If you've been following MMOs in recent months, you've no doubt been inundated by the new story focus of the genre's upcoming AAA titles. Whether we're talking about Star Wars The Old Republic, The Secret World, or even TERA, story has been the favored industry buzzword for a while now.
Enter Storybricks, a new concept from Namaste Entertainment that eschews the big boys' affinity for tacking single-player narratives onto a traditional MMO foundation in favor of player-generated content. Storybricks is more tool than game at this point, and a new post at Kill Ten Rats sheds a bit of light on what makes the software unique. Ravious describes Storybricks as an offshoot of tabletop roleplaying, and as such, a concept that linear gaming and conventional MMO fans may not embrace.
It's an interesting read, and it features commentary from developer Brian Green and community manager Kelly Heckman. You can read more about Storybricks via Massively's hands-on impressions piece from this year's GenCon.
Reader Comments (8)
Posted: Sep 12th 2011 1:16PM JuliusSeizure said
Hooray! :D
Posted: Sep 12th 2011 1:30PM Yarg2011 said
It is a great idea, but please I am sick of hype. Give me a game/proof of concept and then hype it.
Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:15PM Psychochild said
Full disclosure: I'm a developer on Storybricks.
@Yarg2011 This is what innovation looks like. We have an idea, we show it to people, we get feedback, we demonstrate to investors that this idea addresses a demand, and then we make something cool that nobody has done before.
Going away in seclusion to create a game, just like a large company would do, means that we don't get feedback. The very thing we want to avoid is to create yet another overly complicated tool that seems simple for a developer to use, but that is too complex for a typical player.
Don't worry, we're working on something that incorporates this. But, there's no sense in wasting money if there's no interest. So, if you would like to see an actual product with Storybricks in it, give us your support and feedback. Go sign up to be a tester when it's time. Hopefully we'll astound you soon enough.
Reply
@Yarg2011 This is what innovation looks like. We have an idea, we show it to people, we get feedback, we demonstrate to investors that this idea addresses a demand, and then we make something cool that nobody has done before.
Going away in seclusion to create a game, just like a large company would do, means that we don't get feedback. The very thing we want to avoid is to create yet another overly complicated tool that seems simple for a developer to use, but that is too complex for a typical player.
Don't worry, we're working on something that incorporates this. But, there's no sense in wasting money if there's no interest. So, if you would like to see an actual product with Storybricks in it, give us your support and feedback. Go sign up to be a tester when it's time. Hopefully we'll astound you soon enough.
Posted: Sep 13th 2011 6:56AM Yarg2011 said
@Psychochild I am signed up as a tester. The word soon in gaming has become a very, very bad joke. Look at GW2 I think the 2 stands for number of years of hype frankly. But any game coming out now has been years in the hype mill and for me that kills interest more than builds it.
I really hope your technique is picked up by other games, truly I do. It is just the process that kills me.
Reply
I really hope your technique is picked up by other games, truly I do. It is just the process that kills me.
Posted: Sep 13th 2011 10:07AM Rodolfo said
@Yarg2011
Most game companies spend years in development before you can see anything and want to release games only when the experience is fine tuned.
I don't care, if the game sucks it sucks. Does not matter if you have high polycount or not. Want to release as soon as possible, right now we are figuring out when is that going to be since we are very early in the product but would like to see something before the end of the year.
-Rodolfo @ Namaste
Most game companies spend years in development before you can see anything and want to release games only when the experience is fine tuned.
I don't care, if the game sucks it sucks. Does not matter if you have high polycount or not. Want to release as soon as possible, right now we are figuring out when is that going to be since we are very early in the product but would like to see something before the end of the year.
-Rodolfo @ Namaste
Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:50PM Space Cobra said
People are just antsy.
You Devs should feel thrilled people are interested in your work. I know I am! :)
Even though it's fantasy-related and I am burnt out on it (but if the game is good, it could be Hello Kitty and I'd be there!).
You Devs should feel thrilled people are interested in your work. I know I am! :)
Even though it's fantasy-related and I am burnt out on it (but if the game is good, it could be Hello Kitty and I'd be there!).








