If you’ve been wanting to play Soulframe, now’s your chance to do so. As is TennoCon tradition for Soulframe at this point, Digital Extremes is letting anyone who has signed up to playtest the game on Soulframe’s website into the current Preludes version of the game.
Digital Extremes currently operates Soulframe: Preludes, a closed pre-alpha where people can help playtest the fantasy multiplayer RPG. While it’s possible to sign up and show interest in participating in these Preludes tests at any time, Digital Extremes only lets new players in occasionally.
TennoCon is typically one of those times, and that’s still the case this year. If you sign up before 11:59 PM ET on July 12, you’re guaranteed access to Soulframe: Preludes. Speaking to Polygon ahead of TennoCon, lead designer Scott McGregor explained how the team is working hard to prepare for anything that can go wrong when welcoming an influx of new Soulframe players.
“It’s exciting and always terrifying because it’s a flood of people and you pray the hardware survives, that the servers don’t crash, and that they don’t all get stuck in the same sthipot or find a bug that we missed. It’s fun in that way, but it also makes for some sleepless nights.”
When you get access to Soulframe: Preludes, you can check out some of what Digital Extremes showed off during the latest Devstream, like a new boss called the Mendicant Reinbreaker and sword-whip weapon. It will also ensure you have access to future updates, like one that will add mounts this fall.
While those additions will likely be the most important ones for players, senior community manager Sarah Asselin seems more interested in getting feedback on the new-player experience from this new batch of playtesters.
“It is always scary to have an influx of people, but it’s really, really useful because what we gain from that is new players giving fresh feedback, fresh perspectives on all of our systems,” Asselin tells Polygon. “I’m always particularly interested in the new-player experience, and when you have new players, you get more feedback on the new-player experience.”
If you want to check out Soulframe for yourself, make sure you sign up on the game’s website before 11:59 PM EDT on July 12. Soulframe: Preludes is only available on PC for now, and Digital Extremes has not yet committed to any 1.0 release window at TennoCon.
Additional reporting by Simone de Rochefort