We’re nearing the end of the year and the news about indie MMOs keeps rolling in. With winter fast approaching (or already here depending on where you live), there’s no better time to settle in and play some MMOs. With the addition of BitCraft this week, the Indie MMO Spotlight now covers nearly 70 MMOs, so there’s probably something to get your teeth into. If not, let me know which indie MMOs (or not-so-MMOs) you follow and we may be able to increase our coverage to over 100 by the end of the year. But enough about me for more games to follow, let’s start with this week’s Indie MMO Spotlight.
BitCraft
Although MMORPG has been keeping tabs on BitCraft, a community-based sandbox MMO, for the past few weeks, this is the first time it’s made it an independent MMO Spotlight. Shame on me. On the heels of a community Q&A (see details below), developer Clockwork Labs has a new blog post that covers the what and why of BitCraft Pre-Alpha. It’s a long article and a great read if you’re unfamiliar with BitCraft. And be sure to check the BitCraft website for more information (including pre-alpha registration) if you’re interested.
Travelogue
Whether you like them or not, Early Access releases give developers the chance to listen to the community and make changes to a game before it’s fully released. For developer Might and Delight, that means getting the chance to take a look at their decision to have permadeath in Book of Travels. You can read all about their decision to (temporarily?) disable permanent death in a recent developer update.
Broken ranks
The wait is coming to an end. So says developer Whitemoon on the Broken Ranks website. A launch window has finally been set for Broken Ranks, the 2.5D turn-based combat MMORPG, with a January 2022 target. I don’t trust launch dates or windows any more than you do, so we’ll have to wait and see if Whitemoon can actually deliver. Until then, this pre-launch gameplay video looks pretty cool.
The Cycle: Frontier
Life on Fortuna III, like the closed beta itself, has been tough for prospectors in The Cycle: Frontier. Overall, as of Thursday, November 4, over 2 million prospectors have been killed. Unsurprisingly, more than three quarters of these deaths were due to other prospectors. Greed may not be the only reason players shoot first and ask questions later. As the weekend approaches, a new bug has caused issues with proximity chat, so calling to see if someone is friend or foe isn’t easy right now.
dual universe
The voxel-based space race has a new leader, and it’s not Elon Musk. While Novaquark founder Jean-Christophe Baillie took on a new role as board member and board advisor earlier this year, it was announced on Friday that a new CEO, Nouredine Abboud, had been chosen. Nouredine will leverage his 15 years of industry experience, focusing on the business side of things.
Ember Sword
It was announced on Ember Sword Twitter that Ember Sword will partner with Immutable X, effectively transferring all Ember Sword assets from Polygon to Ethereum. You can read the full announcement on Medium.
Genfanade
This week the r/MMORPG subreddit Developer Spotlight introduced the Runescape-inspired Genfanad. We’ve been keeping tabs on Genfanad for a while now, and the Reddit post has a wealth of information about the project.
Gloria Victis
Almost every week we receive an update on the development progress of Gloria Victis. This week’s update is all about throwing weapons and how the new system will work. Usually that’s all I have to say about GV, but this week there’s more. Until November 15, Gloria Victis is hosting a free event. So if you haven’t tried GV, head to Steam and request access.
Ilysia
One of my favorite things about indie developers is when they show video clips of their development progress. Unlike AAA studios that release cinematic trailers or polished compilations showing snippets of all the best gameplay bits, indie developers proudly show off the small steps and accomplishments they make during development. Like this short clip I found on Ilysia Twitter:
We are heading into the weekend with some news! Please welcome Jason // @freelightlabs to the team! With experience in programming and virtual worlds for #VRJason will join the development team to tackle the Alpha 2 elements and continue the development of Ilysia!#IndieDev #indie game pic.twitter.com/1l2mgOfZ0M
— Ilysia (@ilysiavr) November 5, 2021
Crazy world
The Mad World beta ended on October 31. I didn’t get a chance to participate, so let me know what you thought of Mad World in the comments below. If, like me, you missed the latest Beta, the mad world website mentions that another beta will take place in December.
OrbusVR
We have a new blog for OrbusVR this week. The post was about new content slated for November 16. While the post didn’t go into detail about upcoming cosmetics, it did give some information about the new overworld quests.
Profane
Last week we came across a video of BunnyJoker’s take on PvP toxicity. This didn’t go down well in the comment section of Last Week’s Indie Spotlight. Hopefully their tweet covering player housing will get a friendlier reception. Reading the post, however, I’m not sure that will be the case.
Hey people! We’ve talked about how Profane will give players the freedom to explore and enjoy its world in so many different ways, but hey, what about your own place in the world and a cozy nook. to rest after so many adventures? ?? pic.twitter.com/MaIFQP6Ziv
— Profane MMORPG (@ProfaneMMO) November 5, 2021
F4e project
Betadwarf has shared work-in-progress updates on some of the enemies you’ll encounter in F4e project. About a month ago they shared with us an iteration of the Demon Widow boss. This week they’re showcasing the final version of Demon Widow and, wow, does it look awesome!
Kingdom of the Mad God
A cool community event is happening on the RotMG Discord server. The challenge is to create a RotMG trading card, with prizes awarded to the top 10 submissions. The deadline is November 17, so go to RotMG Discord to know all the rules. And when you’re done creating your maps, be sure to check out all of this week’s articles Blog entries to keep you up to date with all the happenings in the game.
Villagers and Heroes
The Otters had a live stream on Twitch a few days ago. It was the first stream they had in months, so there was a lot of information to gather from the 77-minute stream. If you missed it, you can watch a replay on the V&H Twitch Channel.
Wurm online
One of the promises made during the leadership changes some time ago was to have more consistent communication between the development team and the community. To honor this promise, a new issue of Valrei International was published on Saturday. You can view it at Online forums.
Zenith: the last city
If you ever wanted to have your voice in a video game, this might be your chance. Tribe VR is calling for anyone interested in voicing any of the characters from Zenith: The Last City. Auditions close November 9, so fill out and submit your application AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!
loose ends
- BitCraft- There was a Q&A last week where Clockwork Labs answered questions from the community about by BitCraft upcoming pre-alpha.
- Double Universe – I missed the monthly FROM newsletter last week. You can find it on the FROM website.