Questions and Answers
When will Avalyss be open to the public?
Games and websites like these take some time to develop. However, we want to open up to people as soon as possible! We will opening for early testing when our foundation features are complete. These are add-ons to our existing features at Avaricia: (Shops, Inventories, Avatars) with some major upgrades to our social site systems. The largest part of our work is already done, but we need to make a few major enhancements first, such as our recoloring system. We will move on to Open Alpha once there is enough content (items, characters, and places to explore). During Open Alpha, Avalyss will be a fully functioning Avatar Community type of website, with some very light RPG elements.
After earning enough funding through kickstarter and any item sales, we can begin fleshing out our features. We will enter Closed Beta when our core features are built enough to to test. Open Beta (Official Launch) will occur when our core features are fully functional and free of major bugs and sufficient content (story, quests, locations, and items). We expect our core feature development time to take roughly two years, allowing new members as often as possible beforehand.
How can I become a tester?
There are a few ways you can test with us!
Join Avaricia
From now until the start of Open Alpha, you may join Avaricia and make a post within the Avalyss forums for a bronze token. Optionally, you can request a silver token from other members in this thread. Silver tokens are no longer being granted by our systems, and can only be handed out by members who own them. When these are exhausted, bronze tokens will be the only option.
Sign up on Avalyss.com
You can sign up for Open Alpha by completing the form on the testing page. We will be choosing around two-hundred players from this list. We will hand-pick from half of the list to ensure we have a well-rounded test group. Then, we'll use a randomizer to select the second half.
Watch our Social Media
Watch Avalyss' site and our Social Media for more chances to join early!
Closed Beta testing will occur at some point thereafter. We will open up the site for sign-ups during specific windows of time as our developing features become stable enough to do so. Watch Avalyss' site and social media for news. We will continue this period until we are about ready to open up to the public in "Open Beta".
What are the benefits of testing?
For Avaricia Members: Gold and Silver token bearers will receive a special bundle that includes many well-loved Avaricia favorites that are to be released later as either free but rare items or premium items. They will also receive an exclusive item set that will never be released again. Any bronze token-bearing members will receive the same special bundle, minus those exclusive to gold and silver token bearers.
Alpha Testers will have the benefits of obtaining items, gaining more EXP, and be able to give vital feedback. They can be some of the first to help shape Avalyss into the kind of game they want it to be. Our Alpha testers will have the most joy in watching the game take form.
Exclusives:
Closed Beta Testers will also have access to a Free Beta Testing bundle, and Premium Beta Support bundles that will be obtained the same way as in Alpha. Closed Beta Testing bundles will not be available during Open Beta.
The premium bundles will be offered in our Premium item shop and will be discontinued after each testing period ends, respectively.
Will Avalyss Wipe Account Data after testing?
No, we will not wipe ANY account data after our testing period is complete. We feel this brings unnecessary work and a bad user-experience. We are not only a game, but a social community. We may, however, experience the occasional roll-back when it comes to EXP, trust points, and free currency earning during our testing phases. We want to avoid setting back major player advancements in their inventories, social activities (friends, posts, etc) whenever possible.
What will happen to Avaricia accounts?
We came about the decision to start this new project with the support and encouragement of all involved Avaricia members. They were each given the opportunity to voice their opinion on the matter. Together, we decided that creating Avalyss was the best decision we could make for the community.
As such, we are offering Avaricia members special item bundles if they have gold, silver or bronze tokens.
When Avalyss is ready for Open Alpha, Avaricia will be put into a soft-closure state. Existing members may log in and post in a specific area, while the rest of the site remains archived. New account registration will be closed. All previous items will be made available. At that time, all previous Avaricia members can claim special EXP bonuses based upon their account age and posts. All free currencies will be restored. All premium currencies ever obtained can be claimed for one year after Avaricia's closure. Many favorite items will appear on Avalyss as either recreations or re-imagined versions of the original. There will not be a conversion project.
We feel this is a fair compensation for Avaricia members.
What is the target audience of your game?
We will allow players from ages 13 and older. Our target audience is typically around ages 18-25. However, we will see players older than this. It should be noted, however that while Avalyss content is for 13 and above, we do not consider it to be a child-friendly game or community. Players under the age of 13 are not permitted to join.
Story Content
The content contained within the story can be considered PG-13 in nature. Occasional references to alcohol may be present. Minor depictions of blood will be visible within the story. Mild video game violence will be depicted through our battle system. Minor curse words may be present in the story.
Community Content
Our community will maintain a general PG-13 environment. Although we may permit some limited mature subject-matter and content to be posted.
Will there be an App?
After our features are complete and stable, we will be looking into porting game-related content and social features over to an app for Android and IOS. In the meantime, the site and game will be designed with mobile browsers in mind.
Will Avalyss be free to play?
Yes! Avalyss will always be free to play! We are designing our community and game to function just as well for those who cannot afford to financially support us as those who can. However, a game of this scope and size needs a dedicated team of artists, developers and the resources to make it happen. We plan to creatively employ Premium Content in a way that both suits our needs and makes our players happy. We know from experience how games feel when being bombarded by advertisements for microtransactions! We've done our research and pooled from our personal experience to determine a good middle ground.
All about Premium "paid" Avalyss features
This is what you can expect at Avalyss when it comes to premium currency and content:
Premium Currency
Premium currency can be earned through parts of the site at a slow rate, for free. Typically these will be awarded as milestone awards.
Premium currency will be tradeable. It will be possible to exchange items, free currency, and services (artwork, profile layouts, etc) for premium currency.
You will be able to purchase premium currency on the website as you typically would for any site of this nature.
At Avaricia, we liked to give away premium items and currency in contests. Avalyss will be no different! Contests may range from bring-a-friend, sharing social media content, item design contests, art, profile design, or writing contests, covering all abilities or the lack thereof. We will likely hold these quarterly, with mini-contests occuring during events.
Premium items and content
RIG (random item generators): We will not be utilizing a RIG-type model for any Premium item on Avalyss. While we currently have the capacity to do so, we decided to not utilize them for Premium Currency. We may offer them for free currency, or as free items for those who do enjoy them. RIG type items will always be optional "extras" containing either supplies or cosmetic / level 1 items.
Some map areas may be "Premium Access". However, as premium currency can be freely traded, this should not be an issue for most members. These Premium Access areas will be extra content, containing only level 1 items, and no areas vital for progressing through the game. You may encounter new NPCs, free shops, and special supplies and other materials to collect and sell to others. Because of our trading system, items will never be locked behind a paywall.
All premium items will start at level 1 when purchased. It will be up to you to upgrade the item to your liking. You can then sell them off at a higher level with more value if you'd like.
Premium items will be released on a monthly, quarterly and yearly cycle. Each cycle increasing in cost the longer it remains for purchase, with monthly being the lowest cost (about $2.50 USD each). We want to limit the number of premium shops we carry as to not overwhelm our players with too many premium areas.
Subscription Service
Avalyss will also employ a subscription system, released at some point during Closed Beta. This system will allow players to subscribe to exclusive content and extras at whatever rate they can afford. Some of what we plan to offer through the subscription service.
The subscription service is optional. Players may purchase premium currency stand-alone at any time, but you will not receive the subscriber-exclusive benefits.
All Tiers:
- Premium currency bonus with incremental increases at each tier.
- Subscriber exclusive free and premium item shops with new content being added frequently.
- Access to exclusive streams to see new content (items, artwork, story progression).
- Extra story areas containing side-stories, extra comics, concept artwork, information, and fun content that you might find within a "guidebook", "artbook", or an "Ultimania/Perfect Works" type of publication.
- Access to test out new features before being released to anyone else.
- And more!
For Higher-tier subscribers:
- Monthly drawings for custom items.
- A drawing for a free full-body, full color commission from site artists
- Real-life merchandise, such as posters, prints, keychains/charms, tote bags, or t-shirts sent via snail mail at a predetermined time period (such as bi-yearly, or quarterly).
- A random yearly drawing from subscribers to place themselves in the game as an NPC, playable character, or appear in the story.
- And more!
How can I help?
The best way you can help right now is to spread the word! Share our social media posts and pages, and help get the word out! We need testers, new players, members and people interested in joining us!
Can I join your staff?
We will be adding moderators, volunteer data-entry staff, and more as Avalyss goes into the Open Alpha state. Currently, our volunteer staff is made up of existing Avaricia staff and we have no current need for additional staffers until we have more players to interact with!
Moderators must have experience moderating forums or social groups or be proven, dedicated and active members.
Assistant Administrators are promoted from proven and trusted moderators or those with significant experience moderating and entering data.
Compensation: Volunteer staff receives a monthly stipend of free currency and EXP. For Administrators and data-entry, a stipend of free and premium currency and EXP. In addition, all staff have access to a special staff shop.
Are you Hiring?
We are hiring in limited capacity at this time. Inquiries can be directed to our lead admin, Bobbi
Developers: We are seeking developers who have experience with PHP/MySQL, Javascript (AJAX, JQuery). We will be hiring one or two developers on a contract-basis only until Avalyss is generating enough revenue to bring someone on permanantly as part-time and/or full-time. We are currently staffed for front-end and UI design and are not currently looking to hire anyone specifically to fill this role.
Artists: We are currently not hiring any artists at this time as our lead admin is the primary artist. We will soon need additional help to keep up with content demands as soon as we can afford to do so. We will be looking to bring on additional artists to focus on creating items, bestiary design, 2-D special effects, and designs and graphics for minor characters. We will post an advertisement when we have the proper funding to bring on artists for these positions.
Other Hired Staff: Eventually, we will be offering part-time writer and data-entry positions. Writers will assist with writing quests between chapters. Data-entry positions will assist with entering the data for quests, items and world-building into the systems via our control panels. We will likely promote volunteer Assistant Administrators or part-time data entry staff to paid positions when it is possible to do so.