Crytek has been rather busy this year, showcasing not one but two intriguing VR titles with Robinson: The Journey and The Climb. However, it’s also been very quiet about some of its other previously announced games like Arena of Fate and Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age. Both of these games were announced back in 2014 and since then we haven’t heard much about them.

GamingBolt spoke to Niklas Walenski, game designer on The Climb and Robinson: The Journey, and he confirmed that both games are indeed alive. “Both games are still in development and we can see weekly progress. We hope we’ll be able to share interesting news soon.”

Does that mean more details at E3 2016 or sometime sooner? Walenskin simply said, “Let’s wait and see.”

Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age is essentially a free to play, cooperative third person shooter that focuses on procedurally generated maps, waves of enemies and teamplay (not unlike Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide).

Arena of Fate on the other hand is a free to play MOBA that’s been in closed beta seemingly forever and focuses on historical and fantasy characters battling out. What major developments could be in store for either game? Stay tuned for more information as E3 2016 draws near.

GamingBolt recently got in touch with Maya Georgieva, who is the senior designer of the game to know how the game is shaping up and whether the game will eventually make its way to PS4/Xbox One and eSports.

Rashid Sayed: Can you please introduce yourself?

I am Maya Georgieva, Senior Game Designer for Arena of Fate. I have been with Crytek Black Sea for five years now.

Rashid Sayed: What was the inspiration behind jumping into multiplayer online battle arena genre as opposed to what you are known for doing i.e. first person shooters?

Maya Georgieva: Crytek is a family of many game studios, each contributing their unique expertise. Arena of Fate is developed by Crytek Black Sea in Sofia – a studio with a history in creating strategy games.

In addition to the team’s expertise, we are also avid players and fans of the genre. So naturally we would like to bring more players to it, but the MOBA genre is notoriously hostile to newcomers, so we felt this is something that needs to be addressed.

Along the same lines, while playing the existing MOBA titles and enjoying them, from a developer perspective we can’t help but ask ourselves what works and what doesn’t, what contributes to the fun and what is a redundant legacy and needs to be changed, improved or removed entirely.

When a critical mass of those ideas accumulated, we had no other option but to step in and create the game we would like to play!

"So are we going with Pay to Win? Definitely not! But we are not yet ready to go into detail about the game’s monetization."

Rashid Sayed: The game is in currently in closed beta. What is the update on the release date?

Maya Georgieva: Actually the game is in a Technical Beta and we’re looking forward to going into an Early Access Closed Beta. Moving forward our plan is to gradually expand with waves of new players being admitted into a full Closed Beta and then Open Beta. We believe the core of these games lies in community, so we want to take our time and get as much feedback as possible and react to it, instead of rushing in to release.

Rashid Sayed: AoF is free to play. How are you handling the micro-transactions? Are you going down the path of pay to win?

Maya Georgieva: As I mentioned above – we’re making a game that we ourselves would like to play. So are we going with Pay to Win? Definitely not! But we are not yet ready to go into detail about the game’s monetization.
The longer answer is that we’re now focusing on what we think is most important – making a great game that is fun to play by the second, by the minute, session for session and day for day.

Some staples of the free-to-play model can be expected, such as customization options and skins for the heroes. Others are easily deduced – for a game that is competitive by nature, breaking the balance by selling power is unacceptable. For the rest, we want to see what makes sense for this game in particular, what adds value for the players and offer it accordingly. You can expect more details in the future.

"The Traits system that replaces the traditional items system is another example. Instead of having hundreds upon hundreds of items with names and prices one has to memorize, in AoF players are receiving power-ups with significant and interesting effects on each level up."

Rashid Sayed: You are entering a highly competitive market which already has several competitors like Turbine, Deep Silver and of course, Blizzard. How will Arena of Fate position Crytek in the MOBA genre?

Maya Georgieva: It’s true that the MOBA genre is very popular and therefore many developers hurry to try their hand at it. That being said, we wouldn’t have entered the genre, if we didn’t feel that we have something valuable to contribute to it.

A couple of years ago, when we started the development of Arena of Fate, we were big fans of the titles that defined the genre. But we felt that there’s a lot more to be desired and much of the improvement cannot be done without going back to the drawing board and starting from scratch with a whole new game, instead of contributing to the existing ones.

Now we have a game that we’re proud to present and we’re confident that it expands and improves on the existing titles, offering more choice to the growing number of MOBA players out there. Arena of Fate is the kind of game we’d like to play and we’re excited to welcome like-minded players to play it soon.

Rashid Sayed: Arena of Fate has been described as a game for frustrated MOBA players. So how are you making this game highly approachable?

Maya Georgieva: That reminds me of the phrase “It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it”. We’ve done a lot of things – big and small – that contribute to this effect. I can’t list them all here, but I’ll give you a few examples.

Starting with the introduction of the 20 min time limit for the session, we’ve made the game much more convenient both for playing and for watching. Gone are the times when your game could drag on for 40 minutes to more than an hour.

The Traits system that replaces the traditional items system is another example. Instead of having hundreds upon hundreds of items with names and prices one has to memorize, in AoF players are receiving power-ups with significant and interesting effects on each level up. In the end it serves the same purpose of providing creative ways to customize your character, but in a cleaner, clearer, straight-to-the point manner.

This transparent, direct way of presenting things is one of our core design philosophies that manifests throughout the game – from the layout and clean visuals of the map, where tower ranges are marked clearly for anyone to see, to the clear announcement and display of each important event, the team scoring system, and the clear labeling of the Traits where you get health by picking up “Health” instead of some abstract “Grand Mysterious Blessing of the Earth Mother”.

Everything in Arena of Fate is straight-to-the-point and straight-to-the-fun with minimal friction between the player and the action.

"We’re looking into ways to transfer the dynamic and complexity of the game on PC to the consoles. It’s not a simple task, so it’ll take some time to do properly."

Rashid Sayed: Design wise, what is different in AoF compared to other MOBAs out there?

Maya Georgieva: From a design perspective MOBAs are a “wild growth” type of game. Historically their design derives from the community, accumulating a lot of things that work over time, but also a lot of baggage that’s unnecessary and even detrimental.

With Arena of Fate we’ve looked closely and reevaluated everything in the existing designs, aiming to separate the essence of the game that actually makes it fun, from the parts that are just legacy. We try to come closer to a perfect form by cutting the rough edges.

Alongside this, we’ve introduced the concept of time limit, from which a lot of interesting effects emerge. In fact it totally changes the way you perceive the game! When you have to fight against the clock as well as against your opponents, every second counts. Combined with the team scoring, this draws Arena of Fate closer to traditional sports like basketball and football, where a dramatic turnaround can be achieved in the last seconds of a match.

Rashid Sayed: Are there plans to add more characters other than the 30 we already know?

Maya Georgieva: Of course! We already have a lot of new characters in development, so you can be sure that a steady stream of new heroes are about to enter the Arena in the future.

Rashid Sayed: What is your favorite hero and why?

Maya Georgieva: It’s hard to pick just one – I like Fenrir for his feral looks and the mayhem he brings with his fiery skills. He’s a very strong hero with a lot of team utility. I also like Arachne who is a very strong area-of-effect character that is almost unmatched in a solo lane. And then there’s Musashi with his two swords for the times you just want to cut through the enemy team like a knife through butter.

Rashid Sayed: Are there any plans to bring the game to the PS4 and Xbox One?

Maya Georgieva: We’re looking into ways to transfer the dynamic and complexity of the game on PC to the consoles. It’s not a simple task, so it’ll take some time to do properly.

Rashid Sayed: Do you have ideas for integration e-Sports with AoF?

Maya Georgieva: AoF is a competitive game and sport is in its DNA – from the time limit and the scoring system, to the completely symmetrical map, and the more subtle design choices that favor teamwork over superficial solo mechanics.

We believe that interest in AoF as an e-sports title must arise naturally from the community and we’re ready to support it.

Rashid Sayed: Is there anything else you want to tell our readers about the game?

Maya Georgieva: If you’re not a MOBA player already – Arena of Fate is probably your best chance to get into a genre that is massively popular and fun. If you are already enjoying these types of games, the best way to feel the difference is by trying AoF yourself. And when it comes to this – where else can you see whether Nicola Tesla can take down Achilles in a fight?

Crytek have unfortunately been seeing some rough times lately, but that hasn’t stop the much loved developer from continuing to pump out more games.

During the Gamescom conference, Crytek have shown of their MOBA title Arena of Fate that takes some of the most iconic heroes of old (and admittedly not so old) and throws them into third person, over the top arena combat.

With the trailer being narrated by Little Red Riding Hood, we are introduced to one of the games central mechanics. The 5 vs 5 matches that brings together famous names like Achilles, Robbin Hood, Lionheart, Joan of Arc, Alice and many more, will only last 20 minutes maximum. If the game does last 20 minutes then the winner is decided by a base score.

While some might call that a limitation and a hindrance that forces slow burn players into the background, the idea is to make things happen faster for a more instant gratification sort of approach to MOBA gaming.

For those of you who don’t know, MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.

Even though Crytek denied any financial troubles yesterday following stories about the disastrous development of Ryse: Son of Rome and low figures from CryEngine licenses, anonymous employees spoke to Kotaku about how things are less than peachy over at the studio.

According to these employees, not only has Crytek been late with payments but 100 staff members have departed since March 2014. Apparently multiple games have been cancelled which includes a prototype for Ryse 2. On top of this, the focus on free to play titles like Warface and Arena of Fate have caused their own set of troubles for the company.

As one Crytek employee told Kotaku, “Instead of focusing on the core strengths of the company, which would be the [Crytek] engine and innovative PC titles, we simply jumped at every next big thing in the industry. Except that each time we did, it was a little too late and we were running after our competitors. There’s no sense of identity at this point and I think that frustrates both employees and fans.”

Where does that leave games like Homefront: The Revolution? We’ll find out in the coming months, but don’t expect reports of Crytek’s problems to go away any time soon.

After a teaser trailer for the same leaked today, Crytek has finally announced the online multiplayer title Arena of Fate, which is billed to be arriving for both PC and consoles. The game will focus on 5 vs. 5 battles and reportedly have a huge roster composed of famous characters like Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper and Baron Münchhausen.

Vesselin Handjiev, who is Managing Director of Crytek Black Sea and the Game Director for Arena of Fate, boiled down the game’s premise. “Imagine Joan of Arc and Robin Hood cooperating to hunt down Little Red Riding Hood – Wouldn’t that be terrific?

“But besides the game’s iconic heroes, which everyone in the team really loves, we are also challenging ourselves to carefully craft a streamlined player experience that allows for both greater accessibility, and rich, deep, action-packed gameplay. We are very excited to meet the first wave of players in the arena this summer, and will be listening carefully to the feedback we receive and making the community’s contribution a key part of our efforts to perfect the fun.”

Arena of Fate is being developed by Crytek’s Sofia studio and will enter Early Access beta testing on PC this Summer. It will also be playable at E3 from June 10th to 12th so stay tuned for more information on the game.

Roughly a week ago, it was revealed that Ryse: Son of Rome developer Crytek would have two new games to showcase at E3 2014. One was Project Grave which would be heading to consoles but the other was a rather curious game called Arena of Fate, which is supposedly a free to play multiplayer game for PC.

A trailer for Arena of Fate has seemingly leaked and it seems that it could be a massive online battle arena (MOBA) game like League of Legends of Dota 2. It will also seemingly be out this Summer. Check it out above. Crytek has yet to comment on the leak much less confirm that Arena of Fate is indeed in development.

We can now take this to mean that Project Grave is pretty real as well. Does that mean Ryse: Son of Rome 2 won’t be at E3 2014 as initially rumoured? We’ll find out in the coming weeks.

Among rumours that Microsoft would announce Ryse: Son of Rome 2 for the Xbox One at this year’s E3, Crytek has apparently revealed that it will be showcasing two new games according to Italian site GamesVillage.it (which has since taken down the story).

The first game is Project Grave, which hasn’t been confirmed as exclusive or not to the Xbox One, and the second is Arena of Fate, a free to play title for the PC developed by Crytek Black Sea using CryEngine. While not much is known about Project Grave, it seems Arena of Fate will focus on multiplayer action.

Take this all with a grain of salt, of course, since Crytek has yet to make any official, wide-spread announcement of the same. It’s a given that the developer will be up to something though. Stay tuned for more information as E3 2014 approaches nearer. Would you prefer the above two projects or a sequel to Ryse? Let us know in the comments.