ASCENDANT.COM Sets its Sights on FPS Heights

ASCENDANT.COM is an unashamedly over-the-top team-based FPS featuring laser cannons, spandex, and 80s synthpop jostling for domination of the senses. It’s a fun-first, chaos-heavy shooter set in a vibrant biopunk world with a deceptively simple game loop at its heart: Get in, grab as many Biocores as you can, and get out…or die trying (although ideally not at the hands—claws?—of one of the planet’s particularly shouty megabugs). Intel Gaming Access chased down Mark Gerhard, co-founder and CEO of UK indie developer PlayFusion, to find out why ASCENDANT.COM should be your next go-to team shooter.

The game is an off-the-chain reimagining of the first-person PvP shooter genre. Four teams of three players battle it out in a vivid post-apocalyptic world to secure as many scarce, life-giving Biocores as their battle-scarred hands can carry. As the game count ticks up, players will need to continually adapt their tactics to the unhinged, event-driven gameplay to escape. “ASCENDANT.COM sets itself apart by being the world’s first ‘Adaption Shooter’, designed to put fun and teamwork at the core of the multiplayer experience,” Mark says. “Our secret sauce is visceral, sticky, repeatable gameplay, super-social systems, endless player and weapon customization, with ridiculous, irreverent fun at the core.”

Old School, New School

There’s something unabashedly retro in the stylings of ASCENDANT.COM, while the gameplay itself has all the trappings anyone would expect of today’s high-performance online shooters. “ASCENDANT.COM has been inspired by a mix of modern-day multi-team, multi-objective shooters, but with a deliberate attempt to reflect the fun we all had playing some of the classic ‘old-school’ arcade and arena shooters that many of us played growing up,” Mark adds. 

“A lot of our development team members worked together at a company called Jagex, which was made famous by a game called RuneScape,” Mark continues. “ASCENDANT.COM is really the lovechild of our development team’s MMORPG roots, plus creating a new FPS, fuelled by ’80s retro-nostalgia, infused with Biopunk, all wrapped in our fresh ‘Battle for the Biocores’ game mode.”

There’s clearly a labor of love going on here, with the team pouring their collective decades of video gaming experience as fans into the game’s conception. “Ultimately, we relied on our experience as gamers and considered the best elements of other AAA competitive shooters, multiplayer co-op games, and even MMOs when developing ASCENDANT.COM,” Mark says. “The results can be seen in our deep customization and progression systems, as well as the core gameplay loop that emphasizes player fun, accessibility, and endless replayability at every turn.”

As with many current big hits in the indie gaming space, the straddling of multiple gameplay styles and the need to do more than tick a simple genre box is at the forefront of PlayFusion’s approach to development. Mark says, The crucial thing for us has been to blend multiple engaging elements, such as gunplay, moment-to-moment tactics, and varied play styles, into one potent package.” 

Finding Fun in Gray Boxes

The studio took a slightly unusual path on the way to ensuring the rip-roaring player experience at the heart of ASCENDANT.COM, eschewing slick vertical slices for a more stripped down approach. “At the start of development, we gray-boxed everything and used placeholder art to find the fun and build the systems and game mechanics first,” Mark explains. “We knew we could make art for our game, so we decided to go after the fun first and add the art afterwards.”

That’s not to say the method was entirely without its pitfalls. “Once we found the fun and started to put the art into the game, it caused crashes and issues with performance and framerate,” Mark continues. “The team has been focused on addressing these before the open beta. We hope to see further improvements in the performance as we continue the development ahead of the Early Access launch.”

PC is the Way to Play

ASCENDANT.COM is a fast-paced game with rapidly evolving in-game events, which means PC performance is a key component in delivering the best player experience possible. That said, Mark and the team are firmly of the belief that—performance aside—the best way to experience the game is to team up with friends and form a squad to grab as many Biocores as you can. “We want to make ASCENDANT.COM a truly social game you can play with your friends and also meet new friends in the game,”  Mark says, before adding intriguingly: “That’s why we will have a surprise when offering various game editions before the launch, which will make it easier for players to bring their friends into the game.”

When it comes to ensuring that optimal PC experience, Intel lent a hand with the heavy lifting. “Our partnership with Intel is incredibly important to us to ensure the best experience possible for all our players, and we’re delighted with the number of game optimization technologies Intel offers,” Mark explains.. We’ve supported Intel CPUs throughout development, and recently we’ve been evaluating Intel GPUs, too. As I speak, we’re in the process of implementing Intel^Ⓡ X^e Super-Sampling (X^eSS) support into the game.” 

There’s a lot of excitement at PlayFusion as ASCENDANT.COM approaches its Early Access launch, but as with any live service game, the team is committed to the long haul and to listening to its players. “We’ve just completed our public open beta test where we’ve taken direct feedback from players. We aim to take all the learning from that into the next development phase,” Mark says. “Player feedback is crucial for us to make the right design and gameplay choices.”

Hot on the biopunk heels of the upcoming Early Access launch, the team has a comprehensive plan in place to keep the Biocores flowing freely in ASCENDANT.COM. “We have a development roadmap of regular content drops and post-release support, extending the depth of the game over time and providing more content to our players to keep them engaged,” Mark hints. “Ultimately, we want to ensure there are always new and exciting in-game features that players can enjoy and explore together.” Biopunks rise up, it’s time to shoot some sh—.

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