Visionary Realms’ Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen sees early success

Conditions of Vision is an ambitious game studio that recently introduced accessibility Pantheon: Rise of the Fallenan online multiplayer fantasy game.

The launch of December 13 on Steam was a painful time for the team, which was led by the pioneer of the EverQuest game. Brad McQuaid. McQuaid he died when he was 50 years old in 2019, during the development of the game.

But the team persevered and after years of development, the company was able to launch the first access to Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, a classic MMO game for PC. It is available for purchase on Steam for $40.

In an interview, the directors of the game said that they were honored at the party they received for bringing back the classic challenges, discovery, surprises and social events to MMOs, and they hope to share this story to encourage other indies.

“To get to this point is something I’m proud of and humbled,” CEO Chris Rowan said in an interview with GamesBeat. “But we’ve found it early on Steam and the reaction has been amazing, with good reviews, good sales. We’ve been finding our way around this idea of ​​open development, doing things with open doors and windows and inviting the community to be a part of it, and sharing what’s happening, and taking their comments and incorporate them into the test more than ever.”

He said there are ups and downs on the road, but the net is good. The game is still in development but can now be monetized through early access payments.

The early access building has six levels, six playable races and 12 playable classes. Players can reach level 40 and more will be added throughout the launch. So far, the game has reached 40,000 unique players and more than 6,000 have joined in the process.

“The numbers are huge and the Steam partnership is strong,” Rowan said. “The partnership has been better than we expected and healthy. It did very well on the first day and has been stable since then. We got into the top 10 on the first day, which was exciting for a small studio like us.”

Game features

Available features also include “co-op travel,” where players form casual travel parties with teams and friends to take on more challenges to earn more rewards. It also has “any climb” where players can climb almost any level in the game to go in any direction.

It also detects and detects, where you can reveal highlights, dialogues and results that enrich the story and your journeys using the visualization method. And you can raid the depths, where you can enter huge dungeons with other players where each cave can bring treasure, war or a new friendship.

Players can fight against multiple monsters in an intense battle where strategy, knowledge and cooperation make the difference between victory and defeat. Players can take on roles such as Tank, Healer, Damage or Support and select different class abilities to customize them.

Players can also find powerful and legendary weapons and rare skills that boast the places you’ve been in the game and the battles you’ve won. These items can enhance your personality with extra features and unique features. The inhabitants of the planet Terminus are diverse and can have different behaviors that change their actions and strategies, ensuring that no two trips are the same.

Basics

The team started thinking about game back in 2015in the days of casual games, pay-to-win, and other new business models are being tested. World of Warcraft was a success and the team wanted to create a high-quality MMO that set the bar high.

“Brad and I worked together, and he felt like it was really interesting that it was time to bring back the spirit of MMOs, which made them great at the core, at the very beginning and there were a lot of people who had this idea,” said Rowan. “There were a lot of people who saw themselves as orphans of what made MMOs successful. That momentum started. And before we knew it, Visionary Realms was launched, and it was time to build Pantheon.”

The game was slow-burning in the beginning and had very little money. The idea was realized and the first big investment came in 2017. This helped bring in more people and helped accelerate the company. But then disaster struck.

“With Brad’s death in 2019, people thought the project was going to die,” Rowan said. “Perhaps unconsciously, it made the community and the team feel more guilty. You know, when you believe in something, when you build a game because you want to play it yourself, when you have a lot of passion for it, then people will see it. We have been very affected by passion and dedication with talent and hard work. And being honest, smart and no-nonsense.”

Overcoming difficulties

This is a project for a small indie studio that has had to overcome many obstacles along the way and watch other efforts to complete it, Rowan said.

Over time, the company has remained independent and true to its vision through grit, persistence, angel funding and capital.

The vision challenges the limits of dev- transparency with greater openness, interaction and honesty with the community. That became his winning formula, Rowan said.

The group peaked at about 30 people, and now has about 18 to 20 people, some of them temporary with other jobs. The company has raised just under $10 million through a combination of investors and crowdfunding.

“The amount of effort and dedication and passion and dedication has just been amazing,” Rowan said.

When asked how the team stayed together after McQuaid’s death, Rowan said, “I would appreciate everyone involved in this project – their dedication, their passion, and the community. People wanted this game to be made. We were building it because we thought the world needed a game like this. Again, we were building because we wanted to play, as 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 is making games that they want to make, that are not made by the marketing department, but made by the fans of the game developers. , everyone said, “We have to do this. We have to do this because the world needs this. We have to see it through.” Our goal was renewed.”

The company also successfully changed the art style to make it more consistent and speed up development. It also made significant changes to the control interface that enabled faster design, iteration and progress.

“There is a trend of multiplayer games like Souls now. I can describe our game as an old MMO,” said Chris Perkins, creative director, in an interview with GamesBeat. “There’s an old genre of MMOs when the genre started. It was very different and different in style than modern MMOs. They were very friendly. They didn’t hold your hand as much. Sometimes they could be very disciplined. One of the ways I think we differentiate ourselves is style. this one.”

Perkins added, “We’re bringing it into 2025 and we’re not interested in creating complex, archaic games that are too difficult for people to get into. We recognize the many advances in quality of life that have been made over the years. We want to make games that are accessible, but we want to create a modern game that taps into the lost familiarity.”

For the team, the top game means the game that is expected to be shared by the players. There is a lot of culture. The game was not like on the track. And the goal was to make an MMO that was very challenging for the system, and where there was a risk reward because there’s a death sting, Perkins said.

“This may be the last chance we have. In fact, this might be the last studio that believes this can be an MMO format that has legs today,” Perkins said. “There’s an opportunity to do something here that you might not have the opportunity to do otherwise. There are many things that drive us.

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

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

Road map

The current goal is to take the amount of feedback that is coming in now and polish the game that has been released. The team is thinking about what is presented here as part of the game. Then the next task is to raise the next part of the world, which is very large. On the technical side, the company plans to upgrade the Unity 6 operating system with new optimizations and improvements.

“It’s been a real journey, against a lot of odds, with a lot of challenges,” Rowan said. “We have seen a very difficult year last year in the industry, with many studios falling by the wayside. I am happy that thanks to the support of our community and the passion of the team and the support of the customers we have been able to make it here, and we plan to be even stronger from here.”

The team was small but made good decisions to focus on easy-to-use, accessible game-building technology. The team built its platform focusing on low code and no code, using Node Graph technology. It allows non-programmers to get into the game without interacting with programmers, Rowan said.

“It’s amazing that a team this big, with this budget, has been able to do this,” Rowan said. “The proof is in the pudding. It’s out there.”

“People love it, our passion and longevity, combined with great technology,” Rowan said.