New World Notes

Sinespace's $5000 FPS Map-Making Contest Deadline Extended to May 31st!

Update on the first-person shooter game design contest from Sinespace (a proud NWN partner) being judged by Valve veteran Erik Wolpaw  (Psychonauts, Portal 1/2, Team Fortress 2): The deadline has been extended to May 31st.

The contest challenge is to create customized FPS maps for Sinespace using its new Unity SDK and its open source combat system (read all about that on Unity's blog). Erik will choose the submission with the most unique gameplay, impressive level design, and inventive use of Sinespace features, with the winner getting $5000 and a bunch of other benefits. (All the details here.)

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: Ke Ke's Beautifully Composed Pics from Star Citizen

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

KeKe takes dramatically spare photos, reducing the elements to their essentials. For example, this stunning untitled screenshot of Baobab trees silhouetted against a setting sun. They form a leading line directly to the sun. The horizon is placed according to the Rule of Thirds. The sun is placed by the Golden Mean and the baobab trees are consecutively one-fifth, two fifths, and three fifths from the left. The compositional elements feel organic, not staged, which is, of course, the goal of good composition.

Watch: Why Dual Universe's Version of the Metaverse is an MMO Kept Separate from the Real World

Put on some headphones and watch my GDC week conversation with JC Baillie, founder and lead developer of Dual Universe, the upcoming, crowd-funded, single shard MMO, which some argue is the closest thing we have to a metaverse, As we discuss over drinks, JC's vision of "the Metaverse" is markedly different from that of, say, VRChat, High Fidelity, or Second Life, where the real world and the virtual world freely intermingle -- and the virtual experience is basically a network of 3D chat rooms.

Originally a scientist specializing in robotics and artificial intelligence, JC's vision is decidedly larger -- in essence, he and his team are attempting to build a completely separate existence that's both scientifically and narratively self-consistent. (It's his science background, by the way, that he credits the ability to create Dual Universe's massive user concurrency in a single shard MMO.)

Here's what we discussed in our twenty minute chat: 

• Why Dual Universe’s version of“the Metaverse” is a persistent alternate reality separate from the real world ‘something more like ‘The Matrix’”— including no direct connection between the game’s virtual currency and real money. Money, JC says, “Will [negatively] impact the experience.” (Starting around :20)
• How open is Dual Universe’s gameplay theme? For instance, can people play Dual Universe as a fantasy MMO? I.E., Convert a single planet into a medieval era setting? Answer: Potentially yes, but then medieval planets would be vulnerable to interstellar invasion. (Starting around 3:40)
• How Dual Universe can make creative and artistic non-combat communities possible — through safe zones and no-PVP “sanctuary moons”. (Starting around 5:25)

Much more below:

Sinespace's First-Person Shooter Construction Tutorial Featured on Unity Blog

Unity's official blog has an in-depth tutorial for creating and publishing and FPS on Sinespace (an NWN media partner) using its open source Build Kill Repeat combat system. Sinespace is also hosting a BKR level design contest, with $5000 awarded to the most creative map — winner selected by game developer veteran Erik Wolpaw (Half-Life 2, Portal 1 & 2, Team Fortress 2).

Questions about the post or video? Put them in Comments below or join Sinespace's official Discord server! 

Watch: Improbable VP Says There's Little Interest in Massive Single-Shard MMOs in the West -- But Their Platform Can Support 20,000 Concurrent Players in a Continuous, Seamless Virtual World

You'll probably have to turn up your volume and put on headphones, but here's my GDC 2019 interview with Paul Thomas, VP of Product at Improbable, a well-funded startup that launched in 2012 with a mission to enable the creation of "worlds which can be run in real time, simulating the behaviors and interactions of millions of entities." 

In the short term, however, as Thomas explains, the main goal is to support "all kinds of games", as opposed to single-shard MMOs. In fact, the only single-shard MMO that's been announced for Improbable's Spatial OS cloud platform is Seed, the planet-colonizing game.

Why? For the most part, there's just not as much market interest in single-shard MMOs in the EU and North America -- or as he puts it: "In the Eastern regions, massive interest there, but in the Western regions, yeah, it tends to be more session-based type games."

Then again, we are still seeing interesting uses of the platform -- for instance, Thomas mentions Mavericks, a 1000 player battle royale with persistent, virtual world-type elements.

And yes, I asked Paul if Second Life could be deployed on Spatial OS, and his answer was more or less: Maybe, but it would be very difficult. 

At one point, he mentions that they recently tested a single-shard MMO and achieved high simulated user concurrency, but then had to check with his team on the exact numbers. A rep came back with this statement:

Watch: Stadia, Google's OnLive-Type Game Streaming Service, Unveiled

As promised last year, Google is unveiling its 3D game streaming service at GDC right now -- meet Stadia:

Data centers make Stadia possible, but what sets the system apart is how it works with other Google services. In a world where there are more than 200 million people watching game-related content daily on YouTube, Stadia makes many of those games playable with the press of a button. If you watch one of your favorite creators playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey, simply click the “play now” button. Seconds later, you’ll be running around ancient Greece in your own game/on your own adventure—no downloads, no updates, no patches and no installs.

In other words, like the late-lamented OnLive, but with the world's largest global server network to back it up. And as with OnLive, we will almost certainly see virtual worlds like Second Life and future worlds using this service. Perhaps not coincidentally, Second Life co-creator Cory Ondrejka is now Tech Advisor to the CEO at Google.

Live unveil at GDC after the break:

VentureBeat Features Sinespace's New All-in-One Virtual World SDK Now in Unity Asset Store

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi has an in-depth post on the launch of the Sinespace SDK as an official Unity Asset Store Partner, which the proud NWN sponsoring partner is announcing this week. Key grafs:

The Sinespace SDK includes key features for rapidly creating AAA-quality games, including Build Kill Repeat, an open source, fully modifiable combat system, and content from top Unity vendors and Sinespace partners Dexsoft-Games (3D Models-Textures), Gaia, and Archimatix.

The Sinespace SDK instantly optimizes 3D experiences for play on PC, Mac, Linux, Oculus, Vive, Android and WebGL. (Support for iOS and consoles coming soon.) Unlike other open game worlds, Sinespace is architected to fully update all content with every Unity update.

Developers can upload and sell assets from their existing single-player games — or use them in new multiplayer titles. For instance, when Warren Spector made a special guest appearance in Sinespace, his team uploaded 3D models from his latest Unity game into Sinespace.

“I’ve been developing virtual worlds since I was 12,” Frisby said. “Twenty years later, I believe this is finally the start of a metaverse worthy of the name.”

Read the rest here. Here's a video tutorial for customizing the Build Kill Repeat combat system:

Watch: Dual Universe Handles 30,000 Concurrent "Users" on a Single Planet

Dual Universe, the upcoming, crowd-funded, single shard MMO which some argue is the closest thing we have to a metaverse, just published this new video which strongly suggests they have an honest shot at that metaverse title: A stress test of 30,000+ "users" on a single planet, on an MMO that plans to have hundreds of planets. (Details on his blog here.)

I say "users" because almost all of the 30,000 are simulated, along with some actual players -- Dual Universe lead developer Jean-Christophe Baillie estimates hundreds of those.

"This is not a significant number (most people were not interested in participating in a test), " he allows, "but what matters is that everyone was invited and we have witnesses! It's not just a tech test done behind closed doors."

By point of contrast, Eve Online and Second Life, the two top single-shard grandaddies, manage peak concurrencies of about 40,000-70,000 players total. Whereas Dual Universe's stress test suggests many more than that can be handled across its galaxy.

To judge by the video, the stress test could handle many hundreds in the same proximate space (i.e. within a hundred square meters), but JC speculates they may have to add some promixity limits when they launch:

Can Rawls' Theory of Justice Help Us Design Fairer MMOs?

John Rawls' Theory of Justice has inspired countless political thinkers and activists, most recently (and notably) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- but can it also help us create fairer MMOs? I explore the topic for Seed, the upcoming new world colonization MMO with a political system designed by Lawrence Lessig. Whereas most MMOs (World of Warcraft, etc.) begin in a world with an already established political hierarchy and clear divisions of wealth and power, Seed takes place on an uninhabited alien planet -- and beyond that, fans of Seed know little about what they can expect:

Although Seed is yet to have an official launch date, the Seed Discord server has attracted a thriving community of members, whose enthusiasm for the game’s progress has left the development team in awe, as would-be players avidly discuss the game features they most want to see, and even join player-created factions with competing plans to colonize the new world, the very moment that they can. All this active debate about a world that doesn’t yet exist eerily resembles the thought experiment described in John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice:

Why Eastshade, the New Open World Where You Roleplay as a Painter, Isn't Photoshop: The Game

Eastshade is the just-launched open world game (featured on NWN last January) with a unique gameplay mechanic: Rather than roam the countryside killing random beasts and bandits to level up, you create paintings to advance:

"We were trying to create a game loop that shapes the experience we wanted players to have in Eastshade, which is basically to go slow, relax, follow their whims, and sight-see," lead creator Danny Weinbaum tells me. "Eventually we came up with this idea which allows the player to 'take' paintings, and we created quests around the player capturing certain objects, places, times of day, or a combination of those. This works in perfect harmony with wandering, because the slower the player goes and the more they let the sense of place wash over them, the better they will do at these quests."

Early players report reactions very much unlike those you'd see in more traditional games:

"We have heard absolutely wonderful stories from people—someone with severe hypertension who's using Eastshade to lower their blood pressure, parents who feel all the characters reading (reading is a popular pastime in Eastshade) is inspiring their son to read more, and people simply describing how moved they were by the game—these things are amazing to hear. It's particularly rewarding to see players talking to each other about the game on Twitter, Discord, in comments, etc." 

All the player conversation suggests to him that the game about creation has transcended its actual creators: "It might sound odd, but the fact that people perceive the game as a piece of media to be recommended and discussed, with no thought of its makers, because the product itself is what interests them, is very rewarding."

However, it's worth noting that the in-game painting is not the central core of the game, which led to some interesting design limitations, when it came to simulating the act of painting: