Those who play online titles that act like a separate world like Second Life or VRChat are likely familiar with the concept of a metaverse — an online space that merges with facets of our meatspace reality. Tech writer Wagner James Au was able to get some time with Novaquark founder and Dual Universe lead dev JC Baillie to talk about his game’s take on the metaverse concept as well as discuss his vision for the game’s systems.
The vision for Dual Universe is a unique reality like The Matrix in that players feel that the game’s world is real. That includes the potential for millions to share the same world, along with all of the economic, combat, and exploration experiences that could erupt as a result. On the subject of economy, though, JC does elaborate that in-game currency and real world currency will not mesh together. He also explains that the game will have restrictions to ensure real-world politics don’t bleed in to Dual Universe, and that linking objects to HTML code for Lua scripting purposes will be limited in the interest of security.
Baillie further goes on to explain several touchpoints about Dual Universe’s form of sandbox, including a hope that the game will provide a way for players to develop real-world skills like coding or management. Finally, he hopes to provide a look at the game’s combat system soon™ which he promises will provide “new ideas,” and confirms that the game is on track for a beta in the first half of next year.
