Eslabong Dev Says Playtesters Logged 100 Hours Before Launch
The developer cites the playtest hours as the moment he became confident the game had potential, which explains why the auto-battler mode and draft mode are being pushed further after release.
Reporting from 1 source: Game Spark.
The solo developer behind Eslabong, an arena battle action game in PC early access since August 25, said several players put in over 100 hours during the early playtest stage, when only one season and a few classes existed. The developer, Franz, described the game as a mix of MOBA influences, Football Manager, and tactics games. Japanese localization is in progress.
Eslabong is in PC early access at 1,900 yen, without Japanese support at the time of writing. Its developer works alone from Argentina and names World of Warcraft as a favorite, with Dota, League of Legends, Football Manager, and tactics games as the main influences on the design.
Auto-battle was not part of the original plan. The developer says the game began as a control-the-captain design, and that player requests during early development led to the auto-battler mode, which now carries most of the play. A ranked match mode was added the same way, standardizing all teams at level 100 with average stats.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.