The Steam Beta Version for Backers

Are you ready for the Beta... ? This Demigod is. Greetings to our backers! First of all, we would like to apologize for the delays. Some aspects of the development such as the Steam integration and things like the localization and voice creation has delayed us much more that we expected. That said, we would like to announce that the Lords of Xulima private beta for backers will be available at the end of the next week through Steam. We are going to set three different phases: PHASE 1 - SPECIAL BETA EDITION All the backers who purchased the Special Beta access and above (the ones who have the Silver Medal in credits) will be the first to receive their Steam Keys. And also, they can join our Private Development Forum to help us to improve LoX with their feedback (improvements, bugs, balancing, new ideas, etc.) PHASE 2 - BETA PLAYER EDITION All the backers who purchased the Beta Player edition or above (>=45$) will have their key one to two weeks later, unless we find some very awful bugs or problems that we have to fix urgently (an installation problem, configuration issues with some PCs... things like that). These beta players will have access to the Private Beta Forum in which they can write their thoughts, opinion, bug reports, improvements, etc. PHASE 3 - PUBLIC STEAM EARLY ACCESS Some weeks later, we will activate Steam Early Access for the general public and of course, for the rest of our backers and pre-orders. We will keep it in that state for as long as we need, so that LoX can be as perfect as possible. We recommend you to wait to the final release which will be 100% polished. If not, we recommend to wait to later versions which will be more polished, but if you are eager to try Lords of Xulima, you are of course welcome and your feedback will be very helpful for us. We will send you an email to ask you if you are interested in participating in the beta process.

WHAT DOES THE BETA INCLUDE?

About 50% of the full game, which can be about 50+ hours of gameplay.
It is the real game, all the save games will be always compatible between the beta and the final release.

WHAT DOES THE BETA NOT INCLUDE?

The MAC and Linux versions are not available.
50% the game's content (which includes the endgame). It is actually done and will be unlocked very soon, but we have to finish and polish the translations.
The Talisman of Golot is not yet available. This special reward will be added towards the end of the beta process.
The new class, Divine Summoner, is not yet available. It will be very soon!
Some voices for certain NPCs are not yet available.
Some sound effects, especially the ones from certain monsters, are missing or will be improved.
Some Statue descriptions in the Hall of Heroes have not yet been implemented. They will be available very soon.
Some graphic improvements, like item icons, will be improved.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS FROM OUR PRIVATE BETA TESTERS All private testers agree that, as we promised, Lords of Xulima is a CRPG with the challenge of classic titles, and perhaps even more. Here you have a comment of our tester Shaylois copied from our forum:

"...So I've reached the boss in the Tower of Melancholy and was literally confused how he managed to kill me without losing even a half of his hit points. I've returned back to the Velegarn, bought few scrolls on the money that I've looted from the tower, received a blessing for evasion/defense and +30 resistance. And It's hard to put in to words how happy I was after defeating the boss. My plan has worked! :) As I mentioned yesterday, the music in LoX is just magical. And the atmosphere, the warm colors, the smooth change of scenery... I got very emotional in the Golden Forest after finally finding the old man. The music was just so good! And then the dream that Gaulen saw... Teardrop from my eye, can't lie!. Thank you for making such an amazing game and I'm grateful that I'm one of its first players!..."

We are now tweaking it a bit to lower the difficulty, because it seems too hardcore even on normal mode. Specifically, it seems like the Cursed Hounds which appear from time to time, are a real nightmare for the players. Upon hearing the hounds' distinct howls, they want to run and cower under their bed!! In the game we have three difficulty modes: REAL This is the perfect difficulty for all who want to find a challenge similar to what is found in classic RPGs. You have to build a good group, experiment to find the best tactics, etc. CASUAL For today's generation of gamers, who are more used to playing games in which the progression is smooth and only increase in difficulty at certain key points. Or, simply for those who have not enough time and want to progress faster in the adventure. HARDCORE For people who have finished Real mode, perhaps they want to start the game with a new party in this mode that is about survival in Xulima. You can even die starving. This mode has a special Achievement in Steam. How many people can beat it?

And that's all for now. Again, thank you very much for your patience, we miscalculated several things when determining the dates and the cost of finishing and polishing the game. We would like to add that this a very lengthy game, more than many RPGs we've played, including certain classics. Even for a developer, with all our tools (auto-combat, faster movement, teleporting and without reading anything), finishing the game can take us about 50h... I hope you appreciate this very epic adventure, and discover the ending of LoX, where an 8 minutes cinematic with a great score composed by Nicolas will be waiting. See you soon!