Few things that caught my eye recently…
Developers within NCsoft are working in Java, and more specifically something called the jMonkey Engine. Don’t ask me any more than that, I’m not a programmer! Anyway, using the JME, some of the Austin programmers have been creating world-building tools, and got to show them off at a recent Java conference. Joshua Slack posted the time-lapse video over on his blog, so go check it out; it’s pretty cool.
Quite a few people asked me at Comic Expo whether they could get trial keys for Tabula Rasa; the reason I didn’t have any is that we had a lot of trial deals about to hit… and now they have. (Although right now I can’t see where the TVG key offer is, myself. If I find it I’ll update.)
While we’re talking Tabula Rasa, this is a pretty good time to try the game as Deployment 8 just hit the live servers. (‘Deployment’ sounds so much better than ‘patch’, don’t it?) Final bit of random Tabula Rasa news… our interview with some of the DG folk is in the can for Episode 3 of the podcast. It’s a long ‘un… by the way, Episode ’2.5′ is coming really, really soon.
Finally, given that there’s more than a few MMOs in active development right now and pure Darwinian science says that not all will survive, it was interesting to read this ‘intervention’ over at Elder Game. Essentially it’s a checklist of ‘trouble ahead’ signs that any developer should be looking for. As a reveal of not-unheard-of practices in the games industry, it’s a bit depressing (especially if you’re an MMO developer who sees their own project in it) but interesting, nonetheless, especially considering the author, Eric Heimburg credits himself with being a systems designer on the ‘upcoming’ Star Trek Online. Hmmm.
Does raise an interesting point to finish on, though. As Eric points out, MMOs have really long development cycles, so why waste your life working on a bad one? Good question, but if you ask me, more applicable to your life in general. You don’t get much time on this earth, relatively speaking – so don’t spend too long doing stuff you hate.
Which leads me neatly to my task of the day – getting together a workable ‘breaking into the MMO industry’ presentation….
#1 by Gangrel at May 20th, 2008
Love the time lapse video, although the building between the landscapes legs does look a bit dodgy (in my eyes maybe?)
And yes the checklist of MMO’s games is suprisingly scary… whats even worse (or is it?) is that it could also be applied to MANY other industries as well… well maybe not the fossball part but you get the idea.
Its always nice that you bring stuff like this up to our attention, as it does help open up our eyes to what people think of the industry (and not just necessarily from the consumer side of it, as forums are generally good for that although biased)…
Well hope you are enjoying the weather down there
Gangrel out
#2 by Zortel at May 20th, 2008
Right, so that’s now Guild Wars Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, Exteel, Dungeon Runners, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Lineage 2 trial and Tabula Rasa trial I have on my PC. And the PlayNC Launcher.
It’s a conspiracy to fill my hard drive with NC Soft games!
Thanks though, installing the Tabula Rasa (And yes, I consider my pronounciation rectified. Tab-ula Rasa instead of Tabu-la Rasa.
) client now to have a play about with when I get home.
Deployment is a much cooler word than patch, yes. Though I’ve just realised that NC Soft Games seem to be favourably not HD intensive. CoH/V weighs in at 2.6 gig, TR at something like… 2.4? Guild Wars at 2.9, Dungeon Runners at 584 mb, and Exteel at 998 mb.
Compare this to 9 gigs for WoW, 9ish gigs for FFXI, 5 gigs for Phantasy Star Universe (Though that doesn’t really count as it has the single player component with FMV’s and badly done voice acting) and I’ve lost count of the size of Age of Conan. 13 gb? 23? 30?
Hmm, I’m sure I was on topic somewhere… ah yes!
Speaking on MMO’s, size and success/lifespan, what are your views on Age of Conan? An MMO that in one client announcement notice, stated that nipples had not been removed from PC’s and NPC’s due to ratings issues and censorship, but due to a technicall issue, and promised with glee that the nipples would return.
Seriously. I can link a picture of the patch client if needed.
Ramble over!
#3 by Gangrel at May 20th, 2008
Hmmm looks lie you have the same clients installed as me (or at least used to as Dungeon Runners and Exteel have been lifted to save me SOME hard drive space)…
Although when i get a new hard drive installed…. MORE shall be installed (i think a 500GB hard drive should do the trick for me)
#4 by Rockjaw at May 21st, 2008
Zortel – can’t comment too much on Age of Conan, just to avoid “NCsoft employee rubbishes / praises rival MMO” style embarrassment. I haven’t played it, and probably won’t as my home PC couldn’t handle the client.
I will say that the footprint of the install is pretty enormous by any standard. When we saw Auto Assault coming in at something like 6Gb we were a bit shamefaced. I mean, it’s quite possible Age of Conan needs all that space. But from a ‘get your game into people’s hands’ point of view, it seems a little impractical; apparently the installer (at least the Collector’s Edition) is on two DVDs, so trial disks are out.
I’m going to be most interested to see how it ends up on Xbox 360 – it could practically be a different game.
BTW congrats on the full suite of NCsoft products. I think you’re just missing Lineage – which is available, FYI, via PlayNC.
#5 by Zortel at May 21st, 2008
Completely understandable, Rockjaw. Sorry for fishing for answers
Indeed I am missing Lineage, and it is indeed available, but I don’t have the time to play them all! If only.
Auto Assault, I was signed up for the beta, but when I saw the client size I thought that I didn’t really want to play the game enough to warrent downloading and installing it.
They’re doing a 360 release? I really need to get my head out there a bit more, but considering that FFXI and Phantasy Star Universe are pretty similar, they may just keep it like that, it’s the manner of shipping and if people will have enough HD space on their consoles which is the issue though.
Oh yes, I should have my first impression review of Tabula Rasa done by tomorrow, after playing it for a couple of hours tonight.
#6 by Gangrel at May 21st, 2008
Dont forget Zortel, i have a set of Tabula Rasa forums that you can post on as well
(i dont know if Rockjaw though will let me spam the linkage here though 
) Bing me on MSN and i shall catch you ingame over the next few days (Centaurus Server for the EU players)
#7 by Rockjaw at May 21st, 2008
Spam away Gangrel. Well, don’t spam, but feel free to mention ‘em every once in a while.
#8 by Zortel at May 21st, 2008
Well, the review is online at http://zortel.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/twohour-rasa/
And now I’m going to go and play it some more!
#9 by Gangrel at May 21st, 2008
Maybe a nice link in your community section could help out then eh
*cough*http://tabularasa.gangrel.me.uk*cough*