We are still under a strict NDA and cannot comment on specific ongoing negotiations. We can, however, move to the next stage of our planning, including announcing the self-funding of licensing for Darkfall: Rise of Agon as well as the upcoming Alpha and Beta phases.
Funding
We are happy to announce that Big Picture Games will be self-funding the licensing costs for the Darkfall Online assets. We are raising the funds internally to not only secure licensing but to also run server operations for several months through Alpha and into Beta. This means that we will be able to offer Alpha access free of charge! Our game servers are taking shape in New York and our development team and engineers are eagerly awaiting for us to have the signed license in hand so that they can get to work on development. However, to ensure that we can achieve our development goals and provide the best experience for all of our players, we will be relying on our community for funding before and throughout our Beta phases. We will release more details on how you can help contribute to this project alongside what incentives there will be for the various pledge levels that we have created in the coming weeks.
Alpha Sign-Ups
We will soon be opening enrollment for our Alpha access to Darkfall: Rise of Agon and are very excited to invite the community to join us on our server during this time. Sign-ups will open up in the coming weeks and we will provide an official announcement and where and how to sign up. Access will initially be subject to an NDA although we plan to lift this as things progress during Alpha. We will be starting off with a limited number of Alpha keys for initial stress testing with plans to continually introduce waves of new players. Alpha is expected to last 4 to 8 weeks until we can ensure that the game client and server is fully functioning and stable. For those interested in joining us during Alpha who do not get in as soon as they would like, we have coordinated livestreams from prominent streamers so anyone can get a glimpse of the action.
The focus of our Alpha will be on addressing the power gap and alignment system as outlined in our road-map found here. It goes without saying that the Alpha period will be very rough as we will be testing updates, familiarizing ourselves with the game systems and trying to break what we can. We plan to have massively increased gains and/or maxed skills to all players so they can go out and hunt, craft, build and destroy to their desire. Wipes are very likely to occur during Alpha and a final one will be applied prior to the start of our Beta phase.
Beta
Beta is going to be something we cannot yet give an accurate timeline on for its duration as it is dependent on how quickly and effectively we can achieve our initial development goals. The reason we say this is because we want to make many changes and additions to the game before we launch and will not do so until these are complete. We want to ensure that we get things right, not rush a half finished product, and we feel the community would prefer this as well from the feedback we've received.
Early access to Beta will be acquired through various pledge levels during our community funding. We hope to avoid a wipe but with the amount of changes planned during Beta it may be necessary, and we want to be very transparent about that. More details on the benefits of pledging your support during Beta will be announced soon along with the various incentives that you will be provided.
Thank you!
Activity has been booming on our website in recent weeks and next week we're expecting even more as we start putting some of our major plans into action. I want to thank all of the community on behalf of myself and the whole team for their support and involvement in this project!
The future vision of Darkfall in the hands of a grassroots, community driven company is shaping into a reality. We want all of you there with us and hope you'll check in with us next week as we have a lot of things in store to present to you. As always, please join the discussions on our forum and post your questions!
Thanks for reading & have a great weekend!