A Valley Without Wind Starts Beta Phase 3
By: Jeff Davis | Mar 2nd 2012
Arcen Game's downloadable open world sidescroller, A Valley Without Wind, has just gone into the next stage of it's beta process, Phase 3, which should also be the final beta stage.
While the game's community has been heavily involved in the beta so far, the game has seen an astronomical number of changes and improvements added by the development team as the game's progress toward its final release approaches. The game's dust has settled down from all of the work up to this point, however -- so it is now well worth taking a look at what the developers have done to the world of Environ over time.
As a result of these ongoing improvements, the game mechanics have been streamlined, the player experience has been fully refined, and tons of new content -- from various new missions and guardian powers to an increased variety of spells and enchants. Multiplayer has also been extremely improved, and player testing of the user-hosted server component is progressing smoothly as well. While a few remaining bugs still need to be ironed out within the multiplayer portions of the game -- along with the need for a server browser function -- the game is already shaping up quite well.
The game has also become much more accessible to new players, with a full planning and supplies menu, various tasks for players to complete, and assistive functions to help players find what they are looking for. There is also a full tooltip function (which players can opt out of), and usability and clarity have been improved as well. The introductory sections have also been improved, so players who haven't played after some time after a long absence are encouraged to replay the game's intro mission, due to the various improvements made to this point. There is much more to come that we do not know about, which game experience head designer Chris Park notes in his vision outline for the game on the official devblog.
"Our plan is to take the AI War route, and release tons of free DLC as well to do at least a couple of paid expansions," Park explains. "Hopefully in 2-3 years, we're still developing both AI War and AVWW - that is the ideal scenario for me personally."
As a further provision to mark the occasion, the publisher has released a brand new trailer for the game, along with a set of 18 new screenshots that we have included for your convenience, as follows:
While the game's community has been heavily involved in the beta so far, the game has seen an astronomical number of changes and improvements added by the development team as the game's progress toward its final release approaches. The game's dust has settled down from all of the work up to this point, however -- so it is now well worth taking a look at what the developers have done to the world of Environ over time.
As a result of these ongoing improvements, the game mechanics have been streamlined, the player experience has been fully refined, and tons of new content -- from various new missions and guardian powers to an increased variety of spells and enchants. Multiplayer has also been extremely improved, and player testing of the user-hosted server component is progressing smoothly as well. While a few remaining bugs still need to be ironed out within the multiplayer portions of the game -- along with the need for a server browser function -- the game is already shaping up quite well.
The game has also become much more accessible to new players, with a full planning and supplies menu, various tasks for players to complete, and assistive functions to help players find what they are looking for. There is also a full tooltip function (which players can opt out of), and usability and clarity have been improved as well. The introductory sections have also been improved, so players who haven't played after some time after a long absence are encouraged to replay the game's intro mission, due to the various improvements made to this point. There is much more to come that we do not know about, which game experience head designer Chris Park notes in his vision outline for the game on the official devblog.
Beta Phase 3 Video
"Our plan is to take the AI War route, and release tons of free DLC as well to do at least a couple of paid expansions," Park explains. "Hopefully in 2-3 years, we're still developing both AI War and AVWW - that is the ideal scenario for me personally."
As a further provision to mark the occasion, the publisher has released a brand new trailer for the game, along with a set of 18 new screenshots that we have included for your convenience, as follows:
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