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Rumor: BioWare's Shadow Realms 'totally rebooted'
Shadow Realms is "going through big changes and may have been totally rebooted," according to an unnamed source who spoke to Kotaku. BioWare's episodic online action RPG was revealed in August of last year and was hit with an alpha delay on October 31st. A "reliable source familiar with goings-on at BioWare Austin" tells Kotaku that the title was revamped in October and "will now have a full campaign." Why the changes? Apparently BioWare's decision to embrace the integration of EA's digital store and Origin coincided with the decision to reboot Shadow Realms. "Developers at EA take budget hits if they don't use internal technology and services," Kotaku says.
BioWare delays Shadow Realms' alpha
The planned closed alpha test for Shadow Realms, the not-so-massive BioWare OARPG announced back in August, is being delayed, says a new producer letter on the official site. Senior Producer Dallas Dickinson says the devs just "need a bit more time" to gather and process player feedback: One of the most important things to us on Shadow Realms is listening to – and making changes based on – that player feedback. Having fans play the game at Gamescom and PAX Prime gave us incredible insight. [...] The thing is, feedback was so good it made us want to do more, to get a bit further down the road, before opening Shadow Realms up again. We got so many excellent questions about what the game will be, beyond just the multiplayer piece that we've revealed, and we'd like to be able to show you some answers rather than just telling you what the answers will one day be. But we need a bit more time. We've taken a deep look at the state of the game – what it is now, what we intend it to be, and most importantly what it could be – and realized this is an opportunity to take a great game and make it even better before bringing it back for more feedback from you. Dickinson promises regular producer letters in the coming months. Interested gamers can still sign up for alpha on the official site.
AU ratings board classifies BioWare's 'Green Cloud'
An entry for a new game from Mass Effect and Dragon Age series developer BioWare appeared on the Australian Classifications Board website this week. Listed under "Green Cloud," presumably as a code-name, the game earned a MA 15+ rating from the board due to its "strong fantasy violence and sexual references" as well as online interactivity. Nothing else is known about Green Cloud, though it is listed as a multiplatform game on the ratings website. No listing for Green Cloud appears when searching ESRB and PEGI's directories. BioWare did reveal its 4-on-1 action RPG at Gamescom in August, Shadow Realms. The next game from the studio is Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was delayed to November 18 as of July. [Image: Australian Classifications Board]
BioWare's Shadow Realms is 4-on-1, action-RPG mayhem
"We're focused on delivering the unexpected," Shadow Realms Senior Producer Dallas Dickinson said during a demonstration event at PAX Prime this weekend. After seeing the game in action, "unexpected" doesn't even begin to describe the chaos that will soon be unleashed by a developer rooted in deliberately paced single-player RPGs. BioWare's Shadow Realms is a 4-versus-1 competitive multiplayer game that aims to capture the unpredictable nature of a dungeon master directing a tabletop game. The result is a deft mixture of Left 4 Dead and Tecmo's Deception series, challenging a party of players to navigate deadly dungeons overseen by a sadistic and omnipresent human opponent.
BioWare's Shadow Realms plans to maximize player feedback
At this point, we're all familiar with this year's ubiquitous marketing bullet point of "community feedback," but it's still slightly surprising to hear it from an established developer like BioWare. Shadow Realms from BioWare Austin was announced yesterday and it's taking an approach not standard for a publisher like Electronic Arts. The game is being designed with community feedback in mind. "That's one of the reasons we want to invite players to alpha, because we desperately want people to tell us what they think. We want both the data and the opinion," BioWare Austin general manager Jeff Hickman told us at Gamescom. "If you do listen to your players you will heavily increase your chances of making a popular game."
BioWare announces Shadow Realms, a D&D-inspired co-op dungeon crawler
BioWare has just announced a brand-new IP for the studio: Shadow Realms, a "4v1 story-driven online action RPG" that was inspired by the team's love of tabletop Dungeons & Dragons. Shadow Realms isn't a full-fledged MMO, but will put players in the shoes of contemporary Earth heroes who will jump between our world of technology and another of magic. The twist for the game is that a team of four heroes will be opposed by one player who will assume the role of a dungeon master-like Shadowlord. "With Shadow Realms, we decided that the Shadowlord should interact with and see the gameplay world in a similar way to the hero players –- albeit with better tactical knowledge," BioWare wrote. "Their objective is to stop the group of heroes by haunting them, setting traps, casting spells, summoning monsters, and controlling any monster in the level." The game will grow with episodic storytelling, offer "deep combat customization," and feature six classes. Shadow Realms is set to go into closed beta this fall.
BioWare debuts original 4-on-1 action RPG, Shadow Realms
BioWare Austin shared a tease of Shadow Realms, its new IP at EA's Gamescom 2014 presentation. It's a 4 vs. 1 online action RPG arriving on PC next year. Players can manipulate the environment as the above shadow lord, or align with friends against it. Group General Manager Matthew Bromberg explained that Shadow Realms' overarching story will develop "like a great TV series," with each episode being "experienced together, by the community, as it's released." Bromberg says that Shadow Realms began as a "quest to recapture the feeling" of a D&D table adventure, with parties facing a foe capable of guiding the challenges they're faced with. Those interested in an early, alpha-flavored taste can head to official site to sign up, as the first round of closed testing will happen next month.
More kids have public 'oopsy' in BioWare teasers
Bioware is expected to reveal its next big franchise at next week's Gamescom show in Cologne, Germany. Here are the latest teasers with an electrifying ramen experience and a girl who insists something isn't her fault. Spoiler: it probably totally is. If you want to go further down the teaser hole, there also appears to be an ARG for the reveal.
BioWare's teaser linked to 'Seeking Henna' ARG mystery
Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare teased fans with a brief trailer that may or may not be a new project named "Shadow Realms." The developer sent emails with the teaser video and a link to a "You've Been Chosen" website owned by EA that featured the phrasing "The time is near. They are watching. Your power is rising. Cologne, Germany. You've Been Chosen." That website isn't the only one registered to EA, however, as BioWare's teaser has been linked to a "Seeking Henna" alternate-reality game of sorts. As detailed by Dulfy.net, the Seeking Henna website includes a police report and a blog with some letters being underlined, indicating a code of some sort for fans to crack. The other site in question is for the "Woods-Watson Institute of Higher Learning."
BioWare tease points to possible Shadow Realms reveal
BioWare may be set to unveil a new project shortly, that's if you go off the clues tied to a teaser the company posted on YouTube. The 44 seconds of footage are as vague as the developer's E3 video, but online sleuths have connected dots that may shed some light on something called "Shadow Realms." BioWare sent out a mass email today, linking to a "You've Been Chosen" site featuring the new video. The site's text reads, "The time is near. They are watching. Your power is rising. Cologne, Germany. You've Been Chosen." The timing would suggest Bioware will unveil the project at next month's Gamescom conference in the German city.
