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lthough I’ve talked a little about Earth Eternal on the Forge previously, few people outside of Iron Realms have seen much of it. Today, that changes, a little, with the release of EE’s website. Check it out!
It is really nice to finally have something tangible (funny that we’ve gotten far enough into the digital age to consider a website ‘tangible’) to point people at when I mention Earth Eternal. It’s nice to just have something to show off for the immense amount of work we’ve put into this project so far. I have to say, producing an MMO that doesn’t suck on a budget our size (we have a 6 figure budget) is hard. We have only three core team members and an outsourced art team. We’re going to do it though, and I’m cautiously optimistic about our chances of success.
When we began EE’s development, the big questions revolved around, “Can we do this?” An MMO is a huge challenge, and we were not starting with something like Multiverse (which I’d consider using if we were starting development today). A good portion of the early months was spent just running experiments and planning.
As time has gone on, we have become sure that we can do this, if you define ‘this’ as releasing a playable 3d MMORPG. The big question now is how much of a game we’re going to be able to build on the platform we’ve built/are building. I don’t have an answer for that yet, but the beauty of self-publishing on the net is that the need for a big splashy launch is greatly reduced. Iterative growth is our thing.
Anyway, wish us luck (or don’t if you’re a hater). Either way, get ready to suck on the sweet sweet goodness that is Earth Eternal.
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January 10th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
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January 13th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
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January 10th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Abalieno
I’m looking forward to this even if the kind of “new age”, lightweight mood isn’t something I’m particularly interested about.
I read it won’t have a client but will work directly from a browser. That’s even what Raph is cooking so I’m curious to see how things may work.
January 10th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Pentharian
Looking very good.
It seems similar to the sort of things going on in Jacqueline Carey’s world (Terre D’Ange of Kushiel’s Dart) as well as Phillip Pullman (His Dark Materials trilogy).
The world is similar to real earth, but so many things are different.
I look forward to checking it out!
January 10th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Matt
There’s really nothing new age about Earth Eternal, trust me.
It does have a lighter mood to it than most MMOs. It’s a lot closer to WoW than Everquest 2 or Vanguard or whatnot, but it’s even lighter than WoW I think.
It will run from either your browser or as a download. It’s much the same thing to our tech, but the caveat is that either way there’ll be a 6-10 meg install most likely.
January 10th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Kyle
First off, yay! I’ve been waiting for this. I wasn’t expecting such a detailed cartoony look. I’m still interested though. There is only a small sample to judge. I’ve got it set as my homepage so I can’t wait for the next release.
January 10th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Scott Jennings
Congrats and good luck! Here’s to delivering a kickass MMO without the multi-million dollar budgets that help torpedo creativity.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Matt
Thanks Scott!
–matt
January 10th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Semfir
Bookmark, join newsletter, now, let’s see… I’m Swedish, and I don’t like dwarves (in fantasy, not RL). In EE, the people in Sweden fights the Dvergar. Considering that the Swedish word “dvärgar” (pronounced similar to “dveryar”) means “dwarves”, I’m going to assume (yes, assuming is bad, but I use Ockham’s razor) they’re dwarves. Fun for the whole family, or at least myself.
Other than that, it looks good. I like the cartoony, somewhat silly design. It shows up better at a distance, and doesn’t need to be bad close up either, if it’s decent enough.
One question, though: Are there any specs required to play it? I have a really slow computer.
Good luck, and I hope I’ll be able to play it myself some day.
January 10th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Phil
Congrats and good luck. I’ve signed up for the newsletter and look forward to hearing more good things Earth Eternal.
January 11th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Matt
Thanks Phil!
Semfir: You are correct. The Dvergar in Earth Eternal are sort of ‘dark dwarves.’ But, as we have no human-esque races, they are not quite what you might think of.
January 11th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Michael Chui
gratz. I’m tired as hell, and so haven’t bothered to look at it (I haven’t even emailed Allen about the problems with his recently-launched site), but I wanted to say: websites are tangible? What does that mean for virtual property? That’s a rhetorical question, drawn because I’ve been listening to Raph too much.
January 11th, 2007 at 3:58 am
Brett
Given your continued excellence in diverse MUD mechanics and economics, I’m really, really looking forward to what you guys can come up with here. I love the art and website design so far, it has a wondrously lush and gorgeous cartoony feel, and I adore the emphasis on the natural environment.
The only thing I’m slightly disappointed in is the seemingly generic mage/warrior/rogue + druid classes, with the freeform skill choices perhaps leaving clans or teams (maybe guilds?) with no game-based niche. I’m sure that you have a carefully constructed reason behind it though, so I’ll just wait and see how it is implemented.
Once again, absolutely beautiful launch imagery. Good luck with the final phases!
January 11th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Edward
To echo the rest, congrats on the opening of the website as I’ve been waiting since you first hinted at the mmo. With that said, where’s the forums so we can speculate futilely about the future of EE?
January 11th, 2007 at 8:35 am
JuJutsu
Looks like fun!
January 11th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Zygfryd
Matt, I really hope you’re aiming to make it cross-platform from the start. Otherwise porting costs will only be increasing over time. Linux and Mac users are looking forward to your new game as much as the windows crowd!
January 11th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Semfir
>> Semfir: You are correct. The Dvergar in Earth Eternal are sort of ‘dark dwarves.’ But, as we have no human-esque races, they are not quite what you might think of. >>
I didn’t expect normal, short-human-type dwarves. More like a type of goblins, small trolls, or something of the sort. Or a furry version of those. Either way, I’d still love killing things with that name.
Now, the only thing I’m lacking would be a race that could perhaps be called Mustelines, which would be sort of a wolverine race. I’d so create a dual broadsword wielding warrior. Of course, it would be preferable to pray to the Aesir of rage and insanity (Odin) for the proper berserking spirit, but you can’t have everything, I suppose…
January 11th, 2007 at 10:50 am
damijin
I really like the art direction, Matt. The skeleton looks bad ass. Good luck with the project, I’ll be watching with great interest!
(but uh… be careful with that furry audience, ya hear?)
January 11th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Matt
You’re right on, Semfir,
Unfortunately though, Odin is dead, so there’s no way to pray to him. He died battling the Sphinxes.
Edward: We’ll open forums in the next couple months but I don’t think there’s enough to speculate about to open them yet.
January 11th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Semfir
Matt, I think you’re wrong on both accounts, actually. It’s entirely possible to pray to a dead or non-existing god, and people in groups have an astounding ability to speculate based on nearly nothing.
However, you’re also right in how you mean it. Odin is dead as it was mentioned (although not specifically) on the website, so it wouldn’t be someone you could pray to and expect anything in return for, and while people can always speculate, it probably won’t be much other than fan-squealing, people planning ahead of themselves, and generic chatting. It will likely slow down after a while after each progress update or revealed piece of information, so it might be good to hold that for a while. Although juding on these comments, you can guess I certainly wouldn’t mind.
January 11th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Azor
Looks pretty cool, and I’ll certainly try it, especially since it’s free, but if it’s like Runescape, I won’t stick around. I like the economic, political, and social depth of your MUDs, and Runescape bores me to tears. I can’t stand all the leet speak, either.
I hope you’ll be able to transfer some of the politics and economics from the MUDs, since nothing like the system in Achaea has ever been implemented in a mass market game. Of course I also realize the added challenges in a graphic environment.
On an unrelated note, you should be prepared for some of the furry community that actually would be more inclined to like an MMORPG environment to migrate over from SL.
You’ve got all furry races, plus private groves. Maybe I’ll go over to Luskwood and tell people to sign up for the beta!
-Azor
January 11th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Gishin
The furries are going to eat this up. Though I can’t comment once, I used to be a regular on Furcadia, and it’s no secret my love for felines. Anyway, I look forward to this, and hope to be one of the first new inhabitants of Earth Eternal!
January 11th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Hermes
Looks intriguing, but the anthropomorphic Beast races send up major red flags for me. Heh.
At any rate, so long as you haven’t already had Hermes killed off by some rogue Shinto god, I’ll definitely keep an eye on the website.
January 11th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Ryan Shwayder
Good luck with the game!
January 11th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Matt
Get your Beast on Hermes. Get your Beast on.
And yes, Hermes is dead. Slain by the Sphinxes like the rest of his pansy brothers, aside from Ares.
January 12th, 2007 at 2:34 am
Faethyr
So far, it sounds really good, and I will definitely be trying it out ASAP, but I will be very, very, very put off if there isn’t at the very least enforced ICness on at least one server. (if you have different servers) I don’t want to see an IRE game degraded to LOLZ GIMME UR GP PLZ OR I WIL KILL U WITH 1337 SKILZ LMAO. *goes to scrub keyboard*
Anyway, it seems really good so far, and I would be really grateful for more info on its standing on RP.
January 12th, 2007 at 3:10 am
Ronald Watts
I agree that the site looks great, though I hope I never see the term ‘noob’ used in an insulting way in any IRE game.
The question I have, is will Broadband be needed for anything other than a jerky, laggy game, or will I be able to go up against the best of them with my Dial-up connection?
January 12th, 2007 at 3:12 am
Ronald Watts
Oh, and I take it that people outside the US wouldn’t be able to be in on Alpha and Beta, right?
Will probably need to sign a confidentiality agreement?
January 12th, 2007 at 3:23 am
Endie
Congratulations on this, Matt. I’m impressed with the development model you’re working to, here, which seems to let you take some risks that a $20m budget would preclude. Since you’re not using middleware like Multiverse, I’m really intrigued to what extent you did buy-in basic components and libs?
January 12th, 2007 at 5:16 am
Hermes
And yes, Hermes is dead. Slain by the Sphinxes like the rest of his pansy brothers, aside from Ares.
Could you at least make it a bit more in-character for the poor bastard, then? I like to picture his fate as fleeing the initial Sphinx attack and heading for Asgard to warn everyone, but then being distracted hitting on Freyja and ending up forgetting about the message and getting everyone killed. Heh.
So far, it sounds really good, and I will definitely be trying it out ASAP, but I will be very, very, very put off if there isn’t at the very least enforced ICness on at least one server. (if you have different servers) I don’t want to see an IRE game degraded to LOLZ GIMME UR GP PLZ OR I WIL KILL U WITH 1337 SKILZ LMAO.
Ah, but the kids with l33t skillz tend to pay the bills, my friend. I’d hate to see a large portion of the game’s potential playerbase turned away at the door just because they’d prefer to chat about real-life topics as they play instead of whatever it is that Foxicuses… Foxuci… uh, Foxi eat for dinner.
That said, I find myself somewhat keen on the idea of playing a mute Bandicoon Sneak with a penchant for knocking over the garbage cans in front of other people’s Groves and then running away, so perhaps I shouldn’t talk.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Matt
1. Broadband is probably a necessity, though you may be able to play if you download the whole game ahead of time. Dial-up won’t be able to handle the game streaming down to you while you play.
2. We’re not far enough along to worry about where alpha and beta testers will come from, aside from the newsletter membership.
3. Endie: We use the Ogre engine as our graphics engine, and purchased an exporter for use with Max and Ogre, but other than that, we’re writing essentially everything ourselves.
January 12th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Rhyke
I am really impressed with this work.
I tried the WoW 10-day trial, and, while it was enjoyable, the heavy graphics and cost to play sent me packing.
I spend half my time at my father’s house, and half with my mother.
Paying on a month-to-month basis only lets me get half my time.
I really, really want to play this.
But I’m running an iBook.
Will Macs be able to run EE out of a browser?
I hope so, or I might be turned away.
This is gonna have a large furry fanbase, so you found your niche. I was also getting tired of the old elf, dwarf, human, big-green-thing setup, so having these races is just plain amazing (Go Atavians!).
I think it may be wise to introduce perhaps one or two more classes, including an ally-summoning class, remeniscent (sp?) of WoW Warlocks.
Will Groves be given to free players?
That would be very, very awesome.
Bringing in some mannerof player-based economy would be great, because that’s the excuse many people my age use to play MMORPGs.
About the |337-sp34k, there is a rather drastic action you could take…
Certain NPCs could respond with, “Sorry, friend, I do not understand this language”. And players who like to act in-character could, of course, scold them.
This is a very long comment, I know, but I am feeling like I have finally found my MMO.
Will control be RS or WoW style?
Oh, and please provide public transportation, like WoW had. That, too, would be amazing.
-Hoping this is as good as it sounds,
Rhyke
January 12th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
MiniWuffy
-So, just to clarify, Ares is a pansy too right?
-Wouldn’t the Norse gods totally pwn some Sphinxes?
-Aw, Zeus is dead? :’(
-Rhyke, it’s a graphical MUD
Game looks wicked, Matt!
January 12th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Rhyke
MiniWuffy, I know.
Ares is a busboy of the gods.
To the developers: If it had a rating
(T, E, or (gods forbid) M), what would it have?
January 12th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Rhyke
I mean HERMES is a busboy of the gods.
January 12th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Neva
I’m looking forward to this really. I have played alot of a MMORPGs(graphics) and I really don’t like them, though it is more to deal with lack of In Character Roleplay– even on the RP Servers. -_-
I hope EE has similar elements to that of Aetolia and Lusternia when it comes to player ran cities and such(though I suppose that be hard to do?), along with how the players can actually alter the way the enviroment changes.
I played on Achaea once, I stopped playing due to lack of RP enforcement, went to Aetolia and have several characters there and one on Lusternia. So, I wish best to luck to EE and ya’lls push in the game. Hopeing this doesn’t turn into another MMO Graphic game with non-roleplayers and a bunch of 12 year olds. Though I suppose if enough of the Roleplayers support it and push on it; It can become that(right?).
I signed up on the Newsletter, so when ever ya’ll get the Alpha and Beta ready, I’m on stand by. Love to be help on the growing of this game and maybe give some helpful advice(if ya’ll want it), maybe even a few freebie character designs(yay for being a Game Art student).
Anyhow, enough of my jabber. Good luck Matt, it looks fun, great, and lets all hope it turns into another wonderful IRE Game. ^^
January 13th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Eric
I am *excited* about this. The art style looks great from the few pics that are up, and I trust you guys completely to bring your style of gameplay to a 3D world.
I will be thrilled to watch this develop and come to fruition, and can’t wait to try it. Bravo!