Ex-Bungie, Riot Games Leads Announce Public Playtest For New Battle Royale SUPERVIVE

Theorycraft Games has revealed SUPERVIVE, a hero shooter battle royale previously codenamed Project Loki.

After months of playtesting Project Loki with a dedicated community, Theorycraft is opening SUPERVIVE to a public playtest from June 27 to July 4. Participants will be randomly selected from a list of those who have pre-registered on the game’s website.

Theorycraft Games was formed in 2020 by a group of triple-A veterans, including Joe Tung (Riot), Mike Tipul (Bungie), Michael Evans (Riot) and Areeb Pirani (Riot). A large portion of SUPERVIVE’s development team has worked in the competitive multiplayer space on titles like League of Legends, Valorant and Destiny.

Catch A Vive

I had the opportunity to preview SUPERVIVE, first with a duo partner from the development team and then as a solo player. The top-down camera will be familiar to MOBA players, but the action-packed team fighting is closer to something like Overwatch, but with a lower time-to-kill. A MOBA-like aspect of SUPERVIVE is that you need to farm creeps to level up your abilities, which adds a need for efficiency into the mix.

All battle royale staples are also present: a constantly narrowing circle, the ability to drop anywhere on the map, powerful items (some with active powers) and a dynamic map. I particularly enjoyed the train that loops the map – you can turn it into a mobile base and harry opponents as you pass.

You can choose between a roster of characters classified into different archetypes, like supports. It’s similar to other hero shooters like Overwatch with each character having unique abilities, auto attacks, movement speeds and so on. You can read my full preview here.

In a group interview with SUPERVIVE’s executive producer Jessica Nam, I questioned which existing communities Theorycraft was looking to draw players from.

“Players who play MOBAs, battle royales and hero shooters,” Nam told me. “These players are most likely to come into Loki (now SUPERVIVE) and feel that transferable skill, feel really successful and get really excited because they see some of these differentiators and tend to stick around more often than players of other genres.

Theorycraft has released a trailer for SUPERVIVE and a fireside chat with Nam. The studio is hoping to launch the game in open beta later this year.

Next

“You’ve Never Seen Them Go Through This Story”: Gears Of War: E-Day Frames Marcus & Dom’s Post-Pendulum Wars Grief

Gears of War brand director Nicole Fawcette couldn’t confirm if voice actors John DiMaggio and Carlos Ferro were returning to the roles.