1. We are capitalists, in a capitalist world, if you think game makers are into charity, you are sadly mistaken.
2. for what it is worth, Pathfinder took the torch that Wizards of the Coast crapped on when they made 4th edition & have made a great table top rp game, Wizards has been allowing crap games to be made for years on the D&D name.
I hope they make a great game, only time will tell I guess.
That as it might be... At least they were kind enough to do the open D20 licence so games like Pathfinder could be made. (and a lot of other games that never should have seen thew light of day... Like the first Warcraft rpg and the D20 Cuthulu game) that way people could get the best of both worlds.
And in all honesty looking at the amount of books for the 3 and 3.5 ruleset i do not really feel there is all that much missing that thye chouls have released.
Do you understand that the coder isn't what makes the game revolutionary? The designer does that. It doesn't matter if you were a coder on a WoW clone or on ATITD, you aren't the designer. And furthermore having made such a mainstream MMO says nothing about your desires anyways. I know many people who worked on commercial titles who hated it and wanted to make cool games but they weren't lead designers so they didn't have a choice.
I am somewhat suspicious of Pathfinder. Generally you need a working demo or in progress engine like Repopulation has before you start begging for cash.
Agreed. I would in fact not mind Wows programmers for making a sandbox game at all.
Sure, a sandbox needs to make tools for the players to create their own content but a good experienced programmer is a good experienced programmer.
And I have checked them out too, this is really what Pathfinder needs if they want to succeed. It is also what made MO and DF so small games, their programmers are rather sad, both of those games would have had at least 10 times the players with some competent coders.
All that said, Pathfinder is not really the IP that should be made into a sandbox. I like Pathfinder but it would work better as a mix between DDO and GW2 than a sandbox. There are many other P&P IPs that would make better sandboxes such as Shadowrun, Runequest or Delta green.
OP, are you under the impression that all these designers of existing MMOs cannot come up with something new and different? I think you read too much into it. Even if companies stated they wanted to revolutionize their industry they only hire people who have experience in the said field. The only way for a virtual nobody to be noticed is to create something as big as Minecraft, DoTA mod, DayZ mod, etc.
We are making a next-generation fantasy sandbox MMO.
Next-gen means it will be smaller, cheaper and faster to market than the current AAA MMOs.
To do that we need to make it a sandbox, not a WoW-style theme park.
The reason theme parks cost too much and take too long to make is that the developers need to ship a thousand hours of PvE content before they can ship anything. To pay back the budget required they need hundreds of thousands (and in some cases millions) of players to pay to play at launch.
Making a sandbox means we can release a game with great mechanics and systems and let the players be their own content.
Our Lead Designer is Lee Hammock who was a design lead on Fallen Earth. He's spent the last few yeas working at ZeniMax on Elder Scrolls Online.
Lee is committed to helping us reach our design goals in interesting and innovative ways.
We are currently funded with private money plus the proceeds from our Technology Demo Kickstarter. We have nearly finished work on the Demo and will have lots of footage to show shortly after we return from GDC Online which we're attending this week.
We publish a bi-weekly blog that goes into deep details about the game and our objectives and strategies.
Comments
That as it might be... At least they were kind enough to do the open D20 licence so games like Pathfinder could be made. (and a lot of other games that never should have seen thew light of day... Like the first Warcraft rpg and the D20 Cuthulu game) that way people could get the best of both worlds.
And in all honesty looking at the amount of books for the 3 and 3.5 ruleset i do not really feel there is all that much missing that thye chouls have released.
This have been a good conversation
Agreed. I would in fact not mind Wows programmers for making a sandbox game at all.
Sure, a sandbox needs to make tools for the players to create their own content but a good experienced programmer is a good experienced programmer.
And I have checked them out too, this is really what Pathfinder needs if they want to succeed. It is also what made MO and DF so small games, their programmers are rather sad, both of those games would have had at least 10 times the players with some competent coders.
All that said, Pathfinder is not really the IP that should be made into a sandbox. I like Pathfinder but it would work better as a mix between DDO and GW2 than a sandbox. There are many other P&P IPs that would make better sandboxes such as Shadowrun, Runequest or Delta green.
Hi @Dulu! Happy to address your questions.
We are making a next-generation fantasy sandbox MMO.
Next-gen means it will be smaller, cheaper and faster to market than the current AAA MMOs.
To do that we need to make it a sandbox, not a WoW-style theme park.
The reason theme parks cost too much and take too long to make is that the developers need to ship a thousand hours of PvE content before they can ship anything. To pay back the budget required they need hundreds of thousands (and in some cases millions) of players to pay to play at launch.
Making a sandbox means we can release a game with great mechanics and systems and let the players be their own content.
Our Lead Designer is Lee Hammock who was a design lead on Fallen Earth. He's spent the last few yeas working at ZeniMax on Elder Scrolls Online.
Lee is committed to helping us reach our design goals in interesting and innovative ways.
We are currently funded with private money plus the proceeds from our Technology Demo Kickstarter. We have nearly finished work on the Demo and will have lots of footage to show shortly after we return from GDC Online which we're attending this week.
We publish a bi-weekly blog that goes into deep details about the game and our objectives and strategies.
You can read the blogs here: Goblinworks Website
Ryan S. Dancey
CEO Goblinworks