Intrepid shares details on Ashes of Creation's future

Intrepid Studios' Ashes of Creation clearly has big plans, as a giant update on the game's blog from Creative Director Steven Sharif has a lot to share with regards to the game, including the fact that the team has expanded (and are still looking for more staff) and that fans can expect regular content updates as the game moves to Alpha One.

A new studio is being created to house the development with this expanded team, and the future looks bright according to the following message on the state of the game:

"The state of Ashes is STRONG. We have been hard at work developing the systems and world that we cannot wait to play with you. We've learned a lot from our Ashes of Creation Apocalypse testing, a lot that pertains to what needs to be changed in anticipation for Alpha One of the MMORPG, and we've been focusing on those issues and those changes."

Testing for the game began in December, including a battle royale mode, which was designed to test the systems in the game. Phase 1 of Alpha One, called Apocalypse, also revealed the need for "architectural refactoring," meaning some elements needed rebuilding entirely from the ground up.

Alpha One was planned for Q2 this year, but with Apocalypse revealing the necessary changes, this will be pushed back, although a date hasn't been provided. "The trust of our community is dear to us, and so we must be careful in promising what we can deliver. This means that when we do give you a new date, you can be assured that it is one that we have ultimate confidence in. In that spirit, we can say that this is not a delay in terms of years, but in terms of months, and that Alpha One will be in your hands before you know it!"

In terms of what is coming though, the following is being worked on over the next few months for Alpha One:

• Backend infrastructure and netcode changes


• New Launcher preparation


• Performance improvements and optimizations


• Continued castle siege development and testing


• Continued character, animation, and environment art


• Continued system, UI, and content implementation

The goal is to get the battle royale game mode up and running 24/7, and here is what is being worked on for Apocalypse specifically in the next few months:

• Integrate with the new backend infrastructure and netcode changes


• Integrate with the new launcher


• Continued implementation of Castle Siege and Horde game mode development - design, UI, animation, environment


• QA Testing


• Bug fixing

The team won't be attending events like PAX East while they work on this content, but they'll be releasing regular updates like art pieces; articles; a video series called Dev Diaries; assets; in-depth articles on features like classes; and livestreams.

For more on the finer details like website changes, head on over to the full blog post. Have you had your eye on Ashes of Creation?