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Project Gorgon is coming to Steam
Indie sandbox Project Gorgon finally caught a break this week in the form of Greenlight approval on Steam. Two separate Kickstarter drives failed to fund, one in 2012 and another earlier this year, but former Turbine and Perpetual developer Eric Heimburg continued work on the project and has now announced a forthcoming Steam launch. "There's a lot of work to be done to get the game Steam-ready, and I don't know the exact timeline yet," Heimburg wrote. "But the hard part was getting Greenlit." Gorgon seeks to marry old-school and new-school MMO design; it includes features like player-authored books, exploration without signposts, and additional goodies that you can see in the video past the cut.
Project Gorgon engages its second Kickstarter campaign
After its Kickstarter campaign fizzled back in 2012, Project Gorgon and its team regrouped to prepare a second, and hopefully successful, crowdfunding drive. The campaign launched a couple of days ago and is attempting to rake in $100,000 in pledges before the end of its 30 days. Project Gorgon bills itself as "an indie MMORPG with the deep gameplay of the classics, all the features of a modern game, and a unique immersive feel." The team promises a virtual world with a focus on exploration without signposts and immersive aspects such as being able to write in-game books for others to read. Project Gorgon also allegedly rewards certain types of gameplay with "behavior badges." Project Gorgon has been in development for four years and is nearing the production stage. The game is actually playable in an early state right now, so if you're curious, you can check it out before deciding whether or not to sponsor its development. We've also got a preview video for you after the jump. [Thanks to Gaming Conjecture for the tip!]
Project Gorgon seeks Kickstarter funding
Is your Kickstarter fund depleted yet? Designer Eric Heimburg is hoping that you've got a bit more money left in there for his small-scale game, Project Gorgon. A long post on the game's official site outlines several major updates to the game's systems as well as what the Kickstarter funding will be used for, with an eye toward an official launch date in fall/winter of 2015. Heimburg's post explains the current state of the game's testing, including what is working and what is not in the current build. He also explains why some skills level faster than others; Necromancy, for example, requires you to fight a boss, while Swords can be advanced from the start of the game. Take a look at the site if it seems like your sort of game and consider funding it if you like what you see; Heimburg states that while he'd like to bring on additional staff, he won't allow extra funding to change the launch date.
Asheron's Call 2 producer weighs in on the revived game
It's always a sad day when a game you worked on shuts down. You shed your tears and move on, most likely wishing you could have the game back but knowing it's gone for good. But Asheron's Call 2 has come back against all odds, and while it's not yet clear what the future will hold for the dead-and-revived game, former producer Eric Heimburg quickly jumped in to see how well the game holds up in a more modern sense. Heimburg's main complaints are that the game's interface hasn't held up very well (requiring players to click through several screens just to compare item stats) and the huge world can lead to some travel issues. He also shares some insights regarding some of the strange elements of the beta, including the absence of a friend list feature. It's an interesting look not just behind the scenes of a game no one expected to return, but at the differences between a game long remembered and the game that actually existed. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Project: Gorgon hits Kickstarter
Touted as "an indie MMO by industry veterans," Project: Gorgon has launched a bid for public affection (and donations) on Kickstarter. The effort is being spearheaded by Eric Heimburg and Sandra Powers, who've worked on titles like Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2, EverQuest II, and Star Trek Online. Project: Gorgon is meant to promote and reward exploration and remove constrictions on gameplay. Its creators are calling it a "thoroughly modern MMO" with a "quirky, old-school feel." The details of the game's cost and possible subscription fees haven't been finalized yet, but the rewards that have been set out seem to be hinting to a free-to-play model paired with subscriptions for extra access and goodies. Rewards include alpha and beta access, game time, special items (including a vial of -- we kid you not -- "wolf spit"), and the opportunity to vote on game features in beta and shortly after launch. Hit up the Kickstarter page to let the team speak for itself, or skip below the cut to see some pre-alpha footage of the game.
The Game Archaeologist seals up 2011
You know what I love about the end of each year? The lists. Man, but I'm a sucker for lists, especially when they come in "best of" varieties. In the lull between Christmas and New Year's, there typically isn't a lot happening in the world of entertainment, so it's a good time to look back before we head forward. And so it is for The Game Archaeologist. 2011 marks the second year I've been doing this column, and it's been one of my personal favorite series to write. Every week I'm learning more and more about the history of the MMO genre, and I'm encouraged to see just how much passion and interest there are for the titles that started it all and got us to where we are today. So before we head into 2012, let's take one last glimpse back at the road we've traveled. If you've missed out on any of these columns or want to revisit your favorite classic MMO, I've compiled a huge list of everything I talked about this year, from histories to interviews to player stories. There's also a special request for you (yes, you) at the end of this column, so do me a favor and hit that jump!
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The former dev
I've been a long-time follower of Eric Heimburg on his blog, Elder Game, where he and a friend have spent years delivering insightful commentary about MMOs and supermodels (well, mostly MMOs). Because I'm not that observant a fellow and I assume that most fellow bloggers are mere players like I am, I didn't realize until a little while ago that he and his co-writer were former Turbine developers who had worked on Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2. You can see where this is going. Once I learned that, I knew I had to get him to contribute to this series. I began a multi-year wooing campaign that involved skywriting, cupcakes, celebrity kiss-o-grams, envelopes stuffed with unmarked bills, and all the tea in China. Of course, this was well after he'd already said "yes" to it, but I like to keep up appearances. So hit the jump as I talk to a guy who was on the flipside of Asheron's Call 2 as a producer and generally swell fella!
When crafting community, little goes a long way
Yes, that looks like a typo in the subject line and it ought to be "a little goes a long way." It isn't. Little itself goes a long way in making a community, as discussed in this recent post by Eric Heimburg. Speaking from his experiences both on Asheron's Call 2 as a producer and Aion as a player, his core contention is that smaller communities decrease anonymity and make politeness far more common for interactions among strangers. One of the core reasons behind this is the question of reliance. The community of group-based games tends to be stonger than that of games where you can be almost wholly independent, since you rely upon others to work with you. By way of contrast, examine some of the behavior found in World of Warcraft's random dungeon tool, where you find yourself working with people whom you're statistically unlikely to ever see again. One of the laments about solo-friendly games is the death of community, and while that's not altogether true, Heimburg's post certainly makes a number of compelling points. Well worth examining if you're interested in building a community or just in the ways groups develop.
Developer communication as it affects games
Developer chats aren't only important when it comes to what players know about the game -- they're also important in how the players approach the game. That's one of the more interesting conclusions to be taken away from Elder Game's latest discussion regarding the interactions between developers and community. As Eric Heimburg points out, developers and community teams have two main approaches to dealing with their players, both of which affect the attitude of players and their perception of the game as a whole. Aion is his choice of examples for the first type of communication, in which the development team is essentially totally silent. The attitude is either complete silence, or denying that a bug is actually a bug. On the flip side, Champions Online embraces an open style of communication in which the developers loudly talk about bugs, system problems, and so on. Heimburg goes on to point out the positives and negatives of both sides -- Aion, for instance, creates an impression that things are working as intended even when they aren't. That works well until it becomes absolutely transparent that something is wrong, at which point the credibility is lost. Champions Online has a much more prevalent sense that the players should work with the developers and give them slack, but that only extends so far. It's an interesting look at a complicated issue, and worthy of an in-depth reading.
The hardcore language (filter) of Champions Online
While many folks we know really don't care too much about chat filters one way or the other, the rather overzealous chat filter in Champions Online seems to be causing some problems for players - and NPCs! Eric Heimburg over at Elder Game ran into some NPCs having their rather harmless (read: written by game designers) chat censored out due to the crazy filters. Based on his experience, he proceeded to spin an amusing tale of how he suspected the design and testing of that particular feature might have gone down to leave it in as touchy a state as it's currently in. The rest of the post - well, some will agree with Eric, and some will wish he'd stuck with the sillier things about the chat filter. He goes on to refer to Champions Online as being in its "death throes." As this also isn't the first time we've seen weird things get filtered ("Sega" in Guild Wars, "Depp" in World of Warcraft to name two old examples) we wouldn't be surprised to see Cryptic Studios crank the sensitivity down a bit. That said, if you've ever run up against a chat filter garbling your words when you're just trying to be a @(&*!%^ the streets, pop over and @(*$%^! moment into reading about this particular way-too-touchy filter.
Balance not what it's cracked up to be
One of the truly sacrosanct beliefs in the greater MMO community (which includes both developers and players) is that achieving balance between classes is a necessary ingredient for a successful game. Even though the relative power of classes is liable to swing wildly depending on the latest patches and play styles, the goal is always to achieve that perfect (and largely fleeting) point at which classes are more or less equal. According to Eric over at Elder Game, achieving balance shouldn't be more important than making a game fun to play.While Eric's post was directed primarily at system designers currently in the employ of game developers, we think the lesson should be well-learned by players as well. Few things turn otherwise nice and friendly people into sniveling, pedantic jerks quite like the knowledge that the way they choose to play the game isn't perfectly balanced with whatever the flavor of the month happens to be. Isn't it enough just to have fun playing? Or is fun inextricably bound to one's relative power? We'd like to think that's not the case.
Cascading population drops the true MMO killer
One of the most depressing situations in any MMO is coming to terms with the fact that you feel isolated and alone, even in the midst of your massively multiplayer world. According to Eric Heimburg of Elder Game, this phenomena happens not because of any specific reason like a bad patch or lack of new instanced content, but because a server population has dipped below the critical mass it takes to keep a game functioning as intended, and players start fleeing in droves. Everquest II, he suggests, is in need of some server mergers if they hope to keep their population numbers above that important number.One wonders what is supposed to be done with a game like Tabula Rasa when servers drift into dangerously low territory. With only four servers to its name, it might actually be more harmful to the size of the player base to simply concede that a merger is necessary. Players have never been terribly resistant to bad news, at least if forums are any indication, so might a server merger act as another negative point in a cascading failure? At what point do you leave an MMO?
You know you work for a company destined for failure when...
In a recent blog post, Elder Game's Eric Heimburg takes a sardonic look at some of the more heavily worn bumps on the road that is MMO development. Without naming any names, Heimburg suggests developers conduct an intervention if their company meets a certain number of the criteria, lest their game join the cavalcade of mediocre to crappy MMO releases on the market.Among the more prescient of the criteria in this blogger's mind is the one where instead of having a lead designer, companies design by committee, or the one where the publisher imposes changes to the core game from outside. If only fans had a clearer picture of the way their favorite developers were structured, they could apply these criteria beforehand and weigh the odds of a stinker before sinking their hard-earned cash on it. Makes you wonder how many of these criteria Auran met before Fury fell flat on its face.
Former STO designer: Star Trek might be "hardest MMO IP ever"
Star Trek Online is one of the most anticipated MMOs on the horizon, but it's no secret that Perpetual Entertainment has had a rough couple of months. There's an ever-present air of uncertainty around STO's future.Most of that uncertainty stems from Perpetual's legal and financial troubles, but one former STO team member has written up a blog post suggesting that making a Star Trek MMO might be a Kobyashi Maru scenario to begin with. "At first glance, Star Trek seems like the perfect setting for an MMO," said former systems designer Eric Heimburg, "but appearances can be deceiving. It's actually a huge landmine of problems."Heimburg wrote that it's an expensive and difficult task to produce both a space game and a land game, that making space interesting is challenging, and that it's impossible to please all Star Trek fans because everyone has a different opinion about what makes the franchise great. All good points; we'll see if Perpetual has what it takes to make it all come together ... if it can even survive its financial and legal woes.[Via TTH]
