This has been a year of milestones for Frostkeep Studios. We doubled in number of team members, progressed through our Alpha testing and content roadmap, were featured at a half-dozen major game industry events, reached the front page of Twitch with our partner program, and self-published Rend as an Early Access title on Steam just to name a few highlights. With 2018 coming to a close, let’s review some of the recent studio and game developments since our Fall Developer Letter.
Crafted from Humble Beginnings
What started with a trio of ambitious industry veterans has become the passion project of twenty full-time Frostkeepers. The Rend team continues to grow with new engineers, programmers, designers, and producers joining our ranks in recent months. Through their added talent, we shifted our game update cadence towards more content-rich releases that drove this season’s Early Access roadmap. And we’re just getting started: keep an eye on the Frostkeep careers page where we have over a dozen new positions in our Art, Design, Engineering, Marketing, and Production departments and will be adding more through the end of December.
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/547860
Winter Early Access Roadmap Completed
Over the course of the months since it was announced, the Winter Early Access roadmap has provided an overview of the gameplay content and quality-of-life improvements planned for Rend. Completed as of Patch 7, it now serves as a recap of how far along the Early Access game has come since late September.
- New Game Modes [list]
- Allows for open-ended gameplay with significant changes to core Rend systems including the game's pre-established factions and shielded strongholds.
[*] Combat Improvements
- Tightens up the gunplay and enhances the aesthetics of combat, making both feel more impactful and bringing them in line with modern shooters.
[*] Crafting Reconstructed
- Simplifies game aspects such as harvesting and refining as well as crafting tables and recipes with the intent of making Rend more accessible to a broader audience.
[*] Streamlined Storage
- Overhauls how the game handles storage and team resources with the return of the redesigned Warehouse and repurposed Armory in the faction stronghold.
[*] Legendary Artifacts
- Introduces epic items from Norse mythology including unique weapons and armor that can shift the balance of power within a saga.
[*] Dynamic Siege Combat
- Makes raiding faction strongholds a more engaging experience by adding new siege weapons and tools such as catapults and personnel flingers.
[*] Refined Social Mechanics
- Shifts decision-making power to the faction through permission requests and voting, introduces player grouping for cooperative PvE and PvP parties, and much more.
We’ve added another roadmap entry for a recently introduced feature: map layout optimization. Anticipate a detailed article on how the new map reshapes the world to funnel players into smaller areas and drive collision and combat.
Rend Launching in 2019
Though the team is taking a much-deserved break to enjoy the holidays with our families, we’re looking forward to what’s in store for our first game. We plan to have Rend exit Early Access and be fully launched on Steam in 2019. Anticipate big updates on the game’s direction very early in the new year including a renewed focus on Faction War mode!
See you in 2019!
The Rend Team
https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-developer-letter-winter-2018
