Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Today I had the opportunity to sit down with Gamania for a two-hour presentation demo of their upcoming Fairy-Tale based MMOG, Dream Drops.

A fairy tale may seem an odd choice to some to place as the backdrop for a fully-featured MMOG, however the implementation revealed that this could, indeed, be a uniquely fun experience. The premise is simple. Snow White has turned rogue, and the Queen of Hearts has a vicious loyalty to defending her kingdom.

Players will be helping the Queen of Hearts.

Throughout the game players will partake in scenes, which are all classically-themed events from familiar European Fairy tales, such as Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, the Gingerbread man, and much more. The twist is that Gamania has taken the stories into their own hands and offers a unique spin on the tales to intertwine them into a challenging yet engrossing tale of their own.

The gameplay from my hands-on time seemed to be pretty standard fare, which will make it easy for MMOG fans to pick up right away. The flavor here lies in the truly unique makeup of the classes. Players will get to choose between four different character types including the healer "Pastry Chef," the "Blue Bird Dream Painter" which serves as a wizard-type class, the "Nutcracker" tank and the "Indian Warrior" melee DPS. Each class plays with a novel appeal and skill set from the extraordinarily imaginative. For instance, the Pastry Chef has a ranged attack in the form of a launched  ice cream cone, while the Nutcracker Warrior can taunt and attack with the expected weapons a Nutcracker would carry.

The Pastry Chef healer class.

It may be easy to dismiss the game as a title targeted towards children but Gamania assures us that it is not. The themes and challenges in the game can become quite complex and the twisted versions of some of the fairy tales may not be well suited for the young. The immediate target audience for the studio remains the Asian market of 18-25 year old males. The game does, however, offer a softer, more casual taste to online gaming meaning it is unlikely any e-sports teams will be lining up to have their way with the Queen of Hearts.

Each character has an exceptional history of his or her own. The Pastry Chef, as an example, is canned from her gig without cause, and takes the opportunity to travel the world to sample all the cuisines. These stories tie into the universal story arc giving each player a way to experience the fairy tales in their own tailored way.

The European Fairy Tales seemed to be the most obvious place to start, Gamania feels. However this will not stop them from further developing the game after launch to branch out into other regional fairy tales. Fans can eventually look forward to some Eastern twists.

The mighty Indian Warrior.

Does the game have a shot with North American audiences? It may be a stretch, mainly due to the game's target audience. It's hard to imagine the 18-25 year old males of the US and Canada trading in their headshots and rocket launchers from the Halos and Calls of Duty to don Pooh-bear costumes and lollipop attacks. That being said, it does have enough of a captivating story and imaginative game world that there may be a small niche out there somewhere. It is unlikely, though, that this would be enough to warrant a full localization.

If the target audience was changed a bit, with some in-game modifications, this game could make a mark with a teen audience. Given the trends and interests in recent re-imaginings of Vampire lore (refer to Twilight to see where I'm going here) I could see some of these tweens finding a home in Dream Drops. Sure, it's not sparkly vampires with too much hair gel, but the game does seem to successfully marry classic fairy tales with slightly nebulous more modern themes.

Dream Drops is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2012 in Hong Kong.