Moving Home

12/06/2026

Faction Packed Has a New Home

We're thrilled, and more than a little relieved to share some news we've been holding onto for a while: Faction Packed is now part of Hey Cat! Studios.

If you've been playing, you may have been wondering what was coming next. Here's the honest version. The game's original home recently had to make the hard decision to focus on other initiatives and was no longer in a position to keep Faction Packed going. For a lot of games, that's where the story ends.

But we had poured ourselves into Faction Packed, and we couldn't sit back and watch it disappear. So, we did something about it. The transfer is now almost complete; the game isn't going anywhere and it's getting a real second life.

What this means for the game

We didn't just want to keep the lights on. We came in with the original internal roadmap in hand: all the features and content we'd mapped out but never got the chance to ship.

There's a lot we're genuinely excited about. Dungeons to explore, faction wars worth fighting for, foraging to make the world feel alive, and plenty more we'll talk about as it gets closer. The narrative matters a lot to us, too, it got off to a strong start internally, and we want to give it the room to actually unfold the way it was always meant to and let you in on the rich history and story of these champions and the lore of Edar.

A note on pace (the honest part)

We want to be straight with you: we're a smaller team now. That means new features and content will take longer to arrive than they might have with a big budget behind them. We'd rather say that plainly than over-promise and let you down later.

What we can promise is that everything we ship will be made with care, and that we're doing this because we love the game not because a spreadsheet told us to. We're in it for the long haul.

Important: Android players, please read this

There's one practical wrinkle we need your help with.

When the game moved over to us, the iOS app transferred cleanly, so if you play on iOS, you don't need to do anything. Unfortunately, we couldn’t transfer the original Google Play android versoin the same way.

So, if you're a existing or returning Android player, you'll need to reach out to our support team so we can migrate your account data across to you. We know that's an extra step or two, and we're sorry for the hassle, we'll make it as quick and painless as we can.

Android account migration: email us at support@fp.heycat.co.uk or log a ticket via Discord at https://bit.ly/4nXWHb8

Thank you for sticking around

Saving Faction Packed was the easy decision. Building it into the game we know it can be that's the work ahead, and honestly, we can't wait to get stuck in.

Thank you for being here for the next chapter.

There's a lot more to come.

The Hey Cat! Studio team

In regard and reverence of the druid

19/01/2026

The Shee

A story emerges, a character comes forth. From collecting folklore around the Irish and Celtic druids, we create a character that holds reverence and homage for Irish druid folklore.

Irish druid folklore tells of the Sidhe (Shee) as quite spiritual and intellectual. They are seers and mystics, often as advisors to kings. In our own story, for Faction Packed, I see our druid as a wandering spirit, symbolised by her porcelain skin. A protector of her forest, "Shee" whom has become one with the forest and the knowledge of the trees. Levitation, Shapeshifting, Storm-breath, all accounts of stories that confirm that druids from Irish Mythology are fascinating!

The etymology comes from adapting two words in Old Irish, the words deru (oak) and weid (to see/know). This brings the druid to mean “Knower of the Oak”

Being the lorekeepers of their lands, they memorized vast amounts of oral tradition which made them ripe to become the teachers, historians, poets and likely, bards! In all regards, they were highly revered.

Early folklore that endows the druid tells of the origins of their power. The story of Finegas (Fin Ecas) and Fionn, master and pupil.

One sunny day, Finegas is fishing along the River Boyne. As if by no luck other than fate, Finegas hooks a Giant Salmon, soon securing the fish and preparing to roast over the spit. This very Salmon had eaten the Nut of Knowledge fallen from one of the many Trees of Knowledge. The story goes that Fionn, while cooking the Salmon on the spit, eagerly turning and turning, burns his thumb on the Salmon. Fionn instinctually sticks the pulsing thumb into his mouth and is imbued with a feverish wisdom!

Fionn can now harness the power of tienm laida. By reciting an incantation and chewing on his thumb, the Thumb of Knowledge -- prophetic and hidden knowledge is revealed to him.

In another version of the story, the knowledge is passed to his teeth which unfortunately has no ties to tooth faeries. The earliest precursor is perhaps in Norse tradition of tand-fé (tooth-fee), notably as Viking warriors believed that teeth brought good luck in battle. I digress!

A strong reverence for druids had even stirred St. Patrick. He bans the magic power of teinm laida on his holy-day, arguing that knowledge through "divination" required offerings to demons.

Used in Shakespearean plays, the act of biting one's thumb aimed at another person, was intended as a bid for ill will or generally offensive stance. Or, in the case of Irish druids, thumb biting was casting an incantation at your enemy.