How Playfusion's Ascendant is rising from the ashes of Lightseekers

gamesindustry.biz:

Earlier this year, UK developer Playfusion unveiled its newest game Ascendant Infinity, which aims to shake up the online multiplayer space with matches that change every time.

The title goes beyond just changing what equipment is available, or where the point-scoring items needed to win are located; it also triggers random events such as air strikes or monster spawns that can disrupt players' strategies.

The studio's founder Mark Gerhard tells GamesIndustry.biz that, after a long time in stealth mode, the team was relieved the initial reveal went down well: "People are looking for fresh content, stuff that's innovative. I think there's a fatigue around sequels, the next battle royale, and things like that. People are happy to see we've taken the risk to innovate, to create this 'adaption shooter' and event-driven gameplay mechanic."

Players, influencers, and press all loved the game, Gerhard tells us. The studio boss tells us that several media outlets criticised the name heavily, but that seemed to be the only sticking point (easily solved by dropping the 'Infinity' and re-revealing the game under the simplified title Ascendant during this month's Future Games Show). Now the team is focused on making a title that delivers on the initial hype.

"The team and I are super pumped – we really think we've got something special here," says Gerhard. "But the game is the tip of the iceberg. There's a crazy transmedia vision that we've been working on for nine years that we're hoping to realise, but it doesn't matter until the game works."

Details of this transmedia vision haven't been fully announced yet, but Gerhard does tell us that a pilot for a TV show has been written by the creative minds behind Arcane, the animated Netflix show based on Riot Games' League of Legends. Playfusion also holds patents for tech that Gerhard describes as "Shazam for video" that will help link the show to the game, as well as plans to put players' characters in the TV show.

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