Pantheon of Visionary Realms: Rise of the Fallen sees success in Early Access

Visionary worlds is an ambitious game studio that recently launched early access for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallena massively multiplayer online social fantasy game.

The December 13 launch on Steam was a bittersweet moment for the team, which was run by game pioneer EverQuest Brad McQuaid. McQuaid He died at the age of 50 In 2019, in the midst of the game’s development.

But the team kept working, and after years of development, the company was able to launch early access to Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, a high-fantasy social MMO for PC. It is available for purchase on Steam for $40.

In an interview, the game’s leaders said they were honored by the reception they received for bringing back classic challenge, discovery, dread and social experience to MMOs, and they hope sharing the story will inspire other indies.

“Getting to this point is a very proud and humbling experience,” Chris Rowan, the company’s CEO, said in an interview with GamesBeat. “But we got it through Early Access on Steam and the response has been amazing, with mostly positive reviews, and great sales. We’ve found our way around the concept of open development, doing things with doors and windows open and inviting the community to be a part of that, and share what’s happening, And take their feedback and incorporate it into the test from an earlier stage than has ever been actually done.

He said that this process witnessed ups and downs, but the result was positive. The game is still in development but can now generate revenue through early access payments.

The Early Access build contains six regions, six playable races, and 12 playable classes. Players can reach level 40 and more content will be added throughout the Early Access period. So far, the game has reached 40,000 unique players and over 6,000 have logged in in early access.

“The numbers are great and the concurrency on Steam is strong,” Rowan said. “The synchronization has been better than expected and quite healthy. It performed really well on day one and has been consistent ever since. We actually hit the top 10 on day one, which was exciting for a small studio like us.

Gameplay features

Available features include Adventure Together, where players form adventure parties and guilds with friends to overcome greater challenges for greater rewards. It also has a “Climb Everywhere” feature where players can climb almost any surface in the game to venture in every direction.

It also has Discovery with Perception, where you can discover clues, dialogue, and findings that enrich the story and your journeys using the Perception system. And you can plunder the depths, delving into copious dungeons with other players where each cave might lead to treasure, a battle, or a new friendship.

Players can battle a host of monsters in challenging combat where strategy, knowledge, and teamwork make the difference between victory and defeat. Players can adopt roles such as tank, healer, damage, or support and choose from a variety of class skills to customize their loadouts.

Players can also obtain powerful, iconic equipment and rare abilities that show off where you’ve been in the game and battles you’ve won. These can empower your character with enhanced attributes and unique effects. The inhabitants of the world of Terminus are very diverse and can exhibit many different behaviors that change their actions and strategies, ensuring that no two adventures are alike.

Origins

The team started thinking about The game back in 2015in the days of casual gaming, pay-to-win, and other types of new business models being tested. World of Warcraft was a good success and the team wanted to create a classic MMO that set very high standards for quality.

“Brad and I worked together, and he felt very passionately that it was time to bring back the spirit of MMOs, what made them really great at their core, in the beginning, and there were a lot of people who were interested in the idea,” Rowan said. A lot of people who felt orphaned by what made MMOs so great. This momentum has been building. Before we know it, Visionary Realms has been released, and it’s time to build the Pantheon.

The game was slow at first and was very poorly funded. The idea happened and the first serious funding came in 2017. This helped attract more people and help accelerate the company. But then tragedy struck.

“With Brad passing in 2019, people thought the project was going to die,” Rowan said. “Maybe counterintuitively, it has supercharged the community and the team. You know, when you believe in something, when you build a game because you want to play it yourself, when you’re really passionate about it, people will make it. We’ve been motivated to an extent Big is passion, sacrifice, creativity, hard work and to be completely honest, resourcefulness and determination.

Overcoming challenges

Rowan said this is the work of a small independent studio that has had to overcome many very serious challenges along the way while watching other efforts not make it to the finish line.

Along the way, the company has stayed independent and true to its vision through determination and perseverance, as well as some fundraising and crowdfunding.

Visionary Realms challenges the limits of development transparency, with a lot of openness, interaction, and honesty with the community. This eventually became her path to success, Rowan said.

At its peak, the team numbered about 30 people, and now has about 18 to 20 people, some of whom work part-time and have other jobs. The company has raised just under $10 million through a combination of investors and crowdfunding.

“The amount of effort, commitment, passion and sacrifice was amazing,” Rowan said.

Asked how the team stuck together after McQuaid’s death, Rowan said: “I’d like to pay tribute to everyone involved in the project – their commitment and passion, and that goes for the community as well. People wanted to see this game built. We built it because we thought the world needed a game Like this again, we were building it because we wanted to play it exactly like Sven Vinge said at The Game Awards.

He added: “Sven said that the Game of the Year (for 2025) will be built by a studio. It may not be us, but it can be built by a studio that builds a game they want to build, that isn’t designed by a marketing department, but by passionate game designers. After the person’s shock wore off, everyone said, “We have to do this. We have to do this because the world needs this game. We have to do this for Brad. We have to see this through. And our resolve was renewed.”

The company also successfully changed the art style to be more timeless and speed up the development process. It also brought about a major shift in management style which led to faster production, iteration and progress.

“There’s a trend for a lot of Souls-like games now. I would describe our game as a classic MMO,” Chris Perkins, creative director, said in an interview with GamesBeat. “There was a classic genre of MMOs when the genre itself first started. It was very different and unique in style from modern MMOs. They were very social. They didn’t hold your hand much. It can be very punitive in some cases. One of the ways I think we differentiate ourselves is in this classic style.

“We’re bringing it to 2025 and we’re not interested in making it really cumbersome, like a fossilized game that’s hard for people to get into,” Perkins added. “We’re aware of a lot of advances in quality of life that have been made over the years. We want to make a game that’s accessible, but we want to We’re making a modern-day game that really takes advantage of that classic formula that’s kind of been lost.

For the team, classic games meant games that were expected to be a shared experience between players. There is more of a social element. The game was not like on rails. Perkins said the goal was to make the MMO more challenging in terms of mechanics, but also where there was a reward for risk as there was some sting of death.

“This may be our last chance. In fact, this may be the last studio that is really inclined to believe that this could be a style of MMO that has legs today,” Perkins said. “There is an opportunity to do something here that might not otherwise exist.” He has another chance. There is a lot that leads us.”

For better or worse, the latest AI tools haven’t arrived in time to be truly useful in game development. The team is still experimenting with artificial intelligence, but Rowan said it’s not quite there yet.

“We got to EA before the AI ​​wave hit,” Rowan said.

Roadmap

The current goal is to absorb the huge amount of feedback received now and polish the released game. The team thinks of the current offering as a slice of the game. Then the next task is to condense the next part of the world, which is huge. On the technical side, the company plans to upgrade to the Unity 6 operating system with new improvements and better performance.

“It’s been a real journey, despite many hardships and many bumps along the way,” Rowan said. “We had a really tough year last year in the industry, with a lot of studios falling by the wayside. I’m thrilled that through the support of our community, the team’s passion and customer support we were able to make it here, and we plan to get stronger from here.”

The team was small but made good choices when it came to focusing on user-friendly and accessible game building technology. The team built their own platform with a focus on low code and no code, using Node Graph technology. It allows designers who are not programmers to bring content into the game without having to interact with programmers, Rowan said.

“It’s really amazing that a team of this size, with this budget, can achieve this goal,” Rowan said. “The proof is in the pudding. It’s out there.”

“People love it, our passion and the long hours, combined with good technology that is really accessible,” Rowan said.