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Upsilon Circuit, The Death-Filled Game You Can Only Play Once, Gets New Investor And Upcoming Beta
Execution Labs, a company that invests in early-stage independent developers, has partnered with Robot Loves Kitty to produce Upsilon Circuit. The multiplayer action-RPG juggles a lot of ideas involving streaming, audience participation, and permadeath, and sign ups have opened for the upcoming closed beta.
Upsilon Circuit surprised us at PAX 2014 with an intriguing slate of features seemingly inspired by Twitch Plays Pokemon. Only eight players compete on a single server during a limited number of broadcasts. Spectators collectively influence the unfolding game of death by choosing contestants' skills and items. Participants are plucked from the audience, and once you die, that's it. You only get one chance.
The game wears its influences on it's sleeve with a concept and execution similar to Smash TV. A stark '80s vibe comes from the game's snarky announcer Ronnie Raygon, who is a mix of Ronald Reagan and glitched-out AI personality Max Headroom.
Upsilon Circuit is coming to PC with no word on a release window yet. You can sign up for Upsilon Circuit's open beta here. To read more about our initial impressions of the game, click here.
Our Take
In the wake of the Twitch Plays phenomenon, it was only a matter of time before developers started implementing ideas surrounding crowd-sourced decision-making. This seems like an interesting experiment, and I'm excited to see how these ideas carry over to a competitive game.
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