Fire studioAn independent video game developer started by Rob Pardo and other game veterans in 2016, finally coming out of stealth mode, unveiling his first project Archeron.
Founded by industry veterans responsible for iconic franchises including Diablo, Overwatch, StarCraft and Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, the Bonfire team draws on the knowledge and design principles mentioned on these titles to craft an innovative new player-versus-player (PvP) game, said Rob Pardo, CEO of Irvine, California-based Fire studioin an exclusive interview with GamesBeat.
A private playtest for Arheron is already underway and will expand over the coming months with continued invitations. Players who enjoy fast-paced player-versus-player (PvP) combat are encouraged to register now for a chance to be among the first to play Arheron and help shape the later stages of development.
I asked Pardo if the team had spent eight years making the game so far, but he noted that it took about 1.5 years to build the studio and do the prototyping to make the game. to find The real work on Arkheron itself started in 2018 and even then it involved a lot of continuous playtesting to get it right. And so the game has been in the works for about six years.
“We got thrown some curveballs,” Pardo said. “We didn't expect to be in the middle of development when a global pandemic hit.”
As an example of a curve ball, the team had to spend about nine months making a backend architecture for the networking to accommodate the type of combat they wanted.
We're not sure what that means yet as Bonfire is slowly rolling out the game.
The company has been playing and reporting behind the scenes for years on Archeron and started private playtesting sessions with a small community in 2024. While players will find familiar ideas and concepts in Archeron, it's not about combining species – it's about creating something completely new; a dynamic, fast-paced PvP gameplay experience set in a dark and terrifying world. The game is played from a top-down perspective, as opposed to first-person or third-person games, Pardo said.
The game does not have a deep narrative, so it is not different from games like League of Legends and Overwatch. But it has its own world and its own lore to make it a better PvP game. The game will also be a live service game as well.
The team at Bonfire tests the game every day, and influences this aspect of their development process to help them create a fun and unique game that they believe in. which players will like. It is built with the Unity game engine, with modifications created by Bonfire itself.
“A simple truth is at the heart of our development philosophy,” said Pardo. “If we don't love our game, neither will our players. We believe that the best games are born from the sheer love of playing them, which is why we've poured years of passion into developing Archeron, always iterating and refining it to deliver something truly unique and exciting.”
He said, “We've played the game every day as a team for years, and while we still haven't figured out how to explain it, we often say 'you've got to play it to get it.' . We want to start sharing the fun we found in Arkheron with a wider community soon, and we hope players will enjoy it as much as we have.”
Bonfire's design philosophy is based on fun and truly rewarding gameplay, imaginative worlds that encourage self-expression, welcoming, lasting communities and experiences that become an important part of players' lives.
Players who register through the website will be able to invite the private playtestbut the easiest way is to find a friend who is already playing – because Archeron is better when played with friends, the company said. Access is currently limited to North America, but Bonfire plans to continue expanding the playtest to other regions throughout the year.
New funding raised
Back when the company started in 2018, Bonfire Studios raised $25 million from Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) and Riot Games. He noted that the investors have been supportive along the way.
Building on last week's announcement of a partnership with Hybe IM to launch Archeron in Korea and Japan, Bonfire has also received new investments from A16z, The Foundation Fund and Altos Ventures, among others, which will fuel the remaining development of Archeron as the team prepares it. for a global launch.
Pardo said that he believes that the company now has what it needs to launch the game. But he did not disclose the total amount of the latest funding round.
As Bonfire continues its work on Arkheron, the studio is growing, with open positions on its engineering, art, audio and publishing teams. Interested candidates can learn more and apply on the Bonfire website.
Describing the game?
Archeron takes place in a dark fantasy universe with what the team likes to call a “shamefully beautiful” art style. But he noted that it is still different from the style of games like the Souls-like games or Diablo.
Regarding the art style and gameplay, Pardo said, “With potential investors or publishers or players, we haven't found the right way to explain it in a way that's really ' paint the right picture for the game. That's one of the reasons we've been doing private playtests.”
He said “The only way to know the game is to understand it by playing the game. “
But it's a competitive team-based multiplayer game, which Pardo calls a “modern and different fighting style.” It's not a shooter or any other genre out there, he said, and it's one of those where you have to see it to understand it.
“It's in this wonderful space where there are a lot of familiar concepts from other genres, but the heart of the game is very unique and the combat is very unique. It has created a lot of challenges for us to explain well to people. Because people always get the wrong idea. They get a picture of the game wrong,” Pardo said.
When asked about the game, Pardo said he hasn't revealed that yet. The team is only releasing high-level information, but Pardo said if you know his history, there will be the same types of design principles and philosophies that you're familiar with.
“It's very fast and it's not turnover based or anything like that. He has his own unique fighting style. It's not really a shooter. It's not point-and-click like Diablo,” he said. “We hope it's playable on the controller from the start. So it's very helpful for controller play. spread on the current generation consoles along with PC”.
Asked about the roadmap, Pardo said that the company has done a lot of testing in their circle of friends and family. Now it's going to happen with real players who have nothing to do with the company. That testing will likely begin in the next month or so.
“Then from that point forward, we're really going to continue to evolve the game based on what we learned from our playtesting,” Pardo said.
Making the game
Bonfire Studios has grown to 70 people now. The production started about a year ago, and the art department has grown to 40 people.
As far as the process goes, Pardo said the team tried to get everyone in the company comfortable with pitching games, from engineers to business people to game designers. The team then had to put more structure on that approach, limiting the game deck to maybe five slides. Dozens of pitches materialized and the team had to decide who to pursue.
He started prototyping seven different ideas and “the seeds grew into saplings,” Pardo said.
The team created “mood boards” and worked on the ideas for a few weeks each. Then they decided which one to raise.
“I never set out to take five more years to make a game, to be honest with you, but because the development style that I've always used, and that we use at Bonfire, has always be very iterative, find – the – fun model, it's not a straight line,” he said. “You have accidents and happy discoveries. You go down the wrong path and have to start in another direction. We build the game from within and then once we start to find the fun, you start to get more momentum. “
In that sense, the game process was very similar to what happened at Blizzard. He said with every game, you learn a ton, make mistakes, and find wisdom that takes you forward. After Blizzard finished a game, it would do a post-mortem. But he noted that different challenges would appear in the creative process next time. The technology would change, the art style might have to be reinvented.
“More than anything, what I've learned is to try to make sure you build conviction about the game as you go along,” he said.
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