Realm of the Mad God

Realm of the Mad God
Title screen in August 2020
Developer(s)Wild Shadow Studios
Spry Fox
Kabam
DECA Games
Publisher(s)DECA Games[1][2]
EngineAdobe Flash
  • WW: January 5, 2010
Unity
  • WW: July 21, 2020
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
macOS
ReleaseWindows, Mac
  • WW: June 20, 2011
Genre(s)MMORPG
Bullet hell
Roguelike
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Realm of the Mad God is a massively multiplayer online shoot 'em up video game created by Wild Shadow Studios and currently owned and developed by DECA Games. It was in public beta from January 2010 and the browser version launched on June 20, 2011.[3] On February 20, 2012 the game was made available on the digital distribution platform Steam for Microsoft Windows and OS X.[4]

The game has been described as a "massively-multiplayer cooperative bullet hell shooter" with an 8-bit pixelated art style.[3] Players control characters who have been transported to the realm of Oryx (the titular Mad God) to become food for his many minions and abominations, which the players must dispatch. Central to the design of the game is the fact that character death is permanent. Upon death, the player's character is lost along with all of its carried equipment, although the player can store a number of items for safekeeping in a limited-capacity vault away from danger. Different character choices in class also help make the game more diverse and help to support teamwork.

The game is free-to-play with optional in-game micro-transactions. Items that can be bought with optional transactions vary from high-level equipment, pets that provide aid to the player (by attacking enemies, healing the player, etc.), increased storage space, and a variety of aesthetic features such as skins, clothes, and dyes.[5]

Wild Shadow Studios was acquired by Kabam in June 2012 and obtained Realm of the Mad God in the acquisition. Kabam maintained the game until July 2016, when they sold it to DECA Games.[6]

This game client was originally written in Flash and could be played in-browser on the official site, on Kongregate, or could be downloaded from Steam. Due to the discontinuation of Adobe Flash Support by 2020, it was announced on June 12, 2018, that a remastered version of the client built using the Unity game engine was under development,[7] which was first released to the public through an Open Beta on April 15, 2020, and was officially released as Realm of the Mad God Exalt on July 22, 2020.[8]

  1. ^ "Deca Games".
  2. ^ "Wild Shadow Studios".
  3. ^ a b Edery, David (June 20, 2011). "Realm of the Mad God". Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  4. ^ "Realm of the Mad God on Steam". Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  5. ^ Richardson, Bob (March 4, 2012). "RPGFan Review - Realm of the Mad God". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  6. ^ "Important Update about Realm of the Mad God". Archived from the original on July 21, 2016.
  7. ^ "r/RotMG - Producer's Letter - IllumiUnity confirmed, report on feature progress and other topics!". reddit. June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  8. ^ "Realm of the Mad God Exalt". Realm of the Mad God Exalt. DECA Games. Retrieved August 5, 2020.