What do you get when you cross a best-selling fantasy novelist, a legendary comic book artist and toy designer, the lead designer of
Morrowind and
Oblivion, and a retired Red Sox pitcher?
Project "Copernicus," that's what!
R. A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, Ken Rolston, and Curt Schilling are the key players of the game company 38 Studios, which is currently in development for a fantasy MMO, with the working title "Copernicus."
For those who don't know, R. A. Salvatore is the mind behind the popular fantasy hero
Drizzt Do'Urden, and Todd McFarlane is the mind behind the comic
Spawn and is well known as the designer of
"those really cool action figures."
Salvatore is creating the world as creative director and McFarlane is the art director. Add Rolston as the "lead creative visionary" and Schilling---an avid MMO fan---bankrolling it, and you have the core behind
38 Studios.
Have a look at these clips for more background behind their team and project.
They sound like they're trying to raise the bar on MMOs. Of course, they aren't the only ones making MMOs, and it's a tough market, but it's also a growing market and competition breeds innovation. I'm kind of excited about this, and I hope they pull off as much as they're promising, which is an immersive and social experience in an MMO.
But it doesn't stop there. They're also going to deliver "cross-media" products, the first of which is a single-player RPG based on the world,
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which is due out first in 2011.
This is all a bit early in terms of development (the YouTube clips only give you a horse animation, which looks cool, and a centaur still image), but I wanted to float this out there to gauge your reactions to this. And details are coming out regarding
Reckoning. What do you think? Is this a kind of "dream team," or is this a "too many cooks" situation?
The idea is to create a kind of franchise, which will likely include the MMO, the single-player RPG, mobile apps/games, novels, etc. If the track record of the involved parties is any indication, this could be something big. If they build an engaging world and the technical quality is there, it could be
really big. I'm keeping my eye on this.
