Category: Press

Illyriad, the on-line strategy game, today announces the start of a major World Update, changing the nature of the gameworld, and marking a major step forward for free to play strategy games.

In place of an unchanging world defined by its geography (terrain, climate, etc.), Illyriad’s World Update sees specific features, buildings and Factions impact different areas of the map. This creates a fully immersive world, with unprecedented depth and continuity, which can be explored by players over a period of weeks, months or years.

“We’ve always been clear that players should have unique experiences in Illyriad,” explains founder James Niesewand; “Just because Illyriad is free to play, does not mean that it should be shallow or predictable. The idea of a strategy game where everyone does the same thing, with their cities notable only for having different coordinates on the map, has never appealed to us. As gamers, we want more depth, we want everyone to experience a world differently. And so, as developers, that’s what we’ve introduced here.”

The World Update began this week, and will continue to be revealed for several months. For a browser game already praised for its thoughtfulness, depth and originality, this further evolution continues to place Illyriad at the forefront of innovation within its genre.

“Two days ago we started ‘infecting’ the geography of one part of the map, and the community immediately noticed,” James Niesewand continues. “They have been investigating it and gossiping about it ever since, as they watch the map change on a daily basis. At the same time players have started to find and explore some of the other features that we have added to the map. Of course, by the time they have found them all, we will have added a new batch to the world. There is far more content here than we want to release in one shot – far better for the players to have the pleasure of watching the changes unfold at the relaxed pace that is typical of Illyriad.”

The newly evolving world of Illyriad can be experienced at www.illyriad.co.uk, with the first changes in the World Update already in place.

London-based Illyriad Games Ltd. today announces the launch of Illyriad, a unique free to play strategy game.

Two years in development, Illyriad offers players the depth of gameplay expected of a subscription-based game, but without charges. Set in a vast persistent world, players take on the role of a ruler founding first a single settlement and later expanding their empire to encompass multiple cities and broader territories. The game is an evolution of the familiar city development and resource management model, and adds features such as spies, theft, assassination, trade, and diplomatic relations to give the player the freedom to become the sort of ruler that they want to be.

“We started building the game two years ago,” explains Illyriad Games’ founder, James Niesewand, “very much as a game that we could get really excited about as players. We wanted an MMO empire-building game that could be played without downloads or plugins, that was set in a persistent, non-resetting sandbox fantasy world with a proper geography, the highest quality text and graphic content, that had a genuine diversity of game-play options and that didn’t treat its players like ATMs. We didn’t think it was too much to ask, but couldn’t find any free-to-play games out there that fit the bill – so that became our mission.”

“The first version of Illyriad went live a year ago, allowing us to test the game with live players. And through that later development phase we added more and more features, and upgraded the graphics. Now we have finally reached the stage where we are happy to announce the game and to start to promote it, but that isn’t to say that the game is finished. As a persistent, on-line game, we will continue to add new features, content and expansion packs. We also have further art updates in production, and a really exciting new feature list to release over the next few months.”

Illyriad is free to play now, at www.illyriad.co.uk , and new feature releases will be announced in the near future.