We’d like to introduce you to Why Fight by the three-person team of Build on Barren Studios (yes, those are actual titles thought up by real people) which consists of former SkySaga devs. Obtuse naming aside, this bit of in-development multiplayer gaming looks to mesh a large-scale multiplayer open world with the short-term session gaming of an itch.io game like Deeeep.io or Slither.io.
In Why Fight, players arrive to a battlefield at level one, leveling up with every monster and other player they take out. The higher your level, the more powerful you are and the more rewards you get. Securing those rewards requires players to escape the battlefield, but rising to a high rank will mean that other players may be gunning for you. Rewards earned in Why Fight can be used to unlock new characters. Why Fight uses SpatialOS in order to facilitate its single large battlefield, though the number of players that can fight in any given session was not elaborated on. Each session of Why Fight is tuned to be quick-hitting, with sessions lasting 5-10 minutes at most.
The developers are looking to add additional modes as well as the standard open FFA battlefield, such as a team-based siege warfare mode, a team-based version of the standard battlefield, a co-operative boss-killing mode, and a parkour race mode. They also plan to include additional monsters, characters, and support skills.
Why Fight is still very much in development as Build on Barren seeks additional funding. The game currently is playable on PC, with alpha testing hopefully set for October. Should it make it to launch, it will be available on PC and mobile devices and feature cross-play between those platforms.
More can be read about Why Fight on Improbable’s blog, just avoid the lower half of the post if you don’t want to read the SpatialOS gladhanding (“How good is SpatialOS?” “OMG so good you guys.”)
