Bossa Studios‘ new Worlds Adrift title already seemed rather ambitious. With a recent dev blog, though, the studio admitted to the lofty goal of retooling the “mightily stagnant” massively multiplayer online genre. How does a small indie plan to “reboot a genre as entrenched and monolithic as MMOs?”
Well, for starters, Worlds Adrift has kicked XP and leveling to the curb, along with other time-honored MMO fun bastions like grinding, spawn-camping, and scripts. Instead, the title focuses on “exploration, knowledge, skill-based gameplay, ecosystems that live, breathe, and grow […] and the ability for players to change and build as they well please.”
NPC critters will feed, grow, mate, and reproduce, Bossa says, which is a far cry from the static spawn pops in other MMORPGs. Even harvesting is getting an extreme makeover, apparently. “Cut down a tree the wrong way and it will fall on your head. Push it the other direction and watch it fall over and kill a creature or enemy,” the company writes. “Cut it down into a log and roll it downhill to run over everyone in its path. You name it. No two sessions of gathering materials are ever the same, and you better be prepared for the unexpected.”
