 What's up everybody, I am the Mangus, you are awesome and it's time for another edition of the Road Back to Paragon. This is a monthly summary of the various games that can possibly succeed where Paragon failed. I'll remind you as always that this is meant to be a way for new people to catch up on what's been going on so far. If you've been tracking things closely then you're not going to learn anything here. The four games I'll cover are Made of Uff and Core, I Made of Studios with Predecessor, Undying Games with Ethereal, Clash of Souls, and Visionary Games with Project Phoenix Rising. I'll try to provide a brief history of what's been going on with the games, do my best to answer the top three questions everyone has about them, and then summarize what happens specifically this month. The top three questions I mentioned are, when is the alpha? Is it going to be on the PlayStation Network? And will they use the Paragon Heroes? Before I get into the games I'll go ahead and answer the will it be on PlayStation question as the answer applies to all the games I cover, and that answer is yes, they all eventually plan to bring the game to console, but will release their alphas on PC. I know most Paragon players were console players and desperately want these games to come to the PlayStation Network as soon as possible, but unfortunately you'll have to wait at least a few months after the PC players get their hands on it. Made of Uff and Core, when is the alpha? It was originally set for April 27th however that date has of course come and gone. Made of Uff apologized for the delayed alpha but have been fairly silent ever since preferring to knuckle down and try to get the game completed as soon as possible. Will they use the Paragon Heroes? Also yes, they plan to eventually implement all of the Paragon Heroes. Made of Uff is one of two companies using the assets provided by Epic Games to make a new third person MOBA based on Paragon. Core is meant to be a sequel to the game and feature a legacy style layout for their map, but will use the monolith assets for the aesthetics. Their focus so far seems to be an attempt to use tried and true MOBA standards from other games as an influence to improve the Paragon experience. They plan to have 15 playable heroes for the alpha. The current roster includes Countess, Decker, Fing Mal, Twin Blast, Sparrow, Gideon, Greystone, Kalari, Chimera, Bellica, Murdoch, Muriel, Narbash, Rampage, and Ceberog. This list has changed a few times however so keep an eye on their website at madeabelfgames.com for any roster swaps. The current plan is to have 10,000 slots available for the alpha however don't expect all 10,000 keys to be released immediately. There is currently no way to sign up for the alpha, the best thing to do is join their discord linked in the video description, follow them on Facebook, or sign up for their newsletter on the website so you can stay up to date on the game. There haven't been many updates for Core this month, the only information we have is that they've optimized and compiled their first build and are beginning to play test the game internally. The meta studio is with Predecessor. When is the alpha? The game is technically in alpha right now. They released it for play at the end of March, however they discovered quite a few bugs and had to bring the game down for maintenance. We currently don't know when they'll bring the game back up for more playtesting. Will they have the Paragon Heroes? Yes, Predecessor will be using the assets released by Epic to eventually bring all of the Paragon Heroes back. Meta Studios is the Bantamweight company out of everyone but they do punch well above their class. They prefer to keep a small yet very highly skilled staff. Most every member of the team streams their work on the game offering an unprecedented amount of transparency to the community. They will be focusing on bringing the legacy era of Paragon back in both appearance and gameplay. However they will make a few changes here and there to improve the experience. They have 5 heroes currently in the alpha, Gadget, Muriel, Murdoch, Sevrog, and Fing Mal, but plan to eventually have all the Paragon Heroes. This month, Omeda has been working on implementing the gameplay ability system to solve input lag and have been reworking all of their heroes. Their level designer, Fringe, has been creating his own assets for the map. These assets will still maintain the slightly ruined appearance of legacy but will serve to better optimize the map making it a little easier on your CPU. Progress has picked up with the addition of Ruba to their team. You may recognize Ruba as a moderator on the Paragon subreddit or from my show for The Minions where he's been teaching us how to implement the Paragon assets in the Unreal Engine. Undying games with Aetherial, Clash of Souls. When is the alpha? No exact dates for the alpha, all we know is that it will be this year. Undying is building the game from the ground up so progress is a bit slower than other companies that have the assets in place. Will they use the Paragon Heroes? No, Aetherial will create their own world with their own characters called Myths. Aetherial was never meant to be a successor to Paragon. In fact, Undying began production of the game well before the closure of Paragon was announced. Without the burden of trying to carry the baton, they've been free to offer a variety of ambitious features including destructible environments, flying heroes, a Berkeley-tiered map, and a 6v6 main game mode. They've also taken a different approach to the art style for better or worse. I think for the better but that's my subjective opinion. They plan to have a 14 euro roster for their alpha with 2,000 slots available. Undying has decided to have a paid access to their alpha and you can expect to pay somewhere around $20 for a key. However, the game's full launch will be free to play. This month Undying has stated that they will be reworking their website as they continue to work on getting things ready for the alpha. They also released some voice lines for two of their Myths that have captured the attention of the community. I never get tired of listening to them so here you go. Your fate is sealed. Dazzling, we are nothing if not luminous. What Dazzling Brilliant's destiny reveals. My aura shines through dimensions. Is my armor too heavy? No, it's light. Instancing Dimensional Link. Enter my world. Vision active. This world's matter is the clay I will use to forge my own universe. We are everywhere. Visionary Games with Project Phoenix Rising. When is the alpha? I have no idea for this one. Sorry guys. Will they use the Paragon Heroes? No, Visionary started their game before the assets were released and have stayed true to their creation. Visionary and Phoenix Rising was the first company I heard of that had plans to create a successor to Paragon. They made a great deal of progress and had some amazing talent working for them to create all new assets for the game. Back in November there was a split in the company over some creative differences and they also lost some of their talent due to the demands of everyday life. While progress slowed significantly on the game they have not stopped working on it. There is currently a plan to demo the game in the future with a one lane 3v3 map. Don't worry though they still plan for the game to be a complete 5v5 three lane MOBA. There haven't been any current updates for Phoenix Rising. After the falling out within the company they've preferred to keep things under wraps until they have something truly worthy of showing the Paragon community. So there you have it folks. If you're just now learning about all this then that is a lot to take in. Hopefully I was able to summarize things for you. I encourage you to do your own research on each of these projects. I'll provide links to their discord servers in the video description and as always I encourage you to root for whatever game you're the most excited for. I think it's obvious by now that my personal favorite is ethereal but I've made what I hope to be lasting friendships with the developers of all these games and I wish them all success. You too can root for one game while remaining optimistic and hopeful for the others. No one is impressed when people go out of their way to take a shit on one company or another. They're all working hard to bring us a game that we can enjoy and none of these companies are impressed by their fans going out of their way to take a dump on their competitors. It doesn't matter where you take a shit everyone is going to take its stinks. That's all I have for now folks you guys have a good one.