You folks remember Trials of Ascension, right? The hardcore permadeath sandbox MMO with all the messy Kickstarters and drama? The one whose last Kickstarter was canceled after a team member accused the studio of being incompetent? The one that’s been sitting in Steam early access for almost two years as TOA: Exile? Good, you’re caught up – well, almost – because as we wrote last fall, the game has been bought out by a team of players trying to rescue and reboot the game. Many months later, they are still at it.
“Trials of Ascension inevitably has a bad reputation behind it and we’re trying to fix that,” Dragonfire Entertainment’s Brandon Lalonde told us in a press statement today. “I can’t speak for previous teams, marketing strategies, use of funds, or any other decisions that were made under their management. What I can say is that currently it is under a whole new development process with a new team and fresh ideas and the intent of providing clear and transparent communication and practices to all in the gaming community.”
And if you can believe it, the new team brought the game back to Kickstarter for what is by our count its third go-round, this one seeking just under $10,000 US. The studio says the money will go toward operating the servers for a year, additional assets, fees, taxes, and an (extremely) small amount for paying staff. Apparently, this revamped version of the game will enter early access by the end of 2020.
