Vela Games announces alpha testing for Project-V – plans to reimagine co-op gaming

Vela Games, a debut studio made up of EA and Riot veterans, who we met at last year’s Develop:Brighton event, is now taking sign-ups for its early alpha testing. 

The Dublin-based studio has promised to reimagine cooperative gaming in its upcoming release, working title ProjectV. The game is set in a science-fantasy universe and will combine MMO raid like play with the teamplay of a MOBA – something the team is calling MOCO (multiplayer online co-op).

“It’s still early days for Project-V, but we’re thrilled to offer a sneak peek at a few of our characters, and let a small pool of players test out what we’ve been working on as soon as possible,” said CEO Travis George. “At Vela we value our player-focused approach to design. At the start of each day we all get together to play the game and share feedback as a group, so we’re excited to see what our first players have to add to the conversation.”

George was a designer/producer and then product lead on League of Legends. With the team now numbering 20 people, with triple-A experience from across the industry,

“We love multiplayer and, as developers, we understand why players love it too,” said co-founder Brian Kaiser when we talked last year. “Most multiplayer games aren’t delivering rich, long-lasting co-operative play, because they aren’t building the experience from the ground up. Our goal is to design a whole new kind of a game that reflects what players love, while putting co-op front and center.”  

“Being a player first developer means players’ motivations and passions inform our decisions,” said co-founder Lisa Newon George. “As an anthropologist, my role is to facilitate the voice of the player from the very beginning and to make our game and community as strong as it can be.”