by Jeromy Walsh
20. March 2009 22:29
Hi Everyone,
Introduction
Over the past few weeks the
designers, story writers, artists, and sound engineers have been
working almost around the clock to put together an amazing project. The
quality of contributors and the dedication can be seen in the concept
art and audio samples which have been submitted and the number of
people who are online during the wee hours of the morning discussing
story and design on IRC.
With that in mind, I sat down with the
project leads and had a talk with them. While I envision LGO to be a
fun little MMO which people can spend 10-20 hours of time playing, the
real point of this project is to develop a code-base and framework
which people can use to develop their own MMO's. As a result, any
effort we put towards the game is going to be discarded by the majority
of people who pick up the book, in favor of integrating their own
story, assets, and design.
In truth, I feel like the story
that is being worked on and the people who are contributing to it
deserve more than that. So having concluded my discussion with the
project leads I've decided to take LGO in a new direction, and spawn a
concurrent project instead.
Level-Grind Online/XNA Starter Kit
In
contrast to our previous work, Level-Grind Online is now going to be
pursued as a disposable, cookie-cutter MMO. It will have the usual
features and functionality found in most MMO's, along with a collection
of quests, items, spells, class, races, etc... It will also have
between 10 and 20 levels of content, including a dungeon or two and a
few zones to explore. The primary difference is that LGO will no longer
have a deeply fleshed out story, and I no longer intend to host the
game after completion of the XNA Starter Kit.
As a result, I
will still be needing concept art, models, and audio to accompany the
book and the MMO. However, the artwork will not be based on a rich
story, and will hover around a more traditional RPG setting of
Sorcerers, Warrior, Rogues, and Clerics. So if you're an artist, sound
engineer, or writer wanting to get your name into the book, there is
still a need and way for you to do so.
Chronicles of the Five Kingdoms
In
addition to Level-Grind Online we will be spawning a new, concurrent
project which I at this precise moment temporarily named the Chronicles
of the Five Kingdoms as it most closely describes the project.
We
will be using the story, art, and music which has been contributed so
far and we will be putting them towards the development of a few
single-player RPG's. This will be done in order to flesh out the story,
give people an opportunity to become familiar with our game mechanics,
and develop an IP which people recognize. These RPG's are going to be
commercially available both for the PC via a website, as well as for
the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Community Games portal.
After
the completion of these RPG's and the establishment of a stable
following, we plan to develop another MMO, using the base code from
Cot5K and LGO.
At
present I am not setting up a separate website, as our primary focus is
still on finishing LGO. However the website may undergo some changes to
reflect the new, dual nature of our community. This is being done in
order to keep the team together, and to continue to fuel the team's
creative synergy. After the completion of LGO, we will move the
relevant forums, etc.. to a new website dedicated solely to Cot5K.
I
look forward to working with all of you both on the development and
completion of LGO, as well as on the new commercial project (final name
pending).
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