Good evening everyone! Lot of new faces here, let me first off, welcome you all and say that we are delighted to welcome you to our “being established” community.
As the community grows and we get more and more questions, we will be able to create an actual FAQ to address the things you really want to know. But for now, to quickly answer a few of the more commonly asked questions:
What is this? – The game is called “Insula: Bounty Royale”
When can I play? – Insula is still early in development (though we feel it is coming along nicely). We are most definitely pre-alpha at the moment (emphasis on the “pre”), however most of the core has been developed and is playable but there is still a lot of work to be done. Many of the things you guys have mentioned are still in the placeholder status, some of you have mentioned the hair physics, poor sounds, animations and such, most of these have not even been addressed yet. What you see/hear, in many cases, are the placeholders that were put in to get the systems behind it functional. Though we still want to hear this feedback! It helps ensure that we keep things on the right track as we move forward and lets us know where you, the players, focus are likely to lie. Rest assured this is far from the final state of the game!
The backend server services are currently being worked on. Once those are in place, we anticipate kicking off the first initial rounds of very early testing so that we can get it into the hands of some of you and get feedback on it. How it feels, how it plays, bugs, issues, problems, and most importantly, is it working… is it fun?!
Is this a battle royale? – Now, as to what Insula is, or possibly more importantly, what it is not. Insula is a competitive exploration based arena game that shares some concepts with a battle royale. You explore the floating island above an alien planet for loot, upgrades and the like, and you hunt the other players. With that said, that is pretty much where the similarity stops.
You explore the island for loot… and history, lore, uncover and solve puzzles of the past, you come across and interact with npcs, some will help you, some… well… not so much. There are random events that must be dealth with, the environment and fauna pose their own challenges. And on top of all of the other underlying aspects, you are constantly hunting (and being hunted).
I cannot stress enough that Insula is not strictly a battle royale. While it shares some aspects (as does every deathmatch and survival game to a degree), you are not striving to, by any means possible, be the last man standing. Well, you are, but that is not how you win. Insula is based on the concept of bounty hunting. Everything you do will contribute to your notoriety, hunting down and eliminating players, killing dangerous creatures, overcoming challenges, completing events, discovering clues as to what is going on and what really happened on Insula. It all counts, though some more than others.
As your notoriety grows, so does the bounty on your head. The bounty everyone else is aiming to claim. You will be able to build your custom hunter bot from a wide variety of parts from multiple sets and designs. Different gear provides different benefits and detriments, affecting your durability, mobility, power reserves and more. You will decide what combat protocols to load into your hunter, what styles of melee combat will they use, what capabilities will they carry into battle with them etc.
Synopsis – Insula does not reward you for running from a circle and hiding until everyone else is dead (there isn’t even a circle to begin with!). Insula rewards you for being the best damn hunter on the island! You will have tools to aid in your hunt, to find and track down your enemies. Your hunt will take you through a living world – well, floating island, not some wasteland mysteriously void of all life.You will do said hunting in your own playstyle, that you design and build your hunter bot around. And probably the most important aspect… everything… everywhere… will be trying to kill you while you are doing so.
Happy hunting folks! Cheers