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Empire & State: Novel, Inc. Interview
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
New developer Novel, Inc. recently announced its formation and the development of its inaugural "political strategy MMO" called Empire & State. MMORPG.com writer Carolyn Koh caught up with studio execs Mike Marr & Toby Ragiani to give our readers and exclusive first look at Empire & State. Check it out and then let us know what you think in the comments below.
“What we’re doing at Novel, is applying the learning of all our game experience and applying them not only to the development of a game, but the development of training and learning within the context of games.” Said Toby, speaking of their partnership with the University of Washington's Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking to collaborate on what is described as "a new category of enterprise-simulation products."
Read more of Carolyn Koh's Empire & State Interview.
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Comments
sounds interesting...then again many games in the early development stages do
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. A. Einstein
Just as a note, they said that Open Beta is at the end of February. So sounds like they're much farther along then.
Mike agreed, “Open beta will begin sometime towards the end of February. We will provide about five Empires to start, scaling up to as many as fifteen as necessary.”
Here's the link to their website FAQ.
http://www.empireandstate.com/faq.php
It's pure RTS PvP.
Mass Effect Rip oFF?
what is this no elves or questing? get back in your box
im intrested in seeing what kinda races there will be, and what character custumization will look like with it being f2p. either way it could be a good time or it could be complete fail. I do like the sounds of a RTS pvp mmo with a goverment and all that. but im curious what would keep people occupied besides pvp, and prob some crafting.
I don't usually say this about Indie games, but this does sound interesting. I think this is one to watch.
What stuck out to me was this line:
“This is more than just military might that’s involved,” said Toby, “I’m excited about the possible types of interactions that can happen in the game. We will provide enough hard mechanics to allow the soft mechanics to occur.”
I was getting an EVE Online vibe from that interview, and my favourite part about EVE Online was all of the political maneuvering/events that take place, entirely from the players, with no Dev interaction whatsoever. It sounds like they are aiming for the same type of political sandbox, but actually incorporating mechanics into the game to allow these things.
I'm keeping an eye on this one.
EDIT - Ok, not an Indie game, sorry. What would this be classified as?
Perhaps "Professional-Indie?" It sounds like a highly innovative/smaller team production, but the guys being interviewed here are some pretty seasoned designers. Toby Ragaini was the original designer of Asheron's Call, among many other MMOs, and Mike Marr was a key designer on Supreme Commander, among many other RTS titles.
I imagine PVP to only be a part of it. It sounds like it might really break the mold on some of that stuff and put politics, business and crime at the forefront of what you do with PVP only being part of the game.