Experience a New Kind of MOBA in Skygard Arena

Paris, France, August 27, 2025 | Indie developer Gemelli Games has announced that Skygard Arena, the turn-based tactics game with MOBA-style champions, will launch its 1.0 version on September 18 at a full price of 14.99 USD and with a 35% discount (9.74 USD) during the first 2 weeks. This launch comes after 9 months in Early Access polishing the game along with the community. This version includes the new Champion Seraphine, a new Arena for multiplayer mode, Steam achievements and more.

In Skygard Arena, players build their dream team using 3 Champions with similar mechanics to the ones found in MOBA games, but in a turn-based gameplay where you can play solo or with your friends in multiplayer matches. Each character has unique spells so players have to learn how to best use their strengths to overcome the opponents and accomplish objectives. Positioning and movement play a key role in the game, as Champions have to capture objectives in the Arena and collect orbs to execute spectacular ultimate attacks. The game has text available in English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and German.

What’s New in 1.0:

• New playable Champion (Seraphine) with 2 Personas: Angel and Avenger.
• New Arena for multiplayer mode: Seraphine’s Throne Room.
• 8 new Relics (items with unique passive effects that reshape the gameplay of a Champion).
• Steam achievements.

Main features:

• Full single-player campaign with 13 handcrafted missions and 26 secondary quests. With large-scale battles, skirmishes to capture objectives, infiltration missions, base-defense challenges and boss fights, you will be challenged as you progress through the story.
• Multiplayer Arena mode with 1v1 PvP matches lasting 20 minutes on average. Play Ranked mode to climb the global leaderboard or enjoy Casual matches with friends.
• A roster of 10 unique Champions, each coming with 2 different Personas (a specific gameplay style with its own set of spells and its own skin).
• 80 Relics that grant game-changing passive effects and reinforce synergies between Champions.
• Over 500,000 different team compositions.
• A modular AI inspired by chess engines like Stockfish. When playing Arena matches against the AI, players can choose between 4 difficulty levels. These difficulty levels do not change the number of enemies nor their stats: similar to chess engines, they only change the quality of the moves played by the AI! Prepare to face mind-blowing combos.
• Epic 90-minute soundtrack composed by Raphael Joffres (Audio Lead on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33).

The World of Skygard

Since the Shattering broke the world of Skygard into multiple islands floating in the sky, five factions have been struggling for survival, Katia, bold Elves and Dwarves who united to build a flying city. The Crimson Empire and their relentless thirst for conquest. The Clouds Clan, an alliance of free nomad tribes. The peaceful Guardians, protectors of ancient magic. The zealots of the Silver Kingdom blinded by their faith in their angel queen. To prevent open war between them, the Factions Tournament was created: every 5 years each one sends their best Champions to fight in the Arena and win the right to exploit the immense crystal mine of Felden. This year, an additional reward is at stake: an ancient crown, radiating magic and whispering voices from the past….

Socials:

• Visit the website: https://www.gemelligames.com
• X (former Twitter): https://x.com/SkygardArena
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094301591161
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Skygard_Arena
• Discord: https://discord.com/invite/2VtCTVgbzh

About Gemelli Games

The studio was founded in Paris by twin brothers Antoine & Alexandre Colin with the mission to create strategy games that are easy to play and satisfying to master. They have a community-centric development process, listening to player feedback through regular playtests and data analytics. Skygard Arena is their first game and also the consolidation of the studio's vision.

Article by: Susan N.

Read More

Darksburg - PC Preview

Darksburg by developer and publisher Shiro Games—PC (Steam) preview written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

---

Having just launched onto Steam through Early Access, ShiroGames’ DarksBurg is a top-down team based four player coop / versus that sees a group of adventurer’s needing to band together in order to survive the undead hordes chasing after them. With several levels already available and four different characters to fight the hordes with, there’s already plenty of gameplay available either on your own with three other players or AI controlled substitutes if players aren’t available.

Now upfront, while Darksburg is a lot of fun to play, and while it doesn’t introduce anything new per say, it doesn’t need to. Blending elements from both the four player first person shooter survivors like Left 4 Dead and Warhammer Vermintide and the top down controls and abilities of a MOBAs like DotA and League of Legends, Darksburg is something new in this regard it handles very, very well.

Starting up for the first time you’ll have your choice of characters, as long as others haven’t already locked in, which each have three normal abilities and a fourth ultimate one that takes a good deal of time in order to charge up to be used. Possible character choices are ranged, healer, tank and something somewhere in the middle as your cleric wields a giant crucifix as she basically nails her enemies into the ground. Once you’ve chosen your character and are ready to go, that character will earn experience in order to level up in your account as experience is only granted at the end of a stage regardless of if you’ve succeeded or failed at the objectives.

As you level up your characters, there are benchmarks in which you unlock perks and slots in order to give yourself a bigger edge within each mission. Perks range from anything like gaining temporary health by biting enemies as the Wolfman Varag, or have increased damage and speed if you’re injured because your health has dropped too low. While I would personally say that sticking with one character is a good idea, I know that it isn’t always possible so you should always have a back up!

Now before actually going into a session, you have several choices. The first is pure survival where you and three others go through stages with a list of objectives that you need to complete in order to survive. The second is about the same thing, but, another four players can join up in order to control the special characters from the undead horde against the four heroes. Finally, you can choose whether the game is open to the public, open to your friends, or by invite only.

Once you’ve jumped into the gameplay, you and three others have to charge through the hordes on the way to the exit. Normal enemies while not overly powerful can still get in the way and give you enough of a hard time once a horde charges in. Standard zombies will only claw at you but it won’t take long before spearmen, suicide bombers and special units come into your path. Exploding units if you can maneuver them well enough can only be an advantage for you but the special units? Those you’ll want to take out and fast as they can do some serious damage.

As heroes, other than making it to the end your goal, the in between goals are often simple enough in premise but a bit harder to complete in actuality. The main reason is that often your goals will require you to pick something up and slowly move it to where it needs to be. While you’re carrying a cannon ball or a bale of hay you are to the mercy of the undead and the availability of your teammates. Not exactly being the easiest, AI controlled characters don’t make it easy as they’ll either be following you, or another player character and only ever hitting the closest monsters. Sadly, they don’t get their hands dirty so you’ll at least want one or two actual extra sets of hands.

Finally in terms of neat features, you can buy items, buffs, or possible end level bonuses at the beginning of every stage. Well, you can after your very first run because you’ll need some gold for it. Items range from healing salves and bandages over to a bag of bombs, while buffs can increase your movement speed or make it impossible to be slowed down by running through mud for example. Finally in the level buffs, you’ll need to get a hold of candy which can only as far as my brother and I could see by capturing a chicken if you can see it. Capture the chicken, get candy when the level finishes but only anyone who’s touched the chicken can get candy. Don’t touch it, you’re out of luck and then you don’t get to buy level bonuses like 50% extra gold at the end of a stage as long as you make it there. It doesn’t count if you and your team fail.

So overall, even if it’s fairly early in its launch, Darksburg was a lot of fun and it shows a fair amount of promise. The characters are fun to use, the environments have their own challenges and that’s even before the undead hordes, and if you want to take to being a special undead unit to mess with the heroes instead of being messed with? Go for it! The only thing is, right now there are only five stages with a six coming and if Darksburg wants to keep being in the game for the long run, it’s going to need more content to keep players coming back.

 

Score: N/A

Read More

New MOBA Primordials of Amiryon Announced for 2020

ZAGREB, HR – November 12, 2019 – WIREGAMES publishing company from Zagreb, Croatia in association with GD ENTERTAINMENT, an expanding game development studio out of Zagreb, Croatia, today announced Primordials of Amiryon, the all-new tug-of-war multiplayer online battle arena coming to PC in 2020. Featuring upgradeable Primordials, champions, minions, and more, Primordials of Amiryon charges players with commanding a large scale 1v1 battle and employing various strategies to crush opposing players in unique tug-of-war gameplay that emphasizes macro over micro

Priomordials of Amiryon is featured at this year's Reboot Infogamer in Zagreb, Croatia, beginning today, November 12 and ending November 17. The title is showing off extremely early pre-alpha gameplay where attendees can get first hands-on, receive awesome swag, and contribute to a title in the first stages of development, long before they typically see product.

Primordials of Amiryon features:

• Lord Over Land - Battle for control of the realm without the tedium of dictation. It's macro over micro.
• Choose Your Path - Upgrade Primordials, champions, minions and towers to directly counter an opponent's army.
• Battle of Wit and Will - Test your mettle in 1v1 duels. No teammates can steal glory or bring your great name to shame.
• Bolster Forces - Unleash devastating activatable abilities in support of valiant minions marching into a brutal war of attrition.
• Manage Resources - Spend resources early and go for the killing blow, or build up an economy in an effort to overwhelm the long-game.

ABOUT PRIMORDIALS OF AMIRYON

Primordials of Amiryon is a tug-of-war multiplayer online battle arena where players rule kingdoms and build armies to war for ever greater power. "One will rise, Many will fall”. Compete in 1v1 duels against other Primordials and their armies, simultaneously balancing resource management while choosing upgrade paths for buildings, champions and minions to gain key advantages on the battlefield. While even the greatest Primordial may not control every unit on the battlefield, some have abilities and ultimates that can turn the tide of war.

For more information on Primordials of Amiryon, please visit the official website www.primordials.game, and follow the game on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PlayPrimordials/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/playprimordials.

ABOUT WIREGAMES

WIREGAMES is a newly established video game design and publishing company based in Zagreb, Croatia. In collaboration with GD ENTERTAINMENT, they are publishing their first title Primordials of Amiryon set to release on PC in 2020. www.wiregames.eu

ABOUT GD ENTERTAINMENT

GD ENTERTAINMENT is a game development studio located in Zagreb, Croatia. Established in 2018, GD ENTERTAINMENT features a team of experienced and new developers with a passion for engaging and competitive games that challenge the status quo in development. Their latest developmet project Primordials of Amiryon is set to launch on PC in 2020. For more information visit: www.gd-entertainment.hr


Article by Susan N.

Read More

Jaggy's Corner! - Saturday April 28

Earlier in the week, I published an article that didn't go over well. It doesn't matter what the article was about or what specific reactions the internet had, but needless to say it was upsetting. A lot of the reasons people were angry had nothing to do with my opinion on the topic, but about the labeling of the game.

In video games, people often judge a game by its category. If a game is labeled 'horror' or 'psychological', I am likely going to ignore it. A game category that causes me pause is FPS. Both of these types of games would have to have something extremely compelling for me to play them.

Anyways, I've been a big follower of Totalbiscuit for years and as we all know, he often ridicules video game award shows because of their arbitrary voting nature. Sometimes this is because the categories aren't specific enough, or the games fit the category but achieve it in an odd way. You see, not all categories are created equal.

Let's look at MOBAs which are games that fit under the strategy label. Urban dictionary describes it as “a new gaming genre. Spawned from early forums from the custom map for Starcraft called 'Aeon of Strife' and evolved into the most recent Defense of the Ancients or 'DotA'.” Basically, a MOBA is a style of game that requires players to use powerful heroes to take out the opponents’ base. Players use a strategy to do this, but most won't describe DOTA or LoL as strategy, they call them MOBAs because that is 'most appropriate'.

The problem is this: if you google MOBAs, Overwatch will show up. Overwatch is actually an FPS but it also fits in the above definition of a MOBA. Players have to eliminate the objective, play strictly online, and use different paths to get to these objectives. The difference between the two categories is that an FPS is strictly a first person view (as the label describes) while MOBAs tend to be top down. Neither of the definitions describes the difference in game perspective. For reference, Urban Dictionary describes FPS as, “a computer game genre that puts the player in a first-person perspective and usually involves shooting down opponents.” That is the genre of game but it is lacking in description, as you can tell.

Again take a look at Google for 'Battle Royale'. This is a game genre which is only won once there is a last man standing. Players must hunt for supplies and kill opponents along the way. Unfortunately, this label is too broad. For example, a game that could fall under this category is Worms. No where does the definition say that the game has to exclusively be 3D. However, it's classified as the following tags: strategy, multiplayer, action, and turn-based. While these tags aim to give players a better understanding of the game style, it doesn't always do the job. This is what I am talking about.

Finally, I'd like to use an example from The Game Awards in regards to labeling. Different games are nominated in categories with little or no description as to what qualifies. The largest example of when a category didn't quite work comes from last year under Best Action/Adventure. Mario Odyssey was clumped in with games like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Assassin's Creed: Origins, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Horizon Zero Dawn. It's not that Mario isn't action or adventure; it's that this game is more of a platformer. The game is classified as both labels. The issue I have with Mario being in the running with the other has a lot to do with its graphics. The art styles in all five games are unique but four of them are much more realistic while Mario is more cartoon styled. As I said, the game can fit a genre and yet not be at the same level.

My main point is that labels are subjective, at least in their current state. While they serve gamers by assisting in purchase decisions, it is never going to be perfect. I'm not saying labels shouldn't exist when it comes to video games. Think of it this way, if someone says to me, “Hey, there is a new battle royale game on the market. You should check it out.” I'm likely to ignore anything they've said after 'battle royale'. If I didn't know any better about video games, I would never have cared about Fortnite or PUBG because they fall under that label. Instead, I actually have some passing interest in Fortnite where I'd love to forget about PUBG's existence. See how not all labels accurately explain a game? That's why I think they are a bit ridiculous.

Why is any of that important? Because in case you forgot, the issue people had with my article had to do with a label and not about what I actually thought. People focused so much on the flaws that they failed to see that the article was a good impression of a video game. Most people in the chat were not aware that I could read all of their comments. The moment someone said negative things about the article, the floodgates opened to hatred. One guy even said he was 'triggered' by the article. I hate to break it to you but that's not a trigger but a “hot button”. Other words can certainly trigger people and while I'm on that topic, to be triggered means, “to experience a strong emotional reaction of fear, shock, or worry, especially because you are made to remember something bad that has happened in the past.” I highly doubt that my article was that traumatically inducing...

Anyway, I had offered to write an article about the game. I wasn't asked to do it. I wasn't told to do the piece. I simply asked the company if they wanted some extra impressions publicized about their game. Regardless of how the article was written, I gave the game an overall good rating, but that didn't seem to matter to the community. Their reactions spoke much louder than the offhanded commentary about the people 'appreciating good review'. While I refuse to apologize for the article's contents, I now have a sour taste in my mouth. The community just drove away a fan.

So I'll leave people with these handy tips when dealing with people on the internet:

• Writers are human and you never know when we are reading/watching/listening.
• We are entitled to have opinions too. In this case it was good but because of the label, I was ridiculed indirectly.
• We writers respond much better to constructive feedback than flaming on Reddit, Discord, or Facebook.
• We writers WILL post a reaction, for better or worse.
• We WON'T forget initial impressions. Any future interaction will require much more work to be in our good books.

You reap what you sow and I'm not apologizing for my fallacies. I urge people online to think before acting especially when interacting with members of the press.

Rocket League

As a very quick addition to today's article, this year's LAN has been announced. June 8-10th Season 5 World Championships will take place in London, England. The prize pool is at $250,000 and the venue will be The Copper Box. Be sure to check out the website for more details. Also be sure to watch Twitter for updates!

Until next time peeps!

Article by Susan N.

Read More