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You can put a price on Love, and that price is now 10 euros
Indie developer Eskil Steenberg's procedural, super-pretty world-building MMO Love has gone through a ton of changes in the past few months -- all of which are highlighted in this press release, which isn't a press release at all, but rather, a Craigslist Missed Connections Listing. How wonderful. The most significant change? The game's pay-per-play subscription fee has been reduced to €10 (call it: $13.50 and change) for 180 days of playtime. (Previously, €10 got you just 30 days of Love.) You can check out a video demonstration of some of the game's new features (as well as a basic tutorial led by Eskil himself) after the jump. Just try to stop the video as soon as it's over, because as you might imagine, the YouTube suggestions for a video titled "Love Tutorial" are unspeakably weird.
Free Love for the holiday weekend
Those who lament that nothing innovative and interesting is being done in the field of MMOs are probably unfamiliar with LOVE, a project seeking to redefine pretty much any core assumptions about the genre. Players build and create, levels are based upon relationships with other players, and the entire world is a surrealistic masterpiece of a landscape. Oh, and the entire project is the work of one man, Eskil Steenberg. It's the sort of thing that would be well worth checking out, and during the holiday weekend, you can do precisely that. From 6 PM GMT on Friday until noon on Monday, LOVE will be having its first free weekend, giving players curious about the actual mechanics of the game a chance to log in and take a close look at how the game works. That runs the majority of the Labor Day weekend, a fine time to log in and get some serious construction going. Keep an eye on the official site or on GamingLove for more information on registration. [Thanks to bartillo for the tip!]
Get some free Love this Labor Day weekend
Whoa, whoa. Easy there, you dirty hippie. When we say "free love," we're not referring to the next meeting of the Rainbow Family of Living Light -- we're talking about a chance to play Eskil Steenberg's lovely little MMORPG, Love, at zero cost this Labor Day weekend. The offer will being around 1AM ET this Friday, at which point you'll be able to download the client on the game's official site. This free sample will be available until 7AM ET on Monday. Now, that's what you have to do to get in on the free Love weekend. What you should do is watch this gameplay demonstration, so you'll know what the hell you're doing once you start making changes to the MMO's completely procedural world.
Love's developer requesting player input for bug fixes
Eskil Steenberg is a busy man, but that's not stopping him from retaining his title as the world's only One Man Traveling MMO Development Studio. Hey, he should get that trademarked! For those following the progress of Steenberg's Love MMO, you are fully aware that the man stays on top of constant improvements to the game. His Twitter followers are fed a regular dose of update notes and he's not shy about appearances in his own Teamspeak channel. This week, as he returns to the states for Siggraph 2010, he asks his loyal fans for their input on bugs that need squashing. The compiled list will be addressed this weekend, with another aim at a Teamspeak visit as well. Check out his most recent forum post for all the details.
LOVE adding first major expansion
We've not heard a lot from Eskil Steenberg since his MMO LOVE launched last month, but it must be going well, as he has unveiled the first major expansion for the game yesterday. AVAIL will be a free expansion, bringing the welcome addition of character progression to the game: "Many players feel that while enjoyable the game is pointless. You build only to have it be destroyed, and they would like to see a more long term goal to pursue. AVAIL will add character progression but in a way that is very different from how other games implement it." LOVE will continue its basic goal of player cooperation in that you "level up" by working with and gaining the respect of other players. The interesting thing here is that it's a constantly shifting design -- just because you have a good working relationship with player 1, that means nothing if player 1 logs out and you begin working with player 2. If you don't already have a good working relationship with player 2 you'll need to cultivate one as part of your progression. You can find all the details on the expansion on the LOVE site.
Eskil Steenberg: Why is LOVE so unusual?
Eskil Steenberg's LOVE stood out from the MMO crowd from the first time it was presented at GDC two years ago. It didn't fit neatly into any pre-determined genre and the game's appearance was different from anything we were used to. Two years later, LOVE has launched, and Steenberg is thrilled to see his work reach this point. He spent some time recently chatting with Gamasutra about how the game developed the way it did, what its focus is, and what he hopes players will take away from it. LOVE isn't only unusual because of its appearance, Steenberg says. It also stands out because the focus is somewhere completely different than your traditional MMO games. Players cooperate to develop and build the world, interacting with it as they see fit: "It becomes almost like playing a RTS but one where you're playing a peon in an army, and you can decide what to do -- you can stay at home and build, you can explore, you can do all kinds of things," Steenberg explained. That's just the beginning of what makes LOVE so unusual, though. The full interview is an interesting look at the mind behind the game, and can be read at Gamasutra.
User-generated Indie MMO 'Love' available today
If you've found every little piece of news about Eskil Steenberg's weird, pretty, procedural MMO Love completely scintillating, you'll be pleased to know the game is now available. The game client is free to download, but players have to pay for a 10-Euro voucher which allows them to access the game for 30 days. Much like in real life, Love doesn't come cheap. Potential players can download the client (as well as a system spec test) from the game's official site -- but if you're hoping to actually know what you're doing once you fall into Love, you might want to check out some supplemental materials.
Eskil Steenberg interviewed about his one-man MMO project "Love"
Have you ever wondered what it would take for a single person to create an MMO? Is a task this monumental even possible? Apparently it is, given what we've seen and read of Love, an MMO being developed by a single man -- Eskil Steenberg. Love isn't being created by a team of devs, nor does it have a multi-million dollar development and marketing budget. It's just one man with a vision, building the best game he can and showing it off on his laptop. Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently got an exclusive first look at the Love trailer and Jim Rossignol from RPS followed that up with an interview with Eskil Steenberg. They discuss how Love's unique visual style evolved into what we see today and talk about the game's trinity of activities -- exploration, combat, and building -- namely the system of city building. It's a very interesting talk with Steenberg, and really is a must-read if you're enthusiastic about Love and the ambition of its creator.
First trailer of Love is absolutely breathtaking
What does it say about our industry when one man and a laptop can create a game arguably more artistically ambitious and breathtaking than anything to come out of SOE, Mythic, Funcom, Turbine, Cryptic, or Blizzard? We were left to ponder that question after watching the first trailer for Love, an MMO with a one-man development team.We were first introduced to the game at GDC, where we first witnessed its gorgeous impressionist art style and learned about its procedurally generated narrative and creativity-driven social gameplay. Trailer host Rock, Paper Shotgun says this new trailer is the first moving image of the game seen by the public, but we actually included an off-screen video in our impressions of creator Eskil Steenberg's one-on-one presentation. That said, this video is much more impressive. It's simply stunning. We're not able to embed it, so head over to RPS to watch.%Gallery-16906%
New screens from the art-house MMO called Love
MMOs don't have to all be about orcs, elves, and level-grinding. Case in point: Eskil Steenberg's Love, an art-house MMO that defies every conceivable expectation of what the genre is about. There's been a lot of talk lately about how there isn't enough innovation anymore. Quiet down, folks; Love is what you seek.When Steenberg showed the game to us at GDC this year, we were excited and alarmed at the same time -- excited because it was different and gorgeous, alarmed because we had to step outside of our comfort zone. The exploration-driven gameplay allows users to alter the painting-like world to match their dreams, but the world is all they'll be changing, as the game features no character creation or customization. Users don't even to pick their own names. So yes, it's challenging, but God, we miss being challenged. If only there were more projects like this for us to write about. For now, though, let's just swoon over Love. Steenberg released three new images from the game on his blog yesterday, and we have them here so you can soak in the impressionistic atmosphere. Be sure to check out our GDC gallery as well.[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]%Gallery-26414%
GDC08: When Love came to town
Every once in a while you have one of those unique experiences where you catch a glimpse of inspirational human intelligence. We were lucky enough to have such an experience at GDC in the hour we spent with Eskil Steenberg, the gifted programmer behind the fledgling one-man MMO project, Love. Once you get past the stage of incredulity at the idea that anyone would even attempt to create a massive game as a solo effort in the age of WoW-sized development and content teams, you start to get a window into exactly why this work in progress is unusual, preciously unique and extremely exciting. Starting with a caveat: Love is not yet in production (indeed, there's no solid guarantee it ever will be), nor is it glossy and polished like most of the blockbuster AAA titles we feature in our list of core titles -- but the latter tends to work in its favor. It's not like any MMO you've ever seen; what we saw shimmering and dancing on Steenberg's laptop was otherworldly, breathing, and dreamy -- more reminiscent of a Van Gogh painting or of Waking Life than of any massive game we've ever played. The video embedded after the break is somewhat crude, having been shot off a laptop display (and occasionally featuring a reflection of Eskil himself, which you can decide for yourself whether it enhances or detracts from the experience), but captures the essence of the strange world in motion with its breathtaking landscape and day/night cycling as you wander about the planet.%Gallery-16906%
