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General: BioWare to use Hero Engine
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
A new detail has fallen into place in the puzzle that has been the BioWare Austin project. While the game's title and theme remain a mystery, we now know that the new game will make use of the Hero engine, originally developed by Simutronics and used in Hero's Journey:
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Simutronics announced today its first licensee for its new HeroEngine, a complete integrated platform for development of massively multiplayer online (MMO) roleplaying games (RPGs).
BioWare Austin will use HeroEngine for development of its new MMO project. This game will be the first project for the new Bioware Austin studio. BioWare is one of the leading developers of interactive games, with many hit titles including Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars® Knights of the Old Republic.
MMO games are the fastest growing segment of the video games market, with $2 billion in global revenues and growing at a projected $1 billion per year according to DFC Intelligence. Millions of people around the world come together in online games such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Star Wars Galaxies to cooperate and compete with each other.
At BioWare we selected HeroEngine because it had the most sophisticated and complete development tools available for building an amazing online experience, said Gordon Walton, Co-Studio Director of BioWare Austin. Our team wanted a great rapid prototyping environment and to work with experienced MMO developers. The HeroEngine from Simutronics is a perfect fit for BioWare Austins requirements."
Simutronics demonstrated HeroEngine in its booth at the recent Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) and will be showing it again at the Austin Game Conference (AGC) in Austin on September 6th-8th. Simutronics spent the past five years developing this new platform, and has recently begun making HeroEngine available to developers to create their own massively multiplayer online games.
We are thrilled to have BioWare Austin using HeroEngine, said David Whatley, founder and CEO of Simutronics. As game developers ourselves, we put careful thought into the features other MMO developers needed. To have an industry leader like BioWare as our first licensee is an honor and strong validation of our teams hard work and great design.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
I'm Here. I'm Awesome. Get Used To It.
Wonderful!
If anything, this raise my HYPE for both projects.
Currently re-playing the BGs games, and just have to say something...it is wonderful! I am definitely looking forward BioWare MMOs, and I was always mildly interested with Hero's Journey, might be a good PH in the meanwhile, until BioWare hit the market! I still dislike stuff in HJ, like their opinion on Game Balancing once the product is released. Not that bad, but after CoH let's say I am overreacting against nerfs!
Not like ANY game can be competition, they all feature lame end-games enforcing, end-games completely unrelated to the game itself. BioWare is positionning itself to rake all the benefits.
Unless I miscalculate WAR, but I think the PvP will be to enforced, just as it was the case in DAoC, which in the long run will cost them much loyalty...a shame, with the strong franchise they have they COULD beat WoW(just like BioWare wills), all depend on the quality of the product itself.
Really, the only game that might challenge BioWare content-wise is HJ, they both use the same engine, there is a good reason for that. I have nothing against content-less games, as long as they are FUN and can maintain my interest without enforcing lames gameplays, such a raiding. Or at least add more in the expansion if I max stuff...not putting lame gameplays where bots outdo humans (best raiding guilds use 4 times more bots than humans, they completely outmatch guilds with similar amount of players rather than bots, as the healing rotation is perfect, they have 1 player to adapt as needed the healing while all bots never fail their rotation, and so on).
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This should cut down on their game production time.
Instead of 3-4 years of development time we could see a game from these guys in 2 years.
Like other posters have commented on I sure hope they can put together a better looking game than Hero.
Hero's Journey looks very promising, and it's gorgeous.
What makes you say something like this? Heros journey, the only game being made with the hero engine isnt even out yet. And if youwatch the movies, look at the screen and read what is promissed you will see that what simultronics can do with their system. Heros journey will be one of the best MMO's in 2007, just because the company doesnt have some tyrant liike SoE funding them so they can whore up the advertising, dont count this company out.
Have you actually watched the movies? and seen their interactive enviroment in action? or Seen their dynamic casting, character customization? have you gone to the website and actually read any of the faqs, read any of the articles, looked at any screenshots? I highly doubt it, otherwise you wouldnt of said soemthing so foolish.
And Hero online And Heros JOURNEY are 2 different games that you guys seem to be confusing, should pay attention before you talk down a game. Hero online isnt even simultronics, and even if it was, have you played that game, why would bioware buy that system.
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I'm really looking forward to Hero's Journey - NOT Hero Online - and I have this feeling that if they can deliver on what they've been promising we're in for a truly great MMORPG. Online time will tell of course, but I do find it pretty encouraging to see that BioWare is their first engine licensee. We all know BioWare doesn't screw around so the Hero Engine (again, not Hero Online
What makes you say something like this? Heros journey, the only
game being made with the hero engine isnt even out yet. And if youwatch
the movies, look at the screen and read what is promissed you will see
that what simultronics can do with their system. Heros journey will be
one of the best MMO's in 2007, just because the company doesnt have
some tyrant liike SoE funding them so they can whore up the
advertising, dont count this company out.
Have you actually watched the movies? and seen their interactive
enviroment in action? or Seen their dynamic casting, character
customization? have you gone to the website and actually read any of
the faqs, read any of the articles, looked at any screenshots? I highly
doubt it, otherwise you wouldnt of said soemthing so foolish.
Seen screenshots: Check
Seen movies: Check
Read info: Check
It just doesn't work for me. First of all it's the dull, ugly and boring art. There is no style all screenshots look like a mishmash of different things. Character. Generated trees. Ground. Enemy. They all feel like they are from seperate worlds, and not from one. Many characters look ugly, almost grotesque. I do like the "cat" people though. And the biggest letdown for me, the world. Where are the open flowing plains, forests, deserts? It all looks "on the rail" fps levels not a living breathing world. I haven't seen a single screenshot so far where the area isn't limited by some sort of barrier. This + instancing is a terrible, terrible sign for me.
What the gameplay will be like I can't say anything about. Maybe it will be great in that department. But the graphics/world currently utterly dissapoint me.
And I'm not confusing HJ with Hero Online.
I've been jaded about MMORPGs for long enough. I guess I'm allowing myself to look forward to a couple again and this is one of them.
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Unfortunately though the vids are low res versions of video of a monitor, so the quality is pretty crap.
Here's an example though if you are interested
Hero's Journey looks pretty bad...are the characters suppose to look like mongoloids? Could it be that the Hero's Journey development team just doesn't know how to use the Heroengine?
Yeah, I'm totally disappointed by this, but then again I'm use to being disappointed by this genre...
OMG! I just had a dreadful thought...Baldur's Gate Online with the Heroengine at it's core! Well, there goes another perfectly good IP down the drain.
The hero engine is developed specifically for mmorpgs unlike most other engines, and it provides all the tools necessary to make an mmo. And if you speak with any of the GM's who are actually using it, you'd find out that it is a far more complete solution for making an mmorpg than anything else on the market today.
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HJ looks fine to me, not sure what people dont like in it, if we are talkiing art style, it do vary from person to person remember ! I cant get hyped over Bioware though, this will likely be a crossplatform game.
#1 - HJ looks awesome and promises REVOLUTIONARY gameplay mechanics.
#2 - Bioware will not be using HJ art resources. Duh.
#3 - Pretty graphics do not do a damned thing for gameplay, though the HJ engine does have GORGEOUS graphics. Mongloids, indeed...
#4 - The troll has been fed. Enjoy!
Yeah, thats it. Lol, my bad, it was late and my brain wasn't working. Interplay sold the rights, but they worked out a deal so that they kept rights to any MMORPG, if they ever decided to go that route. I think that's what I recall reading.