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Farscape MMO plans from shuttered studio go public [Updated]
So, Farscape fans, what would you say to an MMO based on your favorite IP that was designed by former members of Fallen Earth's dev team? If you answered yes please, we've got both good news and bad news. The bad news is that the game is dead in the water. The good news is that former Fallen Earth lead designer Lee Hammock has made a ton of information about the development process available on his blog. In a nutshell, Hammock and other Fallen Earth ex-patriots signed on with a startup company a couple of years ago. Said company claimed to have $150 million in funding, so the devs jumped into pre-production (which included a design document, over 200 pages of content iteration, and meetings with Farscape creator Rockne O'Bannon and Jim Henson Studios). After six months of work, funding dried up and the startup's CEO left the devs empty-handed. Former project lead Colin Dwan told us that the motivation behind releasing this information now is twofold. "We want people to see some of what goes into writing a design doc for a multi-million dollar MMO. We want to share the passion we had for a universe that was cut short without having a chance to see the light of day," he said. Head to Hammock's blog to see some concept art, storyline info, the project mission statement, and more. [Update: Lee Hammock has been asked to take down his blog posts on his work with the Farscape MMO for legal reasons.]
Prognosticating the future of MMOs
Barring Ouija boards, magical leprechauns and time-traveling DeLoreans, it's pretty much impossible to predict the future -- but that doesn't stop people from trying, no sir. In a recent "The State of the MMO in 2010" over at Eurogamer, Jim Rossignol chats with Paul Barnett (EA Mythic), Colin Dwan (Fallen Earth) and Torfi Frans Olafsson (EVE Online) in an attempt to pin down where MMOs stand as of now, and where they're likely to go. The article begins by stating that the defining line surrounding what is and is not a MMO has become blurred, and will only become more so in the future. Whether we like it or not, different payment models, server types and even genres (such as sports MMOs) have broadened the definition of the genre. Many folks are worried that F2P titles and "quasi-MMOs" like FarmVille may trigger the end of traditional subscription-based MMOs.
Fallen Earth rolls out the second part of their graphical enhancements
When the entire world has come crashing down around your ears, and you're doing your best to survive in the Grand Canyon with only your wits, your skills, and a bucket of shotgun shells... well, you'd like things to at least look pretty. Fallen Earth has been working hard on its graphical engine recently, having just rolled out a shiny new update to improve clouds, textures, and the general state of vegetation in the area. Now they've completed a second pass, with the newest updates improving light and shadow as well as several shader effects. Aside from going through and improving existing player shadows, the designers have tightened up all of the shadows in the game, giving things a far more crisp and realistic look. According to project manager Colin Dwan, the result has both improved the look of the environments and actually boosted its performance slightly. If you have Shader 3.0 hardware and the Advanced Post FX setting on, the new shadows should be immediately visible upon entrance to the game. While it's not a sweeping change, it's a subtle and thorough one, and should make the life of a clone a bit more vibrant.
How to get in on the daily Fallen Earth team meetings
If you've been following the post-apocalyptic MMO Fallen Earth at all, you may have noticed that the team isn't afraid to let us in on the progress of the game. We've seen videos of gameplay, held several interviews, developer diaries and the current state of their beta isn't exactly hard to get into. So you may be pleased to hear that the Fallen Earth team is taking this one step further by letting us in on their daily meetings, virtually. Project Manager Colin "Ilkor" Dwan will be providing an inside look into their daily "to do" list and morning meetings via Twitter. Apparently, this will only be going on for the next ten business days, but hopefully it can be something they'll eventually continue throughout the beta process right into launch, this coming September 9th.
Fallen Earth MMO tour will bring devs to GDC 09
We've mentioned a rather unique approach that the Fallen Earth team is taking to promote their upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO, a national tour across key cities in the United States. The Fallen Earth publicity tour began in North Carolina last month, meeting with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), and they've just announced that they'll be working with the IGDA again at this month's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Fallen Earth will co-sponsor the IGDA networking event at GDC on March 24 and developers will be on hand to speak about the game. Key Fallen Earth devs planning to attend include project manager Colin Dwan; associate project manager Dave Haydysch; content team lead Marie Croall; product manager Jessica Orr; and lead game designer Lee Hammock.
