👋 Hi there - Bo Daly and Stephan Sherman here, emerging from our dark caves where we’ve been busy building Shardbound to say “hello” and tell you our story.

⚔️ Questing in scary dungeons leads to new horizons

Let’s take you back in time (oOOooOo time travel)…when the gaming world was a very different place - the era of 2010. Mobile gaming was on the rise, but gamers were left wanting more, including us! For many, the thought of “mobile games” meant going into a scary dungeon filled with pay-to-play mechanics, frustrating limitations, and games lacking in depth 😱.

With mobile phones connecting the whole wide world, was this all gaming could be? We certainly didn't think so. We saw uncharted territory awaiting exploration, and we were eager to chart that course.

We formed Super Evil Megacorp, and began our journey into said scary dungeon - 😱the world of mobile gaming (gasp!). We saw that mobile phones had the potential to connect millions of players worldwide, and so we thought, “Let’s turn the world into a giant LAN party” and call it Vainglory.

When we built Vainglory, we weren't following trends or imitating what was already out there; we saw untapped potential.

- Bo Daly, CEO @ Bazooka Tango

On the way, our community of absolute heroes stood alongside us. We each held a different weapon or torch, navigating this dungeon step-by-step together. While our team conquered building an engine that would sustain this worldwide LAN party, our community shone light onto the path ahead and helped us avoid pitfalls with feedback during each playtest as we progressed the game forward. Our collective efforts shaped Vainglory into a game that would connect gamers across the globe.

Vainglory had over 1.5 million monthly users at launch, and only grew from there. Professional teams like TSM, SK Gaming, Team Secret, G2 Esports, and others participated in our global tournaments where we had almost $1 million dollars in prize pools. We were the fastest growing mobile game on Twitch in 2015, with 2.5 million minutes viewed. Vainglory didn’t just succeed; it defined a genre and set a new standard.

"Every scary dungeon needs heroes that will bravely venture into it."

- Stephan Sherman, CPO - Bazooka Tango

Today, that spirit is alive and well as we take our next step with you, into the world of Shardbound. We couldn’t be more excited and grateful to be building Shardbound alongside a community of those who will go into scary dungeons, knowing that new, exciting worlds await if they bravely venture past the darkness.

🚀 Bazooka Tango!! 💃

We’re passionate about games, like you. Games like DoTA, Counter-Strike, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Diablo, etc. molded our gaming experience. Diablo 2, for example, had great RPG features (skill trees, loot affixes, etc.) that allowed us to experiment with a million variations of our character builds, and a killer crafting system with hidden recipes to discover. Most importantly, it was a game that you could share with your friends. Games are always better when you share with others!

These games defined entire genres and inspired us in ways we couldn't have imagined at the time. We journeyed through our development careers, always seeking new and exciting ways to create more fun, different kinds of fun, really ALL OF THE FUN for the gaming community! We spent years at studios like Rockstar, Riot Games, and more—where we worked on games like Red Dead Revolver/Redemption and League of Legends. With Vainglory, we took that to new heights connecting gamers across the world closer than ever, and happily clapping our hands seeing everyone become best friends with each other as they beat each other up in the game.

So here we are at Bazooka Tango, ready to rule the skies with you, Ranger. We’ll traverse new worlds with friends - both old and new, bite our nails as we nervously spectate a game of Shardbound rooting for the underdog, and collectively cheer (or ugly cry) as we make Shardbound into a genre-defining game in this next generation. Shardbound isn’t waiting for the future to arrive, we’re building it, and better yet, we’re building it together with you.

👋 From Strangers to Rangers

So now that you’ve gotten to know us, come join our Discord community and say hi to us (Stephan is @CaptainNeato, Bo is @Nansen). We will come out of our caves now and then to say hi, and you’ll definitely see us during playtests! And don’t forget to drop by to give Stephan a pat in the #pat-stephan channel. It has been confirmed to increase development speed from anywhere between 2-15%.

Make sure to pre-register for the game at www.shardbound.com, and don’t miss any of our playtests!  Thank you for taking your time to read our story, and we’ll see you in the game, Rangers!

Till next time,

Bo and Stephan