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Funcom and Stray Bullet license Allegorithmic's Substance Air platform for their MMOs
Two developers have simultaneously turned to a brand new texturing solution for their future MMOs, according to Gamasutra. Both Funcom and Stray Bullet have licensed Allegorithmic's "Substance Air" middleware package, a new set of programs that lets developers keep high resolution textures as extremely small files and even let users modify textures for in-game customization options.Funcom is almost a given for which game this would apply to, as The Secret World is the only game currently on their radar. Stray Bullet, best known as the creators of Shadowbane, is a bit trickier when it comes to saying how it will impact on their new MMO offering.Simply known as the "future fantasy MMO," Stray Bullet has also licensed Simutronics's HeroEngine, the same engine that's currently powering Star Wars: The Old Republic. What they're up to is anyone's guess, but the presence of the extremely versatile HeroEngine and the addition of Substance Air could be pointing to a nice level of user-customization and/or "on-the-fly" developing coming with their latest unannounced fantasy offering.
Shadowbane dev studio to create MMO for the Wii
Here's a weird Venn diagram for you: those of you who remember Shadowbane with fondness and also love the Nintendo Wii will be totally excited about this piece of news. Stray Bullet, the Austin, Texas MMO developer, have announced that they're working on a new MMO. At the same time, they've posted a few openings on Gamasutra's JobSeeker board, one for a Senior Programmer for an un-named Wii project, and the other for a Gameplay Programmer for an MMO project. Neither posting mentions the other, but chances are, they're for the same project. Really, there's no bad time for wild speculation, so let's get the ball rolling! We're envisioning, obviously enough, actual hack and slash combat with the nunchuk and wiimote. Maybe crafting might take on a whole new dimension with the use of the motion-sensing abilities of the Wii. Maybe it'll be a massively Mii experience! Whatever's coming down the pike, we'll keep our ears to the ground for more info. With this on the way, can the Animal Crossing MMO be far behind? Hey ... what're the odds that this is the Animal Crossing MMO?
