Lionhead, EA vets reveal RPG sandbox title, Oort Online
Wonderstruck, a studio largely comprised of ex-Lionhead and ex-EA employees, is toiling away at Oort Online, an open world, voxel-based sandbox RPG that's bound to draw the Minecraft comparison. So what's the deal with this one?
The Oort, a race once savvy with exploration, tooled around with a previously-untouched universe, which may or may not have anything to do with their extinction. Their legacy remains, thanks to temples and monuments strewn across Oort's procedurally-generated worlds, which you can brave alone or raid with friends in the name of loot.
You'll likely be safer traveling with a group though, because these worlds are home to The Protectors, a five-class race created by The Oort to protect the lands you'll also populate. Titans are king of the Protector species, looming over temples to guard the rarest, shiniest loot. Naturally, it wouldn't hurt to have some of that, so players are free to chase treasures as they wish, claiming land for themselves with beacons, joining guilds, earning experience and crafting weaponry along the way.
Oort Online is currently in a crowdfunding phase, but Wonderstruck's approach is a little different: rather than rushing to fund the base experience and extra features via a 30-day Kickstarter, Oort will be funded piece-by-piece over an undetermined stretch of time, targeting extra features according to votes from the playerbase.
Funding is currently going toward Oort's combat system, with $19,205 gathered for the project in total. A full rundown of purchase tiers and future funding projects is viewable in the official site's FAQ, but a key for Oort's launch version, estimated for late 2015, is priced at $15, with earlier beta and alpha access bundles available at $25 and $50, respectively.
[Image: Wonderstruck]
