Since the launch of the official Rend website and our announcement of the start of Alpha, we’ve seen a lot of new fans chatting up the Discord, posting on Reddit, commenting on the Steam community, following @Rend on Twitter, and introducing themselves on the new Rend forums: we welcome all of you and we’re glad you’re with us on Rend’s journey to Early Access, launch, and beyond!

Before expanding on Rend’s Alpha roadmap with detailed articles exploring the game’s upcoming features, we figure this is the perfect time for a Rend recap!

WHAT IS REND?

Rend is a team-based survival game set in the fabled universe of Nordic myth. This epic fantasy world is a harsh domain where the strong ascend as gods. You must choose from three rival factions, combine forces to build your team’s stronghold, and battle foes and brutal creatures. Together, you will endure the dangers of Rend’s treacherous landscapes to discover valuable resources and powerful artifacts. With the game’s deep talent trees and skill systems, you’ll have the freedom to choose how you want to fight for your team’s victory. When a cycle ends, one faction will be declared the winner… but the end is only the beginning. Victorious players will receive rewards they can use in subsequent cycles as they ascend to legendary heights as heroes.

...

Read more at https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-introduction

On fansites and forums, Discords and Reddits, even at conventions and on airplanes, we've been asked one question above all others: "Are we there yet?"

Today, we proudly answer: "Yes, we are there!"

Our Rend Friends & Family test is expanding into Rend Alpha, a major milestone for the game and one that we're certain the community has many questions about. While previous playtests have been focused on game client readiness and server stability, Alpha is all about gameplay and your insights as survival genre fans. This feedback-driven stage of testing will not be covered by a non-disclosure agreement or NDA: we encourage our Alpha testers to discuss the game and share their experiences in Rend with the greater community both on the official forums and external channels. Our Alpha forum is public for all to read and engage in but with a small caveat.

Instead of an NDA, this test phase will begin under a strict (but brief) media embargo as announced in December, prohibiting the publishing of Alpha screenshots, videos, and streams by players. This temporary restriction will help our team position and maximize opportunities for Rend by leveraging the game's new content and visuals, such as biomes, monsters, and game mechanics, for exclusives and features with press outlets timed to coincide with our release roadmap. We absolutely plan to engage our current and future content creators during Alpha with initiatives such as invitation giveaways, partnerships, and much more.

By this point, we anticipate "How do I get in?" is our new most common question but there are a number of other important Rend Alpha topics to address. We've assembled the following FAQ based on what we think you want to know about the game's next test phase but want to hear your questions as well: we've created a thread on the Rend forums so you can ask and we can answer them!

Read more at https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/announcing-rend-alpha

Spring has arrived! Here in Southern California that means daily blue skies, tree pollen covering everything, and for this particular Irvine studio, the arrival of Rend’s next major milestone: Alpha. The team here at Frostkeep has been heads-down and hard at work to get to this stage. Let’s kick off the Rend Alpha right by catching up on what we’ve been up to, what to expect from Alpha, and what’s just over the horizon.

Before diving in, be sure to read about our Rend Alpha announcement and new website and forums!

Read more at https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/developer-letter-rends-roadmap

Heroes, we welcome you to your new home!

After a little more than a year sharing the same domain, Frostkeep Studios and Rend now have individual websites, each focusing on the company and game separately. We look forward to bringing you a steady cadence of Rend news and feature articles as the game progresses through playtesting.

A sleek new website is just one of our latest developments. We've also launched our official Rend community forums, written a new Developer Letter detailing Rend's roadmap to Early Access on Steam, and perhaps most importantly announced that today marks the beginning of the Rend Alpha! Things are just getting started so, if you haven't yet, be sure sign up for our first public playtest phase and join the community.

From everyone here at Frostkeep Studios, our sincere thanks for being with us on Rend's journey to launch and beyond!

Read more at https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/welcome-new-rend-website

The away team is back from PAX East 2018 where we learned three very important things:

1. Boston is cold, even in April.
2. PAX East may now legitimately be bigger than PAX West.
3. PopSockets are this year’s hot giveaway swag.

This was our third convention of the year and much like with GDC 2018 the response from game journalists shows how well our latest Rend demo was received! Click the news URL below for some clips and quotes from a few press outlets along with links to their full coverage.

http://www.frostkeep.com/2018/04/16/rend-recap-from-pax-east-2018/

Frostkeep Studios continues to the second PAX event of the year in Boston at PAX East from April 5-8, 2018. While the booth will be similar to our PAX South presence, the team is presenting a new Rend demo based on the version shown at Game Developers Conference last month to industry partners, journalists, and content creators behind closed doors. The new game build includes updates and improvements based on initial community feedback.

If you’re at the show, be sure to visit us at the Frostkeep booth (#17126) at the rear of the expo hall – just look for the Rend sign hanging overhead. We’ll see you there!

http://www.frostkeep.com/2018/04/02/frostkeep-headed-to-pax-east-2018/

Frostkeep Studios continues to the second PAX event of the year in Boston at PAX East from April 5-8, 2018. While the booth will be similar to our PAX South presence, the team is presenting a new Rend demo based on the version shown at Game Developers Conference last month to industry partners, journalists, and content creators behind closed doors. The new game build includes updates and improvements based on initial community feedback.

If you’re at the show, be sure to visit us at the Frostkeep booth (#17126) at the rear of the expo hall – just look for the Rend sign hanging overhead. We’ll see you there!

http://www.frostkeep.com/2018/04/02/frostkeep-headed-to-pax-east-2018/

We’ve just returned from meeting press and partners at Game Developers Conference 2018, our second convention of the year, and the resulting interviews and articles demonstrate how excited game journalists are for what Rend is shaping up to become! Here’s a few quotes from some well-known press outlets along with links to their full coverage.

Game Informer: The Best Indie Games of GDC 2018
“Frostkeep Studios is trying to elevate [the survival genre] to a higher plane. Rend shakes things up by trying to redefine isolation to be less about the player and more about your tribe. Alongside its tight shooter gameplay and a sense of scale that intentionally seems to invoke Xenoblade, Rend seems to be making interesting changes and has shared stakes that I have wanted from online survival games since their inception.”

Shacknews: Exclusive Rend Interview
“Unlike most of the survival games crowding the early access PC games market, Rend takes a different approach and mixes in a healthy dose of fantasy elements into the formula. Players choose one of three factions and then work towards pushing that faction to victory against the others. You can choose how you serve the faction when you play, either through resource gathering or in direct combat. Shacknews editor Greg Burke got some one-on-one time with Frostkeep’s Jeremy Wood at GDC to find out how the game is progressing.”

Gizorama: A Whole New World – Update on Rend from Frostkeep
“One of the main goals for the team is to have a robust steam workshop available, and they’re not shy of drawing comparisons to games like Skyrim that have remained relevant for years thanks to mods. Frostkeep wants players to feel like they have no limits when modding Rend allowing them to create new creatures, weapons, or even entirely new mechanics. As an example, one of their developers was able to create a hornet’s nest in game with entirely new functionality, all through the modding tool.”

Massively Overpowered: Rend is Looking to WoW the Survival Genre
“One thing that I really like hearing is their idea of Early Access: It’s a real release. It’s a product they feel should be worth your time, not investment. CEO Jeremy Wood says it is still a refining period, and that the goal is to get community feedback and reward passionate players. Fans get to play the game more than the devs, so they can understand it in different ways. That should be rewarded, but it doesn’t require years of development. Release just means the product is something borne of the devs and players working together. I’ll believe all this when I see it, but damn, do I ever want to see it!”

WCCFTech: Fantasy Survival Game Rend Launches on Steam Early Access This Year
“Rend is one of the next games you should be keeping an eye on. As if the playable build at [PC Gamer Weekender] wasn’t enough, the sheer volume of people, particularly children, crowding around the booth was enough proof that this game could be something special when it releases. The Minecraft-era of gamers is maturing and Rend already seems to be securing that market by introducing a combination of building, teamwork and RPG-style progression. Of course, this isn’t just a game for children, and it certainly has all the aspects that would appeal to adults too, whether you’re interested in jumping in as a team or playing solo.”

GameReactor.eu: Rend Heads to Early Access in 2018
“Rend will have both PvE and PvP components, as well as player factions, RPG elements, sandbox gameplay, different win/loss conditions and “massive, culminating battle experiences the like of which have never before been witnessed in this genre”. The idea behind Rend is to join one of the three factions in the game, and then explore the world. It is a brutal place, so it is encouraged to team up with other players to fight against creatures and other factions. So player community will be key to the game’s fortunes.

Co-founder and CEO of Frostkeep Studios, Jeremy Wood, had this to say about Rend: ‘We are huge fans of the survival genre and are delivering an in-game experience that the community and our own team wants to play. We value player feedback and want them involved from the very beginning so they can influence the future direction of Rend as it heads into early access this year.'”

We look forward to bringing Rend to many more conventions (and countries!) as 2018 continues marching towards the game’s closed alpha, Early Access, and beyond!

http://www.frostkeep.com/2018/03/23/rend-impresses-at-gdc-2018/

We’ve just returned from meeting press and partners at Game Developers Conference 2018, our second convention of the year, and the resulting interviews and articles demonstrate how excited game journalists are for what Rend is shaping up to become! Here’s a few quotes from some well-known press outlets along with links to their full coverage.

Game Informer: The Best Indie Games of GDC 2018
“Frostkeep Studios is trying to elevate [the survival genre] to a higher plane. Rend shakes things up by trying to redefine isolation to be less about the player and more about your tribe. Alongside its tight shooter gameplay and a sense of scale that intentionally seems to invoke Xenoblade, Rend seems to be making interesting changes and has shared stakes that I have wanted from online survival games since their inception.”

Shacknews: Exclusive Rend Interview
“Unlike most of the survival games crowding the early access PC games market, Rend takes a different approach and mixes in a healthy dose of fantasy elements into the formula. Players choose one of three factions and then work towards pushing that faction to victory against the others. You can choose how you serve the faction when you play, either through resource gathering or in direct combat. Shacknews editor Greg Burke got some one-on-one time with Frostkeep’s Jeremy Wood at GDC to find out how the game is progressing.”

Gizorama: A Whole New World – Update on Rend from Frostkeep
“One of the main goals for the team is to have a robust steam workshop available, and they’re not shy of drawing comparisons to games like Skyrim that have remained relevant for years thanks to mods. Frostkeep wants players to feel like they have no limits when modding Rend allowing them to create new creatures, weapons, or even entirely new mechanics. As an example, one of their developers was able to create a hornet’s nest in game with entirely new functionality, all through the modding tool.”

Massively Overpowered: Rend is Looking to WoW the Survival Genre
“One thing that I really like hearing is their idea of Early Access: It’s a real release. It’s a product they feel should be worth your time, not investment. CEO Jeremy Wood says it is still a refining period, and that the goal is to get community feedback and reward passionate players. Fans get to play the game more than the devs, so they can understand it in different ways. That should be rewarded, but it doesn’t require years of development. Release just means the product is something borne of the devs and players working together. I’ll believe all this when I see it, but damn, do I ever want to see it!”

WCCFTech: Fantasy Survival Game Rend Launches on Steam Early Access This Year
“Rend is one of the next games you should be keeping an eye on. As if the playable build at [PC Gamer Weekender] wasn’t enough, the sheer volume of people, particularly children, crowding around the booth was enough proof that this game could be something special when it releases. The Minecraft-era of gamers is maturing and Rend already seems to be securing that market by introducing a combination of building, teamwork and RPG-style progression. Of course, this isn’t just a game for children, and it certainly has all the aspects that would appeal to adults too, whether you’re interested in jumping in as a team or playing solo.”

GameReactor.eu: Rend Heads to Early Access in 2018
“Rend will have both PvE and PvP components, as well as player factions, RPG elements, sandbox gameplay, different win/loss conditions and “massive, culminating battle experiences the like of which have never before been witnessed in this genre”. The idea behind Rend is to join one of the three factions in the game, and then explore the world. It is a brutal place, so it is encouraged to team up with other players to fight against creatures and other factions. So player community will be key to the game’s fortunes.

Co-founder and CEO of Frostkeep Studios, Jeremy Wood, had this to say about Rend: ‘We are huge fans of the survival genre and are delivering an in-game experience that the community and our own team wants to play. We value player feedback and want them involved from the very beginning so they can influence the future direction of Rend as it heads into early access this year.'”

We look forward to bringing Rend to many more conventions (and countries!) as 2018 continues marching towards the game’s closed alpha, Early Access, and beyond!

http://www.frostkeep.com/2018/03/23/rend-impresses-at-gdc-2018/

Missed our first-ever Rend livestream recorded at PC Gamer Weekender in London earlier this month? Catch the replay on PC Gamer’s YouTube channel!

If you haven’t yet, be sure to join the Rend community on Twitter, Facebook, Steam, and community-operated Discord. While you’re at it, read about our 2018 plans and sign up for the game’s alpha test!

http://www.frostkeep.com/2018/02/20/pc-gamer-weekender-livestream-replay/