After delays that saw the launch of the alpha miss its end of May release, we finally know when the Kingdoms of Elyria alpha will be starting. Chronicles of Elyria developer Jeromy "Caspien" Walsh, the upcoming alpha will finally release next week on July 6th.
Kingdoms of Elyria's alpha was supposed to originally be in the hands of backers back in May, but delays and issues surrounding the launcher have seen that pushed back till now. Walsh, in a post on the Elyria website, states that the alpha will be ongoing through the "completion of Milestone 0.2.0." From there, the kingdom sim will be tested a further two weeks until being shut down until the next alpha test opens up.
This first alpha will only be made available to backers who have Alpha 1 access, though Walsh states in the post that future alphas (which are scheduled for "later in the year") will see that pool of players opened up to Alpha 2 backers down the road.
"We appreciate that many more of you will want to play it. However, and just for now, we’re trying to balance giving as many people as possible an opportunity to provide feedback on the game’s development, while ensuring it’s a positive testing experience. Opening up to just the Alpha 1 backers for this first Alpha will give us plenty of opportunities to gain feedback while testers put the game through its paces."
As far as what you can expect to hear about the alpha itself, it won't be much. Kingdoms of Elyria's alpha will be under an NDA, with feedback from testers being submitted through the game's launcher. Eventually, Walsh plans on setting up an Alpha Discord server for testers to communicate and provide feedback as well, though based on the post it doesn't look like that server will be ready when the alpha actually starts next week.
Earlier this month, Chronicles of Elyria developer showed off the upcoming alpha in a new video, giving potential testers a glimpse into what they could expect to see when the alpha finally launched. That same week it was made public that the ongoing litigation against Soulbound Studios and their payment processor, Xsolla, was being challenged by the defendants. The complaint against both the studio and Xsolla was filed back on February 2nd, and with the complaint being challenged, those involved are simply waiting for a court ruling as to whether the lawsuit will seemingly proceed.