browser-based
Latest
BioWare's Facebook game gives to charity, takes $10 off Dragon Age for PC
BioWare has launched a browser-based game on Facebook that benefits charity ... and gamers looking to save some scratch on the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins. Called Gift of the Yeti, it's a simple yet surprisingly fun arcade-style dash to deliver presents ... as a yeti subbing for Santa Clause. Outside of the game, BioWare is playing the part of old St. Nick for hospitalized children, donating $10,000 to the Child's Play charity. And by simply loading up the game, players are presented with a link to the EA Store, where they're automagically given a $10 discount off of Dragon Age for Windows. The press release announcing the game indicates that it's just the tip of the iceberg for the company's foray into social gaming. BioWare co-founder, Dr. Ray Mazuyka, said of the endeavor, "Gift of the Yeti is a fun, engaging holiday present from BioWare to our fans, the first in a series of compelling social experiences from BioWare Labs." Sure, they likely won't be for consoles -- but who are we to look a gift yeti in the mouth?
Neverland Online in open beta
Chinese MMO developer Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI) has been enjoying great success at home, and now wants to expand that success. Their popular game Neverland Online, launched in China in June of 2008 is coming to North America and Europe in an English language version. Neverland Online is a browser based, side scrolling fantasy game set in a mythical ancient Chinese world. Your job is to defeat the threatening demon army with a wide array of pets and equipment to help you out. Neverland Online is now in open beta, and you can register for an account here to give it a look. For a limited time, players can log in and receive a free "lucky bag" containing $100 worth of virtual items that will come in handy as you play. All beta accounts will be saved, so you will get to keep your freebies once the game goes live.
Metaplace: Halloween, hold the zombies
It's time for Halloween in MMO Land: the usual contingent of zombies are running amok and panicked NPCs are everywhere, requesting that you go deal with it for them. Virtual Worlds are not immune either, it seems.For those who prefer their Halloween without a side of gore, there is no shortage of games taking a more lighthearted approach. Metaplace is one of them as they're celebrating Halloween with cute pumpkin masks and pirate costumes, ghost stories, and parties. Costumes and masks are available now in The New You, and the Halloween festivities kick off today. Metaplace is celebrating fall with a fashion show and dance party this afternoon.The festivities don't stop there, though. The New You will have their Halloween gear available until November 5th, Friday the 30th is the official Halloween party, and the 31st sports a full calendar -- Metaplace fans will be celebrating from morning until night. In between these events are decorations, gifts and prizes, and there are even rumors of the Great Pumpkin handing out special treats. Not that one, but keep an eye out anyway.
Dragon Age: Journeys bonus items transfer to Origins
You may have scoffed at the prospect of a flash-based, 2D version of BioWare's upcoming RPG epic, Dragon Age: Origins. "A browser game meant to simulate the deep, immersive emotions that arise when one plays roles," you may have said, mid-scoff. "Who would play something like that?" As it turns out, if you're looking forward to the full, three-dimensional version of Dragon Age, the answer to your query is simply: You. A short Q&A on the Dragon Age: Journeys developers' blog cultivated an enticing bit of info about the browser adventure: if you play through it while logged into your EA account, you can gain access to three items that will transfer over to your Dragon Age: Origins save file on Xbox 360, PS3 or PC. No details were given about the items in question, but we're imagining they'll either be used to help you slay dragons, or to help you become a more profound lover.
Dragon Age journeys to browsers in Flash-based tactical RPG
BioWare and EA2D, a web game team at Electronic Arts, have announced their collaboration on Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads, a browser-based tactical RPG set in the world of Dragon Age: Origins. Early details on the planned three-chapter game are laid out on BioWare's blog, along with a roster of the indie Flash devs contributing to the project. Development is being led by Daniel Stradwick, creator of the web-based strategy RPG The Monster's Den. According to EA2D, "The Deep Roads features character classes, talent trees, sound effects, music and user interface taken directly from Dragon Age: Origins," and that it's getting "invaluable feedback and insight on the game from members of the Dragon Age team, including Drs. Ray [Muzyka] and Greg Zeschuk]." The confines of a browser seems like an odd place to play a game from a maker of epic RPGs like BioWare but, then again, the studio recently released an iPhone title -- so we're thinking any platform's fair game. Next up: Dragon Age for graphing calculators. [Via VideoGamer.com]
Spore Creature Creator 2-D set free in your browser
Now here's some ... creative marketing. Maxis has launched a Flash-based browser version of the Spore Creature Creator that mimics the customization found in the retail game fairly closely. Only, y'know, in 2D. All 250 parts found in the 3D creator are available and there's even the option to import creatures from millions found in the Sporepedia (although we found many are "not supported" at this time).The app is promoting the impending October 6 release of Spore Hero on Wii (and Spore Hero Arena for DS), but, even if you're not juiced about either game, it's great for creating loving, extremely flattering versions of your friends, family and co-workers -- which must then be placed on their Facebook feeds, of course.
Quake Live adds support for Mac, Linux
Despite our best intentions, we at Joystiq have been pretty lax about sinking the hours we thought we would into the browser-based Quake Live. But perhaps we'll be more dilligent about it now that the whole gang can get involved. Via the game's forums, id announced Tuesday that support had been added to the game for Linux and Mac users Currently, Mac players are limited to playing through Safari, though id says that the Firefox/Mac combo will soon be a workable configuration. [Via Big Download]
Jagex lets out a small bit of information on their upcoming title, Mechscape
Getting Jagex to even speak the name Mechscape is hard enough in itself, but Kieron Gillen was able to glean some facts from the Jagex staff at the recent DEVELOP conference in Brighton.While Gillen's Rock, Paper, Shotgun piece centered mostly on Jagex's newest website, FunOrb, and their dedication to retro gaming, he was able to sneak in a few questions and learn a few key facts about Jagex's next browser-based MMO. Mechscape is not Runescape in space, but more of an evolution of "How can we avoid past mistakes?" One of the mistakes that many developers make is putting fantasy MMO mechanics into a sci-fi setting according to Henrique Olifiers, the head of Mechscape."The reason why many Sci-fi MMOs haven't worked is because they're fantasy games dressed up to look like Sci-fi games," said Olifiers to Gillen.To this end, Mechscape has turned to sci-fi titles such as Ascendancy and Masters of Orion for inspiration in regards to their game mechanics. In addition, Mechscape will not be featuring experience points or levels, much like another game we just talked about.Olifiers has stated that Mechscape is in the final polishing phases of development, but he will not put a date down on the game just yet, citing the age-old, "It will be done when it's done."
Meet the Sparkplay Media team: Part Two, pg. 2
Massively: Is there any MMO that has influenced your work on Earth Eternal, and if so how did it influence you? Ryne Anderson, programmer: Absolutely! One of the most enjoyable aspects in working with games is digging into the titles that you really enjoy and seeing if you can't make them a bit better by throwing your own unique spin on them. Of note, World of Warcraft has been my shining beacon throughout the project. The simplicity of getting a player into the action opened the floodgates to people who might have previously been intimidated by the stigma that MMO's were for 'hardcore' players. Earth Eternal aims to not only meet, but exceed the accessibility of the current 3D MMOs, by not requiring a monthly subscription or up-front payment to play– all within a very polished game world that you can play in a browser. What Earth Eternal race represents you the best and why? Ryne: Being a technical guy myself, it is without a doubt the Clockwork. First and foremost, his look is amazingly different from all of the other races in Earth Eternal. Secondly, let's face it: robots are awesome! (Unfortunately though, I can't be a robot ninja in Earth Eternal...yet.) If you could pick out your favorite part of Earth Eternal, what would it be and why? Ryne: As hinted above, I'm really into accessibility for any type of player. To me, if we can get a player, from seeing our webpage, to in the game killing monsters in five minutes or less, that's a huge win for both us and the player. I believe we have succeeded in this, as our intro area not only looks beautiful, but gets players into the action right away. What has been the most difficult obstacle for you to overcome in your work on Earth Eternal? Ryne: Making any sort of game is always a learning process, and sometimes simple issues turn out to be much larger when you try to lay out all the details. For me, the most difficult part of making an MMO is keeping the client and server in sync at all times. It's a trade-off between being responsive to the commands issued by the player and validating that they are actually allowed to do those commands on the server. What are some of the limitations/problems you encounter when coding for both a client and a browser-based game? How have you guys overcome that? Ryne: Honestly, getting the game running in the browser isn't a monumental task. It requires a bit of touch-up every time a new browser version comes out, but the plugin we have is fairly solid. The difference between the browser and client version are pretty minimal. Having said that, since we are running in a browser we want the game to be able to run on as many computers as possible, and optimizing for all sorts of different configurations is always quite a challenge.Thank you so much to the Sparkplay Team for lending the time to answer our questions! If you're interested in Earth Eternal or would like to put your name into the hat for the closed beta, stop by their website!
The Daily Grind: Browser-centric MMOs
The other day, I watched this demo of Gaikai, a new service being spearheaded by the legendary games developer David Perry. The idea is a simple one: using a browser you can access everything from MMOs to racing games and even the memory-hog that is Photoshop with all the actual software installed on a remote server and accessed via the cloud. Now it seems like an awesome undertaking but I came out of it feeling really impressed. WoW and EVE were running at lightening speed and the prospect of not patching or updating got me a little excited. Now browser-based MMOs are now new. Just look at Free Realms and the plethora of free-to-play titles. But the idea of playing seriously intensive games like EVE? Wow, just wow. You still need some kind of graphics card in your computer but the cloud seems to do the vast majority of the work.So readers, what do you think? You might well have used browser-centric MMOs in the past and their ease of use is encouraging. Would you play WoW on a browser if it could mimic your current setting or even improve on them? Would it make your life easier knowing that someone else was dealing with all the patches? On the other hand, cloud-based technology is still new and shiny, would you rather stick with actual discs or your own hard drive? Tell us, readers, and drop your thoughts in the box below.
Massively Exclusive: 5 million accounts, vehicles & more in FusionFall
This past January, Cartoon Network launched their first foray into the MMO space with the wildly successful FusionFall, offering families who like to game together a great deal at $9.95 a month for up to four separate MMO accounts. Since those exciting first days of launch, they've given away all manner of funky swag, racked up over 5 million accounts, and started a whole new generation of explorers down the road of MMO enjoyment. With this summer, however, they're planning on adding even more to their fantastic freemium game with their first major content patch since launch - Dexlabs Upgrade 1: Speed and Style! This super souped-up update, slated to launch later this summer will bring vehicles to the lands of FusionFall. The first one will be a cool new limited-time availability promo vehicle which will be collectible by both paid and free members. After the first vehicle is launched, players will then be required to reach level 10 to start their collection of other vehicles. What types of nifty ways to get around will there be? Well, as you can see above, we have an exclusive first-ever look at FusionFall's Jetbike, Hoverboard, and a very special guest appearance by Kimchi from Chowder! We're not sure, but considering FusionFall still remains the only MMO where players can get around via flying monkeys, we'd bet that whatever they come up with will be cool.
Earth Eternal opens sign ups for closed beta test
Interested in running around a browser-based MMO fantasy world filled with over 22 races? Yes? Then you need to get over to Earth Eternal's website and sign up for their recently announced closed beta test!Earth Eternal is an an MMO that's all about what happens when humanity ceases to exist and the Earth is roamed by beasts of myth once more. It's also free to play and will run on almost any computer thanks to a client that runs inside of the browser, similar to Cartoon Network's FusionFall. Players will find a wide variety of features available, including multi-classing abilities, customizable housing in the form of "groves," and a design emphasis on small groups rather than huge raids.There's still no release date announced for Earth Eternal, but we're guessing that with the closed beta happening so soon, there can't be much time left before the release date is fully confirmed.
Funcom reveals first details on its free-to-play MMOs
Funcom, who are probably better known for Age of Conan, have started spilling the details on several free-to-play MMOs. According to Gamasutra, the company is currently working on not one but two titles, one based in Java and the second in a web browser. Funcom outlined the plans as part of their latest financial report, outlining some of their short and long-term goals which included branching into free-to-play MMOs.While neither of the two titles has a confirmed release date, Funcom did go into a little more detail about the logistics involved. For example, the Java-based game has a team of seventeen people and is being aimed at a young demographic, possibly tweens or teens. From the images they have released, the game appears to have a traditional fantasy setting and the ability to ride animals. Meanwhile the browser-based title is being aimed more at gamers and has fourteen people working on development. The company has also stated that they hope to reach a 'combat milestone' this summer.
MetaPlace open beta is on
Are you fond of world or story building? Maybe you're thrilled about trying your hand at creating items. Do you have an idea for a great game, but no place - or way - to design it? Are you fascinated by the concept of in-browser-only (not browser/spawn another app like FusionFall or Free Realms) games. Or maybe you're just the type of person who loves to check out new and interesting things created by other people. If any of the above sounds interesting to you then you'll likely want to pop over to the MetaPlace site and check out their shiny new open beta test! MetaPlace, designed to be a place full of infinite possibility where players can meet, game together, and socialize, has been in closed beta for quite some time. We're curious to see how this world evolves, considering Raph Koster's view on avatar rights to their own created property versus other virtual world platforms like Linden Lab's Second Life. Between that and the basic concept for MetaPlace, we suspect virtual world and MMO afficinados alike will be keeping an eye on this.
Funcom's Q1 2009 report shows solid revenue
Funcom has released a report detailing their financials for the first quarter of 2009. They brought in over US$7 million in revenue for the period, and although this figure is slightly less than the previous quarter (but without the disastrous US$23 million depreciation loss), they are pleased with the stability of their earnings during the economic turbulence of recent times. The report also mentions some positive trends in their flagship game Age of Conan: Longer average subscription periods, demonstrating customer loyalty The number of new customers per month is much higher than Q4 '08 (the introduction of free trials helped here) A solid and stable customer base for the quarter Higher levels of activity in game than in previous periods Not to be left out, The Secret World made it into the report as well, mostly just to say that the recent reveal was well-received, and the project is on track. Anarchy Online only really had a one-line entry in the report, and it was to say that revenues from the game were slowly declining. The casual and free-to-play games that Funcom referred to in their Q4 '08 report are also keeping to their development schedules -- the screenshot above is from a java-based MMO that is currently in the focus-testing and gameplay tweaking stages. For now though, with TSW and the other casual games still on the horizon, the overall success of Q2 '09 will once again hinge on the performance of AoC.
Free Realms destroys the 1 million account speed record
digg_url='http://digg.com/pc_games/Free_Realms_destroys_the_1_million_account_speed_record'; We've known it was going to be a strong contender since the first time we laid eyes on Free Realms. Once we stepped into the world last month and started playing the game, we knew it was going to be even bigger than we'd previously thought. Sure enough, we were right. News has come out this morning, courtesy of John Smedley on Twitter, that Free Realms crossed the 1 million account mark in just eighteen days since launch. Considering we got the news that Runes of Magic crossed the 1 million mark yesterday in just a little under two months, 18 days is an insanely fast time-frame for a recent free-to-play game release to break that mark! Of course, considering how fiendishly addictive and fun Free Realms is, we're not too surprised. We're sure the TV commercials probably didn't hurt, either.We here at Massively would like to send out our congratulations to the Free Realms team on their exciting landmark achievement! We'll let you know more when we have some further details from SOE. In the meantime, if you'll pardon us, we're going to go play Demolition Derby to celebrate. Want to know more about Free Realms? SOE's new whimsical free-to-play MMO is already being called a refreshing change of pace for kids and adults alike, and we have just the coverage you need!
Swine Flu-based games becoming an internet pandemic
A GamePolitics article recently turned our attention to two new Flash-based titles based on every news outlet's current infatuation: Swine Flu. The first is noteworthy because it's actually pretty fun -- originally titled Sneeze but now going by the more timely moniker Stop Swine Flu, the game tasks you with spreading a disease among a crowded area by sneezing on as many folks as possible. Though the game was commissioned by uber-charity Wellcome Trust, it's caught a bit of flack from critics for awarding points for infecting toddlers. It's definitely worth checking out. The other game is also noteworthy, but only because it doesn't make a freaking lick of sense. In Swine Flu: Hamdemic, players must slingshot infected pigs across the U.S. - Mexico border, using a six-shooter to keep said pork suspended in the air. Ah, yes. Of course. The origins of this potent malady have at long last been discovered.
Why the web browser may be the gaming platform of the future
Browser-based MMOs are nothing new, as games like RuneScape have dominated for a few years. Recent additions like FusionFall and Free Realms are opening up entirely new possibilities with browser-based game mechanics, and many feel it's only the tip of the iceberg.According to Frederick Wester, CEO of GamersGate parent Paradox Interactive, "Web-based content and web-based gaming has a fantastic future." With no limitations on hardware, the browser is one of the next logical steps in casual gaming for the masses; there's just no denying it. In fact, David Lau-Kee of Unity goes so far as to predict that the Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 will be browsers. Check out the entire article over at gamesindustry.biz for more insight from industry leaders on this topic.
Indie MMO donates 5% of all in-game purchases to charity
A browser-based RMT MMORPG is giving players a chance to become real life heroes through charity. Domain of Heroes is announcing their integrated charity system feature that donates 5% of all in-game purchases to the cause of a player's choice.Players have already donated over $500 to Child's Play and Women In Games International since the system was launched. Child's Play supplies toys and games to over 60 hospitals around the world, while WIGI promotes the inclusion and advancement of women in the games industry."It's a great way for players to have a direct influence on where their donation dollars go, while raising awareness for game-related charities in general," said Aaron Murray, Technical Director and Founder of Tandem Games. "Both Child's Play and WIGI are very excited to see this level of ongoing commitment from a company. We hope other companies will follow suit and share their revenue with deserving charities."Domain of Heroes claims to be the MMO for working people and is accessible from almost any browser on almost any platform without the need for plugins (e.g., Flash, Java appletc, etc.). You can choose from 3 factions, 30 races, 27 classes, and learn over 150 skills. An MMO with that many options that you can play almost anywhere? I don't think we'd ever get any work done!
FusionFall hits the 4 million mark (with bonus Bubblehead, free!)
We got some great news today from our friends over at Cartoon Network. It appears that their freemium family browser-based MMO, FusionFall, has crossed the 4-million registered member mark since their official launch in January! That's a tremendous chunk of growth, and we're glad to see FusionFall getting the love. (Any game that incorporates flying monkeys as a method of traveling around in-game rates an "awesome" in our book.)To celebrate this excellent milestone, the crew over at FusionFall headquarters decided to whip up a special in-game item, the Zak Saturday Bubblehead Helmet, as a way of saying thanks to everyone for playing. All you have to do to get your hands on this limited-edition special celebratory goodie is to head over to the FusionFall site, grab the code, and add it to your account. Of course while you're logged in, you'll want to check out all the new missions and crazy items that the FusionFall team have been hard at work adding in.
