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Pocket Legends teams up with Sony for Xperia PLAY event
Spacetime Studios and Sony recently teamed up to put on a unique event inside Spacetime's Pocket Legends mobile MMO. A new press release touts the "world's first in-game mobile flash mob," which happened during this month's E3 convention in Los Angeles. Pocket Legends players took part in a "Find the Droid" competition in which an Android mascot would make its way through the game world while enterprising players gave chase. The promotion was designed to draw attention to the new Sony Xperia PLAY platform, and Spacetime gave away more than 11,000 themed vanity items during the course of the event. Pocket Legends, the world's largest mobile MMO in terms of downloads (4 million and counting), will be expanding to the Android-powered Xperia PLAY later this summer.
MMObility: Just how mobile was E3?
E3 is a massive, loud conglomeration of lights, people, and stress. I spent most of my time there walking from one end to another, trying to find a certain booth or meeting room. Luckily for me, I am in pretty good shape and felt just fine the entire time, despite the fact that I had little to eat, and worse yet, little water. At home I drink water non-stop... no soda, no coffee. Still, it was a blast. Working like that really makes a tiny reporter like yours truly feel wonderful. Conversations with developers can be very, very interesting if games are what you love. And there were games. A ton of games. A bunch. A lot. Even then, I knew the feeling that was coming over me, the familiar feeling of stumbling into a toy store or comic shop to look for goodies. I was in hog heaven but needed to find my particular fix. I needed indie, tiny or strange games. Games that ran on a toaster but worked well, browser games that would impress me, or phone games that would continue to destroy the idea that immersive, fun gameplay cannot be done on a portable device. Did I find what I was looking for? Oh, hell yes I did. Click past the cut and I will tell you all about it.
E3 2011: Spacetime Studios on the Legends franchise
Blackstar has a new name to capitalize on the Legends brand -- it's now known as Star Legends: The Blackstar Chronicles. At this year's E3, we caught up with Spacetime Studios' Fernando Blanco to see how the revived project (as well as the company's hit Pocket Legends) is coming along. Star Legends is only a month away from launch, and Spacetime hopes that the Pocket Legends fever will spread to its sci-fi brother. The name's been changed to communicate the studio's intent to provide an ongoing story rather than a one-shot experience. The game will launch with the first 20 levels of content, but Spacetime has grand plans to expand this much further. Blanco gave us some of the backstory to the game: In the far future, humans are exploring the cosmos and have stumbled upon a resource-rich area. Corporations, as they are wont to do, have swooped in to exert their dominance but have come across hostile aliens in the process. War breaks out, invasions start popping up all over the place, and you're called in to clean up the mess -- and make a quick buck in the process. Hit the jump to hear more about Star Legends' classes and gameplay!
Spacetime adds Sandstone Caves to Pocket Legends, extends free content offer
Free stuff is the rallying cry of Spacetime Studios, developer of the renowned Pocket Legends mobile MMORPG. Last month we told you about the game's anniversary promotion, which featured free access to a boat-load of content zones including Balefort Castle, the Fathom Crypts, and the Alien Oasis Trilogy. Today we're happy to report that Spacetime has donned its generosity hat and is making these (and a few other) areas free forever. But wait, there's more! Spacetime is also introducing a brand-new Pocket Legends zone called the Sandstone Caves. The caves are "littered with precious stones -- and the broken bones of the foolish who have tried to take them." If that's not a dare, we don't know what is, and you'll want to level your character up a bit to ensure she's fit to challenge the 20 - 25 zone. You can learn more about the Sandstone Caves, free content, and Pocket Legends itself at the game's official website.
MMObility: Survival on a desert island
We've all played that age-old game of pondering what we might take with us on an endless trip to a desert island. What music would you bring? Whom would you bring with you? What food would you bring, if you could choose only one food? I've recently been thinking about this old game again, mainly because of my obsession with portability and all-in-one devices. Which device would I bring with me to that island, if I had to choose? (Let's forget the fact that I could just make a call or otherwise contact the authorities to rescue me off the island!) The ultimate question is this: Which MMO would I bring installed on that device? Or, going a bit further, which apps or other downloads would I include? Once I started asking, my fantasy turned into somewhat of a challenge to myself: Could I survive a week without any access to a desktop at all? Could I write, play, and otherwise continue to do my job with only a pocket-sized device? Join me past the cut and let's see what I might include on this trip.
Pocket Legends offers paid content for free
Pocket Legends, I maintain, is one of iOS' best technical achievements. It's a full-featured MMO, in the style of the legendary World of Warcraft, and it's available to play for free on Apple's App Store. It's huge among a certain audience (and, in fact, I've been told that audience is even bigger on the Android side of things), but I'm surprised that even more players haven't tried this game out to see what Spacetime Studios is working on. Maybe this will help, though: to celebrate the game's one-year anniversary, Spacetime is opening up many of its normally premium content areas to all players for free. In a goofy video they made, developer Cinco Barnes says that all of the game's major premium areas will be open and playable to everyone until May 4. If you haven't taken a look at this app yet, now's a great time to do so. Pocket Legends is free in a universal version, and it's definitely worth checking out.
Pocket Legends declares war on high prices, celebrates 1-year anniversary
Pocket Legends is ready to blow out some birthday candles, and players of the portable MMORPG are standing by to take the cake. Spacetime Studios is giving away all of the game's premium areas beginning on April 19th, which means that new and existing players get full access to Balefort Castle, Fathom Crypts, The Lost Expedition, and more -- all free of charge. Players can level to the cap and freely enjoy all of Pocket Legends' zones through Monday, May 4th. This adds up to hundreds of hours of free content, and Spacetime is also decorating each in-game town with cakes, streamers, and balloons -- as well as handing out in-game party hats to everyone. If that's not enough for you, Spacetime's Cinco Barnes is starring in a YouTube short extolling the virtues of the upcoming free content bonanza. Check it out after the cut.
iOS MMO commercials draw attention
As our own Beau Hindman knows well, mobile MMOs are on the verge of taking off in a big way, and now they have the commercials to prove it. Pocket Legends, the hit iOS and Android MMO from last year, may be the first mobile online RPG to release a nation-wide commercial. The ad, which features a high-schooler with a not-so-embarrassing secret in his pocket, will air on G4, Cartoon Network and Comedy Central, to name just a few venues. As Pocket Legends is often described as "World of Warcraft in your hand," it's kind of ironic that developer Gameloft is also making pretty much that. Gameloft is renowned for releasing thinly disguised copies of hit games, so it stands to reason that it would take a crack at the reigning champion. The studio just released an online teaser for Order & Chaos Online on its Facebook page, and it's hard not to see the inspiration-slash-knockoff. You can check out both commercials after the jump!
Pocket Legends adds in all new content
Having met the challenge of packing a whole bunch of fun into a pocket-sized portable experience, the team at Spacetime Studios has turned to stuffing even more fun into its mobile MMO, Pocket Legends. The newest patch has been released and offers much-needed fixes and updates to the game as well as an exciting new area for players to adventure through. In patch 1.7, players are treated to a new area called Oasis Towne. This area offers up a host of new quests for players to do including all new daily quests, fun new areas to roam in like a museum, and all-new armor sets for players. For more details, head over to the Pocket Legends site, read up on the patch notes, and join the discussion.
GDC 2011: Spacetime Studios returns to Blackstar
I last spoke with Spacetime Studios' CEO Gary Gattis last year at GDC Online in Austin, and when I saw him then, he told me his company was commissioned to create a PC MMO for NCsoft called Blackstar. Spacetime spent months and months of work on the project before it was abruptly canceled, leaving the company in the lurch and requiring it to make cutbacks until it got to work on what was supposed to be a much smaller project. That project eventually became Pocket Legends, an MMO that's now thriving on the iOS App Store. The game has seen over 3 million downloads across both the Apple and Android platforms (somewhat surprisingly, the game is more popular on Android, where Gattis says he's seen "more numbers and more money" coming in), and is an unqualified success. It's so successful, in fact, that when Spacetime thought about what to do for its second game, Gattis and company decided to go back to their origins and recreate Blackstar on the mobile platform.
GDC 2011: Spacetime pontificates on pocket MMOs
Although portable MMOs seem like the next logical step in enabling our online gaming addiction, remarkably few titles have graced the field as yet. Of the select few, Spacetime Studio's Pocket Legends heads the pack in style and popularity. It appeals to a wide range of players because the basic game is free; the developer charges players only for expansions and other item shop goodies. Cinco Barnes took the opportunity to speak at GDC about how Spacetime sorted out the complex issues surrounding portable MMOs, how the studio came up with the payment structure, and what the team learned as it goes forward with its next MMO, Blackstar. Pocket Legends' roots go back to 2005 when Spacetime Studios took some seed money from NCsoft and began work on a large-space sci-fi MMO for PCs. While the project went bust and NCsoft pulled funding, Spacetime came away with the technology it developed if not the deep pockets to compete in the field. By 2009, the company became enamoured with the iPhone as a gaming device and decided to take the tools it had developed to create a unique game for that platform.
Spacetime Studios gearing up to release new Blackstar mobile MMO
Spacetime Studios, makers of the famed Pocket Legends mobile MMORPG, has officially announced the impending release of its long-in-development Blackstar, a story-intensive sci-fi yarn previously set to be published by NCsoft. The game has survived a number of hiccups including developer layoffs and a period of limbo prior to Spacetime's acquisition of the IP, and is now being prepped for a Q2 2011 release on both Android and iOS devices. Blackstar tells the story of a far-future conflict between a coalition of aliens (and their necro-cyborg allies) and the futuristic humans of the United Colonies Defense Force. The title features a 3D, real-time, persistent MMO world with three character classes, customizable skills and thousands of items to collect and equip. The game is powered by the Spacetime Engine, and looks to bring mobile MMO polish and production design to a new level. "We were able to nurture the IP to its maximum potential through years of development -- a luxury never before seen in mobile gaming. If you ever dreamed of a fully-featured sci-fi MMO that you can take anywhere, look for the first chapter of the Blackstar saga soon," says Spacetime CEO Gary Gattis. Have a look at the game's official website for more info, and also check out some pre-production video footage after the cut.
Android client for Pocket Legends enters beta
Pocket Legends turned a few heads when it was first launched as an MMO playable on the iPhone, but it's time for the game to expand beyond its roots. Past time, Droid users might say, as they've been suffering through no MMOs for their preferred phone for some time. But the wait is over -- the game has just entered a beta for the Android platform, making it not only the first mobile 3-D MMO but the first multiplatform mobile MMO. You can download the game through the link on the front page of the site and through the Android market. It requires Android 2.1 to run successfully. A support forum has already been put together for players taking part in the beta, which is assured to have its fair share of issues as the porting is perfected. Still, this means that for the first time in the history of these dueling platforms, iPhone and Droid owners can walk hand in hand... well, while playing Pocket Legends, anyhow.
Rise and Shiny recap: Pocket Legends
Over the last two weeks, I have been taking a look at Pocket Legends, a fully functioning MMO made for the mobile player. I did not publish a Rise and Shiny last week (I was busy writing up my GDCO coverage) but that is a good thing -- I had no real time to play the game anyway. I've jumped in and out, played through a few dungeons and scoured the cash shop. After hearing Cinco Barnes from Spacetime Studios -- the developer of Pocket Legends -- I really saw how well the company's design choices were working in practice. What I found is a game that works and is stable. While that isn't the most glamorous description, you would be hard-pressed to find a game that has succeeded without either of those traits. The key here is that it runs while in the palm of your hand (or lap, in the case of the iPad). But let me take you through a bit more of the game before I pass judgment.
GDCO 2010: Spacetime Studios' Cinco Barnes talks mobile design
Spacetime Studios, the developer of the popular mobile MMO Pocket Legends, was started back in 2005 to create large-scale MMOs. Its founders decided to make a mobile platform MMO upon seeing the obvious marketing opportunity that the iPhone provided. After all, the players would already be connected and would be accustomed to microtransactions through exposure to iTunes and the app store. Of course, development could prove disastrous if the wrong game plan were followed, so Spacetime decided to keep it simple. How simple? Cinco Barnes of Spacetime was on hand at GDC Online to explain how his team members did it. What they found was a chance to do more than they'd initially planned on -- and an audience ready to gobble up everything the studio could create.
Pocket Legends update brings new content, increased level cap
Pocket Legends, the popular mobile device MMO, has been growing in popularity for the past few months, and Spacetime is working to keep up with that increased popularity. The company has released a new update for Pocket Legends, one that brings new content, an increased level cap, and an impressive list of improvements. Players can work toward the new level cap of 50 by checking out the five new PvE maps, two new PvP maps, and new bosses in Alien Oasis 3: Trials of the Galactic Overlord. Alien Oasis 3 will be available to players for 20 platinum, and you can see all the current patch notes on the Pocket Legends forum. Finally, follow along after the jump for a preview trailer of the new content!
GDC Online 2010: Spacetime Studios and the making of Pocket Legends
Pocket Legends has been out on the App Store for quite a while now, but if you (like me) haven't seen it in a while, you might want to check it out again. Spacetime Studios has been steadily updating the game, and the title they showed off at GDC Online 2010 this week was pretty impressive -- an instanced MMO, running in full 3D with three character classes, dungeons and loot, and almost all of the other trappings you'd expect from the genre. This week, I got to sit in on both Cinco Barnes' panel about the studio and its up-and-down background. I also chatted with the company's CEO, Gary Gattis, both about Spacetime's history and what it's done with Pocket Legends so far, and what's in store for the growing title.
Spacetime announces cross-platform mobile play, prepares to license game engine
Spacetime Studios, the makers of the wildly successful Pocket Legends MMO, has just announced a new influx of funding that will enable continued development on the Spacetime Engine and licensing of said development platform to other game makers beginning in 2011. Gamasutra reports that Spacetime is also claiming an industry first for Pocket Legends in terms of the ability for players on Windows PC, Android, and iOS systems to play on the same shared servers. "Providing players, no matter where they are, with a single deep, seamless 3D MMO gaming experience on multiple devices has been a dream of ours since the company was founded. We feel we're at the forefront of a whole new market for MMO game developers," said Spacetime CEO Gary Gattis.
Pocket Legends updated to Pocket Legends: Adventures, a full MMO on iOS
I tried Pocket Legends for the iPhone a while back, and found it to be pretty interesting. It's a full 3D MMO inside the iPhone, where you create a character, equip it with weapons, and then jump in with a few other people to hack, slash, and cast your way through a dungeon. It could use a little polish (the particular dungeon I played wasn't exactly tuned for my difficulty level, and the people I played with weren't exactly forgiving), but if you're looking for this kind of cartoony MMO gameplay, Pocket Legends actually delivers quite well. And since it's completely free, there's not a huge investment barrier anyway. And the game just recently got a big update, adding in an actual explorable world, a bunch of new quests and items to play with, and some optimization to the game engine that makes it a little more forgiving on older devices (but the game looks pretty good, given what it is, on the iPhone 4 already). It's available on the App Store for free right now for both iPhone and iPad -- what Spacetime Studios has done in implementing a full PC-style MMO on Apple's handheld device is impressive, and the new update makes it even moreso. If you've never given Pocket Legends a look, but can appreciate a solid MMO, definitely check it out.
Massively Mobile: Pocket Legends evolves
Every two weeks, Massively Mobile brings you the latest news, guides and analysis about MMOs on mobile devices. Covering iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platforms, we're on the lookout for the next generation of MMOs. Much has changed with Spacetime Studio's free-to-play, mobile, 3D MMO Pocket Legends since we posted our first impressions of the game last month. Since then, it has seen a number of updates, content patches, refinements and improvements. It has evolved from a multiplayer Diablo-esque dungeon runner to sporting the kinds of bells and whistles one expects to find in an MMO. In this inaugural Massively Mobile column, I catch up with the game that's blazing the trail for mobile MMOs. Before I jump into the big patch that came out this week, I want to touch on a particular small improvement that was patched in recently. They restricted loot distribution and experience gains to only those within range of the monster kills. This prevents people from having their friends go /afk at the dungeon instance. But, for me, the main benefit is that it will hopefully stop parties from splitting up at intersections in dungeons. Seriously, people, it's a simple rule: follow the tank. Divided parties are dead parties. Ok, grumpy healer frustration vented. On with the show.
