So…I haven’t kept up with Crowfall over the last week or so, and that was a poor choice on my part, because the team at ArtCraft Entertainment have revealed a number of things about the game. And not just more concept art or character profiles: they’ve release actual screenshots from the game in its alpha state, and have also explained what they are calling The Hunger, the central mechanic and plot device that they are hoping will serve to keep the game fresh and appealing to both new players and old.

Not that they didn’t also release some character profiles, of course. The Centaur Legionnaire was revealed at the end of January:

A character profile page for the Legionnaire class was also set up, whereat you can find the base stats for the class as well as a short story about a particular Legionnaire, which serves to introduce some concepts about the class and Centaur culture in the Crowfall universe.

Also revealed was the Stoneborn Forgemaster class:

Again, on the character’s profile page, you can find a short story about a particular Forgemaster, which reveals some details about the class and the culture of the Stoneborn race. Additionally, in the news post about the Forgemaster’s profile, ArtCraft gave us a look at a template for the resource map the game will use, and also revealed a bit more about the shape of the Crowfall universe:

You can find out more details about resources and the game’s economy on the newly-published Economy page at the Crowfall website. There’s also a new page detailing the game’s combat system.

Now, the layout of the Universe is — as you can kind of see above — built on the concept of decay. The Crowfall universe is afflicted by a blight called The Hunger, which ArtCraft explain in this way:

Eternal Heroes, Dying Worlds

What if characters are persistent/permanent – but the Worlds are not?

What if your character exists outside of any given Campaign, and can join new matches once a match is over?

This opens up a whole new world of design possibilities.

• Characters are permanent, and advance over the course of many Campaigns.  This gives you the feeling of persistence that we’ve come to expect from MMOs.
• Campaigns, though, aren’t permanent.  They still be “persistent” between game sessions – but they don’t last forever.
• How long should the last?  As long as the game is still fun!  And they don’t all have to be the same duration.  Some Campaigns could last 1 week, or 1 month.  or 6 months.  or 1 year.
• These Campaigns aren’t just “instances”, though — they are fully populated, continent-sized, seamless zone MMO servers.  The only thing they have in common with an “instance” is that they are time-limited.
• Because each Campaign is marching towards an end condition, this means that the World doesn’t have to be static anymore. We can break the Campaign into different “phases”, and adjust the rules of the game change during each phase.  We can allow the players to fundamentally change the world, without fear of the long term problems this might create.
• Why not make each Campaign unique?  Why can’t each one have a completely unique world map (mountains, forests, lakes, castles, villages, quarries, mines, mills – you name it)?  The “exploration” phase of the game can be different in each Campaign.  The world will never be stale.
• To that point: since each game is a stand-alone event, we can even change the rules (and win conditions) of each Campaign.  We can experiment with different rules, to see which ones are more popular – and keep the game continually fresh.

So, how do you explain this?

The Hunger.  The Hunger is a mysterious, destructive force that spreads from one world to the next, like an infection – twisting and corrupting everything it touches.  Eventually, the Hunger consumes the World itself, and it is destroyed.

Players take the roles of Divine Champions, immortal participants in the War of the Gods.  They join the Campaigns to scavenge the Dying Worlds for relics, resources and glory.

A Campaign might look like this:

Phase 1 is Spring.  The Campaign map is hidden by fog of war.  You are dropped (typically naked) into an unknown, deadly environment.  This world is filled with the ruins of ancient castles, abandoned mines and haunted villages – which you have to explore to scavenge for weapons, tools and the resources to start building fortifications.

Phase 2 is Summer.  The Hunger starts to infect the creatures.  Resources become scarce.  Your team claims an abandoned quarry and must fight to keep it.  You use the stone to build an ancient keep, to use it as staging areas to attack their neighbors.

Phase 3 is Fall.  The creatures become more deadly as the Hunger takes hold.  Resources are heavily contested and transporting them is fraught with peril.  Your guild frantically builds a wall around your city, as the nature of conflict shifts from smaller skirmishes to siege warfare.

Phase 4 is Winter.  The environment is brutal.  Warmth is hard to come by.  Your kingdoms grows in strength; your neighbors falter and you demand that they swear fealty or face complete loss of the Campaign.  Instead, a handful of smaller kingdoms choose to band together against you.

Phase 5 is Victory and Defeat.  The World is destroyed in a cataclysmic event as the Campaign comes to an end.  Your Kingdom emerges victorious, and you return to the Eternal Kingdoms to enjoy the spoils of war.   Your adversaries head home, too — to lick their wounds.

They even released some concept art showing off the effects of The Hunger on a gryphon:

The Templar character class profile page gives some additional details about the hunger — or, rather how one of the worlds in the Crowfall universe responded to it — as part of that class’ story. Via the Templar character, we also get our first glimpses at in-game combat screenshots:

Oh, and zombies:

You get to see the zombies in action, sort of, in the most recently-released banner image for Crowfall:

As well, ArtCraft have published an FAQ section about the game’s campaigns and player kingdoms. Also published recently was a letter from ArtCraft’s founders, which details some of their plans for crowdfunding the game:

Our company has taken some money (in the form of equity investment) already. We used this money to start our company and begin the development of Crowfall. It’s worth noting that Todd and I, i.e. the founders, were also the first two investors. Neither of us are “rich” — historically, we’re hired guns, paid to make games by other people or companies. We believe in Crowfall — so much, in fact, that we’ve invested our savings and went without salaries for over a year to get this venture started. We took this risk, and our families supported us in doing it, because we fundamentally believe that there is an audience for this vision. We are fully invested in this project, and in this company.

To get this game brought to market, we intend to use every method at our disposal to fund the game through completion. Specifically:

• We will likely sell more equity (ownership in our company) in the future,
•  We will license some of the overseas rights for Crowfall. We’re going to try and keep control of the English-speaking territories.
•  And, yes, we will do a crowdfunding campaign. We aren’t asking you to fund the entire game, but your participation is a key piece of the funding puzzle.

A successful crowdfunding campaign does more than just provide funding; it also demonstrates “market viability.” It shows that Crowfall has a committed audience, and that we’re making a game that people want to play. Our story is stronger, and that dramatically improves our ability to sell both equity and license overseas rights. It’s a real force multiplier in giving us the resources we need to build a world-class game.

To be clear: we have a LOT of experience working with publishers, and if that’s the only way to get this game made, we’ll do it… but the moment we sign away world-wide rights, we lose some of the control over our vision. Publishers are in the business of creating mega-hits, and the way to make a mega hit is usually to change your design to appeal to the mass market.

Frankly, we’ll do whatever it takes to make this game for you (within our legal and ethical constraints, of course) but we would much rather answer to you, our customers.

We also believe in the power of Crowdfunding, particularly for games that are innovative and/or tightly targeted to an under-served audience. We also love the intimacy it creates between developers and the core audience. Committed players help keep our development process honest, and consumer-focused. Both Todd and I have experienced decisions being made about our games which were not in the best interest of the players and the game, to serve other corporate interests. We want to cut that middle man out, and work for you: our players.

For those of you who don’t feel up to backing a product before it is market-ready: we understand, and we absolutely respect your position. Hopefully you’ll give Crowfall another look, once we bring the game to market.

So…like I said above, quite a lot of information in not a particularly long span of time. I’m going to have to keep more regular tabs on this game, aren’t I?