Former World of Warcraft lead designer finally shows off new multiplayer game

It’s been almost a decade since former Blizzard chief creative officer Rob Pardo launched a new studio called Bonfire Games — and now it’s finally showing off its very first game.

It’s called Arkheron, and looks a bit like a multiplayer take on Diablo. In each match, 15 teams made up of three players compete to ascend a tower, and they can collect and loot items that give them special powers. It seems the idea is to build your load-out and strategy on the fly in each match.

There’s no word yet on when the game will launch, but an open alpha playtest is happening this weekend, from September 19th through the 21st. You can sign up to check it out on Steam right now.

As for why the game took so long following the formation of the studio, Pardo wrote a lengthy blog post explaining the multiple rounds of iteration and revision the game has gone through. The combat, for instance, was redesigned four different times before they got things right. It sounds a lot like the way Blizzard used to work. As Pardo writes:

 As we playtested Arkheron internally, something rare happened. The team fell in love with the game. That might sound obvious, but for experienced developers it isn’t. Many of us have been through projects where the work is meaningful, but the daily playtests feel like a chore. With Arkheron it was different. People didn’t want to miss a session. They got frustrated if servers went down on a holiday. They grumbled when a playtest was canceled. 

He notes that the alpha will be a little rough arounds the edges, but that that’s all part of the process. “Playtesting is how we make Arkheron better,” Pardo wrote. “It’s how we’ll continue to play the game to make the game, listen to our community and let the fun guide us toward launch.”

Whenever it does launch, the game will be coming to PC, Xbox, and PS5.