I’m 
feeling very optimistic these days about Earth Eternal’s chances and just had a moment that has left me feeling a little giddy. I needed to share it.
Chris Kohnert, Martin Best, and I (the three core non-art-team development members on EE) were standing around in the mini area we use to test things. Our technology is coming along, but we’re not to the point of worldbuilding yet, so this is literally just a flat square area surrounded by trees. We run around in it to test things with our player characters, and so on.
Today, we put our dragon model into it, and for the first time got to see a big monstery thing in our client. We also put in the ability to tilt back the camera and look up (our original plan called for isometric view, but we’re ditching that). Naturally, the first thing we looked up at was the dragon. Very cool. Then we made him roar at us, and I swear, I’m just now getting over it, 30 minutes later. It’s not that it’s the world’s best looking dragon, though it is attractive. It’s not that the roar animation is the best roar animation ever made, though it is good. It’s that it’s ours, created according to my vision for the game. It’s also that even with two of them on the screen, we didn’t dip below 60 FPS on my non-beefy laptop or the desktops of my compadres. Woot!
I really wanted to post a screenshot here, but it’s not time to release screen shots yet, unfortunately. Sorry for the tease!
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August 25th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Kris L
*slump*
But understandable. Sign me up for testing please!
August 25th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Richter
Seconded!
August 25th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Kyle
I think we ALL want to test EE. Stop being a tease Matt!
August 25th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Mike Rozak
So, why is the accompanying image a stuffed toy? Are you doing something akin to Lego StarWars, but a Stuffed Animal MMORPG?
Screen shot - If you can run around and see a dragon roar, you’re far ahead of most new MMORPGs on MMORPG.com; it seems that the trend is to create a web site, include a few speedtree screenshots (without any objects that are actually your work), and then claim your MMORPG will be ready in 6 months.
August 27th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Sulka Haro
How social do you want your new game to be?
The graphics perspective has a lot to do with how people perceive the activities in the game and hence how easy it is to understand what’s happening in the social context around your character.
If players can’t see behind their characters, you cannot put the speech bubbles on top of the characters’ heads without introducing a separate box for the chatting. This causes the discussion to happen outside the visual context of the game and hence distract the illusion.
So - if you want “realistic” social activity in the game, I have a litmus test for you. Check which games / virtual worlds have players who like to sit down when talking with others. Check the perspective these games use. I bet you a pint you’ll get more isometric environments on the list than other graphic styles.
August 27th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Edward
See, you could have had them all and told them the stuffed dragon WAS a screenshot. Just throw it in front of a bunch of trees. Would have been perfect.
Anyways, failing that you should attach a sound clip of the roar. It’s anonymous, it gets our saliva flowing, and we get to share in your happiness. It’s a win-win!
August 27th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Matt
No no, it’s not a stuffed animal MMORPG, though that’d be fun with ragdoll physics. I chose the dragon screenshot because a google images search of dragon drew my eyes there. Funnily though, Lego Star Wars was one of the games we spent some time playing and researching in preparation for Earth Eternal. I don’t understand the point of releasing incomplete screenshots if you’re a dubious project. All it does, as you point out, Mike, is focus people’s attention on the fact that you’re unable
I completely agree with you on the issue of realistic socializing, Sulka. In fact, that socialization aspect is the reason we originally planned for an isometric view. The project’s focus has evolved a bit as our understanding of our capabilities and the various market niches that might be served have evolved.
–matt
September 4th, 2006 at 1:55 am
Ibayn
I would love to test Earth Eternal…alpha or beta, would be fun!
as for the dragons…WTH, WHY NOT add a stufed dragon to the game?use it for the noob areas…then they can claim they killed a dragon tha almost squishified them with “soft stomp”…and got hit with alot of blunt damage from the red cotton balls it shot instead of fire.