Having welcomed players to a dark, new world ripe with opportunities at Gamescom 2022, Stunlock Studios are definitely keen to bring more to V Rising, the hit survival game that continues to draw players into the eternal embrace of the night. In the latest developer update, the team shared more about what they have learned from the first months of Early Access as well as planned improvements coming in the future.
Early Access Learnings & Game Updates
More than 2.5 million vampires have awoken from the crypt, which is far beyond any expectations and allows Stunlock the confidence to invest in V Rising for the future.
“At Stunlock, we’ve carefully watched how you play our game and studied your feedback to find out what you want from the vampire experience. We want V Rising to be the best it can possibly be, and with that in mind, we’ve realized we’ll have to do some serious, deep systemic work on the game. V Rising is a complex project, and every added feature affects other loops of the game; significant changes require re-work and fixes across the board. While we were initially hoping to bring our first content update this year, we recognize that trying to push out content on old and outdated systems in the middle of a rework will only serve to slow down production time overall.”
As such, the first big content update for V Rising will arrive in 2023, and will be a massive one that contains plenty of new features and more to experience as the road to the game’s future become clearer.
Improvements and Content
While it is still early days, Stunlock provided more insight into some of the things being worked on and potential features that could arrive on the road to full release.
The Castle
Many beautiful domains have been built, worthy of dreaded thrones, and the team wants to enable your creativity further They are looking into ways to more easily relocate your castle, add more cosmetic content, and create new ways to interact with the castle. That could mean multiple floors, tweaking the castle servant system, and even more.
A New World
A brand new biome is being worked on, that will bring more secrets mired in mystery together with fresh unique experiences. More enemies will lie in wait, as will bosses, and that means more V Blood to fuel the hunt. However, older areas are getting a look at too in order to make them richer and more satisfying to explore.
New Weapons & Abilities
The more destructive tools in players’ arsenal, the more variation in both PvP and PvE, and thus, more exciting gameplay. A common request is new weapons and abilities, and this is something Stunlock plans to deliver. One of the upcoming additions is that of The Greatsword, with more itemization in the works as well.
PvE improvements
With a larger world to explore, there is more of a need to populate it. This requires more kinds of enemies but also more interesting ones. Adding variety to the enemy types means bringing new mechanics that change not only the way to play the game but also the feel of earlier zones.
PvP improvements
The early access period has provided a ton of data to work with regarding PvP. Observing gameplay and getting feedback has been invaluable to Stunlock. V Rising is a game with many intertwined systems and improvements to things like placement, new weapons, and abilities; these are naturally massive improvements to PvP as well.
With time, the team wishes to tackle the raiding system and flesh it out into something more robust and satisfying. They are also looking into what a Castle Territory means for the player and planning to solve exploits that can improve the PvP experience, as well as eliminate some methods of PvE griefing.
General Improvements
There is a variety of improvements to work on based on the feedback. For instance, Stunlock recognizes the awkwardness of the paper press in the current progression and is looking to move it to a new V Blood unit that makes it easier for players to choose when they want to hunt it down and gain the ability to invest in research. A solution that brings more player agency to the journey.
Fishing is a bit bare-bones, and the aim is to refine the whole fishing system to be significantly more polished and enjoyable. Castle automation is also being looked at, and in this way, the entire building, crafting, and progression experience of V Rising can be more fun to engage with without abandoning the survival aspects of the game.
Sound is another area the team will be working on, which brings even more atmosphere and diversity to the world. That requires improving the existing soundscape and expanding the Vardoran experience with additional music and layers of ambience. Players might also be happy to know that controller support is being looked at.
Other quality of life features like making world traversal easier and more engaging, inventory improvements, or ways to carry more loot from place to place if you invest in the ability to do so are also on the list.
Marketing & Community
“As with game production, there is also a lot of effort behind V Rising’s marketing machine, and we couldn’t be happier with the results from our Early Access launch campaigns. More than 2.5 Million copies sold within three months places V Rising among the best-selling PC games in 2022. Last week we visited Gamescom with a presence both in the entertainment area and the business section. Besides connecting with fans and expanding our brand awareness, there were meetings with potential partners and collaborators who can help us bring V Rising to new markets and regions.”
“Focusing on massive “expansion-ish” patches gives the marketing team more time to build strong campaigns to ensure that everyone will hear about the next update both before and when it lands. While we’re preparing the promotional fireworks, we will simultaneously continue to support our community and drop dev blogs with the latest news from inside Stunlock Studios!”
Look Forward to the Future
With the future a little bit clearer, Stunlock Studios is definitely excited to reveal more in the coming months. There are still questions about the dark master, the overlord of all vampires, Dracula. Will he return to Vardoran? And in what form? What is certain is that the future of the vampire is something to look forward to, both in the darkness of the night and the dangers of the day.
