Press kit — Trial of the Ancients

Fact sheet

Game: Trial of the Ancients
Developer: Virtual Verse Studio, Cairo, Egypt
Genre: VR archery roguelite, single player
Platform: Meta Quest
Release: To be announced. A closed beta comes first.
Website: trialoftheancients.com
Press contact: contact@virtualverse.studio

In one line

A VR archery roguelite for Meta Quest. Hold your ground beneath the temples of Egypt with a bow you draw by hand, and build a new arsenal of arrows, relics and beasts on every run.

Description

Trial of the Ancients is a VR archery roguelite. You are sent down beneath an Egyptian temple with one weapon, a bow you draw by hand, and you do not move from your post: no thumbsticks, no sliding, no motion sickness. Everything in the dark walks towards you instead.

Between waves you draft rewards, and the bow you finish a run with is never the one you started with: arrows that pierce, burn or split, relics that fire on their own, auras that punish whatever steps too close, and beasts that fight beside you. The campaign, The Descent, runs 6 acts down to the thing that guards the temple.

What is in the build today

A bow drawn by hand. Reach back, take the string and pull. Draw length sets damage; head, body and limbs take it differently.
One post. Seated or standing, you hold your ground and step between arenas through portals.
A draft after every wave. 10 arrow powers, 17 relics, 10 auras and 2 companions. Take a power again and it levels up.
Enemies that ask questions. Healers to kill first, revenants that die twice, assassins that blink out from under your arrow, bombers, splitters and things that fly.
Bosses read by colour. Gold is where to shoot, purple is what to shoot down, red is what to get out of the way of.

The game is in development, and all of this can change before release.

Key art

Rendered for this website, in scenes built around the game’s own models. These are not in-game screenshots; in-game capture and a trailer will be added here when the build’s visuals are final. Free to use in coverage of the game.