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Executive Producer of Jumpgate Evolution gives information on game's status
After what feels like an endless period of silence from the developers of Jumpgate Evolution, Executive Producer Lance Robertson has delivered a surprisingly detailed forum post on the game's development. So what's going on over there? Why all the silence and delays? Apparently, those delays are due to the extensive overhaul to the entire game: "...the team made the crucial decision to completely overhaul JGE's game systems, while also refocusing specifically on the game play experience we wanted to make: space warfare on a massive scale." Much of the game was removed completely and replaced to fit the team had in mind. And the media blackout? "We couldn't discuss game features, because we were no longer sure what would make it into the game and what wouldn't. We couldn't talk about story, because it was being completely rewritten. There was so much that we wanted to share, but things were just at too early of a stage to discuss without the risk of disappointing you, our community. When we announce something, we ought to be as confident as possible that it will stay in the game – although in game development, there are no guarantees." The full story is an interesting read, as it explains what has been going on with Jumpgate Evolution, and what will be happening from here on out.
Jumpgate Evolution will get you into E3 -- if you can get there
While it's no longer quite the circus that it once was, E3 is still kind of a big deal. Of course, the result is that it's even harder these days to get into the actual convention if you're not part of the press. For those of you who don't get the sheer enjoyment of working bizarre hours and frantically writing up press releases on three hours of sleep, the Jumpgate Evolution team is giving you a pass into the show. If you can get to the location, they'll get you in. The team mentioned that they wanted to run a community meet-and-greet a while ago, and NetDevil has taken care of procuring a few extra passes for the fans. Unfortunately, if you're not already a registered member of the Jumpgate Evolution forums, you're out of luck -- registering now won't make you eligible for the giveaway. If you are registered, however, and you can take care of getting yourself to E3, a simple message might get you into the convention for all three days -- and give you a chance to play this anticipated game. It's a win-win!
Jumpgate Evolution team plans meet and greet at E3
News about Jumpgate Evolution was scarce for a very long time, but we're finally seeing some hopeful signs. We got a large development update earlier this year, and now it looks like fans are going to get to chat with the NetDevil team in person during E3. There is a new poll on the Jumpgate Evolution forums asking for fan input on a meet and greet time, complete with an option for "I can't go and I hate you" (no, really). If you're going to be in the area, you definitely want to visit the poll and keep up on the scheduling, as the NetDevil crew will make it well worth your time: you'll be spending time with the NetDevil guys, of course, but you'll also get to play the game, see the very latest build, and come away with some swag. So what are you waiting for? Check out the poll and post your preferred time.
Indian company purchases fifty percent stake in Codemasters
While some gamers in the US may not be immediately familiar with Codemasters, we know our readers across the pond will immediately recognize them as the company with the rights to publish Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and (the "who-knows-when-it-will-release") MMO Jumpgate Evolution overseas. With that said, last year we heard that the COO at Codemasters, Tony Williams, decided to step down from Chief Organizational Officer. Not too long after that, there were rumors that Warner Brothers was looking into buying the company. Today, it seems that a company from India called Reliance Big Entertainment has pounced, and now owns a 50% stake in Codemasters. Apparently, Reliance Big Entertainment is very well known in India. It's subsidiary company, Zapak Digital Entertainment, owns the largest online gaming portal in the country as well. This gaming-specific company will be the one in charge of overseeing the investment in UK-based Codemasters. As to what this could mean for MMO gamers in the EU, we'll have to wait and see. Perhaps Reliance/Zapak will see fit to close the gap in differences from the Turbine-controlled version of Lord of the Rings Online. Or perhaps this new company will finally roll the Codemasters version of Dungeons and Dragons Online over to the same free-to-play model that has been such a huge success for Turbine in the States. No matter what, this is going to be interesting to watch. [via Joystiq]
A significant update on Jumpgate Evolution's progress
NetDevil's Scott Brown has emerged from the black depths of development on Jumpgate Evolution to give an update to the commmunity. In fact, he's given quite a substantial -- if not brief -- update about the various game elements being hammered into proper working order. The topics covered are Battlespace, mission structure, faction definition and improvements being made to the previously lackluster enemy AI. So basically, NetDevil has been working to revamp the game ever since its June 2009 release date was changed into a To Be Announced state, leaving fans wondering when they'd be able to get their space fighter action on. We've posted Scott's bullet point update beyond the break, for those interested.
Jumpgate Evolution brings on a new Executive Producer
Any of you die hard Dark Age of Camelot fans out there? We hope you're paying attention, because NetDevil just brought Lance Roberston aboard their Jumpgate Evolution team as executive producer. For those not in the know: Lance's career blossomed as he rose through the ranks at Mythic Entertainment while working on Dark Age of Camelot. As such, he possesses extensive experience developing MMOs with both PvP and PvE focuses. He also helped to ship Warhammer Online as a senior producer, before the unfortunate events we're all aware of over at Electronic Arts. Jumpgate Evolution is a three faction game that deals with PvP and PvE. Sound familiar? It should, as DAoC's tri-factions were one of its selling points back in the day. Lance also benefits from having experience in the "what do do" and "what not to do" areas of PvP/PvE MMO development, so we're certain he'll prove to be an immensely useful member of the JGE team.
The Digital Continuum: Five exciting MMOs in 2010, part 2
Mmm, Star Wars made into an MMO by BioWare. The scope and breadth of what BioWare is looking to accomplish makes me the most excited, if I'm being honest. Star Wars: The Old Republic really needs to hit before the next World of Warcraft expansion.
Gazillion layoffs hit Romero's Slipgate Ironworks
Whatever Gazillion Entertainment's secret mastermind plot is, their next step has been to create an unfortunate situation for a suspected 50 now ex-employees at Slipgate Ironworks. The reasoning? According to Gazillion, "As part of our focus on reaching the widest possible audiences with breakthrough MMO entertainment, we decided to change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim," So, whatever unannounced MMO the team was working on is now canned, it would seem. At least there's a silver lining, in some sense. Gazillion also stated, "-the other Slipgate staff are already in discussions around the many open positions across our slate of projects." You know what? We'd make another world conquering joke here, but that'd be too easy. Instead, we're just going to sit in our chair, pet our cat and sip this lovely whipped latte. Oh, whoops, guess we just can't help ourselves sometimes.Seriously though, next year is going to be interesting, because the official statement alludes to something being released from the publisher next year. Unless they're just talking about Jumpgate Evolution -- at least, we hope that comes out by next year -- and then we're not really sure why they just didn't say as much.
Redefining MMOs: Developers weigh in
What does "MMO" mean anymore? When we launched our "Redefining MMO" series over the summer, we began with a look at the terminology behind the games we play -- what the term "MMO" encompasses and what kinds of games it describes. But with the online games market expanding into new genres and incorporating new gameplay and social elements, the definition of "MMO" has changed. So is it time for a new word? We reached out to developers working on different MMOs. We asked what they thought about the word "MMO" and if it's time to eschew the term and come up with something new. Read on for thoughts from Cryptic's Bill Roper, Metaplace's Raph Koster, Mythic's Paul Barnett, Nexon America's Min Kim, Sony Online's Laralyn McWilliams, Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel and many more.
Building the LEGO Universe MMO
It's slowly coming together -- brick by brick. The LEGO Universe MMO is still on track, and it's still under control of NetDevil. While the company has gone quite quiet on the production of Jumpgate Evolution, GamesIndustry.biz was able to catch up with the company at GamesCom in Cologne to ask them some questions about the LEGO Universe MMO.This interview is with Ryan Seabury, the creative director on the project, and focuses in on the challenges behind making a directed gaming experience coupled with the creative power of a sandbox game, and then making it all accessible for kids and their families. It's really a great read if you're interested in how game design decisions are made, and how LEGO Universe will bridge the gap between an entirely open sandbox world and a more "theme park" experience.
Creating the sound and music of Jumpgate Evolution
We've been wondering what's happening over at NetDevil with Jumpgate Evolution of late. It's been a bit quiet on the news front, but we've come across a recent dev blog from Jumpgate Evolution Producer Hermann Peterscheck that explains the importance of audio in this sci-fi MMO.Peterscheck explains NetDevil's approach to audio in a space game and the various steps taken to ensure the game sounds as good as it looks. He writes, "Try imagining Star Wars without John Williams' sound track or James Earl Jones' booming Darth Vader voice. Poor audio on top of great video can really deteriorate production value. The trouble with audio is that it generally comes late in the development cycle and all too often as an afterthought."
The Daily Grind: What type of ship combat is ideal in a sci-fi MMO?
The coming years will bring numerous options for sci-fi MMO gameplay. While EVE Online is presently the reigning champ, other ship-based MMOs are on the way like Star Trek Online and Jumpgate Evolution. There are also a few dark horses in the running like Taikodom and Black Prophecy. Despite their differing game mechanics, what all of these titles share is combat that takes place in three-dimensional space. While there's still a default horizontal orientation, you're not fixed to that horizontal plane, giving you more vectors of attack and evasion. Each game has (or will have) its own twist on combat, though. EVE Online's combat is methodical and somewhat difficult to master. However, it's also a blast once you know what you're doing, especially given that that when you get into Tech II and Tech III ships, there's real loss involved that can get your heart pumping. Combat in Star Trek Online has been described as being above all else a tactical experience, but from the video footage we posted yesterday, it's faster-paced than we anticipated. These ships seem fairly agile. But when it comes to dynamic joystick-style space combat in an MMO, Jumpgate Evolution will likely be in a class of its own. With these differing approaches to the game mechanics of combat in these titles, what do you want out of ship combat in an MMO? Do any of these games fit what you're looking for in a space-based massively multiplayer online game?
Jumpgate Evolution dev blog looks at balancing combat
As player-versus-player pew-pewing is one of the biggest draws for those interested in the upcoming Jumpgate Evolution, there's no wonder that a lot of attention has been given to balancing the game's combat. The most recent Jumpgate Evolution dev blog entry from lead producer Hermann Peterscheck, titled "Combating Combat", shed some light on how class balance came to be where it's at now. The post goes on to say that from the very beginning, balance was approached with PvP in mind, as NetDevil realized that it would be easier to tweak PvE accordingly at a later stage. Starting with just one class of ship, additional classes were introduced over time and put through their paces in daily play tests. Petersheck noted that the goal was to have each class feel truly unique and not simply have a bit less of this stat, or a bit more of that one:"It's very tempting to just throw a bunch of classes of ships together in order to say things like 'our game has 15 classes of ships!' but this, we believe, is the wrong direction. People want meaningful and strong choices and not lots of meaningless, empty choices. Currently we plan to have 4-6 classes, but they will each have nearly endless possible configurations within those groups."It's a promising design philosophy, to be sure. Check out the rest of Peterscheck's article at the JGE dev blog.
Jumpgate Evolution beta snags 250K sign ups
After jumping back into the slipstream of development this past May, NetDevil announced today that the latest beta for Jumpgate Evolution has had 250,000 sign-ups. The game is currently in the "friends and family testing phase," but it plans to go into full beta ... um, somewhere in the future.Jumpgate Evolution's development is in an interesting place at the moment. All we know officially is that the game missed its June release, and that feedback during the current stage of testing of the "feature complete" game caused the team to rethink some stuff.%Gallery-26197%
Jumpgate Evolution hits 250,000 beta sign ups
The upcoming sci-fi title Jumpgate Evolution seems to be highly anticipated by the MMO gaming community, at least if the deluge of unique beta sign-ups is any indication. Jumpgate Evolution's developer NetDevil and publisher Codemasters announced today that they've passed 250,000 beta sign-ups. They added, "Everyone working on Jumpgate Evolution is ecstatic about the news, and we can't wait to begin allowing those who have supported us through this phase of development into Beta once it begins later this year." [Via WarCry]
Jumpgate Evolution interview drops details on PvP
NetDevil's upcoming sci-fi MMO Jumpgate Evolution is notable for its aggressive, joystick-style approach to PvP. Needless to say, it's a game we're really looking forward to trying, we're just not sure about when that's going to be. Without a solid ETA on when the title will launch, we're just keeping up with NetDevil's updates on Jumpgate Evolution's development. They've recently announced some new info about the game's move towards a player-driven economy, but we'd imagine most of our readers are more interested in JGE's PvP. That's the focus of an interview with the title's lead producer Hermann Peterscheck that we've just come across over at MMORPG.com.Jon Wood spoke with Peterscheck about how PvP will factor in the game's lore, and vice versa. Peterscheck explained how each of the nations has a personality or a character, which they've been trying to convey with the lore released for the militaristic Octavians, the profit-motivated Solrain, or the mystic Quantar. NetDevil's goal is to present enough 'character' for each nation that players can identify with that faction and bring that into their gameplay.
Jumpgate Evolution updates lore surrounding the spiritual Quantar faction
The writers on the Jumpgate Evolution team have released a lore update that focuses on the mystic Quantar nation. In Jumpgate Evolution's setting, the Quantar are a people who follow many different religious paths, but are "united by the fundamental belief that human destiny lies among the stars." Their spiritual beliefs are reflected in their technology, centered around the concept of a pilot and ship striving to become a single being, which explains their prowess in combat. NetDevil's lore update to Jumpgate Evolution chronicles the history of Quantar culture and society, but they also released new info on sectors of Quantar space accompanied by some gorgeous images. There's now quite a bit of material centering on the Quantar nation which should be good news to fans of Jumpgate Evolution's lore.
Jumpgate Evolution lead producer on how the game is shaping up
We think that Jumpgate Evolution is a promising game, one that will inject aggressive joystick-style PvP combat into the MMO scene and provide a change of pace from the slower, more tactical sci-fi titles. Massively doesn't have an ETA on the game's launch yet, but we are following how the game is developing, as communicated in interviews with the gaming press and fansites as well. We recently mentioned Jumpgate Evolution's aims to establish a player-driven economy in the game, which we noted our readers had a mixed response to. We've also come across some more info about the game in an interview JGE lead producer Hermann Peterscheck gave to I4U News.
Jumpgate Evolution economy changing to player-driven system
Some gamers were disheartened when NetDevil opted to delay the Jumpgate Evolution launch in order to refine some aspects of gameplay, but we're hoping the extra time they've bought for themselves will equate to a more polished release. One of those aspects of the game they're improving is Jumpgate Evolution's economy, which is the subject of an interview that producer Hermann Peterscheck gave to JGERadio's "Tikigod."Throughout the interview, Peterscheck emphasizes that Jumpgate Evolution's economy should, by design, function in ways similar to a real world economy (but hopefully with a lot less fail) -- a far more dynamic system than one driven by NPC vendors. Peterscheck says, "I actually think the changes make the economy more alive. What we have done is moved away from an AI-based economy to a player-driven economy."
No comment from Codemasters on Warner Bros. buyout rumors
GamesIndustry.biz recently reached out to Codemasters, publisher of the European version of Lord of the Rings Online and the upcoming Jumpgate Evolution, for their comment on a rumor that Warner Bros. may be getting ready to buy them out. The rumor was first seen at VG247 (warning: link contains colorful but entertaining language) and it claims that Warner has "completed due diligence and buyout discussions are ongoing". This prompted GI.biz to seek clarification from Codemasters.Their reply? "We won't respond to that story. Everything is fine here." Ok, so sometimes 'no comment' does just mean 'no comment', but it certainly doesn't close the book on the whole rumor situation with any conviction. Warner Bros. didn't return GI.biz's calls (yet) so there's no confirmation to be had from them either. It looks like we might just have to wait and see if anything actually eventuates -- or for more insider leaks perhaps.
