in mind this is an alpha — the systems won't be perfect and neither will the mechanics, because D&D 5e has a lot of moving parts. That said, because of the support you've all shown me, I'm doing an open public alpha test running for 48 hours.
I'm shooting for this weekend, but that depends on Apple and getting everything sorted through TestFlight. This first round will be iOS only — I'm hoping to have the Android version ready within the next couple of weeks.
One thing I want to be upfront about: I'm one person. No team. I'm building, testing, working full time, and figuring out TestFlight all by myself, so please bear with me.
If you want an invite, send me a message here with your email and I'll get it to you when the server opens.
Thank you all so much. This means everything.
@Brad: For this run, you are not able to build places yet. That will be coming in the near future though just FYI. I haven't forgotten about ya.
Apreciate it.
Think i'll send my email, even if i can't build my little hut, it'l be nice to see how the game plays for now.
@ Brad
Appreciate your support buddy!
Also, I learned something very new today. Did you know that you can actually publish apps to the App Store/TestFlight with GitHub? It took a heck of a lot of tinkering, but it feels pretty good to see your app as a native app!
I don’t need a MacBook nor did I need to use Xcode.
That’s really cool
Wow, that’s amazing that people can do that with github.
Question since I don't know dnd
You said we keep track of things with character sheets. Does that mean we could technically cheat by entering with big stats? Again, I have no clue about this lol, but it sounds like loopholes could be used in such a system.
@ DMNagel
Technically, if you were playing tabletop, you could try to cheat — but your Dungeon Master would catch it pretty fast. Every class and subclass has a specific number of spell slots, and if you’re level one with one level two slot and your sheet suddenly shows three level twos and four level threes, that’s going to get flagged immediately.
In our version, it’s a non-issue because the D&D 5e mechanics are built directly into the code. The character sheet is your source of truth for everything. It tracks your HP, your armor class, your ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma), your proficiency bonus, your saving throws, and your skills. If you’re a spellcaster, it also manages your spell slots, your known spells, and your prepared spells — and yes, those are three different things.
Here’s how spell slots actually work: a spell slot is essentially a resource you burn to cast a spell. A level one Wizard might have two level one spell slots and nothing higher. As you level up, you gain access to higher level slots. A level three Wizard, for example, gets four level one slots, two level two slots, and their first level two spells. The slot level matters because casting a spell at a higher slot can make it more powerful — a Cure Wounds cast with a level two slot heals more than one cast with a level one slot.
On top of that, most spellcasting classes require you to prepare spells ahead of time. Knowing a spell and having it prepared are different things. A Wizard might have thirty spells in their spellbook but can only prepare a handful each day based on their level and Intelligence modifier. Once you’ve burned through your slots, you’re done casting until you take a long rest — which resets everything. Some classes like Warlocks do things differently and recover slots on a short rest, but the principle is the same.
With all of that baked into the code, the character sheet enforces every single one of these rules automatically. You can’t prepare more spells than your limit allows, you can’t cast spells you haven’t prepared, and you can’t use spell slots you don’t have. The system just won’t let it happen. So cheating isn’t really a conversation worth having — the game doesn’t give you the option.
PVP fighting
Can I ignore or avoid it?
@ DMNagel
You can ignore/avoid it. I’m not going to force PVP. Perma death sucks, especially after you’ve built your character for a certain amount of time. I do have some exciting stuff in the works for PVP though.
@ Stephen
Hello there we are with you and shall support you through out
All the best
please count me in
I also want to join the beta testing as well...
Sounds fuuuuuuuuuun 🤩
The possibility of permanent death, nooo!
😢 I tend to get a little too attached to my characters so…
about the resting thing, you mean that we’ll have to go off-line eight hours just so the character can fully recover? Also yeah, add more and more peaceful activities, I like that.
Definitely looking forward to seeing your game come to fruition.
Trying the alpha
Please include me to try the alpha.
beta testing.
Hi! I'm interested in becoming a tester for your game. I’ve been following your work and would love to help you refine the gameplay and find any bugs.
I take a professional approach to testing and can provide detailed feedback to help make the game as polished as possible. I'm ready to start whenever you need me.
You can reach me at: **kuba95861@gmail.com**
Looking forward to hearing from you!
appstore connect
Hey all, does anyone here have any experience with the appstore connect app? I've created the internal testing group and I can't find a way to add other folks to the testing group accept myself? Sorry for the emails some of you gotten already...I'm working on opening up the alpha version today.
Help with App Store Connect and External Testing for Thornhold A
Hi Stephen, regarding your question about App Store Connect, to add people outside of your main team, you need to set up **External Testing** rather than an internal group. Internal groups are strictly limited to users who have access to your App Store Connect account with specific roles like Admin or Developer.
To fix this and get your alpha out to the community, you should go to the **TestFlight** tab, find **External Groups** in the sidebar, and create a new group there. Once created, you can add testers by their email addresses or enable a **Public Link** that people can click to join. Keep in mind that external builds usually require a quick Beta App Review from Apple before you can start sending them out, which is different from the internal builds you’ve been testing.
We are all incredibly excited about Thornhold and can't wait to see it in TestFlight. Many of us are keeping an eye out for that alpha opening today or over the weekend. Don't worry about the extra emails, we’re just hyped to get into the world you’re building. Good luck with the setup!
Question
Hello Stephen,
Thanks for your question. I have a question of my own, would we be using the App Store connect to communicate with you in case if we have questions? Or would we be using email to communicate?
So excited
I’m so excited for this. Can’t wait to try this out, I’m gonna have a blast. I think you should enable it so that everyone can join without having to give emails out, but that’s just my opinion, plus, clicking a link would be more better. I also have sent you a message with the email you can use for The alpha version, just add me to it when you’re ready
my email
i have sent you a private message with my email too.
Quick Note About Email Addresses in Comments
Hi all,
I know some have shared emails in threads on here, which, while not recommended, is your choice to make.
That said, please keep in mind that an email address in a comment here would be available to anyone, including spammers. To prevent your email address from being added to a spam list, we recommend editing any comments with your email address once the purpose of your comment has been accomplished.
@Kuba, @Kuba
Thanks so much for all that info...it is super helpful.
It looks like with all the ifo apple needs like the privacy policy and all that plus how ever long it takes for review it may take a little longer to get the alpha version out.
Hand in there yawl, I'm working on it lol.
This is my first ever native app so I'm learning all these systems as I go lol.
I will let you all know when it is live...please note it will be a rough alpha and I haven't been able to test multi player features yet as it has been just me building and testing so I'm sure I will get lots of fun reports haha.
You will not need the appstore connect app just testflight, and you can communicate with me on here, report thru test flight, sending emails or directly in the game if I'm online as I will be able to respond in game chat.
My boss also convinced me to pull in more hours at work so I'll get to all the info apple needs after work today.
@Michael Hansen
Yes please everyone what he said.
Please only send your emails privately in a direct message.
Thanks for catching that Michael.
Fingers Crossed
Everything has been submitted to apple for review.
Fingers crossed we have no issues getting this out lol.
I probably need something strong after this haha.
Community
Hey guys, while we all wait for this Apple Store approval, I’ve set up a discord link so we can chat and not drive the mods crazy on here lol.
We love you Michael! We are sincerely sorry for making the mod mod lol.
Anyways yawl, you can chat with me and others on here, we can do group voice calls etc.
https://discord.gg/ZdCQNdKAGf
I look forward to seeing you on the server.
Community
Hey guys, while we all wait for this Apple Store approval, I’ve set up a discord link so we can chat and not drive the mods crazy on here lol.
We love you Michael! We are sincerely sorry for making the mod mod lol.
Anyways yawl, you can chat with me and others on here, we can do group voice calls etc.
https://discord.gg/ZdCQNdKAGf
I look forward to seeing you on the server.
All Good Here 😊
All good here! My only concern was people sharing their email addresses on a public forum, as I know firsthand that my spam count went up after I published my email address publicly in a post on here. 😊
@ Michael Hansen
No seriously, thanks so much for pointing that out.
I would hate to see any of these folks on a spam email list.
Great project
I love the idea,
wish the subscription fees will be possible for all people.
glad that it will be for sited and blind gamers also,
we are not alone in this world,
THanks again.
regarding language:
if you can also add an option to change the language manually it will be greate? because for me, my mobile default language is english, but my native is arabic.
so, it will be greate to see this option
THanks again.
Great news!
Hello everyone, we have some great news! Thornhold got the beta approval from Apple!
In the next coming weeks or so, you should be receiving an invite link in your emails if you had sent your email.
I’m rolling the alpha testing out slowly to ensure that I don’t overwhelm the servers and ensuring to catch those early pesky bugs before rolling it out to further testers.
So ecstatic for this!!!
i’m so happy I could squeal!!! Just for reference, if the email that I sent you doesn’t work, I think I told you this before but I do have another one you can use. I cannot wait to test this out. *does happy dance* lol