A couple of post ago I mused over the possibility of a Second Life game engine. In that post I mused that the engine wouldn’t be ideal for an all action first person shooter. Estelle Pienaar of Second Life Play Instinct respectfully disagreed. There are some excellent examples of games within Second Life on that blog.
So, what sort of game do I think could benefit from a Second Life style game engine. Well let’s create a formula, let’s take the regency period where Jane Austen novels thrived which has given birth to Emily Short’s interactive fiction in Versu. Then let’s mix that up with avatars who don’t fight, but gain reputation and status via gossip, or being invited to events. Then throw into the mix this mysterious Second Life game engine and to top it all off, let’s throw in an ex senior engineering manager from Linden Lab who worked on Second Life. Result? Far fetched?
Well some of that formula is actually happening. Thanks to a post on SLUniverse from Aimee Weber I’ve discovered that an MMO set in the Jane Austen world might very well be in the works. There’s a kickstarter for a game called Ever, Jane. Indeed the person behind it, Judy L Tyrer is indeed an ex senior engineering manager for Linden Lab who worked on Second Life. Rumour may suggest that I added that part to my formula based on seeing the kickstarter, rumours are sometimes true!
Here’s part of the description of the project:
“Ever, Jane is a virtual world that allows people to role-play in Regency Period England. Similar to traditional role playing games, we advance our character through experience, but that is where the similarities end. Ever, Jane is about playing the actual character in the game, building stories. Our quests are derived from player’s actions and stories. And we gossip rather than swords and magic to demolish our enemies and aid our friends. ”
I’m not making this up!
Now the part of my formula that bears no relation to this is the Second Life game engine, however in my defence, when I was thinking of the possible uses for a Second Life game engine, this is pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking, without the MMO part.
There’s currently a prototype, which can be downloaded. As I haven’t downloaded it, I can’t vouch for how well it demonstrates the project.
The game centres around gossip, balls (dance type) and dinner parties. Activities which won’t allow you to pull out an uzi for a quick win. There will also be quests, families, which are described as being similar to guilds in other MMO’s.
On top of that, if funding really does pick up, there are plans for an economy based system. This is way down the list of possibilities, but if USD$350,000 is raised the enhancements include a player based economy.
This is an interesting looking project, I have to say that the pitch has impressed me, you can read the pitch in the link to kickstarter earlier in this post. To finish I’ll embed the video pitch from Jane: