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Earth Eternal development on hold once again
It's been a tough ride for Earth Eternal. We first heard about the original developer, Sparkplay, only days after Massively came into existence in 2007, and we've been following the company ever since. Earth Eternal was voted one of Beau's top F2P games in 2010, as it was enjoying quite a strong run that year -- even to the point where Sparkplay mentioned creating more games outside of EE. Well, that soon ended as the company ran into some serious financial problems that led to the game's hold status. Fast-forward a year, and the game was reborn with a new developer (TurnOut Ventures with OutBlaze)! It re-entered open beta status and looked to be on the road to recovery. Well, the rollercoaster is back on the descent, according to the game's forums. It turns out Earth Eternal's development is once again put on hold until further notice. The servers are still online and the game is still playable, but the small development team at TurnOut has been relocated to other projects. So right now, it seems to be a completely free game with no cash shop. We'll be sure to keep you up-to-date on any further news we hear. [Thanks to Keith for the tip!]
Earth Eternal facing the prospect of shutdown
There's incredibly bad news today about Earth Eternal, the free-to-play browser-based MMO from Sparkplay Media. Or we should say formerly from Sparkplay Media, as it appears that hard times have hit the company with resounding force. In an extremely sad letter, CEO Matt Mihaly has informed players that Sparkplay Media has been all but shut down, with only two remaining employees (including himself) taking care of closing down the company and trying to sell the game to another service provider. Although the game is not currently being shut down, Mihaly is frank about its prospects: it entirely depends on whether or not another company will pick up the hosting costs of running Earth Eternal. For the time being, the game has made all of its microtransaction items free for all players, in hopes that whatever the game's ultimate fate, players can enjoy it for a little while longer. Our consolations go out to the team behind the game, and we offer our sympathies for what has no doubt been a painful process for the entire staff.
Earth Eternal celebrates Zombie Awareness Month
Did you know that May is Zombie Awareness Month? Well, now you do, as do the folks at Earth Eternal. They've prepared for the event in the nick of time -- hordes of undead are invading the lands of Earth Eternal, threatening the land and the beasts that inhabit it. What's worse, rumors are flying that some of the beasts are assisting the zombies, as well as "glorious rewards" promised to those who help feed their appetites. The heroes of Bremen, Heartwood, and Camelot need your aid in defeating the zombie invasion. Log in to Earth Eternal every weekend this May to warn the people, defend the beasts, and learn the secret behind the zombie invasion and strange alliances being formed. The first event is this weekend, May 15th - 16th. Sparkplay warns players to be careful: "zombies may not be fast, but they are everywhere!"
Earth Eternal updates items, offers client download
Sparkplay brings word of a significant update to their free-to-play MMORPG Earth Eternal. The patch features major changes to both the in-game content as well as the client itself, which is now available for download in addition to the traditional browser-based interface. The game world now features the new entry zone of Bastion Island, a comprehensive rework of the Mushroom Isle starter area, and a total item revamp to prepare for forthcoming PvP tweaks. Included in the item update are new high level items as well as a new classification system that breaks items down into categories. Sparkplay hopes the changes will enable players to sort at a glance and manage valuable items more efficiently. Finally, armor is now wearable by every class, adding to both visual and utility customization. Check out the Earth Eternal website for further details or to register and grab the client. Plus, take a trip after the break to check out the teaser trailer for Bastion Island and the war against the Anubian army!
Sparkplay Media secures more funding, may introduce new projects outside Earth Eternal
Sparkplay Media, the team behind the browser/client hybrid free-to-play title Earth Eternal, has just wrangled up an additional 2.8 million dollars in investments, according to a filing within the SEC. The team is certainly showing growth, as noted in a recent interview with the new lead designer on Earth Eternal when he asks for more members on his team, but VentureBeat believes that Sparkplay is experimenting on more projects outside of Earth Eternal. Currently their job page speaks otherwise, as Sparkplay is looking for more developers to be placed onto the Earth Eternal team. But, even if the company isn't working on new projects, more investments are only good news as it means more ambitious updates will likely be coming to Earth Eternal in the coming year, thanks to more people working on the project. [Thanks for the tip, Ripper!]
Come test Earth Eternal tonight, get a special beta gift
There's nothing we love here at Massively more than giving our devoted readers the chance to get into betas whenever we can. That's why when Sparkplay Media contacted us today to ask if we could help them fill their servers to bursting with gamers who were interested in their upcoming anthropomorphic fantasy game Earth Eternal, we knew just what to do. So, we asked for a bunch of beta keys to give out! They were all too glad to give us a large bundle, which we've now set up on our beta key server for you to grab.But if free beta keys weren't fun enough, Sparkplay decided to make the deal even more interesting by offering a very special beta item available to any and all testers who log in tonight at 5PM Pacific (8PM Eastern). All you have to do is play some Earth Eternal and help them push the servers hard. Testers who show up and give them a hand during that time-frame will get a special "Beta Beast" Earth Eternal banner to display. So if you've been curious about this casual-friendly fantasy MMO, then be sure to go snag one of the beta codes and pop by tonight at 5PM Pacific to lend a hand.
Meet the Sparkplay Media team: Part Two, pg. 2
Massively: Is there any MMO that has influenced your work on Earth Eternal, and if so how did it influence you? Ryne Anderson, programmer: Absolutely! One of the most enjoyable aspects in working with games is digging into the titles that you really enjoy and seeing if you can't make them a bit better by throwing your own unique spin on them. Of note, World of Warcraft has been my shining beacon throughout the project. The simplicity of getting a player into the action opened the floodgates to people who might have previously been intimidated by the stigma that MMO's were for 'hardcore' players. Earth Eternal aims to not only meet, but exceed the accessibility of the current 3D MMOs, by not requiring a monthly subscription or up-front payment to play– all within a very polished game world that you can play in a browser. What Earth Eternal race represents you the best and why? Ryne: Being a technical guy myself, it is without a doubt the Clockwork. First and foremost, his look is amazingly different from all of the other races in Earth Eternal. Secondly, let's face it: robots are awesome! (Unfortunately though, I can't be a robot ninja in Earth Eternal...yet.) If you could pick out your favorite part of Earth Eternal, what would it be and why? Ryne: As hinted above, I'm really into accessibility for any type of player. To me, if we can get a player, from seeing our webpage, to in the game killing monsters in five minutes or less, that's a huge win for both us and the player. I believe we have succeeded in this, as our intro area not only looks beautiful, but gets players into the action right away. What has been the most difficult obstacle for you to overcome in your work on Earth Eternal? Ryne: Making any sort of game is always a learning process, and sometimes simple issues turn out to be much larger when you try to lay out all the details. For me, the most difficult part of making an MMO is keeping the client and server in sync at all times. It's a trade-off between being responsive to the commands issued by the player and validating that they are actually allowed to do those commands on the server. What are some of the limitations/problems you encounter when coding for both a client and a browser-based game? How have you guys overcome that? Ryne: Honestly, getting the game running in the browser isn't a monumental task. It requires a bit of touch-up every time a new browser version comes out, but the plugin we have is fairly solid. The difference between the browser and client version are pretty minimal. Having said that, since we are running in a browser we want the game to be able to run on as many computers as possible, and optimizing for all sorts of different configurations is always quite a challenge.Thank you so much to the Sparkplay Team for lending the time to answer our questions! If you're interested in Earth Eternal or would like to put your name into the hat for the closed beta, stop by their website!
Earth Eternal opens sign ups for closed beta test
Interested in running around a browser-based MMO fantasy world filled with over 22 races? Yes? Then you need to get over to Earth Eternal's website and sign up for their recently announced closed beta test!Earth Eternal is an an MMO that's all about what happens when humanity ceases to exist and the Earth is roamed by beasts of myth once more. It's also free to play and will run on almost any computer thanks to a client that runs inside of the browser, similar to Cartoon Network's FusionFall. Players will find a wide variety of features available, including multi-classing abilities, customizable housing in the form of "groves," and a design emphasis on small groups rather than huge raids.There's still no release date announced for Earth Eternal, but we're guessing that with the closed beta happening so soon, there can't be much time left before the release date is fully confirmed.
