 What's up everybody, I'm the Man Goose, you are awesome and it's time for another edition of the Road Back to Paragon. This is a monthly update on the progress of some of the spiritual successors to our favorite third person MOBA. This is meant to catch people up that I've only recently discovered that Paragon, or something like it, is on the way back. For most of my subs, this is going to be some old shit. The four games we'll cover are Madeabuff and Core, Amidus Studios with Predecessor, Undying Games with Ethereal Clash of Souls, and Visionary Games with Project Phoenix Rising. I'll attempt to summarize the progress and history of each game, as well as answering the big three questions people often have. When is the Alpha? Is it going to be on the PlayStation Network? And will they use the Paragon heroes? Madeabuff and Core, when is the Alpha? We still don't know. April 27th was the original tentative date, however the game wasn't ready at that time, so the Alpha has been delayed. Will it be on the PlayStation Network? Yes, Madeabuff has already taken strides towards bringing Core to console. Will they use the Paragon heroes? Also yes, they plan to eventually implement all of the Paragon heroes. History. Madeabuff started out as Unleashed Games and Brain Dead Games. The two merged together and incorporated to become Madeabuff. From what we've seen, Core will feature a legacy style map that will use monolith assets. So think legacy design with monolith appearance. They plan to have 15 playable heroes for the Alpha. The roster has changed a few times, so be sure to head over to madeabuff.com to find out who those heroes will be. They have stated that they plan to have 10,000 slots available for Alpha testing, however don't expect all 10,000 keys to be handed out immediately. There is currently no way to sign up for the Alpha, the best thing to do is join their Discord link 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 any announcements. There really haven't been many recent updates from Madeabuff. They released a video showing some of their UI elements along with the Alpha Delay announcement, and that has many interesting features. They also released a video of Severog in action on a gray box map, and that lets us know that his abilities do indeed work. Omega Studios with Predecessor. When is the Alpha? The game is currently in Alpha State. They released it for play at the end of March, but it has since been down for a massive overhaul and bug fixes. Will it be on the PlayStation Network? Yes, they have a few things to do before they can get there, but that is the plan. Will they have the Paragon Heroes? Yes, Predecessor will be using the assets released by Epic and eventually bringing all the Paragon Heroes back. Madea Studios is a six-person crew led by Sgt. Smokey. While they may be small, they make up for their size and expertise. All of the members of the development team have been streaming their progress on the game offering fans an unprecedented amount of transparency. They have five heroes currently in the Alpha, Gadget, Muriel, Murdoch, Severog, and Fingmao, but plan to eventually include all of the Paragon Heroes. There hasn't been much going on with Predecessor since the game went down for maintenance. Sgt. Smokey has started to once again stream his progress on the bug fixes and they have Severog and Fingmao completely back up and running with a good amount of progress done on Murdoch. This leaves Gadget and Muriel due for some love. Undying games with a ethereal clash of souls. When is the Alpha? No exact dates for the Alpha. Undying is building their game from the ground up, so progress is a bit slower than the other companies that have the assets in place. Will it be on the PlayStation Network? Again, yes, they do plan to bring the game to console, but much like the other companies they plan to get the game working on PC first. Will they use the Paragon Heroes? No, ethereal will create their own world with their own characters called Myths. Ethereal began production while Paragon was still alive and was never meant to be the successor to the game. As such, they aren't limited by the conventions of Paragon and have instead planned a very ambitious evolutionary step in the progress of the MOBA genre. Not only will ethereal take a different artistic direction, but they will also have a 6v6 main mode, lanes that float on top of each other, and a class that flies. They plan to have a 14 hero roster for their Alpha with 2,000 slots available. Undying has decided to have paid access to the Alpha and you can expect to pay somewhere around $20 for a key. Undying has been as quiet as the rest of the companies this month, but they did make an appearance at Colossal Con represented by Tricolor, their sounded voice director. They also released some splash art and some voice lines. Project Phoenix Rising was probably the first company that many of us heard of as far as trying to bring Paragon back to us in some way, shape or form. There was a good deal of initial progress with the game, but there was a large blow to the company that slowed production in November. While progress was slowed, it did not stop. They currently plan to demo the game in the future with a 1 lane 3v3 map, but the first thing they will release to the community to play will be a full 3 lane 5v5. No current updates for Phoenix Rising, but spirits seem to be very high over at Visionary. Overall it was a slow month for all of the companies producing these games. While it kind of sucks to be in the dark right now, in the end it's going to benefit us for them to go a little quiet and focus on producing the games. I of course encourage everyone to visit each company's social media and learn as much as you can. Hopefully soon we'll all have a beautiful 3rd person move it to once again sink our teeth into. This is the mangoo signing off, you guys, have a good one.