Lost Isle News

Lost Isle Beta playtesting is coming soon! We've made massive improvements to many areas of the game since the last Alpha playtest, and we're excited for players to experience all the pieces coming together.

We want to expand closed access to as many players as possible in the coming months. Our next phase of public testing will begin in the first week of November, with more keys, players, and servers added to the ecosystem at that time. Testing is a HUGE priority for us, but effective testing takes time to ensure everything runs smoothly. If you haven't received access yet, hang tight—keys and access are on their way! In the near future, we'll also be opening additional servers in NA, Asia, and Europe.

If you're interested in participating in any future testing, all you have to do is follow the simple sign-up steps below - this process should take

1. Join our Discord community
   
2. Navigate to the "playtest-sign-up" channel in the General Hub. Review the requirements, fill out the fields, and submit this form for admin review
   
3. When approved, you'll receive a message with instructions to navigate to the "playtest-embargo-agreement" form. Review the terms and, if you agree with them, complete and submit for admin review
   
4. After your embargo agreement form has been reviewed and approved, you will automatically be given the role of "Playtester" and have access to the "playtesters" chat channel which will serve as the hub for all playtesting participation
   

Participants who are approved as playtesters will receive an access key to the Steam build that will be available to download on the first day of testing.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out in the Discord and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your willingness to participate in playtesting - this is an extremely important part of the process of making our game the very best it can be.

We look forward to surviving together with you, and against you, very soon.


-The Lost Isle Team

With our early access launch fast approaching, we thought it would be a great time to release a roadmap to early access and beyond. Without further ado... here it is!


Our small yet mighty team of 7 has been working full-time on Lost Isle for about 2.5 years, and we're very proud of how far it has come. That being said, we continue to have ambitious and exciting long-term plans for Lost Isle that extend far past our initial launch.

Our focus between now and then is to build the strongest foundation possible with important, challenging, and fun core features so that we can start building the future of the game together with our awesome community. Some of the community involved decision making events will include:

• Feature Polls - where we the developers propose several variations of a specific feature and the community gets to vote and decide how we move forward
  
• Town Halls - anyone who is part of the community can participate in a town hall style meeting where we brainstorm and iterate on ideas together
  
• Developer AMA's - one or several developers from the team will fire up a live stream and the community can ask them anything
  

More details regarding these events and more will be published in future announcements.

If you have any questions about the roadmap, please feel welcome to join our Discord community. You can talk all you want or say nothing at all. If you're interested, this is also the place to sign up as a playtester.

We're firing up our socials again where screenshots and clips will be posted regularly. You can follow along on X

Most importantly, make sure you Wishlist Lost Isle on Steam!

There is much to look forward to in Lost Isle and in life, friends. One step at a time, we'll surely get there.

Until next time...

[h2]What's New?[/h2]

Every month we get closer to having a fully complete tiered progress loop, and this month we've added a particularly interesting piece of the puzzle. With 3 tiers of researchable and craftable weapons and armor, there of course have to be sources of the required raw materials.

The 3rd and final tier of each item type requires some kind of cosmic energy infused raw material that can be harvested throughout the Lost Isle. In this case we'll be diving into the source of the top tier leather armor material called "Stonehide" - a thick-skinned, vicious, winged predator of the night that may soon become the subject of your nightmares.

[h3]Night Beasts[/h3]

As you may have have inferred from their name, Night Beasts only spawn at night. More specifically, they spawn high in the air above monuments and other points of interest where they begin patrolling the dark sky.

Their behavior is to circle areas where players are most likely to be found before flying to different points of interest looking for prey. Although they're high up in the air, they have a MASSIVE detection radius. Once they spot a player, they lock on target and fly at high speed to the player's location - landing on the ground to begin combat.

Without spoiling the entire encounter, here's a quick rundown of a few of their abilities:

Shadow Breath
Deals repeating damage every second to players within the affected area. If a player takes damage from Shadow Breath, they will also be afflicted by a blinding debuff that significantly blurs vision for a short period of time.

Bloodcurdling Scream
After a quick warning, the beast screams into the night causing players caught within the radius to cower in fear - rooting them in place for several seconds - giving the beast enough time to successfully land a devastating follow-up attack combo.

Fear of Light
Whether you're a fresh player with no gear afraid or unable to take on a Night Beast, or you're a geared player who just needs a mid-fight breather, you can exploit their vulnerability to light. Simply equip a candle or torch and they will immediately begin to flee. After 30 seconds of cumulative exposure to light they will leave combat and return to their patrol route, so if you want to finish the fight make sure you don't have your torch out for too long.

Bringing down a Night Beast is the most reliable way to gather enough Stonehide to craft your top tier leather armor, but players will also be able to loot it (rarely) from supply carts and crates. And if this type of encounter seems a little intimidating, that's perfectly understandable - we recommend bringing along a good friend or two that will have your back. :)

[h3]Other Notes[/h3]

• We're neck deep in development preparing for our Beta launch in early August. If you're interested in participating as a playtester make sure you join our Discord! (link below)
  
• With Beta coming up soon we're looking to partner with content creators of all types and sizes. If that's you, join our Discord and send us a message!
  

[h3]Stay in the Loop[/h3]

Don't miss out on important updates - make sure to wishlist Lost Isle here on Steam, join our Discord community, and follow us on X!

[h2]What's New?[/h2]

Over the last year or so we've been looking for the right way to make our different types of first-person combat (magic, archery, melee) fun and rewarding for those who skillfully use their weapon, while keeping the mechanics as simple and approachable as possible.

I.e. Low barrier to entry with high skill ceiling.

Many games use various forms of builder/spender systems. The player has a resource that starts at 0, and the more accurately/successfully you play your character the faster that resource increases. Once the resource passes a certain threshold you can use a very powerful ability.

Since Lost Isle doesn't have fixed classes or characters, our builder/spender system will be entirely centered around weapon types, and the resource will be called "Focus".

[h3]Focus[/h3]

Whether your weapon of choice is a magic wand, crossbow, or battleaxe, each of your successfully landed basic attacks will reward you with Focus.

Giantsbane for example is a tier 3 two-hand battleaxe with basic attacks that are slow but strong slashes.


Since the attack speed on this weapon is slow, it will take fewer successful hits to fill up your focus compared to weapons with faster attack speed.


Once you reach 100% focus your weapon will glow with a unique effect, indicating to you, and your enemies, that you're ready to unleash a powerful ability.


And you'll be able to unleash your weapon's special; in this case, Execute: a devastating attack that deals extra damage based on each point of your target's missing health.


Each different weapon type has a unique full-focus glow effect and special ability, so whatever your play style might be - a spell-slinging wizard, an arrow-flinging archer, or an axe-swinging warrior - there is something awesome for you!

[h3]Other Notable Notes[/h3]

• We're neck deep in development preparing for our Beta launch in early August. If you're interested in participating as a playtester make sure you join our Discord! (link below)
  
• With Beta coming up soon we're looking to partner with content creators of all types and sizes. If that's you, join our Discord and send us a message!
  

[h3]Stay in the Loop[/h3]

Don't miss out on important updates - make sure to wishlist Lost Isle here on Steam, join our Discord community, and follow us on X!

Lost Isle's third round of Alpha playtesting will take place on Thursday, June 13! We'll be giving out 75 access keys this week to approved playtesters for the Steam build that will be available to download with servers live to join from 7-9 pm ET.

If you're interested in participating in this round of playtesting, or any future testing, all you have to do is follow the simple sign-up steps below - this process should take

1. Join our Discord community
   
2. Navigate to the "playtest-sign-up" channel in the General Hub. Review the requirements, fill out the fields, and submit this form for admin review
   
3. When approved, you'll receive a message with instructions to navigate to the "playtest-embargo-agreement" form. Review the terms and, if you agree with them, complete and submit for admin review
   
4. After your embargo agreement form has been reviewed and approved, you will automatically be given the role of "Playtester" and have access to the "playtesters" chat channel which will serve as the hub for all playtesting participation
   

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out in the Discord and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your willingness to participate in playtesting - this is an extremely important part of the process of making our game the very best it can be.

We look forward to surviving together with you, and against you, very soon.


-The Lost Isle Team