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Some Assembly Required Extra: The scoop on Albion Online
After a long drought in the industry, the tide of the sandbox gaming is finally coming in. This year can definitely be called the year of the sandbox. While not all of them are out yet, many more games promising those features we love are in development now than ever before. In fact, there are so many titles floating about now that it can be hard to keep them straight! One of the latest upcoming titles to be announced is the stylized, medieval sandbox Albion Online. With such offerings as territory control, housing, a player-driven economy, and full looting, this game certainly fits the sandbox bill. Heck, the development company is even named Sandbox Interactive! But what makes Albion Online stand out from the pack is that it will be a cross-platform experience; players will be accessing the game via both tablets and PCs. Of course, as promising as it may sound, just a terse feature list doesn't give players the kind of details we want. So to get the scoop, I had a chat with Sandbox Interactive CEO Stefan Wiezorek, who shared more information about the economy, housing,the skill system, PvP, and territory control.
Some Assembly Required: TUG interview reveals the true nature of Soylent Green
Much ado has certainly been made lately about doing something "new and different" in games. Just take a look at all the options coming through Kickstarter lately; even more contenders have thrown their hats into the ring since our roundup last February. But in a large number of these cases, the new ideas are coming from developers within the gaming industry. So what would happen if a game were developed from outside the industry? Enter TUG. Formally known as The Untitled Game, the game is the brainchild of Nerd Kingdom, a group hailing from the world of academia that happens to have intersected with gaming. Self-described as "a collaboration of video game developers, academic scientists, modders, and gamers," this group wants to move beyond just improving the way games are made "to show[ing] that such games can make us better as individuals and as a society." I was able to catch up with one of the founders of Nerd Kingdom, Scientist and Researcher of Stuffs Peter Salinas, to talk about the game. We touched on everything from player design input to features (like player books and companions) to making an engine available for others to use. Oh, and of course, Soylent Green.
Wings Over Atreia Exclusive: Aion 4.0 launches in June!
Good news! (Well, at least for my police record.) As it turns out, I didn't have to resort to kidnapping to convince someone from NCsoft to talk to me about Aion at this year's GDC. I swear, Sean Orlikowski, the game's associate producer, came willingly. It does, however, appear that in the fine print of the meeting proposal, I agreed to be outfitted with a special electronic device that would send massive jolts of electricity through my system if I tried to speak about something I shouldn't. So let's see how much I can share with you before this apparatus leaves me unconscious. Can I tell you that Aion has a special celebration planned for the first anniversary of the Truly Free conversion? So far, so good, folks. Hmm... can I add that the next big expansion has a North American launch date planned without going unconscious... oh, appears so! OK, let's push this a little further: How about if I happened to mention that 4.0 will hit servers in June 2013 -- would I be zapped? Nope! So there you have it, folks: 4.0 is indeed going live in just two short months!
Funcom's Joel Bylos on the centralized TSW, AoC, and AO team
By now, most MMO gamers are pretty familiar with the fact that Funcom underwent restructuring. But what does that mean; what exactly did it entail? The term "restructuring" in itself signifies changes but does nothing to actually enlighten folks on what the changes are. Other than the fact that Joel Bylos was named creative director for all three of Funcom's titles -- Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and The Secret World -- and that the team will be in one centralized in location, we know little of the details. How many developers survived the restructuring and relocated to remain on the team? Is this move foreshadowing one or more games slipping into maintenance mode? How will the coveted dev attention be divvied up? What does the future hold? Devoid of facts, players are left left wondering about how these changes will impact their favorite games. While chatting with Joel Bylos in an exclusive interview, I was able to ask some of these very questions.
Massively Exclusive: Matt Higby reveals account-wide SC unlocks coming to PlanetSide 2
Back at SOE Live, Creative Director Matt Higby spoke about PlanetSide 2's goal to appeal to a broader audience than just the shooter fanbase. It might just have worked: It's been just a little over a week since launch, and PS2 seems to be pulling in players ranging from die-hard veterans of the original PlanetSide to first-time or non-FPS gamers (like yours truly). In fact, as Higby tells it, the number of folks flocking to the new free-to-play MMOFPS has exceeded Sony Online Entertainment's expectations. Of course, this is only the beginning of PS2's life. With launch now under the developers' belts, the question becomes what's up their sleeves? I cornered Matt Higby to talk about the first week of live servers, how many soldiers have joined in the war, and what's next for the game.
Some Assembly Required: A Greed Monger interview
With so many games out there and in development for the themepark and PvP crowds, you had to be wondering when a different demographic would start feeling the developer love. I'm talking about crafters! Of course, the brains behind Some Assembly Required love crafters and all they represent; after all, this column is a celebration of all things player-generated, and what's more player-generated than in-game crafted goods? So trust me when I say we are always on the lookout for games that focus on crafting. And one such upcoming game is Greed Monger. We first heard about Greed Monger when the crafting-focused game appeared on Kickstarter. And we aren't the only ones keeping our eyes on this game; fan support has helped the game not only reach its initial Kickstarter funding goal but exceed many of the stretch goals as well. From the campaign page, we know some small details about the game. Joining the ranks of games like Xsyon, Greed Monger will boast a world that's nothing but what you make it. It's a blank slate with no NPCs, no buildings, and no quests -- players will build this free-to-play game from the ground up, crafting everything as they go. Of course, we were interested in learning even more, so we chatted with Jason Appleton, the game's producer and project lead, to get the scoop.
