It’s sort of been a longstanding truism, especially for MMOs, that you can’t build a game worth playing in a short length of time. Heck, an MMO studio that comes to Kickstarter asking for a modest sum and modest launch predictions is usually laughed off the stage. It can’t be done – people are sure of it.
Enter Coherence to challenge those tropes. Led by co-founders from Unity and Playdead, Coherence is a newly announced platform intended to help fledgling game dev studios ramp up in a hurry. “Multiplayer in minutes,” the website promises, and the company is talking about everything from a 4-player indie title to an “infinitely scalable multiplayer” game.
“Coherence aims to level the playing field for multiplayer game development. We are creating an open, accessible and democratized process for making and playing connected games. […] Whether it’s an indie game or a million player-strong epic saga – making multiplayer games has never been easy. We are here to change that. Coherence plugs into your favorite game engine, allowing you to have a working demo up in a matter of minutes.”
It seems as if comparisons to SpatialOS are likely here, though maybe the starkest difference is that it sounds as if Coherence will be giving super-small-scale indies a free ride. Launch is expected in 2020.
