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Starcraft Universe Kickstarts its open beta
You may recall WoW Insider 's sister site Massively posting about the fan-made Starcraft MMO -- Starcraft Universe -- back in February. An intrepid group of fan developers had released the Starcraft Universe prologue, and now they need your help via the ever-popular fundraising site, Kickstarter. StarCraft Universe tells a story set in an alternate reality, where the ending of StarCraft II:Wings of Liberty has a grim conclusion for Kerrigan. Without the Queen of Blades to stop the hybrid's assault, the protoss are overwhelmed and defeated. In this reality, what would the survivors of these shattered worlds do? StarCraft Universe tells this story. StarCraft Universe (SCU) is a game mod (Note: it is not a standalone game) for StarCraft II. Originally named World of StarCraft, SCU focuses on telling an epic story and intense combat action, as well as multi-player raiding experiences. StarCraft Universe will be released as a series of custom games published through Battle.net. If this sounds like it might be right up your alley, do head over and check out the kickstarter. There's links to play a demo and everything! I'm checking it out. It looks like what Starcraft: Ghost might have been...
StarCraft Universe appeals to Kickstarter audience for help
Remember StarCraft Universe, the fan-made mod that turned the RTS into an MMO? The project is still going strong after two years, but its development team is in dire need of funds to push it over the hill and into open beta testing. The solution? Kickstarter, of course. Upheaval Arts hopes to raise $80,000 or more to finish the first act of the game and get it into public testing. Currently there are two races in the game (Terran and Protoss), although with stretch goals the Zerg are a possibility. The team has some respectable names attached to the project, including Composer David Orr and voice actors Danielle McRae and Eric Dieter. StarCraft Universe will require Battle.net to play and will be completely free to all. If you're concerned about Blizzard finally lowering the boom on this mod, well, don't. The team says that it's gotten the studio's approval: "While Blizzard is not directly affiliated with this project's production, we do communicate with them to submit bug reports and make technical requests. They have given their blessing/permission for us to launch this Kickstarter, and they are supporting our efforts by featuring SCU as an arcade highlight."
Last week in MMO news: The best of Massively
Sometimes, you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. StarCraft Universe prologue goes live on Battle.net StarCraft Universe is a user-created multiplayer mod that fell off of the face of the Earth for awhile. However, the mod creators have just released the StarCraft Universe prologue, effectively an open beta that allows single-player users to explore its systems ahead of its multiplayer launch. Bungie's Destiny: Always-online console shooter revealed Bungie has officially lifted the veil surrounding its Destiny project, and Joystiq reports that it is a persistent-world console shooter and part of a 10-year publishing deal with Activision. Players will be able to customize their identities and gear as they venture across "a future vision of our own solar system on quests to gather loot and defeat evil." Todd McFarlane talks about Project Copernicus Spawn creator Todd McFarlane spoke with Kotaku recently and had some things to say about Project Copernicus, 38 Studios' would-have-been Kingdoms of Amalur MMO. He was the project's art director and says he really thought that it "was going to raise the bar." He remains hopeful that, in time, somebody will "be smart enough" to come in, sweep up the pieces of the unfinished MMO, and make something of it. Massively's least favorite League of Legends champions League of Legends is a big game and has a lot of characters. Not all of them are equally loved. Everyone has characters they hate, and everyone has characters they love. This week, Massively explores the champions they just can't stand. Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.
StarCraft Universe prologue goes live on Battle.net
It's been quite a while since we heard anything about ambitious StarCraft II mod StarCraft Universe, which endeavored to turn the real-time-strategy titan into a full-fledged MMO. Well, it turns out that today the creators of the mod have launched the game's single-player prologue, which has been designed to introduce players to the story and teach them how to play. For those of you wondering why a mod aiming to recreate the MMO experience is launching with only single-player content, the devs state in the YouTube description of the game's trailer that they "need to release this project slowly to ensure all of [the] core systems work properly." So in a way, this could be thought of StarCraft Universe's open beta where players can play around and help the developers iron out the kinks before the multiplayer content launches. To get a look at this ambitious mod in action, skip on past the cut to check out the game's latest trailer. If you wanna go straight to playing it yourself, though, all you have to do is search for "Universe" in StarCraft II's arcade.
Starcraft Universe MMO mod testable through October 30th
You may remember StarCraft Universe, the fan-made MMO mod that received an official Blizzard blessing earlier this year. Development on the project is moving right along, and the mod team has left fans with a nifty present as it gets ready to head to BlizzCon. StarCraft Universe PvP is playable as of today via Battle.net, but you'd better hurry because the fun only lasts through October 30th. At that point, the game will be taken down "for further polishing since technically it isn't even ready for an open beta." The playable portion features an arena called the Encephalon Grid, and testers will start at level 30 (fully geared). Every class is available, and players may also be able to unlock additional abilities by winning enough matches. Check out the full press blurb on the mod's official website, and get a load of the PvP video after the cut.
Starcraft Universe alpha gameplay video released
What if the year's most noteworthy MMO release wasn't a mega-budget corporate themepark but a crazy-detailed mod produced by a tiny team of fans? A lot of gamers out there would love to see a StarCraft-flavored MMORPG, and modder Ryan Winzen is in the process of making that dream a reality with StarCraft Universe, a total conversion for Blizzard's StarCraft II that turns the strategy title into a full-blown massively multiplayer experience. Eurogamer has published a four-minute video of the mod in action, and viewers will get a good look at the alpha-state UI, combat, and a glimpse of character creation before the clip is done. As to the legalities involved, we reported earlier this year on Winzen's amicable accord with Blizzard, and though the gaming giant invoked its right to block the distribution of videos promoting the mod, it allowed development on the project to continue.
'World of StarCraft' mod reborn as 'StarCraft Universe'
Ryan Winzen's dream of using the StarCraft 2 mod tools to create his own full-fledged MMORPG wasn't crushed by Blizzard -- rather, it was only renamed. Winzen's "World of StarCraft" mod, which saw its video demos pulled from YouTube by Blizzard (citing copyright violations), is now known by a much less infringing title: "StarCraft Universe." (We just hope the Lego Universe folks don't take umbrage with the new moniker. Yeesh.) It seems the modders that are working on StarCraft Universe with Winzen have also adopted a much more realistic set of goals to go along with the new name. For instance, they're adhering to the 12-player cap that's applied to all other player-made StarCraft 2 mods. We guess that makes it just a "MORPG," now -- though that also sounds like the name of some kind of exotic alien species. But hey, that's kind of appropriate too!
Something's coming [UPDATE]
Recently the Blizzard website main page switched over to this new splashpage. It's intriguing. Since we know that something is indeed coming, this only confirms that there will actually be an announcement of some significance on May 19th. Looking at the graphic I noticed a few things. First, The Burning Crusade is not listed separately. This leads me to believe that the announcement isn't simply an expansion, but an entirely new game. Oh, the curiosity burns within me. What will it be? Also, I see that the games Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness are highlighted, but not Warcraft III or World of Warcraft. Perhaps this is a game that is centered around the first two games in the Warcraft canon. Is it World of Starcraft as the leaks have said, or is it Diablo III? Is it something else? Why can't it be the 19th already! [Updated 5/13/2007 7 pm EST] In searching through forum posts about this topic, I came across a fabulous summary by Colrum of Shadowsong who references some interesting tidits on Blizzplanet. They are citing recent events, such as the hiring of RTS guru Dustin Browder in 2004 and the May 2007 release of a new Starcraft novel, as evidence that we may be seeing a new Starcraft RTS rather than an MMO. Take this how you will, but it sounds very plausible to me. Also of note, several people have said that this graphic is a countdown page. This is substantiated by the HTML source code which labels the image as "day1.jpg." Looks like we will have a countdown similar to the Worldwide Invitational website. It only remains to be seen what that question mark reveals on the 19th. [via Adrian]
