There hasn’t been a great deal of major noise coming out of the developing gankbox Profane, but that changed earlier this month when the devs at Insane Studios sat down with one of its influencers for a video interview to talk about the game’s design, its features, and how it will be monetized.
The video provided new details, starting with information about artifact weapons that are designed to have demands that players will have to meet if they want to keep, while also managing the threat of turning into a tasty target for full loot PvP; a given example is a Blood Sword that requires its owner to kill 10 different players every day or else it goes away.
The devs also shared some information about territory control and how it’s being designed to halt a guild from owning everything, including an attacking “evil force” that can lay a region to waste and effectively reset it, and systems that encourage guilds to play nice with strangers instead of slaughtering them outright like collecting tax revenue.
In terms of classes and combat, Profane will crib off of games like Ultima Online where using a weapon increases proficiency and in turn unlocks new abilities for that weapon, while elemental skills are likened to collectible cards that add active and passive skills. New skills will be added every month to keep the meta malleable, but players can only use eight of those cards at the same time. Finally, the devs have settled on a full action combat model without any tab-targeting or target lock.
When asked about monetization, the devs confirmed that the plan is to make Profane free-to-play with a cosmetics-only cash shop. Some of the items in the shop include the usual outfit cosmetics as well as skins for houses and unique styles for flags used to protect those houses. The devs also confirmed the MMO will be self-published.
As for why things have been quiet, it’s explained that most of the discussion is primarily being couched in Discord, as the devs admit the website, Reddit, and social media are updated less frequently. Discord is also where most of the closed testing invitations are being handed out: The devs explain here that when the MMO is more stable, that’s when wider testing details will be shared. In both cases, there is no timeline or ETA provided.
