Feb 23, 2011 18:31 GMT  ·  By

Petroglyph Games, a long-time developer of real-time strategy experiences, has announced that it is working on Rise of the Immortals, a free-to-play video game for the PC that aims to expand the multiplayer online battle arena concept.

The team says that it aims to innovate a lot and create a game that expands on the foundations created by Guardians of Graxia, another video game created by Petroglyph.

Rise of the Immortals will pick up the action 300 years after the events of that game and there are two main innovations linked to the new projects, one dealing with expanded social options and another with how characters work.

Rise of the Immortals will have a social hub that allows players to chat, exchange emotes, shop for more items, manage their friends list and their guild affiliations and also look at leaderboards and the performance of other gamers.

The progression for all characters will now be persistent, a first for the genre, with all the experience linked to each characters and not the account, allowing players engaged in Rise of the Immortals to customize how each character plays and see them evolve from fight to fight.

Steve Wetherill, who is the executive producer working on Rise of Immortals for Petroglyph, has stated when the announcement was made, “Many people at Petroglyph are huge fans of MOBA gameplay, so developing Rise of Immortals was truly a passion project for the studio.”

He added, “We recognize that there can be a high barrier to entry in current MOBA games on the market, and we wanted to expand the genre with a title that offers new features that will appeal both to current fans, as well as those who are new to this type of game.”

Petroglyph also launched sign-ups for the closed beta test for Rise of the Immortals, with interested players able to leave their details on the official site of the game.