At least one of you out there didn’t believe me on that last letter >:(

Hello everyone! Spring has sprung, quite late I might add, but we’re seeing clear skies from the 53rd floor for the first time in a good while. We’ve had a good week, and I think that’s about that’s earnestly the best way to describe it. Bugs are being fixed, axes are being sharpened, and the dominion is becoming… dominion-ey-er. Of all the huge strides however, the best one is definitely that — after months of back and forth — we are now approved to launch on the Discord store. It would really now be as simple as a flick of a switch to launch our longly awaited Open Beta.

But we won’t be, yet. Because even though we are physically able to get that party started, we still have a last few things to iron out before we let the hamsters on their server-powering wheels. However, and I know this is what everyone reading this is waiting for, I do have a date:

Friday, May 31st, at 5pm PST.

If that’s what you’re here for, you’re free to leave now; i suppose. But from here I’ll talk about the specifics of the Open Beta and what you can expect from it versus when Production servers launch.

Starting off, we’ll be running a copied version of the current Production database for the Beta. The copy is from around three months ago, meaning that if you log in to your linked account in the Beta, you’ll be starting off with any characters you had from when the copy was made. However, Beta servers will not effect Production servers and vice versa. You can still progress in the Beta, but any progress you make will be wiped on Production release. If your account is not currently linked, or if you cannot login for any reason, you can absolutely still make a new account on the Testing sever, but it will not transfer over to Production.

The Open Beta will be PC only, with a Mac version either included at the start of Beta or shortly thereafter.

Additionally, not all features planned for Production release are currently included in the Beta. To list a few things: We still have not created a finalized title screen or created the GUI to pair with it; the very basic main menu is just a functionality placeholder. There is also currently no loading screen between maps (partially because maps take about .2 seconds to load), but on release there will be a more descript loading screen including all the usual information, flavor text, and additionally a small tidbit on whether or not difficulty for an encounter is more suited to the PC platform.

To be clear, however, there will always be a way to progress through the most difficult content on Mobile; and you will never be locked out of an encounter for being on Mobile. Difficulty for endgame encounters will be designed in mind to be challenging on both platforms without being too easy or difficult for the other. I’ll talk a little more in the future for how I plan to manage this kind of difficulty scaling, but the platform recommendation will act as majorly as a warning to newer players that may not know what they’re getting in to; especially if they’re on mobile.

There will also of course still be a Saturday Stream tomorrow at noon PST on my twitch here, if you’re into that kind of thing.

These are exciting times for us on the 53rd floor, and we can’t wait to get the party started with all of you. Hope to see you in the Beta!

Typ.