Arkheron News

[p]We are expecting to share more information about our Community-Run playtests shortly! [/p][p]In the meantime, our Korean and Japanese publisher, [/p][p]Drimage, has a playtest update for players in these regions.[/p][p][/p][p]If you’re in those regions, please switch your Steam language settings to view the update.[/p]

[p]When people first play Arkheron, the first thing they often comment on is the camera. That comment usually goes something like, ‘hey - what the fuck?’ And we’re glad you asked![/p][p][/p][p]While people often find the controls comfortable after a bit of practice, some are still curious how we landed here. Arkheron’s control scheme deviates from the industry’s norms and it’s natural for that to prompt some questions. We’d love to share a bit of that backstory and what role the controls play in Arkheron’s combat ecosystem.  
[/p][p]To explain where we are, first we have to go back to where we were. From the outset, our team meant to make a game that was in essence a ‘dungeon royale’. We wanted to combine visceral combat with battle royale mechanics inside a dark fantasy world. Arkheron today captures this dream with its high-stakes close quarters combat that centers around creating your own build through items in an Ascension royale mode. [/p][p][/p][p]However, if you had logged into our internal servers several years ago you would have played a vastly different game. It took several iterations to find the fun and then expand on it. In a previous iteration, we had combat that revolved around fixed character classes, varied terrain levels and a locked isometric camera. 
[/p][p]PvP was still the core focus but combat was much slower and gameplay focused much more on navigating through choke points and other hazards in the Tower. It was a design that required spatial awareness which is where the fixed isometric viewpoint added friction. You couldn’t peek around corners. You couldn’t tell if someone was sneaking up behind you. It was an experience with hard limits. [/p][p][/p][p]With fixed character classes, your first dozen or so matches had options to explore. But after a certain point, there was minimal replayability. Your only options were which class to pick and then what strategy you’d use within that pre-determined framework. You couldn’t make meaningful choices to determine your gameplay experience from match to match. 
[/p][p]The existence of high and low terrain areas usually meant that whoever had the high ground would win. The combination of these three elements meant that players had minimal agency over their gameplay experience which subsequently meant that we had less design room to explore. [/p][p][/p][p]This version of Arkheron was okay! Good enough that we were still enthusiastic about working on it. But games have to be fun and it didn’t quite spark the joy we were looking for. So we put our heads down and made a series of changes that meaningfully changed what we were working on. [/p][p] [/p][p]First, we put the camera on a swivel to provide a 360° view of your surroundings. This immediately made the combat more dynamic and high stakes by requiring precise aiming of your abilities to land shots and prompting you to use the space around you more effectively. Situational awareness and sound cues both suddenly became important. 
[/p][p]Secondly, we broke the character class abilities out into item sets. This meant that you could technically play those previous classes if you collected each item in the set, but unlocked a plethora of new combinations through mixing and matching. It meant that every match, there were choices to make and potential synergies to uncover. [/p][p][/p][p]These two changes in concert were larger than the sum of their parts. They multiplied each other to create countless new options for what we could create and how combat felt. All of a sudden, it all clicked. We collectively felt we had tapped into something new and real that we could confidently bring to more players. We were thrilled! 
[/p][p]Once we found the fun, we committed! This commitment meant we would have to take a year to rewrite our netcode to support faster combat. It also meant we could take the leap to reshape the Tower. We removed high and low terrain to flatten the environmental advantage and recrafted our environmental assets to look good from these angles. 
[/p][p]While it took multiple changes in concert to find the fun of Arkheron as you know it, the free-aim isometric camera was the turning point. Not only did moment-to-moment gameplay become more thrilling, it created more design room for us to explore. The close-quarters combat zone created by this perspective allows both melee and ranged abilities to stay within reach of each other from a balance perspective. We didn’t have to go all in on one or the other like some games do. 
[/p][p]With all that said, the camera was never designed to be a core feature. It’s not some marvel of ingenuity. It’s not by itself, ‘the fun’. However, when we look at Arkheron’s combat as a whole, the free-aim isometric camera is what brings everything together and makes the fun possible.  It’s also not perfect and we may still make some small tweaks to it in the future. 
[/p][p]Some common queries we get from players are ‘Can you zoom it out a smidge?’ or ‘Can you tilt it up just slightly?’ These are valid thoughts and ones we’ve spent a fair bit of time considering. 
[/p][p]The desire to zoom out usually stems from the desire to see enemies from farther away to help prepare for their arrival. This would mean that you could see enemies that are out of reach of your damage, and usually out of reach of your ability to chase them. This could create gameplay motivations that are less likely to have a fun pay-off. (I see you, I chase you, I can’t get you, I’m not fighting enough, I’m getting bored, I’m not having fun) 
[/p][p]Additionally, if we zoomed the camera out so you could see enemies you can’t hit or chase, the natural follow-up request would be, ‘Can you make my abilities go farther so that it’s possible to hit the enemies I can see?’. This would essentially land us back where we are now. Enemies on your screen are enemies that you can meaningfully pursue - whether you’re ranged or melee. 
[/p][p]We committed to this camera perspective because of the fun it unlocks and then built the game to optimize around that view in a variety of ways. This means that altering the view even slightly would have a cascading effect on other game systems. For example, the current point-of-view means less overhead on the game client trying to render everything which is beneficial for managing performance. We are still working on getting Arkheron’s performance to where we want it to be at launch but zooming the camera out further would undermine these efforts.  [/p][p]This would also change the way our environmental assets are viewed. They aren’t designed to be seen from other perspectives and committing to changing the view would mean changing all of our assets so that they looked good again. There may be some wiggle room there but with both technical and environmental costs, it’s a deceptively large change to make. [/p][p][/p][p]If you made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time to hear a little bit of our Bonfire Studios lore. All of our biggest commitments in our journey so far have been in service to fun. We are just people and we figure that as long as we’re having fun, at least a few other people will find it fun too. If that’s you, welcome! We are excited to have you here for the journey ahead.[/p][p]
[/p]

[p]We recently announced that our team is going heads down to get ready for our upcoming Closed Beta in a few months. In the meantime, we gave the community the tools to run their own playtests! These have been running for about two weeks now and we’ve absolutely loved seeing how the community has come together to create their own mini-playtests. 
[/p][p]As a result, we’ve extended the uptime by two weeks! We will keep servers open for participating Discords until December 7th at 11:59 PST. At this point, we'll check how it's going for the community and may be able to extend it.
[/p][p]We’re also still taking sign ups from Discords who would like to participate in running their own playtests. Apply here. [/p][p][/p][p]HOW DO COMMUNITY-RUN PLAYTESTS WORK? [/p][p]Discords who sign up to run Community-Run playtests and are accepted are given access to Arkheron queues that are available 24/7. Members can technically play at any time but we encourage organising playtest times to help ensure enough players are online at the same time to start a match.
[/p][p]Each Discord has its game servers hosted in one location. Right now, there are three Discords that have Community-Run playtests enabled: [/p][p][/p]

• [p]Mobalytics hosted on North American servers.[/p]
• [p]Arkheron Competitive hosted on European servers. [/p]
• [p]BalorMage hosted on OCE servers.
  [/p]

[p]You’re welcome to join all of the Discords! Just keep in mind that if the game servers are far away from you, you may not have the best ping. [/p][p]
HOW TO JOIN: [/p]

• [p]Get a game key. If you have one already, you’re set. Otherwise, each Discord has a sign up link that will grant you access. [/p]
• [p]Link your Discord account to the Arkheron Client.[/p]
• [p]Join the Mobalytics Discord, the Arkheron Competitive Discord, or BalorMage’s Discord depending on which server location or community you prefer. (You can join as many as you want!) [/p]
• [p]Get the ‘ArkheronPlaytest’ role in that Discord.[/p]
• [p]Check the Discord server(s) you joined their Discord for their designated playtest window or rally friends to come online to start a match at any time. Games need a minimum of 24 players in order to start. 
  [/p]

[p]TRAINING MODE[/p][p]Training Mode will be available 24/7 for anyone who has a key. There are no additional steps required to join as long as you have downloaded the client. In Training, you can experiment with Arkheron’s item systems. The sparring room also is a great option for small groups of friends to self-organise mini-matches (1v1, 2v2, 3v3)!
[/p][p]Good luck, have fun! [/p][p]
[/p][p]
[/p]

[p]In September, we revealed Arkheron and hosted two community-wide playtests on our Alpha build. Our team was thrilled with how these went and to see many new Arkheron fans joining our community spaces. We’ve received a lot of questions about what’s next and this post will outline what to expect. 
[/p][p]CLOSED BETA & COMMUNITY-RUN PLAYTESTS[/p][p]We are currently getting ready for the Arkheron Closed Beta that will begin in a few months, which means our team needs to go heads-down and focus on development work. We aren’t ready to provide the support needed for hosting our own community-wide playtests just yet. 
[/p][p]However, since our last Alpha Playtest, we’ve been asked almost daily when players can play next and we don’t want to leave you hanging. We’ve come up with an experimental idea to give the community the tools to run their own playtests through Discord. 
[/p][p]We’ve partnered with the Mobalytics team to host the first Community-Run Playtest so that we can see how it goes. If it works well and the community enjoys it, then we can expand into more Discords to give the community more options! 
[/p][p]HOW DO COMMUNITY-RUN PLAYTESTS WORK? [/p][p]We’ve provided the Mobalytics Discord server with the information and game access needed to host their own playtests with members of their Discord.
[/p][p]Queues are enabled for members from now until November 23rd at 11:59PM PST. The servers are up 24/7 to give Mobalytics the freedom to designate any desired play window without needing to ask us to set it up each time. We recommend choosing specific play times to help encourage players to be online at the same time to make sure there are enough people to fill matches.
[/p][p]The Mobalytics playtests will be hosted on a North American server. You can join from any location outside of North America but we only recommend doing this if you’re comfortable not having the optimal ping experience. [/p][p][/p][p]Steps to Join[/p]

• [p]Get a Steam Key - If you have one, you’re all set. Otherwise - sign up through the Mobalytics link here.  [/p]
• [p]Log into the Arkheron client and follow the prompts to link your Discord account[/p]
• [p]Join the Mobalytics Discord[/p]
• [p]Get the ‘ArkheronPlaytest’ role in their Discord
  [/p]

[p]Their first designated playtest window will be on November 8th, starting at 5 PM PT until 9 PM PT. If people want to continue playing at the end of the playtest window, they are free to do so as long as there are still enough players to kick off matches. Check out the Mobalytics Discord for more information on additional play windows. 
[/p][p]We’re still on our Alpha Build, so performance and other elements remain about the same as the last playtest. We recommend only jumping in if you’re okay with the experimental nature of things right now. [/p][p][/p][p]WHAT ELSE? [/p][p]If you prefer not to join our first community-run playtest for any reason, that’s totally okay! We are working on getting ready for the Closed Beta and you can jump in then. Alternatively, you could try Training Mode or ask your preferred Discord to request access to Community-Run playtests instead. 
[/p][p]TRAINING MODE
Training Mode will be available 24/7 for anyone who has a key. There are no additional steps required to join as long as you have downloaded the client. In Training, you can experiment with Arkheron’s item systems. The sparring room also gives an option for small groups of friends to self-organise mini-matches (1v1, 2v2, 3v3)

HOW TO REGISTER YOUR DISCORD[/p][p]If your Discord server would like to host their own Community-Run Playtests for Arkheron, we are currently accepting applications. [/p][p]
To qualify, your Discord needs at least 200 members. Higher member counts will be prioritized and we may not be able to accept all applications.
[/p][p]Fill out the application form here.[/p][p][/p][p]FAQ[/p][p]We will update this as questions come in! 
[/p][p]Are these playtests secret? Can I stream and make content of my gameplay? [/p][p]They’re not secret! You’re welcome to stream, make content and share your experiences with your friends. 
[/p][p]Will bot-Ascension matches be available in Training Mode? [/p][p]We will re-enable bot-Ascension at a later date but they are temporarily unavailable. [/p][p][/p][p]Why aren’t you hosting these playtests from the official Arkheron Discord Server? [/p][p]We want to learn insights about what the community wants to do when they have the tools to control it. Additionally, because we run the official Discord we would essentially be hosting the playtest ourselves. [/p][p][/p][p]Why is there only one server location per playtest? [/p][p]This is partly for simplicity while we’re setting up the prototype for the Community-Run playtests. Multiple server locations change the concurrency math and has implications for what times the playtest windows should be. We also don’t have a ‘server selection’ option on the client yet as we’re still working on it. 
[/p][p]In the future, it will be important to have these options but we don’t have the means to support it just yet. If you know of any Discord servers that might be suitable and based in your area, please encourage them to apply![/p]

[p]We want to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone who played Arkheron during the Alpha Playtests. We deeply appreciate all your feedback and the love you’ve shown to Arkheron! [/p][p][/p][h3]What’s Next?[/h3][p]Right now, our team is re-grouping to review everything we learned from our first two Alpha playtests and finalizing our plans for next steps.
[/p][p]That includes nailing down the exact dates and times we’ll be able to welcome you back into the Tower for more fighting, more looting, and more glorious victories! So stay tuned, and if you haven’t already, be sure to Wishlist Arkheron and Join Our Discord Community![/p][p][/p][h3]Community Highlights[/h3][p]While we couldn’t possibly capture every incredible moment you all experienced over the last two weekends, our team did pull together some of our favorite highlights from across the community. Check out our Alpha Playtest Highlight Video HERE![/p][p] [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]