It’s no news that iconic fantasy author R.A. Salvatore is part of the team working on 38 Studios’ upcoming BigWorld-powered MMO, Copernicus. He joins Curt Schilling, Todd McFarlane, and a host of game development icons in the MMO followup to the upcoming Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. This Boston Globe article focuses a bit on Salvatore and his role in narrative development.
“I tried to think of the people that were the best in the world at what they did,’’ Curt Schilling wrote in an e-mail, explaining why his Providence-based video game company, 38 Studios, partnered with Salvatore. The former Red Sox ace needed a detailed fantasy setting for two projects: A World of Warcraft-like online game currently called Project Copernicus (still in development), and a single-player game, called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (set to launch Feb. 7).
Curt Shilling’s 38 studios is becoming increasingly vocal about their upcoming 3rd person action RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The title will be the predecessor to the BigWorld-powered MMO titled Copernicus, coming when its ready.
Steve Farrelly at Ausgamers interviewsReckoning Lead World Designer Colin Campbell…
There’s abilities, there’s talent trees, there’s the crafting systems and of course there’s RPG combat, but it’s amazing RPG combat. It’s marrying a lot of fighting games into an RPG, it’s not an action game that has a few small RPG elements, it’s very much a cohesive experience that way.
we have thousands of variations of weapons in the game, depending on our procedural approach to how these weapons get made and generated for the player to use and find.
So they can go through the world and on different replays, they’ll find different weapons and be able to build themselves in different ways and really find the things that work best for what they’re trying to achieve as a player.
I’m really excited about the open-world aspect of this; of running through and exploring those RPG and combat systems in this sprawling environment. So I can’t wait to see you guys check it out.
Chris Nutt at Gamasutra has done a bit of an overview of 38 Studios’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, as well as its upcoming BigWorld-powered sister MMO, currently code-named Copernicus.
In 2006, star Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling formed a company, now called 38 Studios, to create an MMO. That game, codenamed Copernicus, is still in development at the company’s Rhode Island headquarters. He sought the cooperation of big names — artist Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, and R.A. Salvatore, the author behind the popular Drizzt Do’Urden books — to help flesh out his franchise.
Nutt interviews Big Huge Games studio & project art director Tim Coman, about working with an legends like Curt Shilling, R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane, on such an ambitious project…
For me, I always wanted to, from an art direction standpoint, look at something and say we shouldn’t be basing design necessarily off of the hardware. You should be basing it off of what’s right for the title. So, for us, we really wanted to combine the idea of building everything from the ground up… We’ve got tons and tons of concept art where we build these ideas around this stuff.
After an extended period of silence regarding their upcoming BigWorld-powered MMO, 38 Studios has finally released some information on the game.
The studio has confirmed that their MMO project, stealth-titled Copernicus, will indeed take place in the same universe as their upcoming Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
The Reckoning site showcases the upcoming single-player title, while adding a bit of information about the world that both Reckoning and Copernicus will take place in, while the Amalur site showcases R.A. Salvatore’s fabled 10,000 years of custom-written lore for the pair of titles.
Reviews and impressions from a variety of sources suggest true epicness and originality. Acclaimed author R.A. Salvatore and Spawn-creator Todd McFarlane, as well as Morrowind Lead Desinger Ken Rolston are part of the team that’s developing Kingdoms of Amalur.
The game has thusfar been nominated for 8 awards from industry publications and associations, 7 of which are listed here.
38 Studios licensed BigWorld Technology for Copernicus, a stealth title currently in development. If the craftsmanship and originality of Amalur is any indication of what’s in store for Copernicus, we’re all looking forward to how 38 utilizes BigWorld for the project.
Some of the coverage Amalur has received…
IGN: Some people don’t like sports games, but I traditionally don’t like medieval times with dragons and crap. Reckoning looks like it could be the exception to the rule. The combat is fluid, customizing my character to the specific specs I want is exciting, and hell yes I want to make a sword with a crazy core and snazzy binding.
GamesRadar: “Luckily, from what we’ve seen so far, Reckoning may have the stones to turn those big plans into reality.”
AOL Joystiq: “We’re not sure exactly what you might want from a fantasy RPG/action game, but darned if this trailer for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning™ doesn’t appear to have it all.”
Destructoid: “Big Huge Games showed off a tiny bit of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning™ and it looks pretty good already.”
Game Informer: “If Reckoningplays as well as it looks like it has the potential to, I could have to eat a little crow. That’s a sacrifice I’d be ecstatic to make.”
The Escapist: “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning™shoves everything you love about the best RPGs into one package.”
G4/Adam Sessler: “This is not RPG-lite. This is about as deep and rich as you can get.”
