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Shards Online showcases 30 seconds of housing
Housing enthusiasts who have been following Shards Online will like the game's latest video release. Though short in duration, it whets your abode appetite by showcasing various housing styles that players will be able to obtain and place in the open world. It also teases the customization options by giving a peek at a few decorations and promising oodles more. Shards Online has surpassed its Kickstarter goal and has less than $5K remaining until the next stretch goal (the story editor toolkit) is reached. Interested fans have two more days to back the project; the Kickstarter closes at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, December 12th. [Source: Citadel Studios press release]
Shards Online adds permadeath ruleset
Shards Online's Kickstarter campaign is on fire, having blown past its $50K fundraising goal and now plowing through stretch goals. With eight days to go on the campaign, who knows how far it'll get, but there's one thing for certain: Thanks to passing the $80,000 mark, the fantasy sandbox will incorporate permadeath into some of its server rulesets. For the stretch goal, the developers wrote, "We will add an extra official ruleset to Alpha One with increased skill gains and permanent death! Not only will we have this ruleset running on some of our official servers, but players will be able to run these rules on their own community servers."
Shards Online has big plans for balancing crafting vs. loot
Yesterday, Citadel Studios released a video dev blog highlighting how crafting will work in its upcoming sandbox, Shards Online. Lead systems designer Bruce "Logrus" Bonnick explains that the team will balance looted and crafted items by making those items truly distinct. "Rather than make loot and crafting compete with each other, I prefer to kind of have them co-mingled," he says. Different properties will exist on gear depending on how it is acquired, thereby suiting different playstyles. Massively's MJ explored the current build of the game with Citadel's Derek Brinkmann over the holiday weekend via livestream. Shards Online's second Kickstarter reached its $50,000 goal last week. The crafting vlog is below.
Shards Online's Kickstarter has already reached its $50k goal
Sandbox MMO hopeful Shards Online has met its Kickstarter goal of $50,000 with 23 days still to go. Citadel Studios' first Kickstarter for the ambitious game reached only $73,401 of its $320,000 goal last June. Project lead Derek Brinkmann dropped by the Massively comments last week to reassure potential donors and explain the thinking behind the new campaign: I'd like to personally address the concerns about our new goal. After our previous campaign winded down, we put our heads together and created a refocused plan to get to alpha. The minimum amount we could get to alpha with was 100k. It doesn't seem like much, but we have been in active development for over a year and have already personally invested quite a bit of money into the project. We reached out to our friends and family and found we were able to raise 50k from small investments. That gets us half of the way there. We decided that reaching out to our fans would be the best way to get the rest of the funds. The alternative was to approach angel investors which would have forced us to change the spirit of the project. Stretch goals begin at the $60,000 mark and include emote animations, new craft skills, and a permadeath ruleset.
Shards Online returns to Kickstarter [Updated with the video]
Shards Online is back on Kickstarter, this time with a modest $50,000 goal and a promise to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to the final goal. The multiplayer sandbox made waves earlier this year thanks to its playable pre-alpha client and its unique multiverse built on player-run servers. We've got the new Kickstarter trailer and the abridged press release below.
Shards Online teases second Kickstarter campaign
Shards Online isn't about to let a flopped crowdfunding campaign get it down, as the mod-heavy sandbox is preparing to launch a second Kickstarter run. According to a development roadmap posted earlier this summer, Shards Online is currently transitioning from pre-alpha to alpha testing, where it will reside for the bulk of 2015. As part of those preparations, Shards Online has released a quick half-minute video to promote the upcoming November fundraiser. Check it out after the break and see if it's enough to tempt you into coughing up some cash when Shards Online passes around the plate.
Here is the current Shards Online dev roadmap
Shards Online's Kickstarter may be over, but Citadel Studios looks to be even more determined to finish building its player-driven MMORPG sandbox. The firm has posted a new development roadmap on the game's official website, and Citadel co-founder Derek Brinkmann explains how the team is tightening its dev plan "to get to an alpha state as soon as possible." Brinkmann also mentions that one of Citadel's goals is to "have enough replayable content on our first map to keep players engaged while we continue development." Click past the cut to view the full roadmap.
Shards Online opens website with 24 hours left on Kickstarter
As of this writing, Shards Online has 24 hours remaining on its Kickstarter program and has yet to break a quarter of its funding goal. Odds are that it's not going to hit that marker, although fans are encouraged to jump in and donate while the campaign is still running. But the team at Citadel Studios isn't giving up on the project and has launched a website for the game devoted to all things related to Shards Online. Despite what you may have suspected from the last paragraph, the page is not currently fishing for donations. The team will be holding the game's first community roundtable discussion on June 13th, starting at 8 p.m. EDT, when the developers will discuss what comes after Kickstarter and why there are no plans to ask for funding on the site directly. It'll be worth watching if you're a fan of the game -- and if you're a fan and still haven't donated, now is the time to do so. [Source: Citadel Studios press release]
Shards Online opens up a public weekend event
Does Shards Online sound interesting to you? Well, then, why not play it? Starting at 4:00 p.m. EDT today and running through the weekend, anyone can download the game's current client and jump in on the pre-alpha servers for free. Moreover, anyone can just as freely discuss what they see in the game, with no NDA in place (not that having one would make much of a difference here, obviously). The only caveat is that this is a pre-alpha preview, which means that the version of the game that you'll be seeing is still in a very rough and unfinished state. But if you've been curious about the game's Kickstarter campaign but reluctant to donate without seeing the game in action, here's your chance to get in the game and find out more for yourself. We'll also be streaming from inside the game on Saturday, if you'd like to watch but don't have the time to jump in yourself.
Shards backers can play as soon as Kickstarter campaign completes
Citadel is kicking off week two of its Shards Online Kickstarter with new incentives for backing the multiverse sandbox. Shards is different from other crowdfunded MMOs in that there is a "fully playable build available now," the company explains. As such, backers will get in the game "as soon as the campaign completes," and they'll receive three months of subscription time on top of their current pledge level, too. Citadel will also be hosting events for backers, the first of which will be livestreamed Saturday, May 24th at 4:00 p.m. EDT. Finally, the firm has announced a referral program that includes both in-game rewards and pledge-level increases for each new backer that you recruit. You can get all the details in the press release after the cut. [Source: Citadel press release]
Shards is a full MMO and a private server platform
Shards Online released a video update to its Kickstarter project over the weekend, along with a huge wall-o'-text focused on lore. Citadel Studios boss Derek Brinkmann stars in the clip, which addresses one of the most common questions about Shards so far. "Is Shards a game, or is it a platform? The answer is it's both," Brinkmann explains. "First and foremost it's a full game. It's built from the ground up with its own rulesets, live content, real-time events, moderation, updates, developer support, PvP, PvE, crafting, housing, the whole kit and kaboodle." In terms of the title's platform aspects, Brinkmann says that you don't have to be a programmer or a modder to run your own Shards server. He also explains how private servers are simply one of the game's many options, since the official Shards servers will offer full MMO functionality. You can view the video after the cut.
Catch a glimpse of Shards Online in its first-ever livestream tonight
Just a few short weeks ago, Massively took its first in-depth look at Shards Online, an upcoming isometric sandbox that straddles the broad line between massive and not-so-massive. The catch? We weren't permitted to snap screenshots or video for you! Developer Citadel Studios aims to rectify that with its first-ever livestream of the game tonight on its Twitch channel. Shards Online launched a Kickstarter yesterday, so if you like what you see, you can already contribute to the project, which raised almost $25,000 in its first day. The stream itself begins tonight at 8 p.m. EDT; we've embedded it below.
Shards Online launches its Kickstarter
If you had a dollar for every Kickstarter MMO that advertised itself as a fantasy sandbox, you'd have... well, a fair bit of money. We've lost count. Shards Online, though, is a bit of a different beast, as it's not reserving its sandbox nature to mechanics. Players will be able to influence and take control of server rules, creating individual shards where things are arranged just right for particular playstyles. The prospect of unlimited custom rulesets for servers is pretty different, isn't it? The game's Kickstarter campaign has just launched, aiming for $320,000 by 6/12/14. It includes most of the things that you'd expect in an MMO Kickstarter -- beta access, digital copies, and so forth. If you've got $10,000 to throw at the game, you can even get a custom-designed house and have the developers show up as gods to run a one-time live event. If you're interested in the concepts, check out the Kickstarter and consider throwing a few dollars toward it.
Massively's first look at sandbox Shards Online
How many games have you played only to find yourself uttering the phrase, "If only I could run my own server"? Chances are, there at least one or two titles you''d love to make into a private playground for select friends using your own personal ruleset. Lucky for you, in Shards Online, you'll be able to do precisely that! Announced last month, this upcoming sandbox by former Mythic Entertainment devs is built on the premise that players will run the majority of the virtual worlds how they want to. Do you want a fantasy world where you can boot those who ruin immersion? You got it! What about the ability to take over mobs and fight the players while spouting personalized comments? Yup, that too. What if you want a hardcore world where survival is for the fittest? Mm-hmm, starving to death is an option, as is permadeath. And how about a world where gameplay unfolds around players as they explore rather than offers questing on rails? That's the theory behind the game. But how do these ideas hold up in practice? Last week I sat down with Citadel Studios co-founder Derek Brinkmann to witness a demonstration of Shards Online and talk all about the plans for the game. And what I saw certainly looks promising! So if this idea tantalizes your gaming taste buds, keep reading to get the scoop. I've even added a teaser video.
Shards Online developers plan for a player-run MMO
More or less every MMO starts up its advertising with some trace of the idea that you can play however you want. Not every MMO talks about the idea of letting players run the servers at the top level, however. But that's what Shards Online is aiming to provide. A recent interview with the developers discusses the idea, with studio co-founder Derek Brinkmann explaining that it's one of the first steps to dismantling the idea that the designers have to tell you how to enjoy yourself. Citadel Studios is a team made up of former Ultima Online developers who wondered why more games haven't embraced the idea of taking live events to their logical conclusion with modern technology. Shards Online is set in a multiverse, with several different worlds featuring slightly different rules, while players can tweak the overall structure to their individual preferences by running their own servers. The game is in development for Windows, Linux, and Mac, with an alpha expected later this year.
Ultima, WAR, DaoC vets form Citadel Studios, announce player-driven Shards title
What do you get when you combine the dev talents of Derek Brinkmann, Chris Ondrus and Tim Cotten? Apparently you get a new firm called Citadel Studios which is building an Ultima Online-inspired "game that will enable players to customize their experience and change the face of player collaboration forever." The project is codenamed Shards, and it draws on the dev trio's experiences building Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online, UO, and classic Elder Scrolls RPGs. "We left our soul-crushing, corporate jobs to make the games we'd actually play," says Brinkmann, founder and CEO of Citadel Studios. "Ultimately the community will dictate what Shards becomes, because we're not just providing a game but also a platform for players to express their creativity." Citadel's press release is light on game-specific details, but it states that the company is "ignoring the modern online gaming imperative to squeeze every last cent from every player." Shards will "give players more power than ever before, without constantly asking them to take out their wallets." The firm has released a brief teaser trailer which you can watch by clicking past the cut. [Source: Citadel press release]
