Valiance Online Creative Director, Programming Director, and Executive Producer IronSight has penned a dev blog today explaining that the game is finally moving on from pre-alpha to alpha and revealing its planned business model.
“We’re now moving into the ‘alpha’ phase of production, and taking all we’ve learned and experienced during pre-alpha production,” he writes. “Last month we focused on many of the core fundamentals of the Valiance Online game experience. The most important of them being character creation, gameplay, content, and atmosphere. We’ve been working to give each of these pillars the appropriate amount of attention to ensure our upcoming alpha release is in excellent shape for an Early Access release on Steam. We still have a significant amount of work to do, but are definitely showcasing a quality product.”
Critically, IronSight says that the superhero MMORPG will indeed be free-to-play at launch.
“After many consultations, research and studying, our management team has concluded that it’s the best fit for the product. We will, however, still include premium accounts with various perks, and launch with a few special launch packs. As we approach our launch date, we’ll transition our on-site crowdfunding platform from PayPal Business submissions to using SteamAPI. Once the transition is made, we will no longer offer the rewards that are currently available. Whatever features our donors have earned from their early commitment will be forever exclusive to them. The special launch packs will include many special rewards as well, but they will not include any of the exclusive early adopter rewards.”
There’s plenty more on the game’s character development, lore, and content, so if you’re a City of Heroes fan looking for a future home, give it a read.
