Fextralife gave their first impression of Praey for the Gods.

Praey For The Gods Impressions: When Shadow Of The Colossus Meets Zelda BOTW

In this Praey for the Gods Impressions: When Shadow of the Colossus Meets Zelda BOTW article, I’m going to run through the survival elements, crafting system, and combat mechanics of the action-adventure survival game. This was developed and published by No Matter Studios. The full version of Praey for the Gods has been available on PC via Steam, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 since December 15, 2021.

Read more: https://fextralife.com/praey-for-the-... [...]

• 0:00 - Praey For The Gods Impressions
• 0:31 - What is Praey for the Gods?
• 1:24 - Overview and Setting
• 2:58 - Gameplay and Combat Mechanics
• 6:17 - Boss Fight Mechanics
• 7:21 - Final Thoughts

Praey for the Gods has released on Steam.

Praey for the Gods V1.0 Released!

Hi everybody!

We are incredibly excited to announce that Praey for the Gods V1.0 is now available on Steam!

This update contains the final 2 boss battles, the complete story from beginning to end and all Achievements!
There is also a substantial amount of optimizations, bug fixes, quality of life updates, thanks in large part to all the great feedback we have received through out Early Access. In addition the world is complete now, no more off limits areas, you are free to roam.

We would like to thank everyone for the time taken to give feedback, with your support we were able to make Praey for the Gods the game it is today. Please continue to send us your feedback, every bit of it helps us make Praey for the Gods even better.

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@DSOGaming reports that Praey for the Gods has a new gameplay trailer.

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However, Praey for the Gods looks a bit more complicated, which is probably a good thing. The game will feature a survival option, which introduces an exhaustion system. This system makes the game more punishing, something that will probably please the hardcore players.

Lastly, the game will feature a crafting system based on maintaining and upgrading equipment. You will be able to obtain resources from exploration and combat. Clothing will also be upgradable through crafting, and weapons will have certain levels, relative to how easily they can be acquired.

Below you can watch the new gameplay trailer for Praey for the Gods.

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Thanks Farflame!

Praey for the Gods has been previewed by GameCrate.

Speaking of scavenging, Praey for the Gods players also have to manage the game’s survival-based elements in-between major behemoth encounters. Weapons, food, and upgrade materials can all be scavenged from breakable crates, fallen enemies and wildlife, and even from the land itself. If you find an axe, for example, you can chop down a tree, harvest the wood, and use that wood to build a warmth-giving fire.

Along with warmth, Praey’s protagonist also needs food and sleep. Having to maintain these basic needs means that wandering around the world aimlessly is usually a bad idea. It’s always important to take stock of what you have (and what you need), decide on a destination, and keep a keen eye out for opportunities to find more resources. Thankfully, Praey for the Gods also has several different difficulty levels which adjust not only enemy strength but also how much upkeep the protagonist’s survival stats require.

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The Early Access Trailer for Praey for the Gods which is coming to Steam January 31st.

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Coming to Steam Early Access January 31st, 2019!

Praey for the Gods is a brutal journey set on a desolate frozen island, where your only chance of survival is to destroy the very gods you believe in.

In Praey for the Gods, you play a lone hero sent to the edge of a dying world to discover the mystery behind a never-ending winter. Arriving with only the clothes on your back, you must survive the colossal dangers that you encounter. To restore balance and reclaim the land from the brink, you will be faced with questions that not even a God knows the answer to.

Consoles coming later in 2019.

The latest newsletter for Praey for the Gods announces that closed beta is underway and the plans for early access and beyond. Screenshots at the link.

Hello to all of our backers and newsletter readers!
Progress on PFTG has been going great! PAX West feels like it happened ages ago, but I think it's important to let you know that it went very well for us. We expected a couple of people to show up to the booth, maybe 100 people max, but were shocked to find that our our booth was PACKED.
It was amazing to meet face to face with our backers and show them the game they made possible with their pledges. It was also awesome introducing the game to people that had never heard of it before. Coming back from PAX, we were incredibly pumped up to dive back into development and get Closed Beta out to our backers.
Yup, you heard me Closed Beta is OUT;)

Seriously, Closed Beta is out!?
Yes! We've been in Closed Beta now for about a month, so those that have backed us at "Legion Edition" or higher have had their Closed Beta keys sent out. If you backed those tiers but haven't seen your key arrive, be sure to contact us.

Awesome! How's it going?
Closed Beta is going very well with much of the feedback being overwhelmingly positive. Of course, there have been critiques and suggestions too, with many of them aligning with our to-do list. We're also fixing a number of bugs and making positive gains with performance as we lead up to our initial PC launch.
To better manage feedback, we broke the Closed Beta into 2 phases. We are calling them CB1 and CB2. Each consists of a subset of content that will lead up to our initial PC launch which will contain all the digital content we set out to do during our Kickstarter. We're currently in CB1 and will be in CB2 before years end.

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Is the game coming out Dec 2018 still?
Short answer? No.
We looked at our schedule and while we could kill ourselves to get it out by year's end, it made more sense to stay in Closed Beta longer to make sure the game is solid and ready for our backers. That may disappoint some but the good news is the in-game Kickstarter content is finished. We only have a couple of things left that we want to tweak prior to launch, but there's still a lot more stuff we hope to work on post launch.

Yes, we want to add MORE content.
Remember those stretch goals we had? There were a couple goals we were unable to hit in our Kickstarter campaign and we still really want to do those. Also, we created some new content like Champions, and puzzles during development which we want to expand on. We went back and forth on how exactly to do this, considered a number of options, and the one that made the most sense to us as a small team was going to Early Access to add the extra content while we worked on consoles.

Before you roll your eyes we'd like to explain our reasoning.

Initial PC Release
Our plan is to release into Early Access with all the game content we achieved in our Kickstarter campaign. This means the 5 bosses are done and fully playable, along with cutscenes, open world exploration, minions, puzzles, and all the additional Kickstarter Backer Content. It's a fully playable game that is exactly what you backed us for when we started on this journey. However, we love working on this game and our engine and tools have come leaps and bounds since we started development. This is allowing us to develop faster and better and it feels silly to stop development on the game when we've just hit our stride. While Chien is working on getting the game further optimized and certified for PS4/Xbox One, Tim and I will add what additional stretch goal content we can prior to a final launch on consoles. We found this to be a win/win for both PC backers and console backers as PC backers will get the game as well as additional content over time and console backers will have some fresh content and a somewhat spoiler free conclusion to the game.

What additional stretch goal content would we be planning?
To be clear, additional content would depend on the sales we get when we launch on PC. However, we'd like at least one more boss, flesh out crafting, add more puzzles, have a perma-death mode as an option, and a bit bigger final conclusion to the game. Honestly, I like to think of it like an epilogue at the end of a book.

We want to reiterate the stuff you backed will be available at launch. We're simply initially releasing into Early Access to see if we can add more content before we launch on consoles. Yes, we could do a big ol' super duper day one launch but let's be honest we're 3 people and that kind of stuff terrifies us. We'd rather release newer content in waves, continue to expand our community and listen to your feedback along the way. We felt Early Access fits this approach and we watched our friends on Grim Dawn and Subnautica create fantastic games using this development method. We like the consistent development we've been doing since Closed Alpha and going this route feels like the proper next step.

OK soooo when?
Obviously, we want to give a firm date and based on our current feedback from Closed Beta and Closed Beta 2 we're hoping mid/end of January. However, looking at our track record let's stick with Q1 2019 just to be safe.

@IGN A new gameplay video for Praey for the Gods.

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Take a look at the latest gameplay from this giant-monster-battling action-adventure game.

Thanks Farflame!

Praey for the Gods has a newsletter out for June which details the progress made during the closed Alpha so far.

Hello to all of our backers and newsletter readers!

Closed Alpha is out and going great!

We've had Closed Alpha with our Alpha Tier backers for about 2.5 months. We've been updating and improving the game non-stop with roughly 2 week update intervals based on our backlog and feedback. The game has come a long ways since March. It's kind of crazy all the updates that have gone in since we started Closed Alpha. We did a significant overhaul to the UI (yes even from the last newsletter), reworked the initial starting area, smoothed out and improved the controls, added controller profiles, autosave, manual save, fixed numerous bugs, created difficulty settings, adjusted boss balance, reworked cutscenes. We also put even more work into polish on climb controls, survival core loop, minion AI improvements, and player prompting. You'll even see bosses in the open world and much more.

What have we been up to?
Back in April, we were invited to the Independent Evening during E3 Judges Week. It was a surprise for us, but it was something we knew we couldn't pass up. What is the Independent Evening? It's a pre-E3 event that brings a handful of great independent titles together to be demoed to 20+ members of the top-tier games media.

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When is the Beta?! When is release?!
We want the game to be as polished for our Closed Beta players as possible so that we can focus towards the initial PC launch and prepare the work on consoles. For Closed Beta to be released, we want as many remaining systems/questions etc answered so that way we can focus on polish, content, and performance tweaks etc.

Updates
We've been trying to stay on quarterly newsletters (ie: approx every 3 months). With the recent event and now E3 on the horizon it's sucked up some more of our time but we're looking to find a solution. Some of the mods on our Discord server have done a "Q/A for the Gods". Here's the first one we did in our Discord. You can also ask more questions in the #qa_for_the_gods channel in our discord channel.

We also did a 3 hour stream recently where we work on some world building, further Q/A and show off a little of the game while trying to hide as many spoilers as possible.

We've put the video below for you to watch:

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Thanks for checking in with us and for all of your feedback so far.
-No Matter Studios

The closed Alpha for Praey for the Gods is out. The latest newsletter has more details on what to expect and some screenshots.

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When is BETA?! WHEN IS RELEASE!?

As we’ve mentioned before, we’re not ready to throw out a specific 2018 date for the initial release yet, especially without seeing the feedback from the upcoming Closed Alpha. We’ve received lots of emails and messages from our backers asking us to take our time and not rush PFTG, which we really appreciate. The closed beta and initial PC release will depend on the feedback and additional work done during Closed Alpha.

What else is going on?

It’s crazy to think of how much work we’ve done since the last Newsletter.

+ Inventory UI improvements, including “3D paper doll”
+ HUD UI pick up overhaul
+ “Bread crumb” notification system
+ New 3D Items and 2D icons for inventory
+ Menu screen updated!
+ Initial starting area updates
+ Boss balancing on Yeti, Crow, Boss 3
+ Minion levels added
+ Upgradeable outfits
+ New outfits and refined outfits
+ Breaking outfits into body, boots, gloves
+ Stamina upgrade progression
+ Upgrade material items and tiered upgradeable items
+ Island/territory rework
+ Refined overall controls including grapple hook and climb controls
+ Feedback Button that directly sends us log information, screenshots, etc. (this is HUGE for testing!)
+ More caves:)
+ We got deer, boars, rabbits, and crows in
+ New music added to tower battles, new live choir recordings for Awakening and Hymn
+ Explosive arrows

New Outfits and Outfit Updates:

We got the light outfit in game and improved the heavy outfit a bit.

Explosive Arrows:

We’re still trying these out and so far they are a ton of fun.

Hunting Boar/Deer:

Get meat and fur from these if you can find them and not scare them off. Currently, they use the same line of sight and will run from you when they see you. You can’t just run onto them, head shots matter too. They’ll leave behind meat and fur that can be used for survival. The meat size is different for boars, deers, rabbits, and crows.

Caves:

Caves have proved to be a ton of fun to both make and play through. No doubt we’re going to be adding as many of these as we can. Hiding items and secrets in the caves and making them a bit of a test of skill with the grappling hook & platforming.

Music:

In the month of January, we did our first choir recording at Western Washington University. This was Brian, Ian, and Dan’s Alma Mater and we were able to work with the exceptional concert choir to record some passes on the tracks Awakening and Hymn. We’re still looking to do further live recordings once all the music is completed. We’re finding a nice balance of live instrument mixed with live choir and some samples to give atmosphere and consistency.

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DSOGaming reports that Praey for the Gods is likely to release sometime in 2018.

No Matter Studios has announced that its Shadow of the Colossus inspired title, Praey for the Gods, has been delayed to 2018. According to the team, this delay will give the team more time to continue and refine the game’s mechanics.

No Matter Studios also revealed that the Closed Alpha testing for Praey for the Gods will also take place next year.

As the team claimed:

“We also realize that we won’t be hitting our initial 2017 release window. We will also be shifting our Closed Alpha and future releases into 2018.”

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GamePressure explains why No Matter Studios changed the name of Prey for the Gods to Praey for the Gods:

Bethesda forced Prey for the Gods devs to change their game's name

The IP wars continue. This time Prey for the Gods has fallen prey to Bethesda and ZeniMax, who aren't very happy about the indie game having the word "prey" in the title.

Bethesda has pressed No Matter Studios into changing the name of their upcoming game Prey for the Gods. Yes, you’ve guessed why – it’s because of the word “prey” in the title. Bethesda and ZeniMax wanted to avoid any confusion with their third-person sci-fi action game Prey, coming out tomorrow. That’s why the fantasy action game will now be called Praey for the Gods. The gaming big shot was kind enough to allow No Matter Studios to keep their game’s current logo. In their recent newsletter, the indie developer wrote:

"We could’ve fought this and we did think about it for quite a while. Something like a trademark opposition can be long and depending on how far someone wants to fight it can be very expensive. We didn’t want to spend our precious Kickstarter funds, nor did we want to have to ask for additional funds to fight this in court. Using backer money towards something that doesn’t go towards the development or backer rewards felt horrible to us. Even if we did win we’d have to spend a solid chunk of our funds and in our opinion it wasn’t worth it."

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Thanks Farflame!

GameWatcher has interviewed No Matter Studios' game director Brian Parnell about the action survival adventure Prey for the Gods:

It wasn’t that long ago that a small team banded together to reveal a new and mighty undertaking in the form of Prey for the Gods. No Matter Studios is the humble gathering of industry veterans Brian Parnell, Hung-Chien Liao, and Tim Wiese that pledged to bring players into the open-world journey of a young, unnamed woman tasked with challenging great and terrifying beasts. The videos and screenshots that were offered reminded players immediately of the grand scales of games like Shadow of the Colossus.

Following a successful KickStarter, No Matter Studios has worked tirelessly to bring this project to life and lead us into the wild and wintry adventure that Prey for the Gods promises to deliver. Recently, GameWatcher was able to pull game director Brian Parnell away from the grind to chat in-depth about the latest on the game. Parnell opened up about what we can expect to get into when Prey for the Gods drops, as well as how the formation of No Matter Studios and concept of Prey for the Gods came about, some of the systems at play, what we’ll be doing in the game, and more.

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GameWatcher: When it comes to progression in Prey for the Gods, would you say there’s more of an emphasis on exploration, combat, or are you looking for a solid balance of both?

Parnell: We kind of been refining what we’ve been doing with all of it. It really depends on what we’re working on for a given day. For a while, we working on a balance. Even in the team is a balance. I’m not up for a constant battle. I feel like I’m more interested in exploration and story side of it. On the other side, I feel like Chien is definitely more up for that twitch, combat gauntlet. He loves Dark Souls and Bloodborne and really digs that sort of nerve wracking intensity. Meanwhile, I think Tim is sort of a good middle ground between us. I think a lot of people want to see that balance, but it also depends on the day. Whatever we’ve decided to work on sort of affects that balance. Ultimately, we’re trying to be mindful of pacing and give players the experience of the world we’ve built as much as the combat.

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Thanks Farflame!