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

No Virtual Black Hole for Blackstar

For an up and coming MMOG development studio, the loss of a publisher can lead to disaster. This was nearly the case when NCsoft North America ended their publishing deal with Spacetime Studios, an MMOG development company that was quietly working away on an action oriented space combat game titled Blackstar. However, Spacetime Studios has bounced back from the fall and recently purchased the rights to the Blackstar IP, allowing them to continue work on their upcoming MMOG project. At the ION Games Conference, Cody "Micajah" Bye had a discussion with one of Blackstar's lead designers, Brandon Reinhart, who filled him in on all the details of the upcoming MMOG. Check it out!

Ten Ton Hammer: Obviously the game is a Sci-Fi action-oriented game, but with that you run into some perils. Can players get out of their ships and engage in avatar versus avatar combat?

Brandon: Absolutely. One of the things we wanted to make sure happened in the game was that players were more than just ships. We didn't want players to feel like they were a ship, or that they were locked inside their ship. What we did was create the "hybrid experience". We call it that because it means that you can run around on the ground, attack enemies, loot their corpses, and that sort of things; and then you can transform into your ship.

• Blackstar: Exclusive ION Interview with Brandon Reinhart