Alright. We’ve had four awesome alpha weekends with you guys where we had a lot of fun duking it out in small-scale PvP. Here’s two videos, one made by us and one courtesy of the Serial MMOist.
Rumble in the Jungle
But now it’s time to go big. We’ve just sent out 800 single-use alpha keys for our next alpha test this coming Sunday (August 24th, 8 PM CET).
This test’s goal is to stress our game servers. We expect around 100 players to be able to log in at the same time so don’t be too upset if you don’t get in at first. Not everybody will actually make it to the test but we’ll still be over-subscribed a lot. You can also expect a good amount of lag as we’re getting nearer to the current server capacity - so keep your cool if things start lagging out a little (or a lot).
Our upcoming tests will be less crowded again as we’ll increase our server capacity further and keep the number of invitees a little smaller.
Veteran Tester Status
As I just wrote, these 800 keys we just sent out are single-use. So they are only good for this one test. Once the test is over you’ll have to wait for us to select you for another test again. This of course is going to get harder as more people sign up for the alpha waiting list.
The keys we’ve sent out to you before today are permanent - so if you’ve had a key before this test you will also be able to participate (and you’ll continue to be able to join our coming playtests).
But so far all of you have been restricted to playing only in the short time when we opened up our game server for the Sunday playtests. This is going to change for some people. We are occasionally going to promote a very small number of testers to veteran tester status - based on their feedback quality and testing prowess. This will enable you to log into the game server 24/7. And even better: It will allow you to log into the server even if we’ve already reached the player cap for that single playtest.
Development Contribution
So until now there have only been two ways to get into the alpha tests: Get randomly selected from the waiting list or impress us with your community contributions to the game (like signing up for our Greenlight campaign). We’re now working on opening up a third way.
This way will be by supporting our game’s development via alpha funding. In simple words, add to our company piggy bank and we’ll open our servers for you. Sounds dirty, but that’s game development for you, we need to pay the bills to keep the lights on. Even though we’re funded for the coming months, we need to start generating an income to sustain the team and even increase it. For example we’d really love to add another programmer to our team (with a focus on client side code and tools) - and new team members means new expenses.
Your support will earn you a bunch of awesome perks - one of them being access to the game’s alpha. But again: This will not be the only way to get into the alpha. The other two ways (join the waiting list or do something awesome in the community) are still perfectly valid. In some way or another you’re going to make it into the game, and I’m already looking forward to playing with you all.
Alex
