As has been noted throughout most of our GDC coverage this year, one of
the biggest trends was the rise to prominence of free-to-play gaming
and the companies dedicated to advancing it from a second class citizen
to a major player in the MMOG universe. One such company is Outspark, a
publisher with a strong vision and detailed plan of working hand in
hand with the developers of the games they bring to market rather than
just being a passive portal that localizes games that have been running
for several years overseas.
We sat down with the guys from Outspark at GDC for a quick introduction
to their games and their philosophy and we even managed to squeeze in
some playtime on two of their games,
style="font-style: italic;">Divine Souls and
style="font-style: italic;">Erebus: Travia Reborn.
While the games themselves couldnt have been more different from each
other, the core directive behind both is a hand in hand partnership
with GamePrix and Zemi, the respective games developers, to shape them
into products that would entertain the North American Market.
Divine Souls
A title so new, it doesnt even yet have its own website,
style="font-style: italic;">Divine Souls is an
action packed game that combines elements of MMOGs and 3D fighting
games into an extremely fun package. Players will be able to
choose from one of five classes at launch while our playable version
featured three classes, the Mage, Fighter and Slasher, to either band
together to defeat powerful NPC monsters or gang up on each other in
PvP action.
Graphically the game is stunning for
a free-to-play, or any
other format for that matter, with crisp textures and attractive
avatars
wrapped in polished armor sets. In
fast
moving scenarios there was almost no noticeable latency allowing for
the
execution of elaborate combo moves which provide the cool factor in
combat. The
controls can be configured for standard
mouse/keyboard use, gamepad use, or the amazingly complicated keyboard
only setup
perfect for the laptop user with no mouse and 3 hands. The games use
of
clickable and hotkey triggered combos in conjunction with the more
traditional
spellbar useable abilities definitely takes some getting used to, but
most
moves are fairly instinctive and I have a feeling that after a couple
hours of
gameplay the basics would be second nature and the advanced would only
be a
matter of time before mastering.
We hope to see more of this game and Brendon Lindsey of Outspark says
we can definitely expect a flurry of updates in the coming months as
the game moves closer to beta test and ultimately launch.
Erebus: Travia Reborn
Originally launched in Asia as Travia,
Erebus: Travia Reborn
is pretty true to its new titlea rebirth of the popular Korean Action
RPG-MMOG. Instantly recognizable by fans of
style="font-style: italic;">Diablo, this game
has a similar look and feel of the popular Blizzard classic, but with
an MMOG style twist. Players will have four basic combat classes to
select from that can eventually be expanded to one of 18 unique master
classes as you advance your character through a staggering 400 levels
Combining elements of the aforementioned Battle-Net game with those of
traditional MMOGs, especially that of PvP (which exists in standard,
guild and open modes), should prove to be a great combination in a
free-to-play. Everything can be accessed quickly and easily using your
mouse in a feel that Outsparks Aaron Krause said Should feel very
natural to the Western gamer , indeed it seems that the main focal
point of the localization has been to give the game a second nature
feel so that players can focus on the game rather than the UI or
controls.
Erebus has
a tentative release date of spring 2010 and beta is already underway.
Thanks again to the folks from Outspark for opening the doors of their
booth to us at GDC and allowing us to sit down with them and their new
games.
