Pantheon's Producer's Letter Looks Back On 2023 Highs And Lows, Looks Ahead To 2024

21.12.2023 - 21:04 / mmorpg.com

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's CEO Chris Rowan has published a new producer's letter that looks back on 2023 and how the indie studio Visionary Realms has fared this year. Writing while in-game during this week's Alpha test, Rowan looks back on the ups and downs, and gives some insight into next year's plans.

This hasn't been an easy year for Pantheon, with the developer admitting that there have been «stumbles» as this year has waned. Yet, Rowan makes a point to remind readers that the team did fulfill its goal: alpha testing before year's end — a test that almost didn't end up happening, we should also point out.

Yet, it did (it's going on right now, in fact), and Rowan spends a good chunk of the start of the letter describing the goings on in the test with excitement. 

«As I write this, Alpha pledges are experiencing Pantheon for the first time. And the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. While I know I should be looking through our Discord for some testimony about their experiences to add to what I write here, instead, I’m going to log into Pantheon and see how people are doing.»

The next few paragraphs are spent describing the alpha, from which server was most populated at the time (Korecera Realm), and how he resisted the temptation to change the foreboding and dangerous night back to sunny daytime.

«If I were on the Development server I could type a secret command and make it bright and sunny (and slightly safer) midday, but this server is live, people are playing – this is real – I can’t just randomly change the time of day…

Yep. This is live. Thousands of people are experiencing Pantheon. It’s not done, it has some rough edges. It needs more content. But this world is live, playable, dangerous and fun.»

Despite its issues getting there, Rowan praised the team for fulfilling the goal of an Alpha test before year's end, and whole it's certainly rough around the edges, Rowan mentions that «thousands» of backers are experiencing the MMO for the first time.

2023 saw some massive roadblocks for the studio, though, which Rowan acknowledges in the letter. He touches on thefeedback to the art style change, saying that it simply does not come across well in screenshots and videos. He also uses this as a springboard to tease that the Visionary Realms team is looking at some «bold steps» to get more people into Pantheon to experience it for themselves in 2024.

We do understand some people don’t like the new art style. For some reason it doesn’t show well in stills and video. But many of the critics of the art style feel very differently after actually playing the game – it’s a consistent comment that we see frequently. It works, and it works well, but you have to play to feel it. If we find a way to bring