Way back in 2016, when MassivelyOP was still young and innocent, former World of Warcraft lead designer Rob Pardo announced a new development studio called Bonfire Studios, and then everyone forgot all about it because it’s been like a thousand years since then. But Bonfire has apparently kept at the work of making its first game, and now, thanks to a promotional article on VentureBeat, we know a little bit more about it.
First, it’s called Arkheron, and it sounds like a cross between the grimdark top-down ARPG and a live-service fast-paced controller-friendly PvP game akin to a shooter or MOBA, though it isn’t any of those genres, and while it has a world and lore, it’s not heavy on narrative. In other words, it’s not really a proper MMO either. The team doesn’t want it to sound like a mish-mash of genres, however; they believe they are “creating something entirely new” with this Unity title.
“We’ve played the game daily as a team for years, and while we haven’t figured out yet exactly how to describe it, we often say ‘you have to play it to get it’,” Pardo says. “It’s in this wonderful place where it has a lot of familiar concepts from other genres, but the core of the game is really unique and the combat is really unique. It’s created a lot of challenges for us to actually explain it well to people. Because people always get the wrong impression. They get a picture of the wrong game.”
Pardo told VentureBeat that it took Bonfire – now 70 people strong – a year and a half to “build the studio and do the prototyping to find the fun” before the “real work” began in 2018 and then was slammed by the “curve ball” of the COVID pandemic. Since then, the company has attracted investor funding from the likes of A16z and Riot Games and teamed with Hype IM to publish the game in Japan and Korea (we know it pulled in $25M in funding at one point, but we don’t have a total from subsequent rounds).
Playtesting is apparently already happening and should expand “in the next month or so”; you can even sign up right now. Incidentally, if you’re filling out the form, note that when the survey asks you about the games of games you play, MMOs aren’t on the list, so yeah, don’t get too excited.
