I’m not usually a big crafting-survival game guy but Nightingale has me intrigued, both for its premise—neo-Victorian explorers plunging through portals to investigate dangerous otherworldly realms—and its pedigree: Developer Inflexion Games is headed up by former BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn, and has a number of other BioWare veterans on staff. After a handful of delays, it’s now set to launch into early access in February, and ahead of that the studio is planning an open server stress test.
To get into the test, head over to the Nightingale page on Steam and mash the “request access” button. You don’t need to pre-purchase the game to get in, but you will need to sign up even if you’ve participated in previous playtests, as keys for those sessions won’t get you into this one. Emails about how exactly the stress test will run, and when, will be fired out when it’s closer to happening.
As this is a beta test, there might be some rough patches along the way. “There are no bad outcomes to this test,” Inflexion said. “Whether it’s all smooth connections, or the servers catch fire, the team will gain valuable information to prepare for the Early Access launch in February.
“We hope that all participants can connect to the Realms and enjoy the first couple of hours of the game without interruption. However, it may be that all or some participants might experience longer than usual connection times, or may not be able to connect at all. Whatever happens, we’ll be with you the whole way, communicating through the official Discord.”
Nightingale is set to go into early access on February 22, 2024, on Steam and Epic, and is expected to stay in that state for roughly a year, although as always with these things, that period could be extended.