Tag: Spacetime Studios »

The minds behind Pocket Legends, Spacetime Studios, are finally able to bring the PC MMO game they were hired to produce for NCSoft back a few years ago. When the project was abruptly cancelled last year, they used the world-class engine to produce Pocket Legends. When we sat down with founder Gary Gattis at GDC this past week, he described this as like putting a Ferrari engine into a Go Kart and seeing what they could do with it.

Pocket Legends, while a game with its own growing pains, has become a definite hit on the iOS scene, boasting a huge fantasy styled MMO that just works, and works well. The company has released updates and expansions consistently since the apps original launch.

Blackstar is their next big project for mobile devices, utilizing the original science fiction IP from the original contract with NCSoft (all legally and above board, so users need not fear it getting shut down). Blackstar is be a global, cross platform MMO with an epic storyline and an equally impressive art pedigree: some of the concept artists went on to work on TRON: The Movie. What we were able to play of the game showed us a similar control style as Pocket Legends, on both iOS and Android devices, with a planned PC client in the near future, if all goes according to plan. Spacetime Studios will launch the game as a free to play MMO with 15% of the planned gameplay ready for launch, which equates to three separate zones with rapid leveling systems, quests, and character customization. They plan to release the game in Q2 20011.

My own reaction to the game ranged from awe at the fully fleshed out science fiction universe, high end conceptual artwork, and a thrill at the potential of playing this thing on any device I might potentially own or come into contact during the day. The play build we saw was not production level by any means, but it ran smoothly, connected to the Blackstar servers across three different devices in the room, and controlled in a very familiar way, since I've played Pocket Legends since it first came out. I have only the best of hopes for this game, as it can only get better from here.

Enjoy the below screenshots and stay tuned right here for more details as we get them.

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The massively multiplayer online RPG marketplace has yet to really take off on mobile platforms, especially as established players in the MMO space have yet to really attack mobile devices at all, allowing newcomers to unleash their ideas on these platforms. Spacetime Studios have explored the mobile MMORPG market themselves with the crossplatform Pocket Legends, a fantasy MMORPG that was launched on iOS, and later found its way to Android. However, Spacetime Studios are now setting their eyes on the stars, with a very cool new project: launching their sci-fi MMORPG Blackstar on iOS and Android later this year.

Based on Spacetime Studios' crossplatform Spacetime Engine that they've been working on with Pocket Legends, Blackstar is described as a "3D, real-time, persistent MMO," that was originally designed as a PC title that was in development for PC before funding ran out in 2008. The story of Blackstar takes place in the 41st century between three distinct races, the alien Riven, the cybernetic Scorn, and the human Mode. The game promises to lose very little from its original incarnation in this transition to mobile, promising thousands of items to collect, and a robust set of social features to chat and team up with people in game. Spacetime Studios' CEO, Gary Gattis says "“Blackstar’s production design and overall polish will be unmatched in mobile gaming. We were able to nurture the IP to its maximum potential through years of development – a luxury never before seen in Mobile gaming." Spacetime Studios has provided a screenshot of the game, still in development:

The game will be fully 3D, support both iOS devices and Android (including tablet-sized devices), and will be playable over EDGE, 3G, 4G, and of course Wi-Fi connections. With the game not only launching on both Android and iOS sometime in Q2 2011, but also being based on a fully-fledged MMORPG once in development for PC, the traditional home of these games, Blackstar shows a lot of promise. Due to the speed that the mobile market moves at, developers often don't have the time to nurture and develop an idea like how Spacetime Studios has had with Blackstar - and they have also had the time to work on and perfect their mobile technology with Pocket Legends. With both the impressive and developed concept, along with proven technology, Blackstar could prove to be huge when it launches later this year on iOS and Android.