I like the reputation of some of the devs, I like the "Survivor" Concept of the game as well ie no levelling being the fundamental game design is very interesting: Just run around and use your own INITIATIVE to survive eg bit minecraft does. Work things out for yourself maybe,
"Mmm, dead roadkill possum doesn't taste too bad when you're really hungry and there's no other food... add scavenged spices & some fresh herbs plucked from the roadside and it's almost tasty or when thirsty squeeze a baked cowpat for some liquid and boil over an open fire and filter through muslin for drinking water."
That said: Consoles, way off from release, zombies, a long way to go.
Here is the exact quote: "Over the past year we were approached by numerous publishers expressing an interest in partnering with Undead Labs. Not surprisingly, many of them were MMO industry publishers who were drawn to the team’s track record in that industry, and while they were excited to work with our team, most of them wanted us to work on yet another World of Warcraft clone.
Screw that. We’re here to do cool new things; not rehash things that literally hundreds of other companies have been trying to do for half a decade. The team at Microsoft Game Studios immediately understood where we wanted to go with this, and they’ve been enthusiastic proponents for the vision of a zombie-survival online world game from the very beginning. In short, they’re a true partner for us, and we think they’ll drive as hard as we will to get there."
This should be why many should be excited about Undead Labs mmo because it won't be a WoW clone. It will be something new, innovative and something good to play. Those pc elitsts can stick with their failed WoW theme park clones.
so somehow not being a WoW Clone, as you put it, automatically makes this game good?
did you say that to MO and DF as well?
Jeff Strain reputaion and track record speaks for itself. MO and DF,people actually play that ?
This seems amazing, but I'm not going to buy an Xbox or a PS3 to pay to play a game that isn't even technically an MMO. I'll reserve final judgement until I get more info, but not looking promising yet. "Jeff Strain!" just isn't enough.
This seems amazing, but I'm not going to buy an Xbox or a PS3 to pay to play a game that isn't even technically an MMO. I'll reserve final judgement until I get more info, but not looking promising yet. "Jeff Strain!" just isn't enough.
It's an MMO. They're avoiding using the term. When it was first announced in 2009 they were calling it a 'MMOZ'.
"If you think of an MMO as a game that allows thousands of gamers to play together in a persistent online world that evolves and reacts over time to player actions, then we're still making that game. If you think of an MMO as an online fantasy RPG with elves and dragons and EPIC QUESTS involving gremlin ears and dudes standing around town with bobbing exclamation marks over their heads, then we're not -- and never have been -- making that game,"
If they can pull this off half as good as it sounds I am totally sold. A Massive world apoc sandbox survival game. What would make it evn better is perma death.
I read some rumors about perma-death, but nothing official.
In fact, Strain says something that sounds like a hint in this interview as well:
"From a game design and balance perspective, the questions is not whether you can survive, but instead for how long."
Without some kind of prema-death, all this talk wouldn't make much sense, if you think about it...
I call bollocks on the "we were approached by many publishers that wanted to turn it into a wow clone" quote.
I had a few paragraphs explaining why .... but I don't want to get in an arguement over it, suffice it to say the banner of alot of new games is " We aren't a WoW clone " or " They wanted us to be a ... but we told them NO, we are doing it our way" .
why don't they just combine class 3 and 4. Same premise not seeing much different between the two and just add class 4 as an alternate game mode to class 3. I'm not seeing the ground for 2 separate games.
played M59,UO,lineage,EQ,Daoc,Entropia,SWG,Horizons,Lineage2.EQ2,Vangaurd,Irth online, DarkFall,Star Trek and many others that did not make the cut or i just plain forgetting about.
Strain is the guy behind: Diablo, Warcraft 3 and GW 1 & 2. Wow was initially his idea too but he quit Blizzard 2 years in development because he didn't like that the suits were calling all the shots. He is easily one of the best if not the best lead designer in the genre today. He also coded the original battle.net and was the guy that persuaded Morhaime that it shouldn't have a monthly fee.
Wow. I wish I were really that awesome.
Thanks for the mad props, Loke666, but much as I would love to be known as the guy who did all that, it's not really accurate.
I wasn't the guy behind Diablo, but I did do coding work for it. I wasn't the guy behind Warcraft 3. I wrote some tech that it shared with WoW, but I wasn't actually on that team, since that project was concurrent with WoW. I'll certainly claim credit for being part of Guild Wars, but not "the guy" behind it. There was not, and never is, a single guy behind a game that big. It was a large, amazingly talented team, and I was honored to be part of it.
I didn't code Battle.net; that was Mike O'Brien, who is currenlty the studio head at ArenaNet. For the record, O'Brien was also the champion for making Battle.net free.
I also shouldn't be called a "lead designer." James Phinney, my long-time colleague, was lead designer of StarCraft and the Guild Wars franchise, and he is now creative director at Undead Labs and lead designer for Class3 and Class4.
I've had the exceptional good fortune to work alongside some of the most talented, creative, and ambitious developers in the industry, and that good fortune continues at Undead Labs.
Strain is the guy behind: Diablo, Warcraft 3 and GW 1 & 2. Wow was initially his idea too but he quit Blizzard 2 years in development because he didn't like that the suits were calling all the shots. He is easily one of the best if not the best lead designer in the genre today. He also coded the original battle.net and was the guy that persuaded Morhaime that it shouldn't have a monthly fee.
Wow. I wish I were really that awesome.
Thanks for the mad props, Loke666, but much as I would love to be known as the guy who did all that, it's not really accurate.
I wasn't the guy behind Diablo, but I did do coding work for it. I wasn't the guy behind Warcraft 3. I wrote some tech that it shared with WoW, but I wasn't actually on that team, since that project was concurrent with WoW. I'll certainly claim credit for being part of Guild Wars, but not "the guy behind" it. There was not, and never is, a single guy behind a game that big. It was a large, amazingly talented team, and I was honored to be part of it.
I didn't code Battle.net; that was Mike O'Brien, who is currenlty the studio head at ArenaNet. For the record, O'Brien was also the champion for making Battle.net free.
I also shouldn't be called a "lead designer." James Phinney, my long-time colleague, was lead designer of StarCraft and the Guild Wars franchise, and he is now creative director at Undead Labs and lead designer for Class3 and Class4.
I've had the exceptional good fortune to work alongside some of the most talented, creative, and ambitious developers in the industry, and that good fortune continues at Undead Labs.
I respect you came out and told the truth. Most developers would just let people believe it and ride the unearned hype.
Comments
I like the reputation of some of the devs, I like the "Survivor" Concept of the game as well ie no levelling being the fundamental game design is very interesting: Just run around and use your own INITIATIVE to survive eg bit minecraft does. Work things out for yourself maybe,
"Mmm, dead roadkill possum doesn't taste too bad when you're really hungry and there's no other food... add scavenged spices & some fresh herbs plucked from the roadside and it's almost tasty or when thirsty squeeze a baked cowpat for some liquid and boil over an open fire and filter through muslin for drinking water."
That said: Consoles, way off from release, zombies, a long way to go.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
Jeff Strain reputaion and track record speaks for itself. MO and DF,people actually play that ?
This seems amazing, but I'm not going to buy an Xbox or a PS3 to pay to play a game that isn't even technically an MMO. I'll reserve final judgement until I get more info, but not looking promising yet. "Jeff Strain!" just isn't enough.
It's an MMO. They're avoiding using the term. When it was first announced in 2009 they were calling it a 'MMOZ'.
"If you think of an MMO as a game that allows thousands of gamers to play together in a persistent online world that evolves and reacts over time to player actions, then we're still making that game. If you think of an MMO as an online fantasy RPG with elves and dragons and EPIC QUESTS involving gremlin ears and dudes standing around town with bobbing exclamation marks over their heads, then we're not -- and never have been -- making that game,"
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32835/Strains_Undead_Labs_Reveals_XBLA_OpenWorld_Zombie_Game.php
Amazing, simply amazing.
I hope it will be ported to PC, or I'll have to buy an Xbox only to play that one game T.T
Hype train -> Reality
I read some rumors about perma-death, but nothing official.
In fact, Strain says something that sounds like a hint in this interview as well:
"From a game design and balance perspective, the questions is not whether you can survive, but instead for how long."
Without some kind of prema-death, all this talk wouldn't make much sense, if you think about it...
Hype train -> Reality
I call bollocks on the "we were approached by many publishers that wanted to turn it into a wow clone" quote.
I had a few paragraphs explaining why .... but I don't want to get in an arguement over it, suffice it to say the banner of alot of new games is " We aren't a WoW clone " or " They wanted us to be a ... but we told them NO, we are doing it our way" .
Yet people seem to drink it up ...
Change and Yes we can,
why don't they just combine class 3 and 4. Same premise not seeing much different between the two and just add class 4 as an alternate game mode to class 3. I'm not seeing the ground for 2 separate games.
I am not a console guy going to pass this one. if it ever comes on PC i will be all over it.
this sounds really good....
played M59,UO,lineage,EQ,Daoc,Entropia,SWG,Horizons,Lineage2.EQ2,Vangaurd,Irth online, DarkFall,Star Trek
and many others that did not make the cut or i just plain forgetting about.
Wow. I wish I were really that awesome.
Thanks for the mad props, Loke666, but much as I would love to be known as the guy who did all that, it's not really accurate.
I wasn't the guy behind Diablo, but I did do coding work for it. I wasn't the guy behind Warcraft 3. I wrote some tech that it shared with WoW, but I wasn't actually on that team, since that project was concurrent with WoW. I'll certainly claim credit for being part of Guild Wars, but not "the guy" behind it. There was not, and never is, a single guy behind a game that big. It was a large, amazingly talented team, and I was honored to be part of it.
I didn't code Battle.net; that was Mike O'Brien, who is currenlty the studio head at ArenaNet. For the record, O'Brien was also the champion for making Battle.net free.
I also shouldn't be called a "lead designer." James Phinney, my long-time colleague, was lead designer of StarCraft and the Guild Wars franchise, and he is now creative director at Undead Labs and lead designer for Class3 and Class4.
I've had the exceptional good fortune to work alongside some of the most talented, creative, and ambitious developers in the industry, and that good fortune continues at Undead Labs.
Undead Labs
undeadlabs.com
I respect you came out and told the truth. Most developers would just let people believe it and ride the unearned hype.