At IMGDC 2.0, we met the folks from Stainglass Llama, a small studio making a game called Divergence. You may know my standing policy of not paying attention to anything more than 6 months from release, which has kept me from thinking about them. They are still working on it, and more than six months from release, but you might be interested.
If nothing else, this is something good to read for those of you hoping to live the dream of making your own MMO. We’ll show them all, right? Middleware is better these days, but it is still hard. If you look through their news history (the old site is more functional at present), you can see milestones like having a world they can walk around, actually being able to connect to that world, and getting basic chat. All those things that you consider basic and necessary? It takes a bit of work to get them going yourself. Filling in the content is even more work — even when it is not hard, there is a lot of it. For an easy extrapolation on that “develop content” problem, try making something in the City of Heroes Mission Architect. How long does it take to make one good story arc, including all the troubleshooting, text editing, making unique enemies, etc.? Okay, now multiply that by 1000 for the full game, and that is just the quests, and you had all the tech and art supplied for you.
They’re starting to fill all that in, so if you have ever wanted to get in on the ground floor as alpha starts up, here is a chance. They would love your attention and discussion. They would also love your money, if you have been hoping to fund an MMO. (On another front, our old buddy Nicodemus is wondering about funding a start-up via Twitter connections; I suppose it spoils that question for me to mention it here, but if you have the few hundred k for augmented reality development, I’m sure Robert Rice would love to talk to you.) I’m not sure at what point such the proper phrase goes from “dream” to “investment,” but then I am a professional skeptic and evaluator by profession, so don’t let me rain on your parade.
It’s Friday. Dream a little.
: Zubon
I like small developers and any sci-fi foray into MMO-land. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll be keeping tabs on it.
Looks interesting. And yes, ground up development is A LOT of work.
It’s an interesting concept and an aggressive move from an indie pub releasing a SW:ToR-esque game. But you do never know who is going to have the next idie hit, look at the World of Goo.
Do you know how much they are looking to raise? This is the second time I read about MMO Investing on this blog. By trade I discover trends and capitalize on them. For one I am going to carry this topic over in my next blog, look me up on mmocrunch.com
I’m keeping this game on my watch list.
Great blog btw,
Frank