Havenhold News

Starkeepers takes place in the vast, mythical world of the spirits, their gods and creators. Beyond our mortal plane, there lies the vast magical realm of the stars, where all great mortal oracles are recorded and remembered.

This place is the Astral Plane, and it is here that our story begins…

The world of Starkeepers is full of lore and stories of epic proportions and you, the player, get to be a part of it all. As a player, you are an Astral - beings that have the power to become gods in their own right but have not yet grown into their full power and potential.

As an Astral, you will be able to embody any one of our incredible heroes. Keep your eyes out for future blog posts that will give you a look into the stories of some of these heroes. Hopefully, you will even end up with a favourite that you will be able to look forward to playing in Starkeepers.

While we don’t want to give too much away, we decided to speak with our Narrative team to see what they could share about the game. With the project growing and progressing, and with many new faces in our communities, we also wanted to re-introduce the members of our Narrative Team to everyone.

We even recorded the whole thing and made it into an accompanying development update video, which you can find linked below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Where do you envision the story of Starkeepers going?[/h2]
We pitched this question to Rudolf, Narrative Producer at Wolfpack Games to see what he had to say.

“We developed an expansive story world with a lot of depth beyond its face value. I intend to introduce the struggles of various godly entities to the players and hint at a bigger story with each new instalment!”

Players will meet many different godly entities and learn about their past and future struggles. As an Astral, players are considered deities themselves and the trials and tribulations of the gods may very well end up being the player's own.

Rudolf also hinted through a Tim Curry reference that the story for Starkeepers will end up being out of this world. Bonus points if you know which reference it is. Let Drew know, he’ll keep track of the points.

[h2]Different world themes?[/h2]
At launch, we will focus on one world theme, with more to come in each new season. We call our seasons ‘Epics’ which will include exciting content for you to get stuck into from the very beginning.

Each Epic will bring new themes and new content to explore. Encounters and quests are designed to be replayed multiple times, each time possibly resulting in different outcomes. The choices of the player will have a tangible impact on their experience.

Outside of the overarching world-building that ties everything in Starkeepers together, we can safely confirm that one of the first Epics that is being worked on is based on ancient Norse mythology. Very exciting stuff!

[h2]Making quests exciting[/h2]
Players will be able to come across interactable ‘things’ in the world. A player’s initial interaction may be a little mysterious at first. Along the lines of “what will happen if I do this?” rather than it being clear from the start what might happen.

There will always be a trade-off as to what the outcome of that interaction will be, with those trade-offs not necessarily being known from the start. You will have to discover these interactable points in the world for yourselves.

Don’t be surprised if any subsequent events end up being quirky or a little silly. We still want to have dashes of light-hearted fun without being all serious business.



[h2]What makes Starkeepers different?[/h2]
Starkeepers is a character-driven action combat multiplayer. You get to switch between different characters, level these characters independently, and give them all different attributes. If you have played a few different MMOs in the past, you may find that you need to have different, alt-accounts, if you wanted to approach the game from a different direction or try out different paths. In Starkeepers, you have the freedom to try out different paths. All this on a single account-wide experience.

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We hope you enjoyed hearing what our keepers of the Lore, otherwise known as the Narrative Team, had to share in our developer update video. As said at the end of the video, we are always available on our Discord server and love hearing everyone’s questions and feedback. If you have anything you want to ask, share or if you want to post any cute photographs of your adorable bundles of fluff (pets), then you know where to go.

We shall catch you all in the next one!
Drew & Angela
Community & Marketing

...

Wishlist Starkeepers on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2015760/Starkeepers/

Discord: https://discord.gg/starkeepers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlayStarkeepers

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@playstarkeepers

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playstarkeepers

Website (sign up for future playtests!): https://starkeepers.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmRqaLdiusy5FKg4dk2New

Attention all gamers and fantasy enthusiasts, Starkeepers is kicking off its first rounds of pre-alpha playtest, and we're looking for passionate and excited players to be a part of it!

Playtesting is an essential part of game development. It helps to ensure the game feels good to play and provides a way to identify any issues that may easily be overlooked. After spending many hours, days and weeks working on parts of a game, it is possible to grow accustomed to any ‘quirks’ that the game has and not recognise how they might impact the gameplay experience.

This is where working with playtesters is incredibly helpful. It brings fresh eyes, fresh perspectives and fresh ideas to the game. The more people you are able to have playtest the game and provide feedback, the more information you have to work with and the better you can make a game!

Recently, we have been collaborating with passionate MMO guilds to conduct small-scale, closed playtests. We have already implemented changes to Starkeepers based on the feedback we have received.

Do you want to join us for future playtests? We are looking for more people to help make Starkeepers the best it can be. Currently, these playtests are conducted under NDA, which means information obtained through the playtests are to be kept confidential. Each playtest will bring us closer to the public release.





If you would like to take part and give your feedback, follow the link below to sign up. We will contact selected individuals with email invitations for upcoming playtests.
https://www.starkeepers.com/sign-up

Remember to also join our Discord server as it is where we communicate with playtesters and make all of our relevant announcements. If you ask really nicely, our community manager might even share cat photos in our pets channel. Any excuse to share pet photos.

You can find all of our social channels below!

Drew & Angela
Community & Marketing

...

Wishlist Starkeepers on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2015760/Starkeepers/

Discord: https://discord.gg/starkeepers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlayStarkeepers

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@playstarkeepers

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playstarkeepers

Website (sign up for future playtests!): https://starkeepers.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmRqaLdiusy5FKg4dk2New

It’s been a busy year for us all here at Wolfpack Games. We are so proud of all that the team has achieved and equally grateful for the support from all of you. Here’s a quick summary of some of our highlights in 2022!



[h2]Title Announcement[/h2]
The big one! We announced Starkeepers to the world during the IGN Summer of Gaming in June 2022. We had our initial press push alongside showing off our first-ever teaser trailer. This teaser received over sixty-three thousand views on IGN’s official YouTube channel. This year we shall have some more fantastic content and new trailers to share with you. We can’t give you a timeline yet but we cannot wait to show off just how amazing Starkeepers is shaping up to be.

For those who have been keeping up to date with our development updates, you might have seen the one about our art direction. Our new trailers will show off this new art direction in all its glory!

[h2]Opened our Community[/h2]
Every game needs a fun, passionate and active community so we opened up our Discord in September! A place for everyone to gather together and talk about all things Starkeepers and beyond. Want to come in and chat about your favorite breakfast? You are always more than welcome.

We share sneak peeks into upcoming assets; you can find some of our devs and our Community Manager there and willing to chat. There is also our monthly Discord Q&A where you are welcome to ask any burning questions that you may have for the team.

As we continue to grow, we will involve our community more. Anything from playtesting; further Q&As; bringing content creators on board and more! It is the place to be if you are curious in finding out and following the development journey of Starkeepers.

There are some incredibly enthusiastic members in our community who regularly contribute to our Q&As and keep us on our toes with answers. Keep those questions coming and we shall keep up with answers! We might not be able to answer the big questions such as “when is the release date for Starkeepers” but we have been able to provide insight into many different specifics about the game. Whether that is talking about our music; the overall story for the game or the nitty-gritty of PvP. If you have any questions then it is always worthwhile to drop by our monthly Q&A in our Discord server. Even outside of our Q&A, our Discord server is the place to be if you want to be as involved as possible with Starkeepers!

[h2]Honed in on our Art Style[/h2]
A game’s art style dictates so much more than just a look. It directly impacts everything from the storytelling for our epic quest lines, to a specific ambience that we want to convey in a scene, right down to the finer details of how our characters express themselves through their clothing.

We are not afraid to admit that some of the assets you may have seen around in our social media materials did use several placeholder assets. In the early stages of development, we were dedicating the majority of our efforts towards the core functionality of the game. We want to make sure that our combat is fluid and engaging.

You may have seen on our social channels towards the end of 2022 that we started sharing more of our recent concept art pieces. This is because we have properly got the ball rolling with regard to honing in on our art style. We are excited to show off more of the assets that our teams have been working on. Hopefully, you’re as excited as we are!

We are shifting to a more mid-poly and stylized art direction that we envision will truly stand out when compared to others. The low-poly style that you may have previously seen in assets did look good, however it sometimes fell short of what we wanted to convey in our art with Starkeepers. Our worlds, characters and objects all take cues from different parts of ancient mythology from all over the world. We want our art style to be capable of paying homage to all of them.

[h2]Grew as a team![/h2]
Over the past six months, we have grown the team sizably. Across multiple areas of the studio (even hiring me, the Community Manager!). Our marketing materials like to mention how we are all a team of passionate MMO players who have come in with a wealth of experience in the industry. That is all true and, in fact, there is even more to it! We are a global team and have hired employees from all around the world. As we continue to develop Starkeepers, we will always be looking for talent, wherever they are!

[h2]Looking forward... Playtests and more![/h2]
You might already know this, but our first rounds of playtests are on the horizon! We are looking forward to involving members of the community in giving us early feedback on some of the game’s core systems such as combat and building. If you haven’t already, sign up for the playtest here and don’t forget to join our Discord to be eligible to participate!


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2022 has been an incredibly exciting year! 2023 is only going to bring more excitement and we invite you along to join us on the journey. From everyone here at Wolfpack Games, thank you. Thank you for all your support so far and we cannot wait to bring you something amazing.

Drew & Angela
Community & Marketing

...

Wishlist Starkeepers on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2015760/Starkeepers/

Discord: https://discord.gg/starkeepers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlayStarkeepers

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@playstarkeepers

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playstarkeepers

Website (sign up for future playtests!): https://starkeepers.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmRqaLdiusy5FKg4dk2New

For this month’s dev update, we have a huge and exciting update for you all. You might have noticed a change in the assets we have been posting across our social media channels. That’s because we are upgrading the overall art style and direction for Starkeepers. Establishing our own unique and amazing style, so expect us to really be taking our art up a notch!

Making changes to the art direction of a game is a huge decision that will affect the look and feel of everything that you see and do in-game. We wanted to make sure that we were making the right decisions and that these changes are something for everyone to be excited about!

A large reason for these changes is so we can establish a stronger identity. Something unique and fantastical to make Starkeepers truly stand out.

Up until now and being in the earlier stages of development, we have had to use placeholder assets in a few key areas. This is so we can focus on building out system mechanics and core gameplay features, while our art team have been hard at work behind the scenes.

Main fortress concept art


Our Art Director, Zazen Zhang joined us earlier this year and took up the role of being the art mastermind behind Starkeepers. We approached him to find out what he is most excited about the game, as well as what light he can shed on the new art direction.


[h2]When did you join Wolfpack Games and what is your main role in the project?[/h2]
I officially joined Wolfpack Studios in August as the Art Director. The overall art style of the game and everything that requires artistic inputs, from characters, to landscape, to VFX and animation falls within my purview. It's definitely a great responsibility!

[h2]What are you most excited about Starkeepers?[/h2]
What I’m really looking forward to is the fact that there will be a range of different game environments as well as hero characters, each with different backgrounds and personalities! We get to design everything from their features to their skills and really bring them to life. There is also the sandbox-building aspect of the Starkeep involving many different buildings and structures which means that I get to be imaginative with my work.

Main fortress indoors concept art

[h2]What are some of your favorite projects from before Starkeepers?[/h2]
I’ve worked on a large number of games and movie projects in the past. For games, I worked on ‘Reworld’ as well as some outsourced design work for Dota 2 and Sword Art Online 3. I have also worked on film projects such as ‘Rampage’ and ‘The Great Wall'.

My experience in game projects helped me to understand different game engines and how different tools impact the art output. My experience in film projects made me pay much more attention to how art and design best fit into the plot of a project and how they can elevate storytelling. How a character’s outfit shows off their personality or how the overall scene design will work best for in-game cinematics.

[h2]How are we upgrading the art style for Starkeepers? What changes will we see?[/h2]
All of the art assets in Starkeepers will be upgraded following the new art style, including character and environment designs. The main change is going from a simplistic low-poly art style to a more refined, stylistic art style. We will pay more attention to how an art asset can contribute to the overall atmosphere and theming in Starkeepers, ensuring that every element in the game is able to exist together in a holistic world.

Open world environment concept art

[h2]What are you most excited about with the new art direction?[/h2]
I’m most excited to see the new art assets for our characters being implemented in-game. We are still in the process of further refining our character models and material assets, but I believe that the new characters will bring more flare to our game world.

[h2]What sort of look and feel do you want our heroes to have?[/h2]
The redesign of characters will focus more on their overall cohesiveness, bringing together their appearances, backgrounds, and personalities. We want to show off the uniqueness of each hero, and make them feel like an integral part of the living, breathing game world. We will also be adding some details, such as VFX and animation within character gears as finishing touches.

Heroes concept art

[h2]Some of our characters, such as Utsi, looks different in the new art style. How different do we expect our characters to look?[/h2]
The redesign of Utsi will effectively transform him into quite a different hero compared to the previous version. The changes in design will reasonably reduce the number of unnecessary details, and place the design focus on the overall look and feel of the character, rather than individual intricacies. What a character wears will be cleaner, and unique features of the hero will be made more pronounced, but not through excessively exaggerating shapes and forms, or depicting copious amounts of details.

Utsi 3D model

[h2]Will there be a range of characters with different appeals and aesthetics?[/h2]
There will be many heroes added to our character roster, each with different traits, skills, stories and backgrounds. One of my favorite characters based on their character stories is Encore. I am currently working on their character redesign, which has been a lot of fun.

[h2]What would best describe our building mechanics?[/h2]
Our building mechanics follow a blueprint system and is designed as building blocks, with elements being more simple and geometric. This will give more flexibility to players when they are building up their Starkeeps. The exterior design of our Starkeep buildings will look more "battle-ready" with more attention put into the design and use of wooden and masonry structures that these Starkeep buildings will be comprised of.

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We hope you are as excited as we are after hearing from Zazen about our art direction and what that means for Starkeepers! We cannot wait to share with you an in-game look at how all of these elements and upgraded assets will come together.

Keep an eye on our social media channels for more updates, concept art and assets that we will be sharing! We are also gearing up for our future playtests, so join our discord for the most updated information on that! You can find all of our links below this update.

Hope you enjoyed the insight into our new art direction. Have a wonderful new year and we shall be back with the next one in 2023.

Drew & Angela
Community & Marketing

...

Wishlist Starkeepers on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2015760/Starkeepers/

Discord: https://discord.gg/starkeepers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlayStarkeepers

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@playstarkeepers

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playstarkeepers

Website (sign up for future playtests!): https://starkeepers.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmRqaLdiusy5FKg4dk2New

It feels like we’ve been so busy with development that we haven’t taken the opportunity to introduce some of our team members - so this blog is all about us!

Who are we? What were our motivations behind creating Starkeepers, and what are our favorite parts of the projects?

Our founders and team have a wealth of experience from working on other projects before Starkeepers. We approached some of them to find out a little more about their backgrounds and what drove them to build Starkeepers.

[h2]Who's behind Wolfpack Games Studio?[/h2]
Wolfpack Games was founded by Stephen Wang (CEO), Sheldon Wang (Studio Head), and Footman Liu (CTO). All who have extensive experience working on MMO projects and within the games industry as a whole. We approached Sheldon and Footman with some questions to find out more about their journeys in the games industry.

[h2]What were some of the previous projects our founders worked on?[/h2]
Sheldon, our Studio head, has been involved with a number of successful projects in the Chinese MMO industry. Here is what he had to say.

“The most successful project I have worked on was Dragon Oath which pulled in roughly 2 million daily active users at its peak. Some of my favorite parts from that project were the balanced in-game social system, easily approachable real-time PvP experience and the player-driven economy. A more recent project I led was Epic of Tia during my time at NetEase.” - Sheldon Wang

Footman, our CTO, produced a number of games based on traditional Chinese history and culture between the years 1995 and 2002. Three Kingdoms - Guandu and Three Kingdoms - Red Cliff between 1995 and 1997 with Qin Gothic being produced between 2000 and 2002 which sold over 60,000 copies.

“I have always been very interested in using games to express traditional Chinese culture, which is the motivation behind building some of my past game titles.

We produced Tian Jiao, an MMORPG between 2002 and 2004 which had a peak concurrent user count of 50,000 and has been operating for nearly twenty years. While in single-player games, the devs have more control over the narrative and storytelling, the good thing about multiplayer games is that you can create a virtual world in which players can write their own stories. This gives a huge sense of accomplishment.”- Footman Liu

[h2]What initially made you interested in the games industry?[/h2]
Sheldon shared his story from starting off in electronics hardware before moving into the games industry to pursue what he loved. Many of us get into the games industry due to our love of games. You will be sure to hear many stories from people you asked about how they grew up loving games and wanted to work in the industry.

“I was working with computer hardware in 2000, but didn’t find a job that suited me. I shut down my electronics repair store and turned to software development, finding that games development would be great to get into considering my love for video games.

I did also seriously think about what field would be more meaningful for me, and creating a world that people love must be it.” - Sheldon Wang

Footman had a different route into the industry but an equally interesting journey. One filled with a long-time passion for storytelling, worldbuilding and fantasy.

“From a young age I was exposed to a variety of western fantasy and wuxia-themed stories and movies. When I was sixteen years old, I had an idea, hoping that I could also create a wonderful virtual world. But at the time, I did not know how I would realise this idea. After I want to school, I finally was able to make my dream a reality. I hope to build a world by writing code, so I have been making games since then.” - Footman Liu

[h2]Where are we based?[/h2]
We are made up of a highly international team! While the core development team at Wolfpack Games Studio team is based in China, we have team members spread across the globe, including Netherlands, Scotland, and South Africa! Having the core team based in China does come with its own unique strengths such as having a deep understanding for designing social strategy, building in-game economic systems, and being highly agile.

[h2]What sets our team apart?[/h2]
MMOs are incredibly popular in China, and there is a very mature development scene for the genre. There are also differences that you will notice between Chinese-made MMOs compared to those made elsewhere. The differences have their respective positives and negatives. Sheldon briefly outlines a couple of the key differences that he has observed over the years.

“For example, Chinese MMOs typically have more in-depth social systems, while western ones on average have more creative worlds. We want to combine these strengths, which is also why we are working with a global team, to make a game that excels in both its creativity and social experience.” - Sheldon Wang

[h2]How has the MMO game dev landscape evolved over the last decade in China?[/h2]
The Chinese MMO scene has seen many changes over the last ten years brought about by macro changes - the availability of talent, and the explosion of mobile gaming. The market is still full of opportunities for new games to grow and find success. Sheldon is able to give his views on how the market has changed over the years.

"In the earlier days, a lack of game dev talent in China resulted in it being difficult to start large MMO projects. It was believed that finishing a project and getting it successfully online was a great success in itself already.

When more avenues for earlier funding became available to game studios, and more talent was coming out of universities, the industry was able to improve significantly when it came to technical aspects of game design and development. A trend that only continued with time!

In the more recent decade, the boom in mobile gaming have quickly surpassed MMOs, with large amounts of capital and development being attracted by the faster-moving mobile projects.

Regardless of all this, the MMO scene is still fertile soil! There are still huge opportunities here, including games that are able to go cross-platform. Once there are more quality products that are competitive globally, it would mean a lot for the MMO scene in China!" - Sheldon Wang



[h2]What is Starkeepers' positioning in the market?[/h2]
Arya is our Systems Design Team Lead, and she gave some of her insights about how Starkeepers fits in with the wider MMO market. What are we trying to do that’s different? What are the studio's ideals for wanting to create Starkeepers and what are we trying to achieve?

Every studio has a core vision and things that they always strive towards. Arya was willing to speak on behalf of the studio and talk about some of these core pillars at Wolfpack Games and how they have impacted the development of Starkeepers.

[h3]Easily approachable but with a high skill ceiling[/h3]
We’ve designed the game and combat systems to be friendly to new players and easy to pick up. This gives the opportunity for new players to access the core game experience faster. Players will be able to explore and experience a simplified version of what the game has to offer very early on.

Players who put in the time to hone their skills will realize that there is a high skill ceiling and with practice, will be able to string together various skill combos, or react quickly with attack blocks - gaining an upper hand in combat.

The high skill ceiling keeps the more dedicated players invested in improving their game, while the lower barrier to entry and balanced skills still allow newer players to remain competitive.

[h3]Multiple hero options[/h3]
Unlike most other MMOs, Starkeepers allows players to experience multiple heroes, each with different personalities and skill sets to level up individually. Players are Astrals in the world of Starkeepers. When a player unlocks a hero form, they start with a unique combination of traits for that hero, providing a different experience for each hero they play.

[h3]Many different options for players[/h3]
Players will be able to find fun in Starkeepers regardless of how they choose to play the game. PvP lovers have plenty of opportunities to battle it out. If you enjoy strategy, you will love planning your clan's warpath, or building up the defences of the Starkeeps, and of course, our vast world full of adventures and lore will keep our questers busy.

[h2]What makes Starkeepers unique?[/h2]

It is not unreasonable to draw parallels between Starkeepers and other games. So what makes Starkeepers unique and stand out against other MMOs that already exist? Arya gives her insight into how the player has an integral part to play in the world of Starkeepers. The choices that a player makes will affect their experience of the story each season.

"When questing, every single player can affect the progression of the main storyline each season. Player decisions will also impact the types of quests or events you encounter in the future. Giving players the additional agency results in a stronger sense of immersion, and making an impact within the game world. Different players will end up with unique encounters which can cause different quest endings to unfold. Players are encouraged to explore as much as possible and discover the unknown." - Arya Li

So that was a little about Wolfpack Games and some of the team here. Some of our developers can also be found in our Discord server and we are always willing to respond to your questions. If we can’t answer them at the time, we will make sure the right person comes back with an answer. You can join our discord here!

Catch you all in the next one!

Drew & Angela
Community & Marketing

...

Wishlist Starkeepers on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2015760/Starkeepers/

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3mCSmsgMfv

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlayStarkeepers

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@playstarkeepers

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playstarkeepers

Website (sign up for future playtests!): https://starkeepers.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmRqaLdiusy5FKg4dk2New