It’s been a hot minute since we checked in on Ilysia, the VR MMORPG that was Kickstarted to the tune of $159,000 back in 2020 by Team 21 Studio, but it’s good timing as last night the studio announced its first beta is about to begin in April. This leg of testing follows alphas in both 2021 and 2022 as well as an extra blast of private investment funding.
“We realize the time between our testing phases has been a bit longer than anticipated,” the studio says, noting the expansion of the team along the way.
“The main reason is, that Ilysia has been updated from Client-Authoritative architecture to a Server-Authoritative Server architecture. While we will keep the details under wraps, this required a complete and total rebuild of the entire back end of Ilysia. This monumental series of tasks has taken a significant amount of effort and time, but it was a necessary change for a better, more secure MMO experience for our players. Along with this, several things on the front end needed to be re-written to leverage the new system and client server relationship. To put this into perspective, less than 1% of the code base from Alpha exists as it did last year. For all intents and purposes, the entire game has been re-written. Additionally, as some of you might already know from previous posts, we’ve put in a lot of work updating our graphics.”
The game was originally pitched to Kickstarter backers as a virtual reality traditional MMO “inspired by classic MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest” where gamers can “experience the glory days of MMORPGs again.”
It's here! Our Beta 1 will be coming this April! 🎉
We have MUCH more info about our Beta that will be rolling out in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned! #VR #MMORPG #Quest2 #PCVR pic.twitter.com/OlHldVODgO
— Ilysia (@ilysiavr) March 13, 2023
