2024 State of the Game
Field of Heroes is an online multiplayer sports brawler in development for the Windows platform. Originally existing as an Unreal 4 project for learning how to create behavior trees for AI, it was later remade in the Unity engine and briefly available on itch.io as a playable prototype. It now exists as a feature-rich Unreal Engine 5 project still in development.
Feature List
Here is the minimum list of features intended to be carried into Steam Early Access:
- Online 5v5 PvPvE matches
- Nine unique heroes
- Eight fields (with at least two more before leaving Early Access)
- Leaderboards and personal stats
- Host your own community server
- Build your own fields, share and play them online
- Let your Twitch viewers support and taunt players from the crowd
This list is subject to change as player feedback from the upcoming Closed Alpha is taken into consideration.
Heroes
Over the past three years, nine epic heroes were designed and developed; all with unique appearances, weapons, abilities, growls and lore that mingles together. At this point they are almost ready for the Closed Alpha and just need a final QA pass to make sure everything works correctly in both standalone and network play.
Fields
Over the past three years we also developed eight unique fields; most of which have metagames which include dangerous obstacles and monsters to contend with. These metagames were inspired by other competitive games but are designed to, at best, create only small advantages for the team who successfully engages them rather than being substitutes for the core mechanic of scoring goals. They also break up the monotony of static fields when there is so much more that can be done when breathing life into them.
All fields are currently undergoing metagame and polish work.
UI
The UI has mostly taken a back seat until recently. The match UI is nearly finished and work is underway on the player lobby. Following this is much more work to do in the other menus, the front end, and the settings screen.
Playtesting and Closed Alpha
We’re counting on interested gamers in the community to help us find as many issues as possible before the game enters Early Access, and the first opportunity will be in the Closed Alpha. There is still the following to do before the Closed Alpha can begin:
- Regression testing on every hero in standalone and networked mode
- Choosing three suitable fields for the Closed Alpha
- Regression testing on the chosen fields to look for heroes getting stuck and malfunctioning metagames
- Smoke testing throughout the game
We will make a new announcement once the Closed Alpha is open. Sorry, but we’re not taking any early applications.
Summary
After a great amount of work by the development team, Field of Heroes is shaping up to be a fun and memorable game that many gamers will enjoy. We forecast at least another 12-18 months before the game is ready for Early Access; at which time we will make our first release candidate available to the public.
