Tim Burton Online?

Jeklynn Heights, a multiplayer game with an eye-catching Tim Burton-esque art style by developers Vex Studios, has revealed an exclusive beta opportunity. The opportunity comes in a form of registration at Jeklynn Heights Account Reservation for free access into the game’s testing phase. Update: The developers have confirmed this to be a closed beta.

According to press release :

Jeklynn Heights is a multiplayer game that incorporates a multitude of genres and themes including 1st person fighting, 3rd person fighting, RPG, strategy, and adventure. The game takes place entirely at night, a time when violence and peculiarity are at their peak. The town is separated into two sides; the Town Square (rich) and The Slums (poor).

Each team starts out on the opposite side of the map. Both teams have several unique “classes” you can play as throughout the duration of the match. Each character will be provided with a unique starting weapon and a starting ability.

Primary Objective
The goal of the game is to acquire the Orb of Egression (of the opposite team). In order to activate the Orb (and capture it), the teams will need a portion of their overall players channeling it, based on the team size. Each Orb of Egression is placed deep within each team’s starting area; so acquiring it will not be an easy task.

Secondary Objective
Throughout the playable maps there are structures called Sanity Posts and Ability Orbs. Capturing a Sanity Post will give the acquiring team a forward position and more sanity; a resource used to increase the skill of the teams’ AI guards that protect these posts. Capturing Ability Orbs will give the acquiring team a huge advantage by making various passive and active abilities accessible. Sanity Posts and Ability Orbs can be recaptured by the enemy team however, so it is crucial to defend them and brainstorm which ones would benefit your team. Additionally, there are several neutral weapons and items scattered throughout the map that might help aid a team to victory.

Sanity in Jeklynn Heights, in short, is your character’s experience. Leveling up will provide statistic bonuses and a single-use special attack each level (see Combat section for more details). Capturing Sanity Posts and eliminating enemy players are one of the ways to increase your Sanity Meter. Sanity Posts are also places (when captured) where players can respawn after they die. Ability Orbs

Ability Orbs will also be placed throughout the map. If an Orb is captured, the entire team will be provided with that specific ability. These abilities help a player during combat, scouting, defending and so on, depending on which Ability Orbs are in the teams’ possession. It is crucial to know which orbs to target (a decision that will vary based on each map). If the other team captures an orb you once established, that specific ability will be lost and the other team will gain it.

Every character starts out with a melee weapon, ranged weapon, and a passive ability that can’t be removed. Every melee weapon has a combo attack rotation, which consists of different attack speeds. A player can control how deep into the rotation they go by monitoring the speed of their clicking (assuming the mouse is bound to the attack button). Since every attack has a different speed, part of the challenge is knowing when to stop and resume your rotational attack. In addition to the combo rotation of each melee weapon, every melee and ranged weapon has a “Special Attack” capability. This capability will be available after a player levels up (fills up his/her sanity meter). A small icon above both the melee weapon and ranged weapon will appear. The player will then have the choice of selecting which weapon they would like the special attack to effect. Special attack capabilities will stack if the player chooses not to use them right after leveling up. These attacks cause more damage and are significantly more powerful than regular weapons. Once the attack is used, the player will need to wait until the next level up before the attack is reused (unless they have chosen to stack these attacks from previous levels).

It is worth mentioning that there’s a couple of catch-22s, though they are simple and reasonable enough. First and foremost, the devs are requesting those interested to be “an active member of our community between now and when we launch beta”, which presumably means posting on forums , and also stated that “Accounts that have no activity on our website before testing will not be invited”.

Secondly, reservations will only be available between December 16th to December 31st 2010 in spirit of the festivities. Update: The developers also confirmed that donations will once again be required after the 31st as the project is developer-only funded at the moment.

For more information, check out this Rock, Paper, Shotgun interview or the game’s website, linked on the header image.