Alexander Alusheff

Lansing State Journal

LANSING – A video game developed in Lansing has been released to the public after gamers around the world voted it as the game they most wanted to see on Steam, a popular computer gaming platform with over 125 million players.

Tuebor was released on Thursday. It is listed as an early-access game, meaning it is not a finished product, but it is free to play.

“I was bracing myself for the negative side of the internet,” said Scott Reschke, CEO of Strength in Numbers Studios. “But it’s been overwhelmingly positive.”

Tuebor takes place in a post-apocalyptic dystopia set roughly 5,000 years in the future where humans fight mutants, telepaths and cyborgs. Players can play one of 30 characters, among them the half-woman, half-spider Illiria; the Scottish warrior Nyd, who has a machine gun for an arm; and Micro, a man made out of nanites who can move through other players in the game.

The game is played in third person and Reschke describes it as a mix of a massive online battle arena, role-playing game and third-person shooter.

"It has all the aspects of games I know and love, so it's easy to pick up," said Jeff Wurzler, an independent game tester, who has played the game before its release. "It's so much fun."

That compliment doesn't come lightly from Wurzler, who has tested games such as Bethesda Studio's award-winning Fallout 4 and Valve's zombie shooter Left 4 Dead.

"I think it stands up well against other indie games," he said. "It's a huge market to break into as an indie developer. But its different twists on the massive online battle arena (genre) will bring in clientele."'

Tuebor was released with four game modes, or scenarios, to play - Team Annihilation, Skull Ball, Capture the Core and Death and Glory. There are more game modes to come.

In Team Annihilation, two player teams fight with their characters to the death until they get enough points or run out of time. Skull Bull is like a "Mad Max" version of soccer - two teams try to get a large, metallic skull into the opposing team's net while fighting one another. Capture the Core is the game's version of capture the flag. Death and Glory pits a team of players against infinite waves of computer-controlled enemies.

The gameplay is of Team Annihilation reminiscent of Unreal Tournament, while Skull Ball will feel similar to Rocket League for players, but with guns and super powers.

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Wurzler said the game is similar to League of Legends and Dota 2.

Tuebor has been in development since 2014 and is the culmination of 500,000 hours of game-time statistics that Reschke compiled from people who visited his cyber-café in East Lansing called the Frag Center, which closed in 2010. In Latin, Tuebor means, “I will defend." The word appears on Michigan’s state seal.

The studio raised $1 million from investors to develop the first stage of the game, Reschke said, and plans to add a story mode and cooperative mode. However, what has drawn the most attention is its plans to add evolving artificial intelligence, or AI, that can adapt to player behaviors.

RELATED:Lansing-made video game's AI will adapt to players' actions

AI's actions in a game is typically predetermined by a script written for it by programmers. Tuebor's AI, which has not yet been incorporated into the game, is different. It will collect information about the players it faces and learn by itself how to adapt its strategy.

"If we can show that it does what we want it to do, then it will change how the industry uses AI," Reschke said. "We will release something that plays more like a human."

In the meantime, the studio has launched a Kickstarter campaign asking for $48,888 to help polish level design, characters and balance the game.

Though the game is free to play, gamers can pay to purchase character remodels and other downloadable content for between $1-$7.

"It's been very gratifying seeing these talented developers take something in my head and turn it into a reality," Reschke said. "I hope people enjoy playing the game."

More about Tuebor

Release date: Sept. 15

Platform: PC and Mac, available for download on Steam. Will eventually be available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Website: tueborgame.com