Even all the way back to its successful Kickstarter last year, Might & Delight has maintained that Book of Travels is not a traditional MMORPG – that it’s a “tiny multiplayer online” aka a TMORPG, which definitely belongs on our big list of silly and unnecessary MMO acronyms; people might debate whether it’s got truly massively multiplayer, but it’s seemed less tiny than many other multiplayer games that eagerly call themselves MMOs.
In any case, the developers have posted a new blog discussing how the player cap is designed to make meeting other players “not commonplace and therefore, something a bit special,” something the team learned from its earlier online games. As it turns out, even they don’t entirely know how “tiny” it’s going to be just yet.
“Feedback on the emotional impact of these connections took us by surprise, and we soon knew that the TMO experience was something we wanted to explore further. Players of Journey will know exactly how moving it can be to chance upon another player, especially in a non-directive, non-linear game world. In Journey, the multiplayer aspect is pushed to the limit of its definition: meetings with ‘companions’ being as few as one per game (and make for a truly sublime emotional beat). In Meadow up to fifty animals share a grove, and in Book of Travels we’ll be using our Early Access period to experiment with player numbers. […] While this isn’t entirely new ground for us, we know it’s going to be a challenge. There are many table top roleplayers in the Book of Travels dev team, and they know just how important player interactions are in bringing adventures to life. So, striking a balance between rich roleplay and sparsity of player meetings is the challenge that we now face.”
If it's not an MMO, maybe it's a TMO? Here's our little bit on the topic. Have you enjoyed games with uncommon meetings? We'd love to hear about them <3 https://t.co/Pid3VHTfit
— MightAndDelight (@MightAndDelight) October 16, 2020
