Eskil-Steenberg
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Free LOVE for all!
Eskil Steenberg's solo MMO project is taking the next step of its journey, as LOVE is dropping all costs and going completely free. "After countless iterations, innovations, and experiments I think I have created something special," he wrote on LOVE's website. "LOVE has become a game unlike any other. Now I really think you should play it." Steenberg developed LOVE under his own steam and without funding, and he admits that both the creation of the game and its operation are costing him. To help cover the costs of this now-free title, he's asking fans to consider donations in exchange for a perked-up character. More than anything, he just hopes that players will give his creation a try: "If you take the time and have an open mind, you will find out why this is a labour of love."
Eskil Steenberg talks LOVE, progression, and making indie MMOs
Eskil Steenberg's LOVE has been flying well under the radar of late, even more so than is usual for an indie MMORPG. A little phenomenon called Minecraft happened over the past year since LOVE's launch, and while both games hail from Sweden, that's about where the similarities end. In fact, comparing LOVE to any other game is rather challenging (but also instructive), as evidenced by a new Eurogamer interview. Steenberg is literally a one-man development show, and the piece covers a lot of fascinating ground including everything from how you measure the title against more traditional fare to how players react when confronted with LOVE's open-ended paradigm shift. Gamers will "play a game like mine... and they'll go back and play something scripted and say 'oh my God this is so archaic.' It's like if you play Dragon's Lair today. I'm not controlling it, it's all fake," Steenberg says. The interview also touches on why Steenberg opted for a non-traditional approach to massive development, or put another way, why he didn't fall into lockstep behind World of Warcraft (and EverQuest before it) as the vast majority of the industry has done. "I'm trying to do something completely different," Steenberg says. "What they're doing is limiting what you do. You follow, you grind upwards. [Progression] is something you should do if you want to make money because you get that hook. But I was never interested in making my players addicts."
The MMO Report: Newstastic edition
Welcome back! This week on The MMO Report, Casey Schreiner and the team at G4TV are serving up a heaping helping of highlights, as the news has been crazy busy during the last week. Up first, Casey points out the sales numbers for DC Universe Online, which has been flying off shelves. From there, it's on to Bigpoint Games' upcoming free-to-play browser-based Battlestar Galactica Online, which will either enthrall space-drama fiends, or just give people a reason to say "frak" a lot. Zipping along, it's on to Eskil Steenberg's LOVE, which went through an upgrade while narrowly avoiding a random Craigslist hookup. Also included are tidbits on an upcoming short documentary on the making of Minecraft, as well as an interesting piece on the MMORPGRTS alphabet soup of Reverie World Studios' upcoming game Dawn of Fantasy. Finally, this week ends out, as most weeks do, with Casey rifling through the best (or worst; we're not quite sure) to be found in Uncle Casey's Mailbag. For all the excitement and more, you can check out this week's episode of The MMO Report embedded for your ocular and aural pleasure behind the break, or catch it every Thursday on G4TV.
You can put a price on Love, and that price is now 10 euros
Indie developer Eskil Steenberg's procedural, super-pretty world-building MMO Love has gone through a ton of changes in the past few months -- all of which are highlighted in this press release, which isn't a press release at all, but rather, a Craigslist Missed Connections Listing. How wonderful. The most significant change? The game's pay-per-play subscription fee has been reduced to €10 (call it: $13.50 and change) for 180 days of playtime. (Previously, €10 got you just 30 days of Love.) You can check out a video demonstration of some of the game's new features (as well as a basic tutorial led by Eskil himself) after the jump. Just try to stop the video as soon as it's over, because as you might imagine, the YouTube suggestions for a video titled "Love Tutorial" are unspeakably weird.
Friday Livestream: Eskil Steenberg's LOVE
Hey everyone, it's your favorite day -- Friday! The weekend is fast approaching, so let's kick it off by checking out a brand-new game! This week's topic of the livestream is LOVE, the single-man MMO created by Eskil Steenberg. LOVE is a surreal fantasy where players fortify their settlements against waves of hostile computer-controlled tribes. However, LOVE doesn't stop the players at creating just fortifications alone! Players can terraform the environment, lay down power lines to defensive weaponry, construct buildings, and more! So please, hit the play button above to watch the livestream narrated by Seraphina Brennan, or double-click the video to be taken to our Livestream page, where you can chat with other Massively users in real time, talk with Sera, and learn more about LOVE or the MMO industry at large! Update: Thanks everyone for coming! The stream may be over, but you can catch a re-run of it by pressing the play button above! Enjoy!
Free Love for the holiday weekend
Those who lament that nothing innovative and interesting is being done in the field of MMOs are probably unfamiliar with LOVE, a project seeking to redefine pretty much any core assumptions about the genre. Players build and create, levels are based upon relationships with other players, and the entire world is a surrealistic masterpiece of a landscape. Oh, and the entire project is the work of one man, Eskil Steenberg. It's the sort of thing that would be well worth checking out, and during the holiday weekend, you can do precisely that. From 6 PM GMT on Friday until noon on Monday, LOVE will be having its first free weekend, giving players curious about the actual mechanics of the game a chance to log in and take a close look at how the game works. That runs the majority of the Labor Day weekend, a fine time to log in and get some serious construction going. Keep an eye on the official site or on GamingLove for more information on registration. [Thanks to bartillo for the tip!]
Get some free Love this Labor Day weekend
Whoa, whoa. Easy there, you dirty hippie. When we say "free love," we're not referring to the next meeting of the Rainbow Family of Living Light -- we're talking about a chance to play Eskil Steenberg's lovely little MMORPG, Love, at zero cost this Labor Day weekend. The offer will being around 1AM ET this Friday, at which point you'll be able to download the client on the game's official site. This free sample will be available until 7AM ET on Monday. Now, that's what you have to do to get in on the free Love weekend. What you should do is watch this gameplay demonstration, so you'll know what the hell you're doing once you start making changes to the MMO's completely procedural world.
Love's developer requesting player input for bug fixes
Eskil Steenberg is a busy man, but that's not stopping him from retaining his title as the world's only One Man Traveling MMO Development Studio. Hey, he should get that trademarked! For those following the progress of Steenberg's Love MMO, you are fully aware that the man stays on top of constant improvements to the game. His Twitter followers are fed a regular dose of update notes and he's not shy about appearances in his own Teamspeak channel. This week, as he returns to the states for Siggraph 2010, he asks his loyal fans for their input on bugs that need squashing. The compiled list will be addressed this weekend, with another aim at a Teamspeak visit as well. Check out his most recent forum post for all the details.
LOVE adding first major expansion
We've not heard a lot from Eskil Steenberg since his MMO LOVE launched last month, but it must be going well, as he has unveiled the first major expansion for the game yesterday. AVAIL will be a free expansion, bringing the welcome addition of character progression to the game: "Many players feel that while enjoyable the game is pointless. You build only to have it be destroyed, and they would like to see a more long term goal to pursue. AVAIL will add character progression but in a way that is very different from how other games implement it." LOVE will continue its basic goal of player cooperation in that you "level up" by working with and gaining the respect of other players. The interesting thing here is that it's a constantly shifting design -- just because you have a good working relationship with player 1, that means nothing if player 1 logs out and you begin working with player 2. If you don't already have a good working relationship with player 2 you'll need to cultivate one as part of your progression. You can find all the details on the expansion on the LOVE site.
Eskil Steenberg: Why is LOVE so unusual?
Eskil Steenberg's LOVE stood out from the MMO crowd from the first time it was presented at GDC two years ago. It didn't fit neatly into any pre-determined genre and the game's appearance was different from anything we were used to. Two years later, LOVE has launched, and Steenberg is thrilled to see his work reach this point. He spent some time recently chatting with Gamasutra about how the game developed the way it did, what its focus is, and what he hopes players will take away from it. LOVE isn't only unusual because of its appearance, Steenberg says. It also stands out because the focus is somewhere completely different than your traditional MMO games. Players cooperate to develop and build the world, interacting with it as they see fit: "It becomes almost like playing a RTS but one where you're playing a peon in an army, and you can decide what to do -- you can stay at home and build, you can explore, you can do all kinds of things," Steenberg explained. That's just the beginning of what makes LOVE so unusual, though. The full interview is an interesting look at the mind behind the game, and can be read at Gamasutra.
User-generated Indie MMO 'Love' available today
If you've found every little piece of news about Eskil Steenberg's weird, pretty, procedural MMO Love completely scintillating, you'll be pleased to know the game is now available. The game client is free to download, but players have to pay for a 10-Euro voucher which allows them to access the game for 30 days. Much like in real life, Love doesn't come cheap. Potential players can download the client (as well as a system spec test) from the game's official site -- but if you're hoping to actually know what you're doing once you fall into Love, you might want to check out some supplemental materials.
Love launch day roundup
Today is the day that Eskil Steenberg launches his indie procedurally-generated art-house MMO, Love. As if the idea of one man creating his very own MMO weren't ambitious enough, Steenberg also created a comprehensive set of tools to build the entire game from scratch. If you're curious for more information on this beautifully unique MMO, we've gathered up some highlights from our coverage of Love here for you to check out. Perhaps we'll see you in game! Anti-Aliased: What is Love? So what is love? That's certainly the metaphysical question of the ages, isn't it? ... That's why we're going to spend this week talking about Eskil Steenberg's indie-MMO, Love! A first look at the Love alpha The graphical style floats somewhere between impressionist and Abstract, with only the suggestions of people and things. Gone are the "customize your character heavily" moments of an MMO. You simply log in and your character is immediately created - an amorphous entity ready to take part in all that Love has to offer. Two new videos bring the Love Since we've heard about Eskil Steenberg's concept for a procedurally generated MMO, we've been craving a close look at Love. Luckily for those of us who have only heard about it through news sources, he's decided to publish a video presentation showing off just what gameplay is like in Love....
One Shots: Home is where the Love is
With Eskil Steenberg's indie MMO, Love, set to launch in just a little over a month, he's been incredibly busy pushing out updates and refining the game further. The idea that one man has managed to bring a whole new form of MMO from idea, on through building all the tools, to creating the game, running the beta, fixing all issues, and soon -- publishing! Add to that how uniquely beautiful the procedurally-generated world of Love is, and you can see why we're glad to see players sending in One Shots from there. Today's image comes to us from Joshua P. who writes in to explain the scene: This is a screen shot taken just after Eskil sent out a graphics update. The Kadeshi Junction is one of the most beautiful places in the game. My character, Nathon (names are randomly generated), on Atlanta-1 server, had logged on and ran through legions of the genius AI to find a good spot for a settlement. I think this is it. Why not join the fun and send in your own screenshots to be featured here on One Shots? We can always use more to pick from. Just email them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game its from, and whatever other information you'd like to give us. We'll post it for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit. %Gallery-85937% %Gallery-9798%
Indie MMO Love set for March 25 launch
Development of Eskil Steenberg's MMO Love has been proceeding quietly for a few years now, with the occasional story when alpha or beta milestones are reached. Back in October, we took a closer look at this gorgeous, unique game thanks to Krystalle and Seraphina. The work of the one-man development studio and the patience of Love fans is about to pay off: Mr. Steenberg announced via Twitter that Love will launch March 25th, just over a month from now. If the game looks interesting to you and you haven't had the opportunity to check it out yet, the official site has some tips and suggestions for getting the game set up on your computer as well as some links to informational sites. Take a look at the game, and we'll see you at launch! [via Heartless Gamer]
One Shots: The glow of Love
When it comes to looking for new gaming ideas, there's no denying Eskil Steenberg's procedurally-generated art-house MMO, Love stands out. Now in beta, Eskil has been working hard at improving the game since the last time we looked at it. Today, we have a gorgeous One Shots from the beta to share with you. This came in with a report in from the front lines, courtesy of GamingLove's iamacyborg, who writes: This is a screenshot of a player settlement in Eskil Steenberg's game, Love, on the UK1 server. We had the base set up on top of a few pillars, over a lake, with a force-field (that pink ball) protecting the important tokens. Here's a video someone took of the settlement a little while after the screenshot was taken, once we'd set up a perimeter defence with some blaster turrets. Are you playing something we haven't seen before - or only see rarely? If so, why not take a moment and send some screenshots in? Just mail them to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll post it out here and give you the credit. %Gallery-9798%
PSA: The Love Beta is out (or 'We feel like playing Love -- and now we can!')
Our illicit affair with pseudo-MMO Love has officially begun, with today marking the the opening of the game's public, but paid, beta. The paid aspect of the beta is minimal, we should note -- a €3/30 days price hardly seems like a lot. As the game's sole developer Eskil Steenberg explained to us in an email after last week's news announcing the public beta, "The Beta is open to everyone, but unfortunately I need funds to run the server farm, so it will cost 3 Euros to get 30 days of access." Moreover, Steenberg stands to make no profits from the beta entry fee, telling us he simply needs "to afford the bandwidth and hardware to keep it running." We're pretty okay with it, if only for the fact that we get to tell people that we're paying such a low price for Love.
LOVE open beta is now live
It's been almost two years since we at Massively first laid eyes on Eskil Steenberg's MMO Love, and wondered if it would ever make it to production. The unique look and gameplay features of Love made it stand out immediately, and we (along with a good number of fans) remained anxious to see the game succeed as we watched production advance and open alpha approach. Now one-man design studio Steenberg has crossed another hurdle. He's finished up a list of 26 things he wanted to add to the game, and beta launched today. The client is available for download at the site, and three euros will net you one month of gameplay. (Steenberg suggests that you download first and make sure the client will run on your computer before you pay for anything.) If you're interested in checking out an MMO that's unlike pretty much anything currently out there, visit the Love page, read through what Steenberg has to say, and give the beta a try.
Love kicking off beta testing January 7
If the world of popular music has taught us anything, it is that "love" is totally and completely broken. It's chock-full of exploits, it's got irrevocable balancing issues, and according to Bad English, it's simply too expensive. Fortunately, the game called Love will hopefully prevent these issues from cropping up when it enters its beta testing phase on January 7. Until that time, only registrants in the pay-to-play Alpha test can log on. We've contacted the game's creator to find out if the beta will require some sort of registration and selection, or whether if it will be completely open to the public. If it's the latter, we suggest checking it out -- it's a lovely, bizarre little game. [Via Massively]
Love's beta launches on January 7th
Eskil has done it! He has completed the "List of 26" and has shut off the "join Love" screen until January 7th, when the beta will officially open up to all new players. However, if you've been with Eskil through the Alpha process, you have a small thank you gift in the form of the servers already open for you and patched up with the beta client. So, if you have had an active account this past month, log in and see some of the things Eskil has changed and/or added to the game. Things like sound -- glorious sound! For the full run down of Eskil's 26 major additions to Love, you're going to have to check out his Twitter page. There's no formal patch notes as of yet, so this is the best you can do until Eskil gets it all down formally on paper or just lets us find out what he changed. [Via Blue's News]
Love counts down to the launch of beta, account holders play free
While everyone's off enjoying the holidays, there's no rest for Eskil Steenberg. The one man of the one-man-MMO team is working hard though the holidays, putting together 26 major new features for the introduction of the Love beta test. While the features are secret, Eskil is updating his Twitter account with information on the new features as he completes them. Once all 26 items are done, Eskil will be updating Love and sending the game into beta. Currently the features look quite interesting -- such as new specialized settlements, sound pathing for the game, letting the game's AI use teleporter guns, a new building type (prisons), and something that is only referred to as "armageddon." Whatever the heck armageddeon is, it sounds awesome.
