Update: We are no longer part of Ardent Peak. Due to differences in interest and vision of the direction of the project, we have since parted on good terms from Ardent Peak and gone our own way. Update from Ultrakool: Due to this separation and other circumstances most of the information given in this thread is now outdated.
Greetings Skylords, Skyladies, and Skyfolks!
It's been a while since our last major announcement. However, since yesterday there has been some extremely big news. Now, we have been in touch with a friend of Blank, who owns an American Business called Ardent Peak. He managed to actually get in touch with Electronic Arts and have a talk with them regarding BattleForge.
This means that, after a correspondence with EA we are now allowed to run our project provided that we adhere to specific guidelines and do not claim we are affiliated with them. We will be developing the project under the company Ardent Peak.This is absolutely great news as we will have next to no complications with EA about the project are allowed to develop it freely. If they have any issues with what they are doing they will contact the owner of Ardent Peak rather than send us shutdown notices.
Skylords Reborn will be the name of a new custom server for the game BattleForge, originally developed by EA Phenomic, now hosted by Ardent Peak.
Electronic Arts allowed us to run this project, through Ardent Peak, permission to set up a server for the game (resources not provided). Skylords Reborn is now identified as a 100% legal project under an official business.
Ardent peak holds official responsibility and ownership of the project but the existing hierarchy remains the same under that; Blank and Hawk are founders, and them and I remain administrators/bosses of the project. I remain community manager and lead designer as well, and every other staff member retains their role as it was.
We have also been allowed to alter the BattleForge client to our desires, on a few conditions:
We are to remove EA's logo and name from our project, as Skylords Reborn is not affiliated with EA. We will be referring to Phenomic as the original developers of BattleForge.
We are not to release any paid DLC or paid updates for the game.
We ARE allowed to commercialise the game to the extent that we are allowed to gain money for the project, and this opens up quite some future opportunities.
We will never be making the game Pay2Win or Pay2Play.
We'll be able to alter the server in such a way to release additional content but NOT completely new versions or new game editions, as that would fall under the DLC/Updates part mentioned above. New card editions and maps are a possibility, however! Remember though, we are still currently focused on getting the game up to its original state first and foremost.
We are considering upping the marketing aspect of our project, which may result in possible advertising and/or kickstarter projects.
We will be cranking up development a lot, in order to get the game to you guys as soon as we can.
We are in touch with EA in case there are any questions and issues.
We will be thinking about all these decisions carefully and further news will follow in the future.
Donations are now up again and properly referred to Ardent Peak
Future possibilities for the game are aplenty!
We are all really excited to bring you this news and it creates a whole new, brighter and closer future for the entire Skylords Reborn project, and it has caused massive new opportunities to arise for us. We're heading in the right direction and we hope to be bringing you all into the forge as soon as we can. Know that aside from the aforementioned list, the project and its directions stay the same, and I will be updating the FAQ accordingly once further decisions have been considered.
Finally, I would like to add a message from Ardent Peak:
Thank you all, mighty Skylords, for your continued support in our endeavours. Keep the hype up, stay awesome, and we hope to be carrying this community into a bright, opportunity-filled future, but most importantly... into the Forge! We're all in this together and we'd be nowhere without you guys, so thanks again for all your support, keep it up and we will open the gateway to Nyn once more, united as one!