Source Engine Licensed for Massive Multiplayer Roleplaying Game

Chris D

Chris D

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This just in from Doug Lombardi:
September 21, 2004 - Valve®, developer of innovative technologies and award-winning games, today announced a Source engine licensing partnership with Smiling Gator Productions. Already in development, Twilight War: After the Fall is a Source-based Massive Multiplayer Roleplaying Game (MMRPG) for the PC.[br]
[br]
The Valve Source engine technology, the same used to create Half-Life 2, gives developers the ability to create expressive digital actors and physically simulated worlds. It also offers advanced rendering capabilities and the industry's most convincing artificial intelligence. [br]
[br]
"The Source engine is one of the gaming world's premier technologies, we are thrilled about the features it will bring to Twilight War: After the Fall," says Kingsley Montgomery, Vice President of Development at Smiling Gator Productions. "Its combat system, physics, and advanced AI are exactly what we were looking for to enable the exciting features we are developing for our game. We evaluated several game engines and concluded that Valve's was the only choice for us. In addition to being a top-notch product, their support has been excellent."[br]
[br]
Smiling Gator Productions joins Troika Games and Arkane Studios as announced Source licensees. Source is designed for the creation of games from all genres, and contains a host of proprietary tools for level editing, character direction and more.[br]
[br]
"We are eager to see the Source engine used for an MMRPG by Smiling Gator Productions," said Gabe Newell, Valve's C.E.O. "The ability to render realistic environments and create compelling characters with true-to-life emotional expressions will be a great innovation for one of the industry's most promising genres."[br]
[br]
For more information on Smiling Gator's Source-based game, please visit www.twilightwar.com.[br]
[br]
For more information on Source, please visit www.valvesoftware.com/sourcelicense/.[br]
[br]
About Valve[br]
Founded in 1996, Valve creates entertainment software titles, including Half-Life®, Counter-StrikeTM, and Team Fortress®. Valve's portfolio accounts for over 12 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 88% of the online action market. More information about Valve is available through the company's Web site at www.valvesoftware.com.[br]
[br]
About Smiling Gator Productions, Inc.,[br]
A Florida Corporation, 100% owned by its management and employees, uses state of the art technologies to create massive, persistent virtual worlds with compelling content and challenging gameplay. SGP is currently staffed with a dozen in-house designers, artists, and software developers, all devoted to the challenge of the gaming industry. Started in the waning months of 2003, SGP has but one goal - creating worlds you want to be a part of. For more information, visit www.smilinggator.com.
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maybe they can do something a little different with mmorpg format for once. current mmorpgs are incredibly similar and dull
 
I suppose this means HL2.net's little pet project Source World may work better than alot of people thought since its basically an MMORPG as well.
 
Finally a post-apocalyptic mmorpg. now give us a western mmorpg and the world will be right.
 
Chris_D this is probably the like best news thingy you have ever wrote wow lol. :E


:cheers:
 
Damn, that's another game I'll have to keep an eye on...

On a brighter note, they're based in Florida!
 
i wonder if the source engine will be looked at more closely and perhaps Valve will be approached more once HL2 as been released..

hmm.. Blizzard using the source engine for a Starcraft sequeal? :cheese:
it could get interesting once HL2 is finally released.
 
Dr. Freeman said:
i wonder if the source engine will be looked at more closely and perhaps Valve will be approached more once HL2 as been released..

hmm.. Blizzard using the source engine for a Starcraft sequeal? :cheese:
it could get interesting once HL2 is finally released.
Click to expand...

Blizzard is all about inhouse engines. SC2 on the Source engine would suck. Even if it was cool in theory..

They should just make a third expansion to SC. Maybe a new game, entirely in 2D with tons of new features.. I'd like that..
 
Shuzer said:
Blizzard is all about inhouse engines. SC2 on the Source engine would suck. Even if it was cool in theory..

They should just make a third expansion to SC. Maybe a new game, entirely in 2D with tons of new features.. I'd like that..
Click to expand...

i know...that was me just dreaming of Starcraft in source engine :E
hmm...u think if Blizz ever did decide to license an engine, say source, would that cut down development time for them? i think it would a little if not by alot.
 
The Source engine is taking over the world. Our plan is going well. :devil:
 
Most mmorpgs i see today have huge seamless worlds. I wonder how they are going to change source to accomidate for this? Or would the world be a bunch of large sections with lots of loading screens.
 
slashandburn said:
Most mmorpgs i see today have huge seamless worlds. I wonder how they are going to change source to accomidate for this? Or would the world be a bunch of large sections with lots of loading screens.
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Look at Lineage 2 on the current Unreal engine. In that game, the world is divided into a bunch of little square sections that get loaded when you get close enough to see them. By doing that you don't need to have one huge load time at the beginning (like most multiplayer FPS games) or a world with obvious seams in the form of loading areas (like Neocron). I asked Valve is this was possible with the Source engine back around the time of "the chat log" (along with dozens of other questions)... but they never replied. My e-mail provider must be on their spam filter.
 
Holy shiat! This is exactly what i've been waiting for in a MMORPG. Realness! I mean come on, what other MMO out there will feature PHYSICS in it? Does this mean if we actualy cut down trees we will actualy have to plan where it will land? OMG! Toss rocks and break out windows! :D
THis mmo looks very very promising.

-Ninja
 
Hmm. Does the world really need another MMORPG game? These things take years to turn a profit even charging you a fee to play a game you've bought (FFXI) or go under (World of Warhammer) or just plain suck.

I'm sure with Source it'll look neato, but whats the deal with everyone making their game a MMORPG thesse days?
 
MMORPGs are the only reason the Video Game industry surpassed the box office industry in the amount of money they make. MMORPGs are extremely popular, and I don't see what is wrong with them. Heck, I play 2 MMORPGs myself (WW2OL, Eve-Online)
 
Wow I can really see a Gravity spell that lifts the monster up into the air along with a lot of debris on the ground and then slams them into it! :O
 
WTF WTF WTF omg ! a mmog with source...oooooh im fadin away ^^
 
Homer said:
Finally a post-apocalyptic mmorpg. now give us a western mmorpg and the world will be right.
Click to expand...
Check out Neocron, best MMORPG/FPS in my opinion and its post apocalyptic and currently comming to the end of open beta for Neocron2.

Anyway, great news, shows the expandability of source, the game should be good!
 
This is exciting, i just hope they dont use the lame click-for-click fighting action....

If they use real time pvp the game will rule, if they dont the game wont apply to alot of people.

Haha switch, someone's heard of neocron apart from me. :hmph:

I just quit that game...cancelled both my accounts after playing for 2 years, its going no where, its fun for a long time and worth the money but there comes a time when it just does'nt cut it because it has lazy ass dev's behind the game...there are bugs in neocron 2 beta that was in neocron 1 beta...nuff said.

Andy said:
Hmm. Does the world really need another MMORPG game? These things take years to turn a profit even charging you a fee to play a game you've bought (FFXI) or go under (World of Warhammer) or just plain suck.

I'm sure with Source it'll look neato, but whats the deal with everyone making their game a MMORPG thesse days?
Click to expand...

MMORPG's are the way to go...games like counter-strike and the like are part time games to me...until you've played an MMORPG (a good one) you wont understand how much better they are than dead-end games that are going no where. Im waiting for WoW but it has no release date yet ;( Either that or EQ2.
 
Alig said:
Haha switch, someone's heard of neocron apart from me. :hmph:

I just quit that game...cancelled both my accounts after playing for 2 years, its going no where, its fun for a long time and worth the money but there comes a time when it just does'nt cut it because it has lazy ass dev's behind the game...there are bugs in neocron 2 beta that was in neocron 1 beta...nuff said.
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Wow, people knowing about Neocron are few and far between ;)

Yeh your right , My accounts are cancelled (still work though) after playing for 2 years on Saturn.

Anyway just watched the concept art video, looks very promising. I wonder if this will become a steam distributed game.
 
really hard to get a good hit detection on a server with 3000 ppl on it.... so we will have to hope for better hardware ^^
 
switch said:
Wow, people knowing about Neocron are few and far between ;)

Yeh your right , My accounts are cancelled (still work though) after playing for 2 years on Saturn.

Anyway just watched the concept art video, looks very promising. I wonder if this will become a steam distributed game.
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Yeah neocron players are rare :p

I think Valve could distribute alot of games via steam...not necessarily there own either... i mean if i had a choice between downloading a 2 gb game of fileplanet or steam i know which id choose :)

Im only using a 1.5MB line :O Oh i played uranus but did have a high rank ppu on saturn named R1cky..was in cartel for a bit then moved to bloodtitans, then never played there again...
 
Dr. Freeman said:
i wonder if the source engine will be looked at more closely and perhaps Valve will be approached more once HL2 as been released..

hmm.. Blizzard using the source engine for a Starcraft sequeal? :cheese:
it could get interesting once HL2 is finally released.
Click to expand...


I doubt that will ever happen. In fact, I highly doubt that we'll ever see another Starcraft or Diablo game. Circa 2000/2001, Vivendi Universal (Blizzard is a subsidiary of them) got into a debate about project funding or direction (can't remember the exact cause of the debacle) and several of the core development team members simply quit, walked away, and formed a new software house.
 
I could see source becoming as widley used as the unreal engine, maybe even more so.
 
"Source Engine Licensed for Massive Multiplayer Roleplaying Game"

more like "source engine licensed for massive multiplayer online roleplaying game"

:p
 
Alig said:
Yeah neocron players are rare :p

I think Valve could distribute alot of games via steam...not necessarily there own either... i mean if i had a choice between downloading a 2 gb game of fileplanet or steam i know which id choose :)

Im only using a 1.5MB line :O Oh i played uranus but did have a high rank ppu on saturn named R1cky..was in cartel for a bit then moved to bloodtitans, then never played there again...
Click to expand...

Yeh if I had that choice, steam would definitelly be first on the list, no hassle clicking through lots of links, no queues, and mostly fast speeds.

Oh and I remember seeing you around in both of those clans, I was dedicated CityAdmin member :) In Imposing Order, main chars were .xf. (ppu) and sw1tch (tank)
 
Neocron players aren't that rare, there are quite a few hanging around these boards. I'm also ex Neocron, although I was involved principally in the original beta testing before getting roped into the GM side of things (Moonunit, if that rings a bell). It was a fun ride, but the company was small so the pace of development was pretty slow and eventually I found the GMing became more of a chore than a hobby so I decided to move on (GMing tends to take the thrill away from playing...). However I still rate the game highly as a gaming experience, certainly so if your taste isn't for elves etc.

This news regarding a MMPORPG using the Source engine as the basis for development is an interesting one. To cater for the population levels of MMPORPGs, the game worlds have to be quite expansive. Undoubtably the engine can be adapted to carry out seamless map loading, but the amount of content (textures sounds, etc) that they are going to require to avoid making the game environments look identi-kit (SWG) is going to be phenomenal (think multi DVD levels of data). Definitely an interesting prospect. :O
 
svet-am said:
I doubt that will ever happen. In fact, I highly doubt that we'll ever see another Starcraft or Diablo game. Circa 2000/2001, Vivendi Universal (Blizzard is a subsidiary of them) got into a debate about project funding or direction (can't remember the exact cause of the debacle) and several of the core development team members simply quit, walked away, and formed a new software house.
Click to expand...

that is sad.. :(
 
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