We just published the longest devlog we have ever written, and it is almost entirely behind the scenes. This is the short tour.
Full version with all the numbers and reasoning: The Machine Behind Mithrall
The playtest platform is live
One account. Every game. The AnkleBreaker Playtest platform is up at playtest.anklebreaker-studio.com. It is not fully finished yet, and we are fine with you seeing that.
What works today: create your account, verify with Steam, email and Discord, and fill your tester profile once. It carries across every playtest we will ever run.
How it works when a playtest opens:
- You apply to a plan with a brief, a deadline and limited slots.
- Accepted testers get a Steam key or Steam Playtest access.
- You get an invite to the private playtest Discord. One NDA covers the whole program.
Two ways in: an open Playtest track for everyone, and an invite-only Insider Program you earn by showing up. Sign up now and you are in the pool the day the first Mithrall wave opens.
The tools behind the rebuild
We are ten people doing the work of sixty, and the multiplier is tooling. Since the trailer in June, here is where the work went.
TombStack
Our own crash and analytics platform for game studios. Every crash, exception and player bug report, with the full autopsy: stack signature, breadcrumbs, affected players. It already watches our builds in CI today. In private beta at tombstack.com, opening later.
Nodary
The document workspace we built for Mithrall's design docs, where documents link like a constellation and the AI flags contradictions between them. It now runs the whole studio and is open at nodary.ai.
Engraver
Our save and persistence system. Atomic crash-safe writes, backups with recovery on boot, and no-freeze saving: a 64,000 object world saves across 61 frames with zero frames over 100 ms. In a survival sandbox the world is the save, so this one matters more than it sounds.
Netcode
Mithrall's multiplayer is built on FishNet, and we maintain an internal improved build tuned for MMO scale: a thousand-plus players per server process, login storms, weeks of uptime. Measured so far:
- 30 to 100 MB/s of garbage collection churn at 1,000 CCU: eliminated
- The most frequent packet header on the wire: 60 percent smaller
- Plus killcam and replay capture, zone handoff for server meshing, and instanced dungeons
The art bar is moving
A new environment art pipeline is running: hand-sculpted modular cliff kits, a full stylized vegetation set, city districts blocked out in engine over printed floor plans.
Work in progress: the stylized vegetation kit, in engine.
Full honesty: this one is concept art, a visual target, not a screenshot. It is the bar every asset above is measured against. When we show you the new Mithrall, we want it moving, in engine, in front of you. That reveal is coming.
Where Mithrall stands
The window is unchanged: Q4 2027. We know this is a lot of teasing, and it is deliberate. We are in a rebuild that takes time, we are moving faster than we ever have, and we would rather keep you in the loop than go quiet.
Three things if you want in:
- Create your tester profile at playtest.anklebreaker-studio.com
- Wishlist Mithrall if you have not
- Join us on Discord
Full devlog: read it here
Thanks for the patience. It is being repaid in work.
- François