Revival - concept art for production stage 2.

Yanocchi

Revival is a multiplayer evolving online world game developed by Illfonic.

It is the first game since Neverwinter Nights where live human dungeon masters will lurk behind the scenes in a persistent multiplayer world to enhance storytelling, immersion and role-playing. Dungeon masters will have many tools and systems to monitor and manipulate the world, introduce new storytelling content and organise events and adventures. Live dungeon masters will be company employees working on gold servers. Access to gold servers will require a monthly subscription fee. Developers will also create elaborate virtual DM systems. Free-to-play servers will have only virtual DM, while gold servers will have both virtual DM and live human DMs. 

Development of the game is funded completely by the company. It is not a crowdfunded game. According to one of the lead designers, Revival is a passion project for Illfonic and they are funding the game using profit from their other projects. The company's other projects include Star Citizen, Armored Warfare, Sonic Boom, Friday the 13th: The Game, Moving Hazard, Nexuiz and Ruby tech demo.

Players can contribute some extra funding to speed up the development by purchasing homes for real life money. However, developers are very confident that they can create the game using only their own funding. They have promised that extra funding coming from players is not essential to complete the game.


The game is developed and produced in six stages.

Stage 1 - create housing interiors (tenements, cottages, houses, manses, estates)
Stage 2 - create the first island and city (Crown's Rock)
Stage 3 - bring the world online
Stage 4 - implement game systems and features
Stage 5 - expand the game world and features
Stage 6 - full game experience


Production of Stage 1 started in the beginning of this year and its final phases should be complete during the next few months. The company has also been able to develop some server, networking and backend features during this stage.

Starting from May developers have begun to include concept art for Stage 2 in their weekly blog updates.

The city of Crown's Rock will be large by MMORPG standards.
There will be 1500 homes for NPCs and 500 homes for players in Crown's Rock. 
It will take 30-40 minutes to walk from the south gate to the north gate.
The city will offer experiences ranging from politics, crafting, trading and socialising to urban adventures, mysteries and horrors.


Crown's Rock (August 18)

Crown's Rock (July 17)

A village within the Walls (August 28)

The Cathedral of Nodens at Crown's Rock (September 18)

The South Gate of Crown's Rock (October 23)

Streets of Crown's Rock (October 16)

A small market plaza (September 9)

The seedier parts of town (October 2)






Docks at Crown's Rock (August 14)

Another Crown's Rock sketch (September 25)

Exterior illustration of a cottage (July 3)

A typical Crown's Rock tenement building (June 26)

A tenement building (May 22)

A manse exterior (June 19)

Exterior concepts of a mansion (June 12)

Illustration of a house (May 29)

Another illustration of a house (May 15)

Yanocchi

Map of Crown's Rock

Affluence of citizens in different city districts

Prestige of different city districts according to location

Safety and amount of crime in different city districts



Interactive Map of Crown's Rock

Yanocchi

Orchestras and musicians from around the world are creating music for Revival.

Here is the main theme of Revival.

Yanocchi

The latest weekly blog update implies that Revival will cater more to role-players and gamers interested in literature than many previous MMORPGs. In Revival players will have to use information in stories and texts to investigate mysteries in the game world. Lore and stories will be very important from the perspective of daily gameplay and players' goals. The lead lore designer has started a new series of blog updates titled Spooky Stories of Crown's Rock.

Weekly Blog Update #51: Something Spooky!

Ombwah: 1 day ago

This week we begin to dive into what I would call pure Lore. These are stories that will exist in books in the game, and that reflect the histories, the colloquial tales, and the character perspectives of the denizens of Theleston. Many of these stories contain bits of “truth” that can be chased in game to discover magic, recipes, or just historic locations. They also contain incomplete knowledge, rumor, and pure fantasy intended for no reason more than entertainment or even deliberately intended to mislead.

Of course, these blogs don’t apply tags to your characters, but that says nothing about you, dear reader! As Halloween is upon us, I’d like to start with a stroll on the creepy side.

This one is called:

The Dollmaker
Excerpted from a letter to Alfred Tannhauser, Printer; from Rory Feathersmot, apprentice scribe 648NR

To Mr. Tannhauser, Printer, Crowns Rock Clarion

I know that some find your press degenerate, and I am ashamed to admit that there were times that I would have agreed, but what I will now relate should assure you that I will doubt the stories in these pages no longer. Indeed, I am embarrassed, now, at the incredulity I visited upon this publication in the past. I have booked passage off of Crowns Rock this very day, but I pray that you print this, my own incredible tale, as a warning to the good people of this city.

I came to Crowns Rock only a year past. I arrived at the Cathedral a young devotee, but when I found that they were not entertaining new students, I found instead a position nearby as an apprentice scribe at the scriptorium on Path of Nodence. The small stipend that I received for my work allowed me to acquire a private room at a nearby tenement called Stonemanor. My room was in the northern building, #23, and though spare, and in the middle of the hallway, it was nonetheless warm and dry. Many of my fellows in the building were likewise petitioners to the Cathedral, like myself, or humble laborers at one of the local taverns. This made some nights raucous, and some mornings come too soon, but the halls were much safer than those across town at the Ten Goats, or the infamous Rose. After a few weeks, I had begun to settle into my daily routine, and to save a little toward a cottage in Abbeyton that I had my eye upon.

I had been living on the ‘Rock for three months or more when I first caught sight of the orphan girl. She was perhaps ten years old, wearing a patched flour-cloth dress, and her red hair was done in two braids. What most caught my attention, though, were her eyes. They were bright, brilliant green. I wondered how anyone could forsake such a child, as she was obviously a beggar. Her smidged cheeks and empty bowl gave her status away. I gave her the loaf I had intended for my lunch, and hurried past to my place of employment. Later, after a long day of letters and quill cutting, I left the scriptorium and saw the girl again. This time she was looking into the storefront of a shop across the road. I crossed to her and before I could ask her name, she turned and scampered off down Grousewalk Way. I looked back to the shop window to see what she had been looking at, and saw row upon row of delicately crafted dolls.

The dollmaker’s shop was closed, but it was clear just from the specimens in the window that the sculptor had skill. They sat as though at high tea, each face peering back at me out of the gloom, little eyes sparkling. They looked almost alive, waifs caught between breaths. I could not see prices, and I assumed that the maker did bespoke orders for rich little girls on Crowns Hill. The little orphan had probably never even held something so valuable. Still, I am not a man of any means at all, so, I turned to leave and saw her again lingering at the mouth of the alley across the way. I imagined that I could see the green of her eyes flashing in the gathering dusk as she fled.

(continued in the next post)

Yanocchi

Over the next few weeks I attempted to talk to the little girl a few times, using cookies or loaves of bread to buy a moment or two of her attention, but she would always take what I offered, eyes alight, then quickly run back off into an alley. Once, I followed, and found her sharing her spoils with a handful of other haggard children in the alley. They scattered, but with some guile and dexterity I managed to trail one back to the Wayward Rest Orphanage on Haedrastraat, and there met their matron. She was a pale woman, thin in her housedress, face drawn with worry. Her name was Miss Marie Annsettle, if my memory serves. I asked her about the children and she confided in my that they have been more skittish lately, as there had been disappearances. Three children had gone missing over the past four months. Unusual for such a quiet city as Crowns Rock. Miss Annsettle told me that the little girl had taken it upon herself to safeguard the remaining young ones. I offered her a few meager coins in charity, as I have always been one to help the needy, and left determined to win the girl’s trust.

The next day, I left for work early, and made my way to the corner where I often saw the orphan girl, but she was not there. So, I followed on to the Dollmaker’s shop across from my place of work. It was closed, as always, but the display in the window had changed. Now the dolls were arranged as though playing hide-and-seek. A boy doll was hiding in a barrel while the others sought. Again I was struck by the lifelike expressions on the little porcelain faces, especially the illusion of light in their glassy eyes. I stopped by the orphanage again, and there I saw the orphan girl playing in the yard with the children from the day before. I brought them a ball, and spoke again with Miss Ansettle. The children were happy with my gift and took to playing with it right away. I was pleased, and went to my work glad to have helped.

I saw the orphan girl again as I left work. She was back at the window of the dollmaker’s shop. So I quietly approached her, and when she didn’t run, I asked her what she was looking at in the window, if there was a doll that she fancied. She shook her head, but her eyes didn’t leave the little boy hiding in the barrel. I asked if she wanted that one, perhaps the boy, but that idea seemed to frighten her again, and with a wide-eyed shake of her head she ran away, back up the alley towards the orphanage. This time I did not follow.

When I saw her next, the girl was leading her waifish troupe through the open plaza between the Cathedral and the dormitories. They were kicking the ball I had given them between them as the flock roiled across the flagstones. She waved to me, I remember it clearly. I waved back and went on to work. I remember I had to work late to finish an edition of lewd stories for a private client in Leeside. I’m sure my burning cheeks were proof against the evening chill as I locked the shop door and began home. I noted that there were shades drawn in the shopkeeper’s window, and light blazed from within. Shadows moved inside, a handful of them, large and small. I thought that the unseen proprietor must be rearranging the dolls in the window as he had in the past, and I hurried away into the misty night.

When again I saw the girl, a week or more later, it was just approaching midday and I was hurrying, late, to the scriptorium to complete a menu set for the Alder Crown Inn. I would have to hand-deliver it myself that evening when I had finished. I saw the little orphan girl selling flowers near Manorside Way. I was quite pre-occupied or I would have perhaps noticed that she was alone, but I was in a hurry to get to work. That night I left the hall late, and crossing the street, I peered into the dollmaker’s shop. The blinds had been opened, and I was curious to see what scene the proprietor had been setting up the night previous. Indeed, the dolls were again shifted. This time, the children in the window stood poised as though running and playing, kicking a small leather ball, a ball like the one I had given to the children at the orphanage, I thought that a bit curious, I admit, but nothing too alarming. After all, the orphan children often ran through these streets on the way to beg in the Cathedral yard, and I was tired from a long day at the scribal table.

Another week went by without incident. I saw neither the orphan children, nor their redheaded leader. I visited the orphanage once, but found the yard empty, and the doors latched. The caretaker answered the door, and took my few coins, but was so reticent to speak that I thought him perhaps a mute. Resignedly, I left for my stool at the scriptorium. That night the shopkeepers windows were again shuttered, and the shadows danced in the light beyond.

I had no time in the morning to see the new display, but as I left in the late evening, I strolled over to see what new scene the dollmaker had wrought, but as I approached the glass, horror froze me in my tracks. The dolls were chasing through the street, flowers strewn about them, and running ahead of them was a little redheaded girl, hair in two braids. My breath caught in my throat, as what couldn’t be was made plain before me, my last waking image is of those eyes, those stunning green eyes!

I hardly remember the details of the rest of that night, my impressions are all of fear, fury, and finally, flames. I woke in an unfamiliar home, under the ministrations of the owner, an older man by the name of Ketch. Apparently, his man had found me wandering The ‘Reach, raving and crying out to the statues of the Nightgaunts that stand vigil in the square. He took me in to his home at #20 Westgate, and nursed me through many days of brain fever.

Shortly after I first woke, Mr. Ketch sent his man to my tenement to retrieve my belongings. He was fascinated with my account, which we had discussed over my rehabilitation. I remember little of my mad flight from the dollmaker’s shop, nor of the fire that consumed the block on Grousewalk way. I have a recurring dream, though, since that night of the fire, of a little redheaded girl holding my hand and leading me through a jumble of shop-tools and gruesome implements that I dare not think on the purpose of.

I think that perhaps Mr Ketch didn’t believe me at the first, but after his man told him of the strange caller that rang last night after the crier was past, he seemed even more keen than before. As Ketch’s man told it, a young girl had arrived in the night, asking after me. When he had said I was in bed she left quickly, but not before leaving him something to return to me, my hat, dirty and singed by fire. When I asked what she looked like, he was hesitant to respond, saying that she had stayed in the shadow outside his lamp, but that he couldn’t help but to notice her eyes, shining and green, even in the dark.

Yanocchi

Kitchen Renovation Kit (October 30)

Whip up a quick snack or five-course meal in this stunning full-service kitchen. Aspiring cooks are provided with a hearth and oven, a chopping block, and all cabinetry necessary to hold stock and serve guests. Just add your own ingredients and talent and start cooking!

Required Upgradeable Room Attributes: Window, Chimney

Included Items:
1x Oven
1x Chopping Block
1x Kitchen Fireplace
1x Table
1x Wooden Buffet
1x Stool
1x Liquor Cabinet
1x Simple Cabinet
1x Wicker Basket
1x Candle Chandelier

Yanocchi

House Decoration Tool Video (November 5)

Wizardry

I know the Unreal Engines quite well,imo great engines.
Only bummer for me is and likely not the case,i would like to see the windows as real windows,they can break and you can go through them.

It all looks and sounds pretty good,the only problem i have is ,it might come off as another Star Citizen.I will start by saying this already has more to show than what SC had while starting out.However i am not so big on spending all resources early on making items/houses to sell while the actual game is nowhere to be seen.

The reason is obvious,it is imo easy to do the instance ideas,like a house or ship although it takes more work doing houses than a ship,which is mainly just hull walls with a cockpit.

Also i cannot speak for other people but houses are really nice/cool but i will get bored of them after a short while.Example i spent maybe a week decorating and fixing up houses in EQ2 but after that stage i rarely visited it and spent all my time in guild hall instead.SO to have my entire investment in a house where i won't spend hardly anytime,doesn't sit well with me.

I would MUCH rather see houses earned in game and just pay a subscription fee.I should let it be known i would go as high as 25 a month sub fee if a game was really good.ALso i might add to my already mentioned point is that,when you have a MONEY grab idea,it tends to get the most attention,often times the game gets nothing but those ships or houses just keep coming.

Yanocchi

In the end of the video Kehdrin says that Stage 1 is almost completed. In addition to housing they have also produced a modular house building system which will help them in the future whenever they create new buildings and interiors for them. I guess the system will allow them to create buildings ranging in size from really small to really huge because they've worked on houses ranging from small cottages to very large estates during Stage 1.

They really had only two choices how to start production of the game if you think about it. They could have either started with exterior environment for the island and the city, or the interior environment for the buildings. They decided to go with interiors first. Their Art & Level designers also started working on exteriors six months ago, as mentioned in blog #27.

Overall, their production plan feels logical. Instead of trying to produce many different systems all at once and jumping between many different things, they concentrate on one thing at a time. Maybe production will be slower than usual as a result but hopefully they can deliver better quality this way.

Owning a house may give a bit of a boost to one's immersion into the game world and a boost to the game's production. I agree that just sitting in the house and decorating it will get really boring when the game is so early in production. It may take another year before players will be able to leave the house and explore the city. Lead designers have mentioned somewhere on Revival's website that house sales are aimed primarily at Stage 3, when the game world goes online and players can leave the houses and explore the island. Whenever someone expresses doubts about buying a house, even lead designers suggest that it may be a good idea to wait and decide later.

All of the currently available houses are on Crown's Rock.They cannot really add new houses until Stage 5 in development when they begin to expand the world. However, they will probably add commercial real estate and boats at some point before that. They've promised that players will be able to build ships and boats with shipbuilding skills instead of limiting them to real life money purchases. Shipbuilding is supposed to become the most challenging and complicated crafting skill in the game. Houses bought with real life money may need to be rebuilt using only in-game materials and resources if they become damaged or destroyed.

Yanocchi

Revival Wood Density Test (E3 2014)


The video shows some content made for Revival in 2014. Illfonic decided to toss out most of the content in the video, keeping only some specific elements like the character model for early versions of the game until they can create character creator and other new content.

Talonsin

Great share, thanks.

Yanocchi

Today Illfonic released a new version of Revival's game client which includes the house decorate tool.

The game client is now available as an official download instead of relying on bittorrent.
http://www.revivalgame.com/misc/Revival_ClientPatcher.zip

In phase 4 of production stage 1 they will create upgradeable room kits and work on some bugs with the previous phases. After that they should be entering production stage 2.


The following video was made by a player who owns a manse.

 

Jemcrystal

Sry if you mentioned this already but I don't want to wall txt scrl.  What are system requirements?

nerovergil

i love medieval game, looking forward for your game, make sure u make female character hot and beautiful (realistic face like 3d printed, like archeage), big boobs big ass, 1st person camera, i will pay!!!!!

nariusseldon

How many DMs are you going to hire? Or are you going to let any customer to be a DM if they want to?

Yanocchi

I'm just a player myself but I can answer based on what is generally known about their company and the information revealed to us by Snipehunter, Kedhrin and Ombwah on Revival's website and forum.

@Jemcrystal ;The current version of the game client runs completely smoothly at highest resolution on my high-end PC bought in 2012. Since it is a very early version, they haven't included any advanced graphics options or settings in the game client yet. You can only change resolution and windowed/full screen mode.

@nerovergil It will be a horror / dark fantasy game, Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythos and low fantasy setting. As for hot and beautiful female characters, there is evidence that they are capable of delivering that. Two or three years ago their company made Ruby tech demo for AMD. However, for Revival they want gritty dark realism instead of perfect looking skimpily clad foxy ladies.



@nariusseldon They will have very strict and demanding process for hiring DMs. Their DMs will be company employees working at the company's office.

Here is what the lead lore designer wrote about DMs:

https://www.revivalgame.com/forum#/discussion/958/storytellers-writers-hiring

We're unlikely to be hiring up on writers right away, we've still got a lot of world to get built before I need to build out the ST.

That said, the skills that I'll be looking for are an ability to create compelling scenarios and interesting characters, the ability to work a fairly complex proprietary toolset, an understanding of drama and a passable hand at online roleplay. Also very important is some experience with tabletop roleplay, and an ability to take direction and stick to a script, but also to improvise when and where necessary without overstepping storyline limits. Finally, it will be imperative that any ST does not become particularly attached to a given NPC or character, and that they be able to maintain proper perspective as Storytellers. Which can be a tricky line.

All of our ST's will be in-house, as they must be monitored whenever they are using our ST toolset and operating on the servers. All ST actions will be logged and thoroughly scrutinized, as the integrity of our ST's is paramount.

ste2000

nerovergil said:

i love medieval game, looking forward for your game, make sure u make female character hot and beautiful (realistic face like 3d printed, like archeage), big boobs big ass, 1st person camera, i will pay!!!!!

Ehehh........maybe they should sell beautiful characters instead of houses

Yanocchi

Developers said that keeping a character clean and beautiful will be a challenge in the game. Players will have to bathe or wash their characters and maybe do other beauty and hygiene stuff. Many objects in people's houses like a wash basin or chamber pot will have a functional purpose. Of course, they might have some ideas in early production that won't really make it into the game.

nerovergil

Yanocchi said:

I'm just a player myself but I can answer based on what is generally known about their company and the information revealed to us by Snipehunter, Kedhrin and Ombwah on Revival's website and forum.

@Jemcrystal ;The current version of the game client runs completely smoothly at highest resolution on my high-end PC bought in 2012. Since it is a very early version, they haven't included any advanced graphics options or settings in the game client yet. You can only change resolution and windowed/full screen mode.

@nerovergil It will be a horror / dark fantasy game, Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythos and low fantasy setting. As for hot and beautiful female characters, there is evidence that they are capable of delivering that. Two or three years ago their company made Ruby tech demo for AMD. However, for Revival they want gritty dark realism instead of perfect looking skimpily clad foxy ladies.



@nariusseldon They will have very strict and demanding process for hiring DMs. Their DMs will be company employees working at the company's office.

Here is what the lead lore designer wrote about DMs:

https://www.revivalgame.com/forum#/discussion/958/storytellers-writers-hiring

We're unlikely to be hiring up on writers right away, we've still got a lot of world to get built before I need to build out the ST.

That said, the skills that I'll be looking for are an ability to create compelling scenarios and interesting characters, the ability to work a fairly complex proprietary toolset, an understanding of drama and a passable hand at online roleplay. Also very important is some experience with tabletop roleplay, and an ability to take direction and stick to a script, but also to improvise when and where necessary without overstepping storyline limits. Finally, it will be imperative that any ST does not become particularly attached to a given NPC or character, and that they be able to maintain proper perspective as Storytellers. Which can be a tricky line.

All of our ST's will be in-house, as they must be monitored whenever they are using our ST toolset and operating on the servers. All ST actions will be logged and thoroughly scrutinized, as the integrity of our ST's is paramount.

Dont underestimate beautiful female character, its as important as the combat system

i want realistic body not anime like. realistic, like archeage

Azaron_Nightblade

ste2000 said:

nerovergil said:

i love medieval game, looking forward for your game, make sure u make female character hot and beautiful (realistic face like 3d printed, like archeage), big boobs big ass, 1st person camera, i will pay!!!!!

Ehehh........maybe they should sell beautiful characters instead of houses

They wouldn't be the first MMO to do that. 

nerovergil

i love good plot quest, but i hate incoming wall of text quest.

after hard day at work i prefer a simple text quest, remember player has life too. build a game that will give good effect to player life.

Yanocchi

nerovergil said:

i love good plot quest, but i hate incoming wall of text quest.

after hard day at work i prefer a simple text quest, remember player has life too. build a game that will give good effect to player life.

I found an excerpt that touches this subject in one of Revival's blog updates:

Complaints of flat progression and boring quests are reflections of the value of knowledge in those (existing MMO) games: What sets one quest apart from another is often the narrative and the knowledge it conveys, rather than its mechanics or the actions you take to complete it and if that knowledge has no value, then that quest is no different from any other and everything is flat.

https://www.revivalgame.com/blog/45-weekly-blog-update-44-study-hard


Whatever they are planning, they want to make it very different from how it's done in traditional MMOs.

nariusseldon

Yanocchi said:

@nariusseldon They will have very strict and demanding process for hiring DMs. Their DMs will be company employees working at the company's office.

Really? How many users do you need for each DMs? and how many are you hiring?

It seems to be you are turning the business from a software model (i.e. the game), or a service business (selling DM's time). How much are you going to charge to make this work?

nerovergil

Yanocchi said:

nerovergil said:

i love good plot quest, but i hate incoming wall of text quest.

after hard day at work i prefer a simple text quest, remember player has life too. build a game that will give good effect to player life.

I found an excerpt that touches this subject in one of Revival's blog updates:

Complaints of flat progression and boring quests are reflections of the value of knowledge in those (existing MMO) games: What sets one quest apart from another is often the narrative and the knowledge it conveys, rather than its mechanics or the actions you take to complete it and if that knowledge has no value, then that quest is no different from any other and everything is flat.

https://www.revivalgame.com/blog/45-weekly-blog-update-44-study-hard


Whatever they are planning, they want to make it very different from how it's done in traditional MMOs.

not eveything in a current mmorpg is bad, some is good, for me i hate something hard in the game, life is already very hard, i want to achieve some win feeling when playing game, but no too easy wins like treasure box every 1 hour of playing and that craps.

andi hate puzzle and finding path/road (tricky road), the simplicity like archeage (arrow where to walk to quest) is good.

gw2 is a good benchmard for a mmorpg, it has structural pvp, im all about #esport mmorpg player...but this just me, i enjoy pvp aspect more than others.

i love how revival have that historical system, not all player can defeat the mvp boss, only a few, but can u guys keep up with new content to compete with revival player base? i think there is no problem with spawning mvp boss, repetitive can be fun if the dungeon made challenging, not  spamming 1 fest like gw2 world boss.

Yanocchi

@nariusseldon On gold servers they'll charge monthly subscription fees that will be used to pay DM salaries. A lot of people are hoping that it will be $10-20 per month, which is a traditional amount for most pay-to-play MMOs. 

Lead lore designer gave some extensive descriptions about storytellers in the following comments:

https://www.revivalgame.com/forum#/discussion/comment/13955

https://www.revivalgame.com/forum#/discussion/comment/15474

Lead designers have also discussed storytellers in tons of other forum posts but these two comments give a good understanding what devs are trying to achieve with the whole concept.

nariusseldon

Yanocchi said:

@nariusseldon On gold servers they'll charge monthly subscription fees that will be used to pay DM salaries. A lot of people are hoping that it will be $10-20 per month, which is a traditional amount for most pay-to-play MMOs. 

Let's say $15. How much are you going to pay a DM? He/she needs to be trained, have good computing skills and probably writing skills, right? So we are talking about $5-6k a month?

So you need 300-400 users per DM. Anything less will be losing money. 

Can ONE DM provides enough content to service 300-400 players? I also assume anyone on the gold server will want their money worth and play a lot.