What Happened in 2025? | Part 1

Shaun Bellamy, President and Founder of High Level Studios

Hi everyone! This is Aaron, Shaun’s twin brother and co-founder at High Level Studios.

It’s been a while since our last update. While it was quiet on the blog, we have been hard at work bringing Fortune on the Frontier to life. As we delved deeper into the project, it became difficult to share items that were largely incomplete. Like most game developers, our vision for the project evolved at a rapid pace and we didn’t want to hype up features that may not be in the final game.

We are starting up the development blog again as we approach the public testing phase of Fortune on the Frontier. Through the results of numerous public play tests in 2025, we were able to determine what makes FOTF fun as well as cut elements that hindered the experience. It was a challenging process full of self-reflection, but it has transformed FOTF into the best that it has ever been.

To begin, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to play the game at tradeshows and private playtesting sessions and provide feedback. We also want to thank all the players who have experienced the Single Player Demo on the Meta Quest store! Your feedback helped us identify what was fun, what wasn’t, and create an experience that pushes the VR to its limits. I am proud to announce that we are proceeding to the final testing and initial launch phase of the project.

High Level Studios at 2025 GDX / K Days in Edmonton.

Our Feedback Journey

In December 2024, the Single Player Demo was released to demonstrate the initial vision of the product to Meta Quest users. The demo showcased a vertical slice of the single player as a means of obtaining feedback that would inform development priorities. Feedback was primarily regarding progression, player accessibility, and active antagonists. Our focus was to enhance the game with your ideas while staying true to the asymmetrical multiplayer vision of the project.

As a result of public playtests in late 2024, it was clear that we needed to rework the multiplayer component of FOTF to fit the desires of our players. We found the original “security camera” style vision for the asymmetrical multiplayer did not fit the fast-paced action of the VR player. There was too much waiting for the smartphone players and too many split-second decisions that made the players feel overwhelmed and disconnected from the gameplay.

But, every cloud has a silver lining. One of the traps we programmed was a sparrow that could be controlled by the smartphone player to fly around the level and attack the VR player. At our tradeshows, we saw players latching on to this mechanic and have a ton of fun messing with the VR players. The sparrow is an active character in the world that added to the atmosphere for the VR player and the excitement of the smartphone player.

It was clear that our focus needed to shift to keep asymmetrical multiplayer both unique and engaging. We immediately shifted our development focus to what we are calling “fiends”, animal characters that smartphone players would control and switch between throughout the adventure.

We showcased the reworked multiplayer system to players at the 2025 Game Development Exhibition in Edmonton and here is what we observed:

1.  Engaging interactions.

Players felt the interaction between the VR and smartphone players was unique and engaging. They were most excited about the different abilities and gameplay offered by the reworked asymmetrical multiplayer. The smartphone players loved exploring the world and messing with the VR player, while VR players were thrilled by the challenge presented by the new fiends and opportunities for others to join in their adventure.

2.  Co-op multiplayer is key.

In general, we found that players were most excited to play as the VR adventurer, but they were disappointed to hear that the game only supported one VR player. Players wanted to invite their VR friends to join in the chaos of asymmetrical multiplayer.

We are pleased to announce that co-op multiplayer has been implemented which allows up to four VR players to adventure together in FOTF. This change also impacts asymmetrical multiplayer, meaning up to four smartphone players and four VR players can compete against each other.

3.    Love different ways to play.

There are a significant number of players that dislike VR headsets, as they are prone to motion sickness or simply are not interested in interacting with VR. However, these same users were thrilled to play with their friends (who prefer VR) using their smartphones. It was so exciting to see the competitive dynamic between VR and smartphone players develop in real-time.

What’s Next?

I want to share how your incredible feedback has shaped FOTF. Your spark of imagination drove us forward to develop and implement a staggering number of features. Far too many for one blog.

So, to celebrate the work of the past year, we will be diving into each feature in-depth as a series of blogs we are calling “The Frontier Chronicles”. If you would like to learn more about all the features coming to FOTF, please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Discord to be notified when the blogs are released as well as opportunities to participate in beta testing.

Join us next time on The Frontier Chronicles to learn about how “Co-op Multiplayer” will heighten the gameplay of Fortune on the Frontier, bring fellow adventurers together while turning friends into sworn enemies.