ESGS 2017: ‘Graywalkers: Purgatory’ enters early access in December

The E-Sports and Gaming Summit (ESGS) 2017 was a massive exhibit of some of the most impressive games developed by Philippine studios.

One of those games was “Graywalkers: Purgatory,” a strategy RPG from Philippine studio Dreamlords Digital. Revealed at last year’s ESGS, the game now has enough content to be ready for an early access launch before the year’s end.

Dreamlords Digital's booth at this year's ESGS. Photo: Michael Logarta

Preludes and Missions

The early access version will be available on Steam this December, when the first batch of content will be released.

“We separated the game into three modes,” said Dreamlords Digital CEO and “Graywalkers: Purgatory” creator Russel Tomas. “For early access we’ll release the first two: Preludes and Missions.”

Preludes is a series of short, single-player modules. Each Prelude is like a short story focusing on a single character, so players get to learn their backstory and play style.

Starting this December, two to three Preludes will be released, followed by more every month. With “Graywalkers: Purgatory” having around 50 characters, the Preludes will keep players busy while they’re waiting for the main campaign.

“By the time the game officially launches later next year, players will already know who these characters are,” said Tomas.

Images: Dreamlords Digital

The Missions mode focuses more on tactical gameplay than the game’s RPG elements. Tomas compared a game of Missions to “Fallout Tactics.”

“It’s a set of missions,” he explained. “There’s a story behind each, but you don’t have to play them in any specific order. The missions have varying levels of difficulty, and different scenarios. Some will unlock new missions. So they’re more casual—you can play one or two missions, quit, then come back later to play more.”

While each Prelude only gives you access to one character, you can control up to 10 characters in every game of Missions. Ten to 20 missions will be released per month beginning this December.

Main campaign

The third mode, the main single-player campaign, won’t be released until the official “Graywalkers: Purgatory” launch.

“The main campaign will come sometime next year, maybe 6 to 9 months after the release of the Preludes,” said Tomas. “It’ll depend a lot on the feedback; as much as possible we’d like to implement the players’ best suggestions into the main campaign.”

The final build

Showcased at ESGS 2017, the game’s latest build features vastly improved graphics. More gameplay features have also been integrated into the project. In fact, the final build of “Graywalkers: Purgatory” already exists; the team is simply making sure it’s devoid of bugs before unleashing it into the world.

Feedback has been great, so far.

“Most people can’t seem to believe it’s locally made,” said Tomas. “I think we just need to get more people to know more about the game.”

For more information on “Graywalkers: Purgatory,” visit its official site or Facebook page. — BM, GMA News