Okay, we can finally talk about OTHERLAND – THE GAME.
I'm so darn happy I could cry.
We've been under a bit of an embargo, which we kind of screwed up (to answer the puzzled questions of those of you who saw stuff go up and then come down.) Well, the embargo's over. We can talk. I can answer questions. Tell lies. All that stuff.
Seriously, I'm really looking forward to this game, although it's still probably a year and a half away, at least. (The release date is 2010.) It's being made by RealU in Singapore, published by dtp entertainment, and it's a major project. The entire Singapore studio is devoted solely to the game, and they're approaching eighty employees. More importantly, though, they're doing a beautiful, fascinating job, not just duplicating or doing a pastiche of the books, but trying to take what is original and interesting in the work and opening it out into an entirely new realm, the MMORPG. Into the virtual world, that is, and what could be more appropriate for OTHERLAND?
There are lots of questions I can't answer yet, some because I don't know the answer, some because I'm just not allowed to tell. (A lot of the questions about how the game actually works will fall into that category – we think it's going to be quite unusual, even revolutionary in some ways.) But I'll do my best to answer what I can honestly and let you know when it's a "Don't know" and when it's a "Can't say".
And, of course, there will be much more as we go along. What I'm putting up today is only the first stuff released for the press and marketing. The game itself is already months past what you're seeing here, even though it's still in early stages (I believe the official word was it's at 15% completion.)
So, here's some stuff. I wish I could show you all I've seen, or tell you all I've heard. I'm VERY involved in this game, and very proud of it already. It's going to be really, really cool.
-Tad
These are the publishers – they raised the money. They're based in Hamburg. My game started where the Beatles started!
This is the studio. They're based in Singapore. Not only are they great game-makers, they actually GET Otherland. They've come up with ideas that were new to me, but would totally have fit into the original novels. (I was impressed.)
We intend to build Lambda Mall HUGE, and keep building it during the whole length of the game-creation process – which should go on well AFTER the first release of the game.
Here's a first build of the Lambda Mall hub. All those little transparent windows around the structure are actually the entrances to virtual clubs – several of which have already been constructed. They will all have their own music, decor, and often their own built-in games.
You start out as a simple, nondescript sim in Lambda Mall. You can stay that way, or you can start learning how to change yourself.
Lambda Mall will be a social center from the first time you enter the game until the last day you ever play it – if there ever is a last day. (I'd like to think it will keep changing so much over time that we may just keep it going forever, like THE SIMPSONS...)
(Joke.)
Here's one way to travel around Lambda Mall – in a flight tube. This can take you anywhere you want to go...once you figure out how to access and use them.
Another travel method is spline surfing – you jump on one of these twisty light thingies and zoom to your destination. When you get good, you'll be able to jump from spline to spline and change destinations mid-trip.
The hoverballs are places to change flight tubes – terminals and depots that can take you not just around Lambda Mall, but to other worlds.
The first world you can travel to from L. Mall – at least the first world I'm allowed to talk about – is Mars. Yes, Hurley Brummond's weird Colonial-British Mars. It's dominated by a spiky mountain that reaches up to poke the top of the atmosphere. The canals run from the surface of Mars all the way up to the top (lifted by massive water wheels and a system of locks.)
But there's more Mars surrounding the towering peak – desert and canal system and the Island of Sacrifice, to name a few. (There are going to be cool monsters out in the desert and in the canal, but I can't show you any yet.)
Here's a screenshot of a Taltor guard. (Remember, there are several native races on Mars...and crazy English people!)
A screenshot of some early bazaar bystanders.
One quest on the Mars world will parallel the book: a beautiful winged woman is about to be taken on this barge and offered to the gods...
...here on Sacrifice Island.
You can risk your life to save her, but it turns out it's a lot more complicated than that. A LOT more complicated...
