The Soulbound Studios have announced a whole range of news for the upcoming MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria.
In an interview with Gaiscioch magazine, it was explained that they plan to start the closed alpha at the end of 2016, with early access expected in the first or second quarter of 2017. They are then expecting the official release in the third quarter of 2017. However, this will not work without funding.
Update 30.7.2017: A new roadmap has been published. The release date for Chronicles of Elyria is slated for the second half of 2019.
Game Development Costs Money
The developers state that they currently still have reserves, but they will soon run out. The team founder explains on the official website of the MMORPG that he had to sell a property on which he planned to build his dream house. He invested this money plus some savings into Chronicles of Elyria. Currently, the production of the MMO costs around 40,000 US dollars a month and they need to hire more team members.
This means that they are now launching a Kickstarter campaign. It is set to start on May 3. They aim to raise 900,000 dollars through it. They have gathered a lot of feedback from the community, which currently has around 30,000 members. 900,000 dollars is not too much to be off-putting but also not too little to run the risk of running out of money in the middle of development.
This is what the MMO looks like
The story of the MMO takes place in a medieval fantasy world where a catastrophe thousands of years ago caused the world to split into different planes of existence. Magic has long been forgotten and the gods seem to have abandoned the world. However, one can slowly sense their presence again and magic appears to be returning. This could be an indication that the planes of existence are slowly drifting back together to unite.
If you want to know how Chronicles of Elyria currently looks in motion, the developers have now released a first gameplay video. However, this is still a very early pre-alpha version.
