Hi guys, Eric here, lead developer for Project: Gorgon. Although we've been moving at breakneck speed the past six months, I've done a poor job keeping you updated with how it's going. I wanted to take a minute to rectify some of that now!
The Past Six Months
If you haven't stopped in for a while, here's some of the new stuff you may have missed:
A few months ago, we internally ended the "pre-alpha" stage of Project: Gorgon, and it's now in "alpha". That's not as exciting as it sounds, but it's important!
What this milestone means is that the basic concepts of the game have been hammered out. We won't be changing the game into something entirely different. For instance, we won't be switching to a voxel engine, or replacing the button-bar combat with collectible cards, or switching to a PvP-centric kingdom battle game. Those are all fun things (and some day I hope to implement all of them in other MMOs!) but this game is different, and I'm confident now that it's going to work.
This is a game about exploration: both exploring the landscape and also exploring how the world works. It focuses on cooperation over competition, and I think it does a great job of taking some ideas from past MMOs and fusing them with state of the art ideas. And after talking with lots of you, I know that this game has an audience out there waiting to find it.
Upcoming Features
However, there's still so much to do! From graphics to stability to game balance to adding lots more content... it's all coming. Here's just some things that are in the works in the next six months:
Now that Aaron Victoria and his Legends of Etherell team have been kicking ass in the graphics department, the game has been progressing very quickly. In fact, I think it's now at a point where having a few more team members would really accelerate things. So we're going to head to Kickstarter soon with the hopes of securing funding for a couple of new hires. I'll get you more info about that as soon as I have it.
I'm really excited about 2014. Project: Gorgon is turning into the vast, intricate, and somewhat insane world I'd hoped it could become, and seeing people enjoying themselves in the game is incredibly rewarding. Thanks for sticking with us through 2013, thanks very much for any feedback you've sent in, and I hope to see you in game!
The Past Six Months
If you haven't stopped in for a while, here's some of the new stuff you may have missed:
- All-new character graphics and animations
- Entirely redone graphics for Serbule and Eltibule, two large overland areas
- A third new overland area, the Kor Mountains
- New dungeons, including the well-received new Myconian Caves
- The "hang out" system lets you make friends with NPCs while offline
- Tons of new skills, like Surveying, Mining, Endurance, Notoriety, Geology, Necromancy, Cheesemaking, Textile Production...
- New curses, including a spider-form curse and the Curse of the Personal Rainstorm
- And tons of improvements to skills, items, abilities, NPCs, etc., based on feedback and play testing
A few months ago, we internally ended the "pre-alpha" stage of Project: Gorgon, and it's now in "alpha". That's not as exciting as it sounds, but it's important!
What this milestone means is that the basic concepts of the game have been hammered out. We won't be changing the game into something entirely different. For instance, we won't be switching to a voxel engine, or replacing the button-bar combat with collectible cards, or switching to a PvP-centric kingdom battle game. Those are all fun things (and some day I hope to implement all of them in other MMOs!) but this game is different, and I'm confident now that it's going to work.
This is a game about exploration: both exploring the landscape and also exploring how the world works. It focuses on cooperation over competition, and I think it does a great job of taking some ideas from past MMOs and fusing them with state of the art ideas. And after talking with lots of you, I know that this game has an audience out there waiting to find it.
Upcoming Features
However, there's still so much to do! From graphics to stability to game balance to adding lots more content... it's all coming. Here's just some things that are in the works in the next six months:
- A new, more flexible GUI system
- Mounts, plus lots of game systems related to them, like horse breeding, saddle construction, and ambling
- Several more combat skills, including Knife-Fighting, Weather Witching, and Druidism
- A major rebalancing of all combat skills, monsters, and items
- A rewrite of several problematic skills, including Fire Magic
- Vast new landscape areas, and many new dungeons, along with the NPCs, monsters, and everything else that goes with them
- Lots more "combat polish", like hearing footsteps, better tracking your enemies, and getting more feedback from your abilities and skills
Now that Aaron Victoria and his Legends of Etherell team have been kicking ass in the graphics department, the game has been progressing very quickly. In fact, I think it's now at a point where having a few more team members would really accelerate things. So we're going to head to Kickstarter soon with the hopes of securing funding for a couple of new hires. I'll get you more info about that as soon as I have it.
I'm really excited about 2014. Project: Gorgon is turning into the vast, intricate, and somewhat insane world I'd hoped it could become, and seeing people enjoying themselves in the game is incredibly rewarding. Thanks for sticking with us through 2013, thanks very much for any feedback you've sent in, and I hope to see you in game!
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