Watch the very first Rend livestream live from Alpha! CohhCarnage will be exploring the world of Rend in an exclusive broadcast the day before the Alpha media embargo lifts. Starting at 8:00 AM EDT on CohhCarnage's Twitch channel, you may find some familiar Frostkeep names watching the stream and answering questions as they come up. Come join the beginning of a new adventure on a new server!
Rend Alpha continues to grow with thousands of new testers added and major content patches releasing with the new Roots of Yggdrasil biome, Ascension metaprogression system, starter area Tutorial Stones, and much more, all leading up to Rend’s Early Access launch on July 31.
We are excited to announce that the Rend Alpha media embargo will lift on Thursday, July 26 at 12:01 AM PDT (UTC-7). Those who remember our developer letter from the very start of Alpha will recall the purpose of the embargo was to facilitate press features and give our indie game the best possible chance for mainstream coverage and awareness, while also ensuring that the game looked its best with finalized visual assets and a polished game interface.
Rend’s sixth Alpha roadmap feature is on the talent and skill rebalance, a sweeping review and reharmonizing of the talents of the four archetypes and perks of the adventuring, crafting, and combat skills. While abilities are tweaked and adjusted with each game update, our latest patch features revamped talent and skill trees based largely on the gameplay experiences and feedback of our Alpha testers.
We are proud to announce the launch of the Rend Partner Program, our content creator engagement initiative. The program is now accepting applications and is open to both established and up-and-coming channels across a wide variety of platforms. Regardless of whether you're a livestreamer, YouTuber, fansite administrator, wiki author, guild leader, or cosplay artist, if you're a fan of the survival genre and have an interest in making Rend content then this program is for you!
Be careful where you tread when entering festerwig territory. Though these nightmarish invertebrates spend the bulk of their time underground, they are quick to strike when an alluring new vibration reaches their den. Muculent yet muscular anatomy allows them to burst from the soil and seize suspecting travelers with their concentric sets of curved teeth, crushing victims as they are swallowed whole. Even if you manage to encounter one in the open, don’t be disarmed by its clumsy, slow crawl: these vile creatures can spew highly acidic bile at a distance, melting through armor and flesh alike.
Rend’s fifth Alpha roadmap feature explores the full character redesign which goes far beyond nicer-looking models (though they certainly are). The all-new expandable character rig they're built around allows for a world of fresh customization and animation options, opening options for our designers and artists to add to Rend in exciting new ways just as the game enters Early Access.
Join us live from Penny Arcade headquarters in Seattle as Jerry "Tycho" Holkins meets Frostkeep's Jeremy Wood and Jake Strapko for a livestream featuring Rend! Starting at 2:00 PM PDT on the Penny Arcade Twitch channel, the team will discuss everything from early gameplay to advanced tactics. Afterwards, we'll finish things up with a live question and answer session.
Rend is a 60-player survival game, but that undersells it somewhat. Players are divided into three factions, each collecting and storing souls in their Divinity Stones while simultaneously trying to destroy the stones belonging to other factions. Players can also form smaller clans within factions, and there are crafting and skill trees to work through as well.
We spoke to Frostkeep Studios (former World of Warcraft guys, which is also a plus) at the recent PC Gamer Weekender, and today the studio announced that the game will go into Early Access release on Steam on July 31.
"Early access marks a pivotal moment for Frostkeep Studios," co-founder and CEO Jeremy Wood said. "We have been developing Rend side-by-side with our players since we first announced the game and are grateful for the invaluable feedback they provided to help shape Rend into what it has become today."
Between now and the Early Access rollout, Frostkeep will continue making fixes and adding new content, and will also accelerate the process of bringing in testers for the ongoing alpha. "Everyone who signs up will be invited before the test concludes," it said. It also explained that the current alpha state is not what will be seen in Early Access.
"Our standard for entering Early Access is when Rend is in a state where even if we were to never update it again, it would be considered a complete game worthy of purchase by its players," it wrote. "We think Rend has reached this state. (Rest assured, we will be updating Rend with PvP and PvE content well beyond Early Access.)"
The Early Access release of Rend will sell for $30. If you want to take a crack at the alpha, you can sign up at rendgame.com.
We are proud to announce that Rend will enter Early Access on Steam later this month. Beginning on Tuesday, July 31, you’ll be able to purchase Rend and join the community shaping the game along its journey to launch. We’d like to highlight our deep appreciation for our tenacious Alpha testers on their diligent and ongoing help in preparing Rend for its Early Access debut!
From Jeremy Wood, co-founder and CEO of Frostkeep Studios: “Early access marks a pivotal moment for Frostkeep Studios. We have been developing Rend side-by-side with our players since we first announced the game and are grateful for the invaluable feedback they provided to help shape Rend into what it has become today: the game they want to play.”
Growing like a pestilent tumor on the edge of the world, Dreadveil is a labyrinthine mushroom colony pervaded by the stench of decay and mildew. Bulbous caps atop spindly stalks blot out the sun and any errant shafts of withering light are choked by an air thick with poisonous spores. And yet the true scourge here is not the fungi: silken cobwebs blanket every surface and you can’t help but feel you’re being watched by dozens of eights of eyes hiding amongst the shadows.
