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GDC Online 2012: Gamigo showcases Otherland and Grimlands
This week at GDC Online, Gamigo showed off the progress in not one but two of its upcoming titles. Otherland, based on the novels by Tad Williams, has begun to pick up pace lately, with a series of closed beta events in Europe. Meanwhile, Grimlands has also made quite a bit of progress and is working out the finer details as it nears release. Massively sat down with Gamigo CEO Patrick Streppel to get a firsthand look at both games. Read on for highlights from both the Otherland and Grimlands demos!
Jagged Alliance Online launches
If you're fondling fully-automatic weapons in the dark right now, just wishing that you had a target for your elite skills, then... please don't tell us. Please. We'd be forced to report you. But you might be interested to hear that gamigo has ended the beta for Jagged Alliance Online, which means it's transitioned into an official launch. The turn-based multiplayer strategy title has recently implemented special contracts known as warzones, a crafting system, alliances, and the ability to respec skill points. The company has also released a brand-new website and trailer to commemorate the big occasion. Executive Board Member Patrick Streppel explains the lengthy beta for JAO: "Together with the developers, we have put a huge amount of effort to get the best performance possible in a browser. It pleases me to see that the long open beta testing of more than six months has well and truly paid off. We really wanted to avoid releasing an unfinished game and this has worked out brilliantly for all involved." You have our full permission to relinquish your weapons and watch the launch video after the jump.
Raising the quality bar: gamigo CEOs talk F2P success
If you want to get the full scoop on how to make a free-to-play publishing studio work, there are few better people to talk to than the guys running Germany-based gamigo. Co-CEOs Patrick Streppel and Rainer Markussen have had years to experiment and learn from the free-to-play market, as gamigo has been involved with dozens of titles across the globe. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, the duo says that the studio splits their attention between self-produced titles and already-made Asian MMOs that are transplanted to a different market, and the two are quite different indeed. "With our self-produced titles we are trying to merge the two branches, so in a game like Cultures Online you have traditional browser-game monetisation like saving time, spending a little bit of money here and there. But they also have the more Asian-style revenue streams like crafting, enchanting, and paying for increasing the probability of success," Streppel said. The CEOs state that F2P actually caters better to hardcore players since those players will presumably be around for a long time and F2P will save them money over subscriptions. They also discuss how gamigo's had to "raise the quality bar" to stay competitive. The free-to-play world isn't about cutting-edge graphics, Streppel says, but instead "balancing, more about features, about gameplay depth." Because of their experiences, the CEOs have said that they've had to abandon complete genres such as sports and racing that proved to be failures for the company. They also predict that F2P will be coming soon to consoles in a big way, just as the iPhone and iPad market has embraced it.
Otherland dev talks timelines and Tad Williams' influence
MMORPGs based on pre-existing intellectual properties are a tricky business, and for every Lord of the Rings Online -- which at least makes an attempt at remaining faithful to its source material -- there's a Star Wars Galaxies or a Star Trek Online that sacrifices canonical authenticity on the altar of gameplay. Then there's Otherland, gamigo's ambitious MMO based on Tad Williams' famous sci-fi cycle. A new interview with gamigo CEO Patrick Streppel sheds a bit of light on the title's timeline and canon and teases fans with glimpses of what they'll see and do when they plug in to what amounts to a virtual world set in a virtual world. "Tad [Williams] has been very involved in the project from the beginning and provided lots of input to the development team on top of the source material. He is truly passionate about his vision being turned into a game," Streppel says. How will the game present that vision? It is "essentially a sequel" to the novels, and as a result of the dramatic conclusion at the end of the fourth and final book, it will now "be up to the players to get [Otherland] back online." The interview also delves briefly into gameplay topics, character creation, and more, so head to MPOGD.com to have a look.
Black Prophecy community letter addresses known issues, item shop, and the future
Hold up just a minute there, space cowboy. Gamigo's Patrick Streppel has released a new community letter, which addresses a few questions and grievances that have been raised by Black Prophecy players. The letter first takes time to address some known issues with the game. Foremost of said issues is the acknowledgement that with the game's first major content update, many users began to experience large performance issues. Streppel states that fixing these issues is numero uno on the team's priority list but that it "cannot promise immediate improvement" due to the fact that the source of the issue is "spread across several internal game systems." Next up is the touchy subject of the item shop. Players have long decried the game's cash shop for being too expensive while simultaneously failing to give players an adequate description of what exactly they're spending their money on. In response, the team has lowered item prices and will proceed to alter item descriptions "in order to give [players] a clearer picture of what [they] are actually buying." The letter then gives players a brief glimpse into the game's future. The next episode of the game features warzones, which are "a brand new PvP experience" allowing players to duke it out with the opposing faction for control of key territories. Conquering these warzones will grant players XP, rewards in the form of exclusive upgrade blueprints, and "greater individual and group powers" for the victorious faction. For the full letter, which includes further details about the warzone system and more detailed discussions of the game's known issues, click on through the link below to the official forums.
Black Prophecy launch-day interview
Reakktor Media's space-faring MMO Black Prophecy saw its North American launch today, as well as its first major content update. We've already provided you lovely readers with a launch-day roundup for your perusal. To commemorate the game going live, we have a launch-day interview with gamigo's Executive Board Member Patrick Streppel. So strap yourselves in, kick your thrusters into overdrive, and jump past the cut for the full interview.
Letter to the Black Prophecy community outlines the state of the game
It's been about a month since European players were able to head out to the black... Black Prophecy, that is. American players have been able to sign up for the closed beta, but it's not quite the same as the experience on the live servers. But whether you're in the beta or playing live, the new letter to the community from Patrick Streppel has plenty of interesting information about the current state of the game. As Streppel puts it, while the game is still undergoing major polishing patches, both gamigo and Reakktor Media are confident with the game as a released free-to-play game. The game's first major patch is slated for June and will feature a variety of new endgame elements as well as a new weapon type. Further down the line, the development team wants to enhance the PvP experience to keep the two factions of the game's lore at odds and in conflict. Black Prophecy players and testers alike should read the letter, as it's an interesting look behind the scenes after the first month of launch.
Black Prophecy team talks business model, F2P
Reakktor Media's Black Prophecy science fiction MMORPG has been generating a fair amount of fan discussion, and dare we say concern, since announcing a free-to-play business model and a partnership with gamigo last month. In the fourth edition of Reakktor's 'Behind the Scenes' web series on the game, Black Prophecy's Assistant Product Manager Christian 'SnowCrash' Schutt engages gamigo's Patrick Streppel and Reakktor CEO Kirk Lenke in a question and answer session that features community concerns drawn from the official forums. The session delves deep into explanations of the game's business model and also features answers to burning questions regarding a Collector's Edition and post-launch content. "Neglecting to update is the nail in the coffin for any MMOG. We all know that. We've already laid out a roadmap for content patches and add-ons and are starting on its development so players won't have to wait too long for new material," said Lenke. Check out the full session at the official site.
