[2019] From Early Access to Release

Spoiler alert: By the end of summer


So, we spoiled you already but we couldn’t be MORE excited to share with you the fantastic news that we’re gearing up to leave Early Access! Now that the news is out there, we can take a deep breath and dive into the juicy details of what amazing things are to come and when. Gather round...

We’ve been listening to your feedback since November 2018 when we embarked on this journey together during our closed tests, the Trials. We’re now at a point where we know what the release version of Pagan Online should look like, as well as how long it will take for us to get there.

Our intention from the very beginning was to co-develop this game with you, our players. To do so, we’ve read everything you’ve written, whether it be on Steam, our community channels, social media, or from our focus groups and surveys. We have based our game design decisions on this feedback analysis.

The patches we’ve released so far have addressed some of the issues raised by you all. For example, things that could bring to mind Free to Play mechanics, such as card packs, are gone. Also, heroes are now easier to unlock than ever, and we’re still not done improving that logic. These were small steps because we needed time to accumulate enough feedback to make big decisions.

Now, being two months into Early Access, we believe that we know how Pagan Online should change in order to best transition from Early Access to release. Today we want to share the scope of upcoming changes, our commitment, and the timeframe.

Based on what we’ve learned so far, most of you love the combat mechanics, the heroes, the original story, and the visual style. We’ve always stated that one of our biggest goals is to put the ‘action’ back into ARPG. We are on track with that goal and we love that you share our passion for what we like to call “sessions of satisfying destruction”.

On the other hand, we see that the ‘RPG’ part has suffered from a lack of focus and needs more attention from our side. At the moment, feedback tells us the two most unsatisfying areas are, in short, loot and character progression.

What we’re trying to say is we see what changes need to be made before Pagan Online can fly the Early Access nest, and here are our plans:

Loot and Itemization • New legendary items system
We’re adding more meat to Legendaries in the form of Legendary powers, massive abilities that will change the tide of battle, and the ability to upgrade Legendary weapons

• New drop balancing
We want all drops to be meaningful, combining the current drop balance to make dropped usable straight away, and adding new drops and consumables

• New crafting system
A massive rebalance of the crafting system means recipes will have a bigger impact on crafting. Making drops more meaningful pushed us to give recipes extra value, which means they will be more rare than before.

Character progression and customization • New skill tree (that’s actually a tree, or even a group of constellations)
Customize and elevate your style of play by improving, modifying, or unlocking completely new abilities. The core of ARPG is here! Finally, every Lukian can have a different playstyle

• New stats system
Stats are about to get a whole lot more meaningful via stats changes, removals, and additions so your choices become more important than ever

• Schools of Magic
Equip gear of the same mythical origin to boost your stats and your kit, and gain some cool new looks in the process

• Test heroes before unlocking
You want to be able to test every hero before you invest in them, so now you can try before you buy! In both the tutorial and every time you acquire a Hero Soul, you will be able to test each hero.

Endgame content • When you rip through the story campaign, you will be introduced to the end-game content mechanics- a new system comprised of expeditions, hunts and threats that will allow you to focus on acquiring epic and legendary recipes, upgrading legendary weapons to fabled weapons and ways to cap your skill points for the new skill tree. Increase your might and put your skill to test in three difficulty levels.

Story A complete story with
o Eight acts in total
o New zones and maps
o Three new bosses.

Battle experience • Two new playable characters
Reinforcements are coming! It’s about time some fresh meat enters the fray to join the existing team of demon-crushing heroes. Both new heroes will have something new to bring to the table

• New Missions and Assassinations
New missions and assassinations will deliver fun ways to enjoy the new zones that accompany the new acts of the story campaign. You’ll find new mobs with new skills, new elite enemies with heaps of loot all in new and beautiful zones hand crafted for the continuation of the narrative in Pagan Online

• Full controller support
We know that this kind of game lends itself well to controllers and we’re pleased to be able to give you all an alternative way to play, if keyboard and mouse isn’t your thing

• Click to move controls
The click to move control scheme is being added upon overwhelmingly popular demand and tweaked a bit to suit our game playstyle better. Still, the game is designed with WASD and Twin Stick in mind. We can't wait for people to prove it is click-to-win, even though internally we call it click-to-die. ;)

There are of course more things for us to handle (technical stability, UI improvements, etc.) that are for sure on the roadmap, but today we want to go into mostly gameplay changes. Speaking of which, we’ve picked our three favorites to cover in a bit more detail.

Two new playable characters “We’re expanding the hero family with two new unorthodox additions, both with distinctive gameplay mechanics that are guaranteed to freshen up the skull-crushing experience. Each hero will cost one Hero Soul, have their own intricate skill trees, as well as cosmetics and personality.

The max Legacy rank will also increase, and with it so will the amount of legendary loot available at the highest ranks – so get collecting!” – Uros AKA dzudzubajac, Creative Director

New skill tree “Players will gain a skill point each time they level up, which they will be able to spend to improve their existing abilities or unlock completely new ones! Each ability can be leveled up, modified with bonuses or completely changed with special modifiers that are used to create signature builds. To increase your power further and to be truly overpowered, chase the gear that grants bonus levels to specific skills.” – Emil AKA Easymode, Lead Game Designer

New legendary items system “All Legendary items will come with a Legendary power, a power that can change the tide of battle when used.

Not to mention, Legendary weapons will be able to be upgraded even further to become Fabled weapons, by overcoming some of the most demanding battles in the game. One random upgrade is bestowed upon the weapon and you can re-run the battle to try your luck at obtaining a different upgrade. These upgrades will give heroes the extra edge.” – Tamara AKA Tanaram, Game Designer

We know this is all really exciting but don’t worry, we’re going to be sharing more information about the changes to come in the weeks leading up to each patch...

When? All of these changes will be delivered by the end of summer via three BFPs (big f**king patches), the last of which will also push us from Early Access into the big bad world of Full Release. The roadmap shows the order in which the changes will come. They are pretty huge changes though, so some items may very well jump from one BFP to another but rest assured that all of them will be delivered by the end of summer one way or the other and WILL be present in the release version of the game.

We still want to hear your feedback, so please let us know what you think! Stay tuned for more info, you lovely humans.

Join our community and never miss a thing: we’re always up for a chat on Discord[discord.gg], drop by regularly with AMAs on Reddit, and keep a watchful eye on Steam.