Ever, Jane has reached its kickstarter goal with pledges of USD$109,563 helping it sail past the USD$100,000 target. Wait wait wait, what is Ever, Jane I hear you ask…. maybe! Ever, Jane is an upcoming online roleplaying game set in the world of Jane Austen’s novels.
This is an interesting project, although it’s certainly in its early stages and people will definitely need patience, it should be noted that the power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.
Behind the project are ex Linden Lab Senior Engineering Manager Judy L. Tyrer. Judy’s work covered Second Life. The lead artist is Renee Nejo and PR and community management will be handled by Annabel Smyth, which isn’t a bad thing because a lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
The game will be free to play but there are also plans for subscription models:
“Free-to-play allows you to be a peasant and you have 3 months to find work or starve (or poach, but you can go to jail if you get caught).
$5.00 per month puts you at the merchant/farmer level where the best you can do is earn a lot of money and your children marry into a gentrified family due to your wealth.
$10.00 is the basic subscription and lands you in the gentry at the level of a second son or a daughter. You have a very small yearly stipend but you are gentry so you get to do all the gentrified things.
$15.00 is the equivalent of a first son. You get a stipend and land.
$25.00 gets you a title and an estate
$50.00 gets you a royal title, an estate, and your own town..”
There will be no slaying of Orcs in this game, gossip and social status will be the tools of the trade. In terms of community management they have very large ban hammers at their disposal and won’t be afraid to use them, so be nice and try not to get angry, remember that angry people are not always wise.
There’s a protoype of the game available for download from the main site. The main site is also the go to place for rules, news and the forum. They are keeping the site updated, indeed news of reaching the kickstarter goal was announced on the news page.
The Kickstarter didn’t reach its stretch goals, which means there won’t be a player based economy, not yet anyway but I’d imagine if it’s a roaring success they may well come back to some of those stretch goals in the future.
When I talk about games in Second Life, this is exactly the sort of game I’m thinking of, not hack and slash. This one is however Unity based, but it’s this sort of experience I have in mind when I talk of games that would be suitable within Second Life.
So the rules of engagement look like they may well be more to do with personality traits, so for example imagine you were in Mrs Miggins pie shop, this may happen:
“They do say, Mrs. M, that verbal insults hurt *more* than physical pain. They are, of course, wrong, as you’ll soon discover when I stick this toasting fork in your head.” (*EDITOR* Oh come on, that’s from Blackadder!)
So no need for swords, you might need a fork though.
This looks like it may be fun, it’s certainly a different angle and it’s certainly a project that is worth keeping an eye on.