The Chronicles of Spellborn Producer's Letter Summer 2006

"To Beta or not to Beta? After the initial Beta phase that started November last year and ended in April this year, we had to put the Beta on the back-burner. The invaluable feedback we had received until that point was instrumental in pinpointing some issues that needed to be addressed. We weren't happy with the way some ideas had turned out which prompted the redesign and further detailing of parts of the concept. While none of these issues were breaking the game on a basic level, it didn't seem wise to continue Beta until all wrinkles had been ironed out. Meanwhile the Marketing department has been hard at work in finalizing a partnership that will enable us to roll out the new Beta phase that will slowly evolve into a full blown open beta before release. Announcements regarding this partnership and our exact plans can be expected in the near future!

So what has changed? Before even one line of game-specific code was written for The Chronicles of Spellborn, the Game Designers had a very clear idea of what kind of game they wanted to create. While the art department was doing initial art test to define the look of the world, all gameplay concepts were finalized for initial implementation. During the last two years in which the game was built and tested in the initial Beta phase, we quickly realized that the gameplay concept as a whole offers a unique game experience that truly takes the MMORPG genre in a new direction. We are especially proud of the bold steps we took to create the combat system."

The Chronicles of Spellborn preview continuing here.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)