If you’ve been following Fractured and SpatialOS as long as we have, then you’re probably right on top of the game’s Kickstarter launch today. If not, then now is the time to pay attention, especially if you’re a sandbox MMORPG fan. Dynamight Studios is making its pitch:
“Fractured is the first open-world sandbox MMORPG mixing action combat with fully interactable environments, appealing equally to lovers of competitive and cooperative gameplay. Jump right into the fray from day one. Defeat your enemies through your own skill and cleverness, not equipment or level. Gather resources, craft, trade and venture into legendary travels as a solitary hero, or start a settlement with your guild and grow it into the next empire.”
The game features races with significant impact on the game, an anti-grind horizontal leveling progression system (“enjoy the freedom and level playing field of a MOBA without losing the persistence and sense of progression of a real MMO”), a knowledge system, action combat, dynamic content, player cities, and a proper trading system. Oh, and did we mention it’s sci-fantasy, so there are multiple planets and ecosystems in play.
PvP is barely mentioned in the Kickstarter pitch, but the devs explained their philosophy in detail back in March: The game will run with a karma and alignment flagging system with all kinds of rules to keep the ganking in check. Players who flag good can’t harm other good players, but players who flag neutral and evil can screw with everyone at the cost of their own karma (and good players can kill them at will). If that’s not secure enough for you, then you’ll want to head to Arboreus, which is the PvE-oriented planet; it “features large areas accessible only by Beastmen and characters with Good alignment, and a great degree of protection from hostile PvP in the rest of the world.” Stay away from the more hostile, PvP-oriented planets, in other words, and you’ll be fine.
As I type this, the Kickstarter has raised $22,000 of its $116,561 goal. Dynamight has until July 25th to meet it. The cheapest buy-in with a copy of the game will run you €25, about $29 US. Worth noting is that none of the pledge packages appears to include anything particularly unbalancing or pay-to-win. The studio says it’s already “financially stable,” having already worked on the game for a year and a half; it’s apparently in discussions with “large game publishers that have shown interest” in the game. The Kickstarter is intended to allow the company to add fresh hires, bolster features, and expand the game’s audience.
Here’s a quick look at all of our coverage to date:
With the Improbable/Unity dispute lingering on, MMOs like Worlds Adrift are literally adrift
LOTRO Legendarium: A requiem for trait lines
Epic and Improbable pledge $25M to rescue MMO studios affected by Unity’s SpatialOS license suspension
The Daily Grind: Will you kickstart any MMOs in 2019?
Perfect Ten: MMOs to watch in 2019
Betawatch: Red Dead Online is alive and possibly not red
Fractured announces first pre-alpha test starting this month, delays alpha until next year
Betawatch: Ashes of Creation tests battle royale, Occupy White Walls hands out beta keys
Fractured ‘sprints’ toward pre-alpha test, shows off day/night cycle
MMO Business Roundup: Fractured Space, Runic Games, Michael Jordan esports, Epic investment, and the China problem
Fractured announces the opening of its virtual store
Kickstarted MMO Fractured shows off its Alpha 1 map of Myr
Path of Exile shares improvements being worked on for Delve upgrades
Chinese MMO company NetEase invests $50M into SpatialOS MMO platform
Betawatch: Fallout 76 starts beta testing in October (July 27, 2018)
MMORPG sandbox Fractured’s Kickstarter has just fully funded at over $130,000
Fractured’s Kickstarter has just fully funded; stay tuned for this afternoon’s Q&A livestream
Fractured’s player city system is the evolution of Star Wars Galaxies
Fractured’s Kickstarter stretch goals include a dungeon crawler inside an asteroid
Fractured pivots from global to regional servers as it pushes toward its Kickstarter goal
Fractured is hosting a livestream on crafting and building today
Betawatch: Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen kicks off character creation (July 13, 2018)
Fractured releases development roadmap as Kickstarter campaign enters final weeks
Fractured devs discuss planetary travel, stargates, survival, and more in Kickstarter Q&A video
Fractured is just over 40% funded as the developers show off more of the game
Fractured reaches 30k registrations and shows off building mode
Fractured rallies fans for Kickstarter with a gameplay teaser
Jukebox Heroes: Six musical themes for upcoming MMORPGs
Fractured preps for Kickstarter campaign and releases its main theme
Fractured answers scores of fan questions, plans to compete with Albion Online
Fractured plans its Kickstarter for June while showing off its pre-alpha
GDC 2018: Exploring SpatialOS with Improbable CCO Bill Roper
Fractured’s alignment and karma systems put a spin on MMO PvP
Fractured is close to a funding deal, hints at upcoming spotlights
Linkrealms is sunsetting today
Fractured shows off 14 schools of combat in first gameplay footage
Fractured tops 5,000 registrations, progresses toward Kickstarter and alpha
Perfect Ten: The biggest MMO stories of 2017
Fractured introduces its complex horizontal leveling system
You’ll need a planetary astronomy degree to understand Fractured’s lore
Anti-grind MMO Fractured introduces its playable races, including vampires and bear-kin
Fractured introduces free community reward system, rejects ‘RTM cashbacks’
SpatialOS-powered Fractured is a sandbox MMO without the grind or forced PvP
Fractured has put back up some of the Kickstarter packages. If you are interested they are in limited supply. Head over before they are gone.
https://fracturedmmo.com/?refcode=40076e7fd311
A new game just went live…oh…kickstarter went live……………………….ugggghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve recently backed Jeff Vogel’s Queen’s Wish project (Spiderweb Software), so I’ll be holding back a bit on this one but might still back it later towards the end of the campaign because it sounds interesting.
Shameless plug (63 hours left to pledge ;-):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/619141553/queens-wish-the-conqueror
Nice! Vogel makes some great games. I, for one, appreciate the link.
I like isometric, mmorpgs, pve, and sandbox. I like no levels and horizontal progression. What’s not to like?
I backed it. Looks like a game I’d like to play. Soft opening day is worrisome.
Good luck to the Devs!
Lag in the demo video is worrisome.
I am somewhat interested in backing, probably just one of the lower tiers for now, but I asked them something for the FAQ that’s very important to me. If it gets an answer later on, I’ll update on that and state my opinions accordingly.
First I’ve read of this, and I’m actually rather interested. I like the ‘three worlds’ cosmology idea!
I always applaud games that take on the additional challenge of offering a wider array of choices rather than focusing on one aspect.
In my opinion it’s still too early to do a kick. Prometheus(one of the devs) worked on LinkRealms tho, so there is your quality insurance.
Sarcasm?
LinkRealms was pretty solid, tech-wise.
in what world can you make an mmo with all of these aspirations for only $116k?
The founder and 2 cofounders of Dynamight Studios already put a large chunk of their own money into it, as well as a few private donors/backers. The use of SpatialOS allows for all these “aspirations” at far lower margins then a custom engine, and going top-down isometric cuts down significantly on art/visual costs. This Kickstarter is mainly aimed at using this upfront cash flow to hire on the extra personnel needed for an increased production rate.
Yeah from what I understand SpatialOS isn’t exactly cheap. Not like it’s some open-source npm package you just include in your game for free. While it can cut your development time up front, total ROI remains to be seen. Chronicles of Elyria dropped SpatialOS over the “financial viability” of using it over a home-grown solution.
With top-down on a more 2D scale, the geometry and artistic design of the game’s cost can be significantly reduced. So can the appeal, but that’s another issue entirely.
Clearly did not read. They have been developing the game for over 1.5 years and are “financially stable”. The 116k is to hire and few more and clean up stuff and in most of these cases it’s just to get the community involved or “feel” involved.
Kickstarters do not necessarily mean that a development team is using only that money requested to begin producing an all out game. Tbh the ones that ARE doing that are the ones more likely to fail and not worth investing in.
But $116K is a few – six? seven? – person-months of developers. It just seems so insignificant relative to my concept of MMO budgets.
Top-down view. Pass.
I know, it is 2018, right? Not 1999?
In the other hand, i admire top-down view, no need for all the games work in the same way … but, everyone and have different opinion and taste :-)
Right? It’s one thing to dislike it, fine, people can like what they want. It’s another to pretend that it’s dated to use it. It would be equally ridiculous to pretend sidescrollers are hopelessly antique when one look at Steam proves otherwise. Not every game is or needs to be first-person 3-D ultra-realistic graphics folks, just like not every movie needs to use live action.