Hello Survivors!
First of all: 30,000+ of you have already signed up for the Closed Playtest. That number is honestly a little crazy to us, especially because we barely promoted the Closed Playtest outside of our existing community. No big campaign, no heavy social push. Just you guys showing up. So before anything else: thank you.
One very important thing before we start: NDA
The Closed Playtest is running under an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). In simple terms: anything you see or experience inside the test stays inside the test. That means no streaming, no screenshots, no recorded footage, no clips, and no public discussion about the build, including here on Discord. Please take this seriously. If confidential footage or information starts spreading publicly, we may have to shut down the Closed Playtest entirely. We really don't want to do that, so please help us keep this test private. On 4th September Wave 2 began and we invited another few hundred randomly selected players into the build. Wave 2 invites have gone out. If you have received one: welcome in. If you didn't: please don't be disappointed, and here's why.
What this Closed Playtest actually is?
We want to be completely transparent here: This build is not really about having fun yet. It is not the build where we expect you to properly experience Ardem, explore all our systems, or decide whether you like the game. The current build has very little content compared to what we are preparing for October.
Its job is much simpler:
Stress the servers
Break things
Find crashes
Generate ugly logs for our developers
Help us figure out what happens when real players do things we never expected
Basically: if you manage to crash something, you're doing your job.
Why only a few hundred players?
Because opening the gates to 30,000 people at once would defeat the entire purpose of these early waves. Wave 1 gave us our first real baseline data. Now we increase the load step by step, fix what breaks, then increase it again. With 30,000+ registered players waiting for access, we know there are far more people wanting to play than we can reasonably let in right now. We'd rather be honest about that than create false expectations.
How are players selected?
Invitations are being selected completely at random from everyone registered on our website. No secret priority list. No Discord activity requirement. No ritual or cash-related sacrifices to the Minnowa state Senator. Just RNG. So if you don't receive an invitation today, you haven't done anything wrong, and you haven't missed your chance. There will be more waves. And most importantly: October 15 = Public Playtest That's the one we're building towards if you actually want to play Ardem, explore the world, and experience the game itself.
The Closed Playtest helps us make sure the technology underneath survives long enough for you to do that. If you're not registered yet, you can still join the pool for future waves here: https://playardem.com/playtest
For a detailed breakdown of what is and isn't included in the current Closed Playtest build, check out The Closed Playtest Scope
Keep an eye on your inbox. And seriously, 30,000+ sign-ups without us really pushing this thing is incredible. We know we can't invite all of you yet, but seeing that amount of interest makes us even more excited for October.
Go break our game + servers. – The Techtive Team