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Third-person MOBA 'Gigantic' to close on July 31st
Gigantic's long and troubled development cycle is finally over. The colorful, hero-based MOBA will be shut down on July 31st, developer Motiga announced in a blog post yesterday. Ultimately, the game "did not resonate" with as many players as the studio had hoped, limiting the viability of future updates and support. As a result, the January Update — which contains new hero T-Mat, various skins and computer-controlled bloomer creatures — will be "the final content update." Microtransactions have been switched off, making all heroes free to unlock, and store items will be heavily discounted for anyone who has leftover cash to spend.
'Gigantic' creator layoffs show that MOBA games aren't easy
With Blizzard, Riot and seemingly everyone else making a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, the field is getting pretty crowded... and unfortunately, it's clear that some of those developers are facing greater challenges than others. Gigantic creator Motiga has revealed that it's delaying its take on the genre to 2016, and is laying off 16 employees to make this happen. This is a startup with "finite" resources, the company says, and there's only so much it can do without letting people go. It's no doubt a tough decision -- here's hoping that Gigantic can stand out despite the heavyweight competition, and that Motiga's former workers land on their feet.
PAX South 2015: Slaying giants in Motiga's Gigantic
Motiga's Gigantic is one part Team Fortress, one part Dota, and one part Monster Hunter. The basic match structure will sound familiar to MOBA lovers -- two teams of five slug it out for superiority by controlling resources, leveling up, and killing one another -- but the skill-based mechanics, multiple maps, and shifting strategy priorities make the game more than a three-lane farm fest. Gigantic isn't about last-hitting or memorizing meta. Instead, it's about slaying giants and aiming true. I hopped in on a quick Gigantic match with some other press folks this afternoon at PAX South 2015, and in the midst of delivering an absolute drubbing to the scrubs (kidding!) on the other side of the table, I was able to get a feel for the game's combat system, characters, and the way its massive guardians change the way battles play out.
Gigantic wants to greatly expand its alpha test
Gigantic's alpha program is progressing fairly well, but the team is concerned that the pool of available testers have yet to push the servers to their limits. The solution: expand the MOBA's alpha test. "The whole point of the test is to find out how many players it takes to push our game systems and our server capacity over the cliff," Motiga posted this week. "So bad news for us is good news for you: We desperately need more of you, so we will be adding more alpha testers throughout the fall season. Thousands of new testers." The studio is also working to expand the alpha past North America to other regions and is hiring more team members to support a worldwide rollout.
Motiga's Gigantic makes a big first impression
In Motiga's Gigantic, a team of five players choose unique champions who must work together to effectively control a map and slaughter their enemies – another team of five players – with the ultimate goal of destroying the opposing team's Guardian, a valuable asset that lies in wait at the opposite end of the map. On paper, it sounds like yet another MOBA, the rapidly-expanding genre pioneered by games like League of Legends and Dota 2. In practice however, while the game's DNA is undeniably colored by the m-word genre, you'd be doing the game a ... well, gigantic disservice to think of it as another imitator.
StarCraft, Guild Wars veterans go big with Gigantic
Gigantic is a five-player, free online game from Guild Wars and StarCraft veterans at Motiga. Players team up as a ragtag group of quirky characters with a giant guardian to protect, and one to kill on the opposing team. Guardians attack the enemy, and they're killed by a blow to the heart. Think of the guardians as the teams' mobile, violent bases – protect and destroy. The Gigantic alpha is due to start soon, with sign-ups on the official site. [Images: Motiga]
Motiga's new multiplayer game, Gigantic, is a MOBA
Are you ready to let another MOBA into your life? How about one with stylized cartoon art and a twist that some might call... large? Gigantic was formally announced by Motiga today, and it's got a couple of tricks the usual MOBA doesn't. For one thing, it's all about third-person play, and you'll be hopping about with your keyboard rather than by clicking your mouse. For another, players are aided by enormous Guardians, behemoths that use their own massive attacks and will force players to contend with an even more powerful force on the field. Players can get a sense of the game's style just past the break in the game's first announcement trailer and sign up for alpha testing on the official site. The game will be at PAX Prime, as well, which should be something for fans to keep a close watch on. It might just be big, you know.
Mobile startup Motiga promises real-time mobile multiplayer tech, starting with 'The LeftOvers'
Motiga is a new startup with a clear goal: To build a technology platform that enables small mobile gaming teams to include real-time multiplayer "quickly and with less resources." Motiga's platform is called (backronymed?) the Motiga Infinite Context Engine or MICE. To show off what MICE is capable of, Motiga is co-developing The LeftOvers, which it's billing as a "free-to-play, real-time multiplayer game." "The fact that The LeftOvers is created by a team of three developers is a testament to the ease of use and robustness of our technology," said Motiga co-founder Rick Lambright. Lambright, along with fellow co-founder Chris Chung, bring a lot of expertise to the outfit. Chung served as Chief Strategy Officer at Trion and before that, spent time at NCsoft and Guild Wars developer ArenaNet. Lambright was Chief Architect at MMO pub Gazillion Entertainment where he worked on the tech for games like Marvel Super Hero Squad Online and LEGO Universe. Is an easy-to-implement real-time multiplayer solution for mobile gaming possible and, if so, is that model of multiplayer something mobile gamers are interested in? We're not sure, but we're excited to find out. %Gallery-131678%
