Forge hasn’t had an easy time of it. Originally launching on Kickstarter it failed to gain much interest and raised only $76,000 of it $300,000 target. It managed to get past this hurdle and through Steam Greenlight to find a place in Valve’s store. It hasn’t done too well there,though, and now Dark Vale Games are converting the arena combat game into a free-to-play release.
“This next release is all about Forge’s survival,” wrote Tim Alvis, Dark Vale’s chief technical officer. “As you all know, we’re an Indie developer and are able to continue to support the game with new features from the sales of Forge every month. In order to continue to do this we must change our business plan in order to get more players playing Forge so it’s fun for everyone and to continue funding development. This is why Forge must go F2P.
“we continue to stand by our commitment that Forge will not be pay-to-win. As you see from our item store already, items are cosmetic. We hope in the future to add customization to cosmetic items as well. So the assassin could have a different dagger that gave her some kind of customization as well. For now, we will offer armor sets and XP boosts.”
To that end, Dark Vale are releasing four new armour sets to the store Bivröst Armor, Gullveig’s Armor, Armor of Muspelheim, and the Bardajalmor.
If you’ve already bought Forge Dark Vale don’t want you to feel ill-used. They’re giving a $19 starter pack to all those who have already bought the game. It’ll likely contain a timed XP boost and a skin set for your characters.
Forge will be going free-to-play next week.