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Molten Games lays off staff, halts work on Blunderbuss
Molten Games, which sent out press releases last year touting everything from its lineup of former SOE and Blizzard devs to its NCsoft funding, has apparently laid off its entire staff. The company was working on some sort of Unreal 4-powered multiplayer title called Blunderbuss, but Gamasutra reports that all that is out the window as of this week. Molten director of technology Joshua Kriegshauser shared some alpha footage of the company's project through his Twitter account, and Gamasutra has collected multiple links from affected staffers around the web. You can click past the cut to view the alpha vid.
Storybricks alpha video shows how you can choose your own adventure
Ever since the Storybricks toolset was announced, a common question people have had is, "That sounds great, but how easy will it be to actually make my own MMO world? Will I need to be a master programmer or something?" The answer is, apparently, quite easy. The Storybricks devs took a few minutes to put together an alpha gameplay video showing how simple it is to set up complex social interactions between characters. As players piece together the "bricks" that dictate a character's mood, actions, and responses to the player, every encounter in the game turns into a "choose your own adventure" that has a variety of outcomes. One of the situations that was shown is that of a player encountering an irritated wizard. In the first attempt to interact with him, the player pesters the wizard, which prompts the wizard to unleash a zombie. If the player apologizes, the wizard is astonished, unsummons the zombie, and asks to be the player's friend. But in a second attempt, the player chooses to zap the zombie instead and then punch the guard that comes to investigate. This outcome leads to banishment from the city. Storybricks is currently seeking funding via Kickstarter. It's certainly a promising system fraught with possibilities, so give it a look-see after the jump!
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.
