Economic matters have struck critically for us, making it difficult for us to continue hosting the weekly playtests and compensate users for it. To make matters worse, we’re stuck trying to solve a critical bug with Unreal Engine 4 and Steamworks, preventing connections from working properly on the server browser. We cannot continue playtesting let alone release the game until this is solved.
Official Qorena Playtesting has been postponed until further notice.
Category: Announcements
Weekly Qorena Playtest
Qorena (formerly known as Maze Qore Arena) has received a massive overhaul last month through Foresight – our playtest program for Qore World titles, from the old competitive arena shooter (still playable on the main build if you so wish), to a new cooperative survival arena shooter, and we need YOUR help testing it.
You can find out how to access the playtest by clicking here.
Qorena Foresight – Version 0.8 OVERHAUL Update
After several months, the game overhaul is finally here and better than ever! Transitioning from competitive multiplayer matches to full cooperative arena survival.
You can read more about it at our parent website Qore World!
Click the image below to go there now!
Maze Qore Arena Update & Plans for Overhaul – Version 0.7.0
Greetings!
The new 0.7 update for Maze Qore Arena is now available!
In this update, we have been hard at work to deliver yet another a new game mode, and a few more new levels!
NEW GAME MODE: IDENTITY THEFT:
Steal the ID card, escape the area or kill all the other players to win! Player with the fastest completion time wins!
IMPROVEMENTS
- New game mode: Identity Theft.
- New map: Outdoors – Imperial Base.
- New map: Outdoors – Deserted Town.
- Introduced a PS1/PC-classic graphics aesthetic.
- Improved the AI to perform better with Flag Hustle, and the Riots.
KNOWN BUGS
Bot AI may still have a few hiccups with Identity Theft. We might work towards fixing it in a patch.
MOST IMPORTANT NEWS
As this year comes to a close, we’ve been deciding long and hard with what to do with this game. Despite our efforts, nigh no one seems to care that this game even exists as it has languished for months with no online servers populated with players (let alone at least one server to join), and almost no activity. Either that, or they probably played the outdated singleplayer demo and forgot about the entire game afterwards. For all we know, we are unsure if anyone is probably even reading these update articles.
So considering this and the research on how competitive multiplayer games fare on this marketplace, we’ve concluded that competitive multiplayer is a fruitless endeavor. We really want to give players a reason to care for this game, and most importantly enjoy the game, for our success can only be achieved when players are enjoying this game.
Starting next year (and part of our resolution for 2022), Maze Qore Arena will be overhauled. It will no longer feature competitive gameplay as it currently stands. Instead, it shall live closer to it’s name; an Arena; a coliseum of enemies to slay; a might and fight for survival. MQA is going cooperative.
WHAT ABOUT THE CONTENT?
Most of the pre-existing levels, sprites, and gameplay will remain intact. The game modes will be scrapped and replaced with only one; Survival.
NPCs from the old singleplayer demo will make their return to the overhaul.
Bots will be overhauled to specifically support this game mode, so hopefully you will not have to fight alone against waves offline.
This also means MQA might compete with the likes of Killing Floor when it comes to it’s new gameplay direction (even though we’re not trying to compete with them).
From the beginning of this game development, we wanted to provide a variety of gameplay options for players to enjoy including the Survival mode (eventually), however we’ve learned that MP games for the most part have gone nowhere, often dead-on arrival. We tried to rectify this with bot support, giving players an alternative to at least still enjoy the game offline should online disappoint.
We’ve learned that sometimes. it is better to keep it simple and straight-forward, rather than try to make an online game suite.
Hopefully all goes well. It will take a long time before an overhaul arrives.
(c) Néotl Empire
Establish, Explore, Expand.
Maze Qore Arena – Multiplayer Update [Version 0.6]
Greetings!
The new 0.6 update for Maze Qore Arena is now available!
In this update, we have been hard at work to deliver a new game mode, and several more new levels!
IMPROVEMENTS
- New game mode: Jail Bait.
- New map: Yellow Sector – Fahrenheit.
- New map: Red Sector – Peer Pressure.
- New map: Quarantine Zone – Doctor Sid’s Lab.
- New map: Grey Sector – The Killing Floor.
- New map: Dream Sector – Cloud Nine.
- Fixed bugs with the audio and multiplayer settings.
- Fixed bug preventing a match from loading it’s respective settings.
- Polished the bot AI to perform better with Flag Hustle and Jail Bait.
KNOWN BUGS
- Bot AI is still a WIP; finally playable with Flag Hustle and experimental with Jail Bait.
- Players may seldom disconnect as the server changes to a new level.
- Players may be unable to rejoin the same server they were abruptly disconnected from, requiring a restart of the game.
- Instant Action: Bots have trouble navigating through teleporters, seldom rendering some maps unplayable on certain game modes (Flag Hustle and Jail Bait).
- Teleporter sounds lack proper attenuation; sounds will still play as if you are close by. For this reason, it is recommended to play Doctor Sid’s Lab and Cloud Nine with at most 4 players/bots to reduce noise spam. Expect a patch soon to remedy this.
After feedback from the team, we decided to alter our plan for the final release and post-support. We will take our chances introducing mod support before early access ends and hope for the best. We may have been looking at this the wrong and realized the potential the game truly has beyond just an action-arena, E-sports-friendly, shooter. We want to make it modular and expand the game with multiple themes to suit the gamer’s preference, somewhat similar to Prison Architect only better. As a spin-off to our main project, we now seek to expand this game outside the confines of a prison, and we will start showing this by the next update version 0.7 with more outdoor levels and another new game mode.
Version 0.8: We will bring two more new game modes, and a handful of game themes (to be discussed when that time comes).
Version 0.9: Bot support should be completed, and mod tools released in beta phase.
End of early access (Version 1.0): Mod tools will leave beta, completing the entire project.
Post release: Possibility of two additional game modes, and a series of holiday events for two years.
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I hope you enjoyed this update and thanks for playing Maze Qore Arena!
– Establish. Explore. Expand.
Maze Qore Arena – Multiplayer released! (Version 0.5)
Initially, we stated prior sometime in the past that multiplayer will mark the day Maze Qore Arena leaves early access with a price tag, but after some months deciding hard on it, and re-evaluating the quality of the single-player component, we decided to release the first multiplayer update free into early access, and we will continue this tradition until Version 1.0, which will mark the full release out of early access.
In addition, we have already decided to make the singleplayer version a separate component via ‘demo’ release, available on the front page.
Now please note. this game is still not complete, let alone feature complete. We still have plenty of features to complete before the game leaves early access. At this point, due to personal reasons related to COVID-19, we can no longer guarantee it will leave early access before the end of 2020 as we had hoped, but we still intend to ensure it does, hopefully no later than Holiday 2020.
As for post-support, well to be honest with you all, that all depends on how well this game performs and how much the players care. We are willing to devote our time and efforts to supporting this game to be polished and complete, even after early access, however there is little purpose to do so if it is dead on arrival. To help prevent this phenomenon that many multiplayer titles succumb to, we are working on bots (player AI substitutes) to fail-safe this game from such predicament. As it stands now in V0.5, they are unready, and to a point where some game modes can be unplayable due to behavior. This shall be fixed in Version 0.6 or 0.7. Regarding mod support, this will also be completed during post-support for the very fears aforementioned – no point in mod support if no one cares about the game.
KNOWN BUGS
- Bot AI is a broken mess, yet they are fairly playable on Riot and Gang Riot.
- Players may seldom disconnect as the server changes to a new level.
- Players may be unable to rejoin the same server they were abruptly disconnected from, requiring a restart of the game.
- Score streaks are still a work-in-progress, thus you may experience an “unknown scorestreak” message, often when you kill multiple enemies.
IMPROVEMENTS
- Many features from singleplayer have been transferred to this multiplayer build, with necessary changes and omissions to balance online play.
- Players have the ability throw grenades and carry up to 8 at a time. Subject to change.
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I hope you enjoyed this update and thanks for playing Maze Qore Arena!
Establish, Explore, Expand.
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NOTE
If you are having trouble finding a multiplayer server to play on, or finding players to play with, you can join our Discord server to lobby for players and join a match together.
Use !register to access the server, then use the #gaming channel to host a session to other gamers.
Maze Qore Arena Now Available In Early Access!
Maze Qore Arena has released into the wild. You can download the game on Steam for free. It is currently in early-access beta phase, so everything is subject to change. HOWEVER, online multiplayer is on the way…
If you like what the game offers, follow our social media and keep track of this website for future updates.
Have additional feedback, join our Discord server.
Establish, Explore, Expand.
The Official Website has arrived!
The official Maze Qore website is up and running! Today is a glorious or notorious day for the maximum-security prison. 99 bullets of raining hell complete with surprises and one huge nightmare packed inside an underground facility. Stay tuned for future updates as we report progress towards the finish line.