You can now play one of the more interesting-sounding role-playing games in some time.
Developer Pixelmage Games has released its open-world action RPG Hero’s Song on Steam Early Access. That means that even though it’s not finished, you can still buy it for $20 and start playing while the developer continues work on this game.
Hero’s Song has a 2D, pixelated art style. Its hooks is how it gives players a say in the creation of the game world by letting them pick its gods. For example, choosing an elvish god will add elves and more water than usual.
Hero’s Song comes from John Smedley, who worked on one of the first big massively multiplayer online role-playing games in EverQuest before becoming the head of Sony Online Entertainment until he left that company in 2015. He then started Pixelmage Games, where he serves as chief executive officer. That company then started a crowdfunding campaign for Hero’s Song on Indiegogo.
“We’re investing in Hero’s Song for the long term so it’s important to us that we’re transparent through the course of the game’s development,” Smedley said in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “We are making a game that the community and our own developers want to play, and having players involved in the process from the beginning is an important step in bringing the best of this virtual world to life.”
Hero’s Song also features writing from Patrick Rothfuss, the fantasy author best known for the novel The Name of the Wind.