After much anticipation (at least by me), the developers at Build a Rocket* have just unveiled on Twitch an extensive teaser of their new metaverse platform, Everywhere. The studio was founded by Leslie Benzies, formerly president of Rockstar North, lead developer of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, so I've been wondering how a team with a stellar background in AAA open world sandbox games would far creating a very open virtual world.
Watch above -- the audio doesn't fully come in until 8:15, a new sizzle reel starts at around 11:30, and actual live gameplay starts at about 16:00 in.
While it looks very much like a video gamey experience in the vein of Core, the team emphasizes that Arcadia, the platform building tool, enables any kind of creation. ("If you just want to build a house, you can do that," as one of them says.) We also get a glimpse of the Arcadia user interface, which does look impressively sleek and user-friendly.
The team seems to be striving to create a single shard experience, or at least the simulation of one, linking various experiences with portals that players can travel through; so that's further intriguing.
My only negative hit from this preview is a lack of diverse avatars: