Book of Travels team discusses socializing in-game and why you should play

A lot of the news coming out of tiny multiplayer online RPG (TMORPG) Book of Travels is about how it’s different from other MMO titles. From a lack of questing to text free communication to its handling of combat, developer Might and Delight has been banging the drum of its game’s unique approaches. That refrain is repeated once again in a brief Twitter video featuring the game’s creative director Jakob Tuchten.

The video is only a couple of minutes long but it asks one rather big question: Why play Book of Travels? Tuchten answers thusly: “It is an RPG that is pretty outstandingly different from other RPGs. If you like more roleplaying, adventurous type of concepts, this is much closer to that. We feel as though this is a roleplaying game, like an RPG; you’re not stuck in a gameplay loop that’s based on stats or numeric values that you have to grind.”

The video also touches on the self-created TMORPG sub-genre, explaining that it speaks to the game’s smaller server populations (10 to 20 people per server) as well as the fact that encountering other people in-game should ideally be a “rare and powerful” event. “There’s nothing massive about the game,” says Tuchten. “It’s intimate. […] It was just fitting that we invented something [different].”

In other Book of Travels news, the studio has posted a dev blog about socializing in the game. Right now, M&D doesn’t even know how many people will be in each game yet, as it says it’s planning to watch early access closely to make that final determination. “We’ll be avoiding a situation in which you’ll always be in groups – we want the joy of company to come with the contrast of some solitude so you can appreciate how it feels to travel alone and with others.” Still, it’ll be making sure you can also join your friends when you want to.

For those who are looking forward to experiencing this difference, the game will be hitting early access on August 30th. Barring another delay, of course.

Why play Book of Travels? And what is a TMORPG?https://t.co/cDO0P6l7MQ pic.twitter.com/rfX2TuDEUW

— MightAndDelight (@MightAndDelight) August 16, 2021