News

Happy PC launch day everyone! As of 9AM this morning, Rivals of Aether has officially left Early Access on Steam.  We’re incredibly excited as the full release brings a ton of new content, polish, and ways to play alone or with a friend. For those of you not familiar with our game, YouTube sensation Adam Carra will introduce you in the following instructional video. For the rest of you, let’s go over what’s been added to the game as well as what to expect for the future of Rivals.

Version 1.0.0: New Modes and Content

In addition to bringing the long awaited single player modes, the full launch today also packs in plenty of extra collectibles and polish. Content changes this update include:

• Story Mode
• Abyss Mode
• Leaderboards
• Currency / Unlockables (New skins, custom color slots, and more)
• Collectible Steam Trading Cards / Badges / Backgrounds
• New Music (stage music, victory themes, menu music)
• Achievements

Preview of the Rivals backgrounds you can unlock for your Steam profile

Balance Changes

Now that we’ve left Early Acess, you can also expect balance changes to taper down. Early Access was the perfect time to experiment and get feedback, but now you most likely won’t see changes unless things are being shaken up heavily (e.g. something like a roster addition).  Here’s the balance changes for patch 1.0.0:

• 1.0.0 Maypul Root not destroyed by hitboxes. Damage 6 > 5.
• 1.0.0 Kragg Nair Hit 2 knocks up isntead of out.
• 1.0.0 Kragg Fair angle changed from 35 – 40.
• 1.0.0 Maypul lower Usmash hitbox reinspect. (only 8 pixels wider)

CEO Dreamland Seasonal Colors

The seasonal colors are back and this time the Rivals are sporting CEO Dreamland styles. Join us in Orlanda, Florida or watch online and support the stream as Rivals makes its first appearance at CEO.  If you’re also interested in playing Rivals at the event, now’s a great time to register as the devs are covering 50% of the entry fee for new players plus a copy of the game.

Going to #CEODreamland? You can get a copy of RoA + register for bracket for just $5! Perfect for new players: https://t.co/ZibgLIZO21 pic.twitter.com/z2JkGZvKEi

— Rivals of Aether (@RivalsOfAether) March 14, 2017

What’s next for Rivals? Xbox One Launch, Abyss Versus Online, and more

That’s right, just because we’re released doesn’t mean we’re done. First, now that the PC version is out we can focus on Xbox. We’ve got some extra requirements for console as well as things like skin codes to figure out so we’re expecting the Xbox launch to happen sometime in May. We also have our eyes set on making some additions to the game that have been heavily requested by fans. We would put these together as a patch 1.1 for both Xbox and PC. Here are the top ones on our list that we’d like to get out in the next patch:

• Enable Abyss Versus Online
• Replay Improvements (Pause, fast forward)
• Keyboard Control Improvements (C-stick functionality)

We hope you enjoy the full launch. Let us know your favorite parts of story mode or abyss and what you’d like to see most in future patches of Rivals in the comments below.

It’s no secret that Rivals wouldn’t be where it is today without our players and awesome community. We’re still amazed and humbled every time we see art, videos, tournaments, articles and streams about our indie platform fighter.

As a thank you to everyone who’s purchased the game and our players who have helped us grow, we’re adding a special piece of DLC for everyone who bought the game in Early Access. Introducing the Early Access color set that applies to both your Steam name and your favorite Rivals:

This DLC unlocks the old school Gameboy color set for every Rival, and also gives you a colored name you can use online to show off your EA status. The Gameboy colors are a throwback to one of Dan’s earlier smash games, so we thought it fitting that the early adopters would get the OG palette from before Rivals was cool.

Players don’t have to do anything to get these, they’ll automatically be attached to your account when the game comes out on Tuesday. Everyone who gets the game in Early Access will receive this so you technically still have some time to hop on the bandwagon if you want a chance to use these in game.

These colors have special properties that can’t be recreated in the custom color menu.

Thanks again to all of our players, we hope you’re as excited about the full launch as we are!

We’re proud to share today that Controller Chaos is introducing an exclusive line of Rivals of Aether controllers. Fans have been requesting these for quite some time, and now thanks to Controller Chaos that dream is a reality.

You can see what some of these hand-painted masterpieces look like below and get one for yourself on controllerchaos.com. If you pick one up make sure to add a comment here or tweet us a picture of how it came out with any customizations you made.

bamboo-lodge-aether-mode-cropped

View on Controller Chaos

From Controller Chaos’ site:

What exactly is happening March 28th? What does it mean to me if I already have the game? How many questions fit in this header?

Hey everyone, I’ve been seeing a lot of questions lately about what the full launch means for Rivals of Aether, especially with people already feeling like they’ve been playing the full game for quite a while.  Whether you’re fairly new or a seasoned veteran, there should be plenty of changes coming that interest you.  As a reminder, if you’re a player who has already purchased the game during Early Access, you’ll automatically get the full version of the game on 3/28 through Steam.  Read on to find out some of the things that will be included with that version next Tuesday.

Single Player

Our single player modes are getting the bulk of the updates for launch.  More than just story mode, this means all kinds of features that give the game a high level of polish and players a chance to have fun offline in a non-competitive environment.

Story mode starts off by digging into the background and relationships between the Rivals through traditional arcade style fights. Once you’ve began to uncover the mysteries of Aether you can jump into Abyss mode.

Abyss mode is where things start to get crazy, letting you play cooperatively with up to 4 people and advancing through waves of different challenges and enemy types. You and your friends will jockey for experience points to level up your Rival so they can equip powerful runes that augment their attacks. You can also take these leveled up Rivals into Abyss versus and compete directly against your friends.

In addition, these modes will all have leaderboards, so you can climb to the top with the best times in story mode or the furthest waves in abyss.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the things you can look forward to in single player:

• Story Mode
• Abyss Mode
• Leaderboards
• Currency / Unlockables
• Collectible Trading Cards / Badges
• Music (stage music, victory themes, and more)
• Achievements

Multiplayer

Even though the core multiplayer mechanics for Rivals haven’t changed in a while, this update will still shake up competitive play. For starters, the stage count will be increasing from seven stages to eleven. We’ll be implementing a neutral and counterpick system to accommodate the larger stage list and also raising the bans from one to two. We’re excited to see which stages are most popular in tournament play.

For launch we’ll also be doing a ranked ladder reset. This means on the 28th, everyone will be reset to 1000 ELO. The old ladder will still be memorialized on Steam (Ralph OP), but this gives all of the new and old players alike a fresh start. We’ll also be implementing seasons (which will each last 3 months) so the ladder doesn’t get stale.

Lastly, people have asked about it, but I wanted to confirm that the RCS (Rivals Championship Series) will be back for a season 2. You can look forward to more regions, bigger tournaments, and a new points format. Rewards are in the works for the new ladder seasons and RCS S2, but I’ll save those for a later post.

All of these things (and a few others) will come together for our launch on 3/28. Even if you’ve played the heck out of Rivals in Early Access it’s definitely going to be a great time to share it with your friends who haven’t played yet as the game will look and play the best it ever has.

To see all of the new gameplay above in action, make sure you tune in this Sunday to our pre-release party on twitch.tv/RivalsOfAether at 12PST/3EST. We’ll be doing a summit style event – playing different games with Washington locals and a few out of state guests.

We look forward to seeing you all online on launch day!

Final note: If you were hoping for additional characters at launch you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer. You can keep speculating for a few more weeks before our first is revealed 😉

With CEO Dreamland coming up soon, we’re kicking off a special promo for just $5 that makes Rivals registration a sweet deal for new players at the event .

Registering for Rivals of Aether any time from today until the end of registration gets you:

• A copy of Rivals of Aether for PC
• 50% discount on Rivals event registration (the dev team will cover the other half!)
• Entry into a raffle for a custom Rivals of Aether GCC from Controller Chaos

With the full launch for Rivals of Aether just two weeks away this is the perfect time to get into the scene. We’ll even send your copy of the game shortly after you register so you have a chance to practice and get a chunk of that CEO Dreamland prize pool.

Our pot bonus is also still growing and is just $10 shy of $1,000 at the time of this post.  We’re helping to grow that prize pool with our CEO themed stage skin for Rock Wall, the first alternate stage art for Rivals. You can pick it up for a limited time in the CEO Dreamland compendium.

We’re super excited to be a part of the first Smash specific CEO event and can’t wait to head down to Florida and play. Hope to see you there!