Lotus, the Heiress of Hydris, has the ability to revive herself from death, which is a central theme in the new narrative players will experience in Evercore Heroes.
Hello heroes, this is Volibar, co-founder of Vela Games and game director on Evercore Heroes.
Throughout its life, Evercore Heroes has seen a lot of changes and iterations, along with changes to the team at Vela. In this post, I wanted to take a little time to bring you through our major milestones over the years, and share some of the ups and downs along the way.
Whether you’re new to Evercore or you’ve been with us since the early days, hopefully you’ll have a better understanding of our journey so far, and why we believe in this game so much!
The Vela Vision
When we started Vela Games in 2018, we set out to create games that anyone could play together and have an amazing time, whether they were already best friends or strangers playing together for the first time. As you all know, playing online games can be a very mixed bag in terms of enjoyment with others!
Because of that vision, we have always wanted to build Evercore Heroes into one of the best team games ever. Set in the mythical world of Lumerea, it requires players to collaborate, combine their heroes’ unique abilities to overcome formidable bosses and unravel the narrative mysteries of the sinister Fate’s Blade and the shattered Evercore crystal. The foundation of cooperative play was never just a feature–it was always the core of our gameplay philosophy.
Realizing that vision, however, would turn out to be a quest with a lot of unexpected twists and turns. This is the story of how Evercore Heroes was reborn.
Our First Step: “Project-V”
“Project-V”, the first codename for Evercore Heroes, started out as a team-based PvE experience, with light inclusion of Roguelite design patterns. We wanted to blend Roster Heroes together with PVE session runs. Sounds pretty familiar (as that’s what we have again now)? We had a small team of about 12 and were building the foundations of a multiplayer game, along with the unique roster of heroes. For those curious, Syrus was our first hero we made, because we wanted to be able to test both Damage and Support gameplay!
We experimented with large, open maps that were procedurally generated, and this was fun, but it wasn’t fun consistently. We also had an early version of Shards, which were our gameplay modifiers.
QUESTION: What do you think Project-V stood for? Reply in the comments and we’ll give you the answer.
(Character concept exploration for Syrus)
Team Play Fusion
After we had this initial framework for the game, in 2019-2020 we really wanted to push the teamplay. We knew we didn’t want Evercore Heroes to be “co-optional” (a game where you could technically play at the same time, but didn’t really interact as teammates). Many games have co-optional features, and while they can be fun, we felt like players were really looking for those special moments when you come together as a team and achieve something amazing that you couldn’t do on your own.
We developed tight gameplay between the heroes - so tanks would have to taunt and protect, support would have to heal or shield, and DPS would have to interrupt and pick the right targets. Throughout the game’s life, this has always been a focus for us, and something players have consistently highlighted that they really like - especially as we’ve continued to develop and expand the unique roster of heroes.
(Early gameplay footage of Project-V)
Innovating with Competitive PvE
As the game was coming together in 2022, our team had grown in size, but we were always experimenting with ways to make Evercore Heroes more fun and replayable. Through extensive prototyping of game rules and community feedback, we realised there was room to push the envelope further - to somewhere no one had really gone before.
The introduction of Competitive PvE elements was a decision born from the desire to innovate continuously and introduce a level of competition that was engaging and rewarding, but without hardcore domination (in other words, ending other people’s fun). Players not only had to cooperate with their team but also compete against the environment and other teams. This added a thrilling layer of strategy and urgency to the game, enhancing the variety of each match.
We also really wanted a 4-Team format in this mode. This allowed us to knock teams out through the game - meaning that if you weren’t doing well you wouldn’t be stuck in a long, hopeless feeling match. However, as we added game rules, having 4 teams increased complexity of both the rules and the game’s interface. Also, in this mode, sometimes you could see and interact with other teams, while other times you couldn’t.
During our Closed Beta in Summer of 2023 with this version of the game, too many players found it difficult to access the fun and depth that was there. By trying to innovate in so many areas, we had a game that was promising and fun, but was just too complex for its own good.
(The 4v4v4v4 Competitive PVE in action - there was a lot going on!)
Embracing the Challenge and the Change with “Project-R”
As the games market became even more difficult in 2023 along with the Competitive PVE version of Evercore not resonating with enough players, we had some incredibly difficult choices to make. As those who have followed us already know, the end result was that we dramatically scaled back the team, and chose to reinvent Evercore Heroes.
We decided to call this effort “Project-R'' for both Roguelite, but also Reborn. We furiously designed, tested, and debated for weeks after the closed beta on how to change the game, while many of our Vela team members were leaving around us. It was a heartbreaking time at Vela, but we knew we owed it to our players and our team to set an exciting, new direction that could deliver on the game’s potential (and everyone’s hard work). We knew we couldn’t make a new game, so we decided to take Evercore Heroes back to its roots, keeping all of the best things we had made, but not being afraid to throw something out that wasn’t working.
Scaling down the team to a small number as we refine our focus means that we are even more of an underdog in a fierce industry going through a difficult time. But the challenges have only strengthened our resolve.
(Early gameplay for Project-R with a focus on more intuitive gameplay)
Evercore Heroes is Reborn
Project-R refines our original vision set out in the very beginning, focusing intensely on the strong, roster-based co-op gameplay that our community loves, while perfecting the strategic elements that allow players to experience wide variations in gameplay and deeper team dynamics. Plus, it’s fun to make crazy builds and break the game!
We're rebuilding and enhancing every aspect of the game—from a more intuitive game flow, more polished maps, and refined enemy behaviours to a deeper and more engaging narrative that tells the story of Lotus, Kaine, and the Luum Sentinels. We’ve made significant adjustments to the HUD, the camera, and the art style of the game, while adding full gamepad support. We even completely rewrote the combat system – goodbye MOBA combat, hello direct movement and more responsive action! Then there’s all the meta-progression…
There is too much to cover here, so we’ll make sure to share more details about the changes and improvements in the weeks to come. Let us know what you want to hear about most in the comments!
We are incredibly excited about the future of Evercore Heroes, even though the road ahead is still challenging. The journey has been full of learning and adaptation, but our commitment has never wavered. We're grateful for the community's patience and enthusiasm, and we can't wait for you to play what we have in store with the new Evercore Heroes.
Here's to the next chapter in Lumerea, where together we will forge new legends!
-Volibar