While major wrestling franchises continue to recycle the same annual formulas, a new independent project is taking a ground-up approach inspired by the golden era of pro wrestling video games.
Led by longtime wrestling game modder Grizz (founder of DOT Discovery)—a creator who has been modding wrestling titles since 1999 alongside professional game development experience—HONR is an upcoming sandbox wrestling game built in Unreal Engine 5.
Rather than simply cloning nostalgia, the team is studying what made classics like WWF No Mercy, Here Comes the Pain, Day of Reckoning, and SmackDown vs. Raw feel great, and engineering an original system from scratch
Read about why Honor is already turning heads in the wrestling gaming community.
Built Around User-Generated Content (UGC)
Licensing limits shouldn't dictate your roster. Honor is being built from the ground up as a true sandbox powered by user-generated content.
Similar to Fire Pro Wrestling, players will be able to create, share, and download custom wrestlers directly into their game—meaning your roster is only limited by what the community builds.
Movement & Grappling That Actually Gives You Control
Early Unreal Engine 5 development footage highlights a responsive movement and grappling system designed to fix common frustrations in modern wrestling games:
Mid-Grapple Steering: Target-facing and animation-driven controls allow you to steer opponents during holds—meaning you can actually turn an opponent mid-suplex to line up a table or corner spot.
Quick Grapples & Hold Strikes: Alongside weak and strong grapples, Honor brings back instant quick grapples for fast, reactive exchanges without entering a full lockup, plus the ability to strike an opponent multiple times while holding a grapple before executing a slam.
Collision Timing: The engine puts heavy emphasis on precise collision physics between wrestlers and the ring canvas itself.
A Risk-Reward "Spirit" Momentum System
Instead of a traditional stamina bar, Honor tracks match flow through a Spirit meter. Landing offense builds Spirit, while taking damage drains it—directly impacting your wrestler's resilience, recovery speed, and reversal window.
When you hit maximum Spirit, you have a strategic choice to make:
Fire Immediately: Unleash your finisher right away at max Spirit for massive bonus damage—at the risk of an opponent anticipating the move.
Bank It: Store the finisher for a safer opening later in the match, trading away that extra damage multiplier.
What’s Next?
The team behind Honor is gearing up to launch a Kickstarter campaign and has already laid out an itemized roadmap of where funding goes—including Rokoko motion-capture suits (currently processing), NoesisGUI interface tools, ring rentals, performer sessions, a universal character rig, and hiring an animation lead.
With the official website now live and early engine footage showing promising speed and responsiveness, Honor is easily one of the most intriguing indie wrestling projects on the horizon.
