Kirk had a little look at The Culling a few weeks back, a survival game specifically aiming to be a Battle Royale/Hunger Games style series of multiplayer matches where you forage to not only stay standing, but kill your competitors as well. It’s a genre that’s a guaranteed smash hit as soon as somebody gets it right, and between this and ARK someone is likely to. With Early Access release not hitting until early March, developers Xaviant are starting a free closed Alpha tomorrow.
Get survivally on some of the best Minecraft servers.
The closed Alpha can be signed up for via this Google Form. It asks for some basic details and promises not to share them with anyone, but it’s also no guarantee of getting to take part. They’ve announced on Twitter that it will start tomorrow, and keys will be distributed randomly shortly. The reason for running this closed Alpha, which doesn’t seem to have any sort of NDA attached, was explained in a Steam post by Michael McMain, CEO and founder of Xaviant:
“Launching a Closed Alpha will allow the community to have an active role in The Culling’s development. The feedback gathered from the test will ensure that we are able to deliver the reliable and balanced experienced our players deserve.”
So, a pre-testing phase for the Early Access version, and likely making sure they can handle a batch of incoming connections and their servers won’t fall over. Plus it’s free, so they’ll get some more eyes on the game. The same post also announces that the game will be$14.99/€14.99/£10.99, minus 10% for the first week. Have a look at it on Steam.