The Fableborne Roadmap Q3-Q4 2023

Find out what awaits you in the upcoming months with the updated Fableborne Roadmap. Its contents have been heavily influenced by your feedback. Thank you so much for all the time you have dedicated to sharing your honest thoughts with us!

Disclaimer: We are forecasting the future with the information we currently have at hand so the roadmap is subject to change. Thank you for understanding.

The Road We Traveled

Before jumping into our plans for the third and fourth quarter of the year, let’s take a look at what we accomplished from the Q1-Q2 roadmap.

Completed Quests

• Creator program
• PvP systems including leaderboards
• Base builder linked to player progression
• Hero squad hotswap
• Hero and island defense upgrading
• New Hero — Leon
• Two new monster units — Golem and Swarm
• Started closed playtests
• Website update
• Hero talents and talents reset
• Pixion League reveal as part of Fableborne Primordials Play-to-Mint
• Pixion ID, Discord and wallet linking as part of the mint experience.

‘Hold to Abandon’ Quests

• Faction Update: Fableborne’s social play vision is more aligned with player-created clans instead of lore factions. Joining a Shatterlands faction may one day be considered again; for now we’re prioritizing clans gameplay.
• Mint Experience: We partnered with Magic Eden’s launchpad which reduced the development scope for this goal. We delivered the identity and wallet linking system, and removed the scope for minting in Fableborne’s website.
• Alpha Terminology: With our mint and Pixion League reveal we deprecated the alpha terminology to focus on Pixion League.

Fableborne’s State of Play

The announcement of the Fableborne Primordials mint is a celebration. We have data that shows we found a fun game we can build upon, so here’s to an exciting second half-year!

North Star Goal

We have a guiding goal that keeps the roadmap prioritization focused. The first half of 2023’s goal was to reach an alpha stage which we accomplished.

Fableborne’s current goal is to reach a closed beta stage by the end of 2023.

Alphas, betas, what do these mean? Each studio can have its own interpretation so we clarify ours.

Closed Beta Milestones

• Seven days of content and progression.
  – You can install the game and enjoy seven days of playing multiple times a day, and feeling a sense of progression by discovering deeper gameplay.
• Core gameplay design is final and only requires balancing tweaks:
  – Squad-based action RPG raiding
  – Hero talent trees
  – Base building
  – Enemy AI for effective PvE defending
  – Island shapes and natural obstacles.
• All game economy resources and core progression systems are present in a low-polish development stage.
• Blockchain integration vertical slice.
  – Develop a thin end-to-end slice of the experience to start prototyping in-game and cross-platform blockchain player journeys.
• Support two or more competitive Events running simultaneously in a low-polish development stage.

Roadmap Q3-Q4 2023 Overview

Our closed beta milestones are broadly split into three pipelines: content, systems and live operations. It’s time to dive into the roadmap!

Content Roadmap

Now

• New Hero — Monk Class
• Island corridors prototype
• Two new Defense Units — Healer, Sniper

Next

• Defense Units squad AI
• Combat RPG archetype system
• Two new Heroes
• Two new Defence Units

Later

• Transition to Hero talent trees
• Island elemental biomes prototype

Systems Roadmap

Now

• Daily win bonus prototype
• Fairer matchmaking rating (MMR)
• Raid replays
• New heart of island progression

Next

• Defense tokens prototype
• Esper collection system
• Pre-raid squad selection
• Mitigate portal defense bunch-up
• Player agency over island shape

Later

• Increase clarity of raiding goals
• Improve island obstacles feature
• Stars-based destruction prototype
• Building progression timers prototype
• Hero shards and elemental shards prototype

Live Operations Roadmap

Now

• Fableborne Primordials NFT mint
• Player cheating reporting system
• Cookies system for GDPR compliance

Next

• Fableborne Primordials holders utilities
• End-to-end blockchain user flow vertical slice

Later

• Leaderboard ranking split from MMR trophies
• Simultaneous leaderboard Events

Roadmap Zoom In

You may be keen to learn more about certain roadmap items. In this section we expand on the details for a select few. If we don’t cover an item you’re curious about, jump into Discord and ask us for more information there. We’re happy to answer any questions!

Defense Units Squad AI

Problem to Solve

The widely used combat tactic of aggroing an enemy, bringing them to a safe area to then dispatch, affects the island’s ability to defend itself from raiders.

Our Solution

Defense Units will be more effective attacking as squads. We’re going to prototype a new combat AI where Units work together to attack the raider, and cannot be individually lured.

Combat RPG Archetype System

Problem to Solve

Fableborne’s vision is that Hero combos are required to master raiding. To achieve this, Heroes need clearer strengths and weaknesses — which overlaps with player feedback.

Our Solution

Polish the RPG combat system by balancing Heroes and their abilities towards clearer roles. Balance and re-design Defence Units so that each Hero has enemies they’re strong and weak against.

Mitigate Portal Defense Bunch-up

Problem to Solve

The portal entry system tells players where the raider will enter their island from. A base building pattern from various playtests is to bunch-up defenses in front of the entry portal. This leads to predictable base building designs and low variety raiding experiences.

Our Solution

Create hypotheses for the root causes as the entry portal may not be at fault. We’re going to internally prototype different solutions to validate what the root cause is before deciding what path to take.

Player Agency Over Islands & Obstacles

Problem to Solve

Islands shapes and obstacles play an important role in base building strategies. Currently they are random and players don’t have control.

Our Solution

Both these elements may come into play as part of the portal defense bunch-up solutions. If they don’t, we will apply the same design process by creating hypotheses and quickly prototyping solutions that give players control over shapes and obstacles.

Hero Talent Trees

Problem to Solve

Player feedback indicates that the element of luck in Hero talent progression is not a good fit for a competitive game.

Our Solution

Change the system to talent trees where players can choose which talents to unlock, with full clarity on talent progression.

Leaderboard Ranking Split From MMR Trophies

Problem to Solve

The current leaderboard ranking is the matchmaking rating system (trophies) because leaderboards are still a prototype. This leads to the leaderboard ranking system not behaving as expected based on how leaderboards work in other competitive games.

Our Solution

The next step is to separate player MMR from how leaderboard ranking is calculated. We will implement variable ranking gains and losses dependent on the leaderboard gap between the raider and defender.

Make sure to follow us on social media and join the community on Discord to stay up to date with Fableborne!

Let’s embark on an exciting journey together, let’s #becomefableborne.

THE FABLEBORNE TEAM