I noticed recently, on Twitter, that Kevin Fishburne had published details about Sanctimonia, his upcoming Ultima Online-inspired PvE MMORPG, over at IndieGameMag’s forums:

Hello fellow indie game fans! I’m Kevin Fishburne, sole proprietor of Eight Virtues, and have been writing games as a hobby for 24 years. Mid 2013 I’ll be releasing my first finished game; an arcade-style, sandbox MMORPG in development since late 2010. Alpha testing will (hopefully) begin February 1st.

Sanctimonia attempts to combine the intuitive control of a dual-analog gamepad with the depth and interactivity of the titanic vision that was the original Ultima Online. Instead of extensive hierarchies of menus, icons and OSD’s the world is interacted with in a more direct, physical manner. My focus has been on the core mechanics of the human body and how those mechanics can be thoughtfully combined to create the higher-level functionality we expect from modern games. Rather than presenting game variables as numbers or meters they are presented as symptoms graphically and textually. Ideally you should never see a number other than the quantity of a pile of items such as coins, but still know when your left kidney has been compromised by dagger or infection.

His post hasn’t received any responses as yet, but it’s nice to see him reaching out to publicize his game in new ways. He has invested much in its development, and I for one hope he enjoys a good measure of success when his efforts come to fruition in Sanctimonia’s release.