https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkPotPfg7uE

I’ve mentioned Shards before, the MMORPG concept that Citadel Studios is working on. Citadel, you may all recall, is composed of several Mythic Entertainment and/or Ultima Online development veterans, and the game’s core conceit is that it will strive to put its design in the hands of players:

Think loads of alternate universes, with differing themes available like Sci-Fi, Steampunk, IRL, Horror, and anything a potential admin could think of to bring to life. Think battlegrounds and mini-games designed by players, with fully fleshed out rules, monsters, mechanics, and maps. Think of the complete freedom to go off the rails of the proverbial ‘themepark’ MMO, with tools delivered directly to the player to make experiences not tied down by the developer’s whims. And maybe best of all, a rating system which will showcase the best shards, decided by the people who play them.

Not only will Shards Online feature Lua to enable an extensive modding system, but in-game menus allow admins complete freedom to design their own worlds and content with no prior scripting knowledge as well. We were lucky enough to watch the development team play, and were treated to amusing delights like fire-breathing bears, placeable buildings, and more all made possible by the intricate yet simple-to-use framework laid down in the game’s current build.

The game will be an isometric, top-down RPG, and the technology behind it seems darn neat:

The game world isn’t a single “world” but a group of servers, referred to as clusters, each one running its own unique universe. Before I get too far into trying to explain it, check out this flow-chart I made:

So, the game starts with clusters. A cluster is essentially the master server for a group of shards (we’ll get to that in a second). The cluster contains character information, rulesets, and essentially defines the world. Within the cluster are shards, which are a group of maps that provide the adventure area. You can switch between shards using teleport portals, although with these things you betcha that there will be other ways to transverse between the two.

Now, rulesets are the game rules and the story. There are official ones, by Citadel Studios, and custom ones that players can generate themselves. For some clusters, you can have PvP on, no gold, and everything is given to you at the start. For others, it could be a standard fantasy RPG with no PvP.

For some additional information about the game, check out Massively’s “first look” at it, and Shoost’s interview with Derek Brinkmann, CEO of Citadel Studios.

Anyone care to have a guess as to when we’ll see Shards on Kickstarter?