Last fall, we covered the successful Kickstarter of VR MMORPG Ilysia, which pulled in over $150,000 to become the second-biggest Kickstarted MMO of 2020 (topped only by Wagadu Chronicles). Team 21 Studio studio pitched Ilysia as a traditional MMO “inspired by classic MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest” where gamers can “experience the glory days of MMORPGs again.”
Development apparently continues, though it might be hard to suss out from the public-facing social media and company website, which is pretty quiet, and the most recent Kickstarter updates and Patreon updates, which are often blocked from view to non-backers. (Yes, Team 21 Studio opened a Patreon too, with specific items being created for backers.) The official website (ilsyiavr.com) is stuffed full of dodgy redirects right now too, so we won’t be linking to that.
“Everything going towards Alpha for Q1 is looking great, the art style has been set, it will have an updated look from the prealpha,” the team wrote on Discord back in January. “The characters themselves have undergone a HUGE update. I realize that it has been a few months since anything was posted here, development is not dead, exclusive updates are something that have been promised to Patreon and Kickstarter backers, hence the lack of updates here. But from time to time I will try to put out updates here.”
Q1 has come and gone, however, and according to the Discord chatter, alpha is now expected before the end of April, so literally any day now. The FAQ doesn’t mention how players can get in if they didn’t already back the game – “Kickstarter was the last official method for buying Alpha/Beta access. There are no confirmed plans as yet for future access key sales” – but the recent addition of a bunch of new mods to Discord seems to suggest the team is expecting an influx of new players. Launch is still expected by the end of the year, though that certainly seems ambitious.
