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That makes four.
jgankum
Member Posts: 153
From the news page of MMORPG:
" Simutronics today announced its three latest licensees for HeroEngine, the industry leading technology platform for development of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games.
A World of My Own (AWOMO) is a virtual island where gamers meet and explore, and which uses HeroEngine as its technology platform. The island serves as a portal for a growing series of high-end 3D games that are downloaded and played together. AWOMO is published by Games Domain International in partnership with Virgin Games UK with software development by Trianit in Germany. AWOMO is being hailed by Sir Richard Branson as "the iTunes of PC Gaming."
In addition, two US developers are also licensing HeroEngine: Stray Bullet Games of Texas and Colony Studios of California. More details about these projects will be announced in the near future.
"We welcome our new licensees. After massive technology diligence they all saw how using HeroEngine's advanced features and revolutionary workflow will bring to market leading edge MMO games faster than ever before," said David Whatley, CEO of Simutronics and HeroEngine's visionary.
HeroEngine is on exhibit this week at the San Francisco Game Developers Conference in booth 144. The HeroEngine website is www.heroengine.com."
Comments
I mean first Bio-Ware and now some people with serious money.. GO SIMUTRONICS!
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
It seems a bit odd to me that the CEO is talking about how the "advanced features and revolutionary workflow will bring to market leading edge MMO games faster then ever before" when HJ itself doesnt even have a prospected beta date. Dont get me wrong I am dieing for this game to finally come out, or at least start beta, but how much longer are we going to have to wait? When the CEO is making comments like that...
I would say they are using this to fund their HJ project. Not a bad idea, and with all extra developers using the system, any potentious bugs and flaws will be found and worked out alot faster.
These are some smart people. It is hard for Indies to make games without publishers sticking their noses in, so Simutronics found a way to personally fund their baby. Also, since HeroEngine is designed to include a platform for GMs to add to the game after release, does that mean these other MMOs will consider allowing GMs to expand and develop their worlds as well?
Bioware did it successfully with NWN, great toolset, great support, hundreds of user created modules and thousands of pieces of user made art content. If the HeroEngine provides a complete toolset and GM system, maybe it is something Bioware will plan for in their upcoming MMOs.
World Builder GM
Hero's Journey
This made me curious about how Simu is getting payed by the companies that license Hero Engine.
For example, what if Simu wasn't charging a giant lump some up front, but instead worked out a profit sharing deal with developers. Like, Bioware and others don't have to spend all of that time/effort/resources to develop their own engines, and in return Simu gets 2% of the games future earnings.
All theory of course, but if Simu puts together a profit-sharing deal with even 1 developer that creates a hit MMO, the residual income would be more than enough to fund all of HJ's lofty goals.
This scenario doesn't provide a very attractive timeline for people who wanna play HJ *now, but whatever. Theorycrafting is all we have to work with on the HJ forum these days.
For most of the AAA game engines I know of the middleware developer charges an upfront sum for licensing, an annual maintenance fee for updates and support, and royalties on released products.
World Builder GM
Hero's Journey
One thing I've always admired about Simutronics is their mantra seems to be, "Why not?"...
We can't find what we're looking for in current engines... what are we going to do? make our own? - Why not?
I guess that the delay to the release is that they want to get it right and also that due to heavy involvement and testing from GM's that the Beta will be more a case of stress testing and not really content testing. It will be abreath of fresh air new game new content and all the walkthrough guides on how to hit max level in 10 minutes aren't available.
Roll on HJ and when we have World builders on the forums thats an indication things that they are still about.
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel