ierra Studios and Troika Games today announced a public beta program for
their upcoming role-playing game Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura.
The public beta will begin in September, and will give gamers access to some
of the 19 major environments within the land of Arcanum, along with scores
of dungeons and quests to explore. Testers will also be given a private
online forum on which to discuss the game with the developers, give feedback
and suggestions, and report bugs.
To fully incorporate feedback from the beta program, Arcanum will be
released in February of 2001. In addition, Sierra and Troika will release a
playable demo of the game this winter.
More information about Arcanum can be found at www.arcanum1.com
Arcanum is the first game to come from the development house Troika Games,
LLC, started by former Fallout(r) team members Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky,
and Jason Anderson. The experienced Arcanum development team reunites many
of the original development team from the critically acclaimed Fallout(r)
and Fallout 2(r) RPGs.
Arcanum creates a compelling new world where magic and technology coexist in
an uneasy balance. As Arcanum opens, the mechanical age has only recently
arrived in this ancient land where Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and other
races have learned to coexist in the new sprawling industrialized cities.
But this radical shift from magic to technology has created a potentially
explosive situation. While the townspeople and other thinkers begin mass
production of light bulbs, batteries, eyeglasses and guns, the Mages grow
leery. This tightly-wound setting is the starting point from which the
character must set out on his quest.
Arcanum allows gamers to assume the role of multiple pre-existing characters
or create their own, and provides many paths to explore the game world,
ensuring the highest degree of replayability. Meanwhile, the multiplayer
component extends the life of the game and appeals to a large fan base that
enjoys cooperative and competitive play.
Sierra On-Line, Inc. http://www.sierra.com/ is one of the original
developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment and
productivity software. Sierra is a division of Havas Interactive, a global
leader in interactive content, and is one of the world's largest publishers
of education, entertainment and home productivity software. Its divisions,
Blizzard Entertainment(r), Coktel, Knowledge Adventure(r), Sierra(tm) and
Flipside.com(tm) are famous for releasing critically acclaimed and award
winning titles. Havas has operations in the US and in Europe and is a
subsidiary of the French publishing house Havas, part of Vivendi
Communications.
Fallout is a registered trademark of Interplay Productions and is not
affiliated with this product.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
