Spellbreak has been in community development since the summer of 2018. We have released over 40 total updates and the game has been played by thousands of  players. Since the start, the community has been a valuable partner in shaping the direction of Spellbreak’s development and we could not be more excited to continue that work through Closed Beta 1 and beyond. The goal of this post is to explain our high level plan for the next major Spellbreak milestone so you know what to expect. 

The Closed Beta 1 milestone started today, October 15, and it will run until mid-December when we plan to bring the game down before the next major milestone to allow us to better implement player feedback on CB1 and additional features.

As we get closer to Spellbreak’s full release there will be many exciting upcoming announcements, so make sure you join our Discord server and watch our social channels.

What did we achieve in the Closed Alpha?

We had several goals during Closed Alpha that spanned a number of aspects in Spellbreak from the core in-match experience to laying the groundwork for many upcoming meta features. Our focus on the gameplay has been making the combat and movement feel as if you’re putting on the gauntlets of the ultimate battlemage while refining the item and class systems to keep a large amount of depth but be more elegant. There has been considerable work done outside of the match itself to add quests and the framework for a number of other features. Overall, we’re very happy with the evolution of Spellbreak that has been molded with your feedback.

What do we want to achieve in the Closed Beta 1?

New Game Mode

The Battle Royale RPG game mode was always meant to be a starting point. We’re actively developing a new mode and would love to get it in front of you during the Closed Beta 1 milestone. Our hope is that the action spellcasting combat and the class and item system can translate into a variety of modes that can appeal to a broad range of players.

Polish, Performance, and Balance

While we made great strides in polish, performance, and balance in the Closed Alpha, there is still plenty of work to get done. This will include polishing nearly every UI in the game, improving performance, revamping almost every sound, beautifying much of the art, and so much more.  

Classes, Items, and Builds

A major part of Spellbreak is the progression and choices a player has during a single Battle Royale RPG match. There is more iteration we want to do with these systems and more depth we hope to add. We also plan to add some additional content as we explore how we can expand and evolve the game over time.

Combat and Movement

We made large changes to combat and movement during the Closed Pre-Alpha and Closed Alpha with the goal of providing a unique spellcasting combat experience. The more we have worked on the development of Spellbreak, the more defined our ideas around the combat system become. We’re attempting to build something totally new and that takes considerable experimentation. What we see working right now is the ability to combine spells, the trade-offs between mana and cooldown abilities, the skill required to aim the projectile based skillshots, and the variety of movement based options. We do not plan to revisit core parts of the combat or movement during this period but we will continue to evolve this gameplay over time.

Mastery

A core aspiration of Spellbreak players is to become the ultimate battlemage. Our goal with Mastery is to build a system that both gives players a reason to play a variety of classes but also rewards players and allows them to show off their mastery of their favorite classes. The basic bones of this feature are in place currently and we will be revisiting the UI as well as some of the core components of this system in the coming months.

Customization

During the Closed Alpha, we added onto the ability to choose an outfit with some limited options for Titles, Badges, Cards, Emotes, and Triumphs. We plan to add even more options and, while the selection will still be limited, hopefully give players a sense of the level of customization we want to provide. Our goal is to give players a variety of ways both in-match and outside to create a unique identity that shows off their style, skill, and personality.

We see cosmetic items as something that will be both available to players via an in-game store but also tied into systems like Mastery and Chapters as rewards exclusive through those systems.

What will come after Closed Beta 1?

Additional Platforms

We have no formal announcements at this time (stay tuned!) but we are hoping to bring Spellbreak to every major platform, eventually. See this Spellbreak Answers video on Additional Platforms:

Chapters

Spellbreak was always meant to have an interesting story driven by quests that can take place over weeks and months. This will go along with new content like classes and items that will fit into the narrative theme and direction of the story. Our take on this ongoing content system is called “Chapters” and is currently in development. We will not be running a Chapter in Closed Beta 1 but hope to run a test Chapter or two in the future. If you are interested in the narrative and lore in the Spellbreak universe, check out the Lore channel in Discord.

More Changes to the Hollow Lands

We have big plans for the map and the redesign of Fort Halcyon is just the beginning. The Hollow Lands is meant to be a diverse and beautiful place with several unique biomes and architecture styles. Look out over the coming months for hints and teasers on the next area to get a redesign: Dustpool.

Store

Sometime after the Closed Beta 1 Milestone, we will be turning on the Store. This will include giving players the currency they purchased via Founder packs and allowing players to purchase a wide variety of cosmetics discussed above. 

Guilds

We feel strongly that this is a big opportunity for shared progress, storytelling, and rewards that can exist outside of a squad. This will include features for permanent progression via mechanics like Mastery and additional content for players to participate in via Chapters. See this (old) Spellbreak Answers video on Guilds for some more details:

Competitive Matchmaking, Custom Servers, and other Esports Features

We're interested in seeing where the community wants to take the competitive Spellbreak scene. It has been fun to watch community driven events grow and evolve over the course of the development of the game. We want to support this as much as we can in the future after Closed Beta 1. See this (old) Spellbreak Answers video on Esports for some more details:

Thank You!

Working on Spellbreak has been an incredible experience for me and the entire team at Proletariat. The passion and excitement from our community drives us to continue building something totally new—even though that is completely crazy. We could not do this without all of you and I can’t thank you all enough for being a part of Spellbreak!

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