Hi,

I'm Daniel; some of you may remember me. I used to own MechScape World.

I've not been very active this past year, mainly because I've been running my business and working on some of my own projects, including Project Utopia.

Just thought I'd share my progress with you guys. (Especially since some of you have been bugging me about it :P)

Here are some screenshots from Project Utopia:

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3
Screenshot 4
Screenshot 5
Screenshot 6
Screenshot 7

What is Project Utopia? It's a sci-fi virtual world, basically.

If you'd like to follow it's progress, there's a dedicated section here:
http://www.tidalware.com/games/projectutopia/

Our blog contains technical development progress every now and again:
http://blog.tidalware.com/

And there's a forum which I recently setup:
http://www.tidalware.com/forums/

Our aim for this game is to develop it based on community suggestions and ideas. So unlike MechScape, our community will drive it's development and mould the game from the very beginning. Plus, you can submit your own contributions to make it in-game! So if you're good at modeling, texturing, concept art or even composing music, then this is a pretty cool opportunity for you to show what you can do.

I'd like to stress a few things:
1) It's NOT like MechScape! -- apples and oranges. It's like comparing LOTRO to WoW; both fantasy games, but both very different. If you're looking for a playable, polished new sci-fi MMORPG to pour your time into, wait for MechScape.
2) It's in VERY early stages. Jagex have a 100+ team working on MechScape, and it took them around 5 years to make it, WITH the experience of running a successful MMORPG already. So we won't have much chance of finishing it for a looong time yet with our tiny inexperienced team. (Though we will release alpha builds sooner)
3) We're not serious. We don't get paid, we don't make profit, we do it all in our own time.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll post updates on this thread every now and again.

Cheers!

Looks and sounds prety cool!
What is the game about anyway? Is it an MMORPG? Is it out yet?
Best of luck with it :)

Nice to hear from you again.
It's looking cool, so around how many people are there working on it?

Looks really good!
Give me a shout if I can help with anything!

I think that you have done a brilliant job. I read into some things you said on your blog and I like the idea of loading assets as you need them rather then having them all on your computer when you might not even use them all during the lifetime of the installation.

What is the general computer requirements for your builds?

Thanks guys!


No idea. That's where the community contributions come in.


Y-y-y-y-eeeeeeeeee-y-y. Can't say it. Basically, it is. But we don't want to use the term "MMO" until it actually has a "massive" amount of players.


Nope, it's barely started.


Me, and a couple of other guys. But next year I'm going to go looking for people to recruit to really kick off development.


Anyone can help -- gameplay suggestions, models, art, music, anything. We do the boring bits.


Yeah, it works really well. Like with most MMORPGs, you need to download a 5GB client, and THEN wait for it to patch. No resources will come with the game, they will all be downloaded and loaded as you play.


Actually, extremely low. It's DX9 (and OpenGL), so it's not like Crysis where you need a supercomputer to play. I'm developing on a computer that's 6 years old, on an NVidia 6600, and it runs smoothly on that.

Looks good.

Looks pretty cool. Good luck.

May I suggest some stuff which might interest players?
-Trading
-PvP
-Missions/Quests
-Maybe something like flight, if you can develop that.

I know you want it unique, but that kind of stuff is usually expected, apart from the last one.
Oh yeh, is it WASD movement or point 'n click?

I've been following it to a degree and it looks really interesting. The plot looked intriguing from what I can remember.

Yep, of course We want to make something that people will want to play, nothing more and nothing less.


Currently it's WASD. But we might make it an option to point and click, because sometimes that's useful too.


Yes, it did initially have some kind of plot. But it wasn't developed enough, and I decided to leave it open for the public to decide. If we created a plot, we'd have to stick with it, and getting that right is one of if not the most important aspect of any game.

That looks amazing!

I remember when I first found out about Utopia, that was a while ago.


Good luck! It looks like it is coming along great.

Hey Daniel!

I remember hearing something about Project Utopia a looong time ago and searching google for it like crazy and coming up with nothing.

Looks cool, good luck with it! Maybe I can think of some way I can help

Hey there...

If you need some help for concept art for Characters or Outfits, I'll give in a free hand... just... don't count on me for an expected deadline.

Cheers!


Hi unorclan! Last time I was active here, you were inactive. Yeah, unfortunately it's really low in Google; but I haven't really tried to get it in any search engines. It really needs a dedicated site, and an actual name before I start SEO'ing it.


Deadline? What deadline? -- whatever, whenever. That's what I love about collaborative workflow -- you can just post a WIP thread, get feedback, and improve it every now and again, whenever you like.

DANIEL! Heyyy.
Thanks for stopping by and telling us how the project is going, some of us really wanted to know how it was going.
Good luck, and keep at it, might turn out really successful!
Also, nice signature. :P (Pliigi eggs for the win)

Hey Daniel, nice to see you stop by.

Great job on the development of Project Utopia, I remember discussing it awhile back and it's nice to see the progress that you and your team have been making. Good luck to you and your team.

P.S. I see you still have your signature from the April Fools Pliigi Event, hehe.

This looks really good. Good luck, I'll be sure to watch how progress goes.

Wowzer.

I can't wait! Looks like it will be pro.

It looks brilliant, Daniel. I love the look of it, and the plot sounds great too. Awesome

It's looking awesome so far and keep up the good work!

Oh, hiiiiii Daniel!
It really has been a long time since I've last seen you around. I definitely remember Project Utopia and it really does look good. Good luck with your project(s)!

Looks awesome!

Looks awesome. DO WANT!

Are you working on another game also? I remember checking out your site a while ago and I remember something about a racing game.

Thanks again everyone for the support. It's nice to get a positive response after lots of hard work.


Yep - that's Project Velocity. You'll find a small section for that here. It's in very early stages, so we're not ready to show anything yet. But that's in the works too.

I'm pretty really impressed. Have you tested this on any ATI graphics cards?

Not yet. I tested it on a few laptops and it was quite fast (in fact, faster on the PC I'm developing on, and they don't even have dedicated graphics).

ATI do tend to have more issues than NVidia with this sort of stuff, so I'll need to try it sometime. (There's no reason why it shouldn't work)

wow, you owned mechscapeworld!

If you need me to test any ATI graphics cards, I have access to two different types. I'm not sure about the one but the other is ATI Mobility FireGL V3200. They are both just almost 4 years old.

Either way, as it looks, it's will probably run it just fine if you can get by with no dedicated graphics.

Lol is that Shrek in the screenies of project UTOPIA!?
Well good luck and i will play it when it comes out :P

I have seen this before, I am really impressed with the graphics. This is no tiny project. I just hope it is still cutting edge when it comes out, I do hate it when games loose their "coolness" factor and are no longer awesome.

For the plot, something different than the standard warring factions that are always taking potshots at each other.

Possibly the plot could be something along the lines of exploring and conquering new land. I like the concept behind konoro(konoro.org, theres a post in the other games section also), this could be a really fun way to cooperatively run settlements with other players, defending a group-owned base, and going out and forming alliances or taking over other people's settlements. Resource management would be hard to program(or so I believe with my small experience), but you could make up for that with natural events occuring, as simple as just randomly having NPC's attack the settlement.

The terrain in the settlements now looks like it would be great for mini-cities. There are lots of mountains which would serve as natural barriers, plus there isn't much detail, which would allow for the addition of different kinds of places,resources,routes, and advantages.

The name "Project Utopia" also makes me think of one civilization trying to unite everything into one perfect society.

Just noticed the Collaborative world building, and I thought voila! Perfect for allowing users to edit their own settlements. The user permissions could let people figure who is in charge of what in a town. Could you resource downloading technology allow players to download new custom settlements made by players? The developers wouldn't be making the towns, only developing the technology to allow players to do it.

-Anything I say here is based on my very limited knowledge of programming and CS, I really have no idea if you have the capability of doing these things.

Looks good. Is the ogre your/a character?

The Ogre is a temporary character. Once we have decided on the true direction of the project, we'll start rolling out an art style, with true characters. The Ogre is cool though, I'd like it to stay.


Not to worry -- we're constantly improving the tech; because the 3D engine we use has such a great and active community, it means we'll always be at the forefront.


I completely agree. Every single MMORPG, new or old, boils down to exactly the same thing: fighting between factions of good and evil.


Sounds great. Executing it well is another matter entirely. I'll research the idea more, and I'll check out konoro, thanks for that.


You actually hit upon the original philosophy for the project. When I first thought of the idea over a year ago, I imagined several factions on the planet "Utopia" trying to make the world their own. Obviously since then, I haven't developed this idea further, because I've been so bogged down with the technical side of development.


Absolutely possible. That's what the technology is built around. Currently there are restrictions in place only allowing administrators to change the world; but because everything is in-game and live, by simply by changing the permissions, any player can do the same.

Those are exactly the kind of suggestions/ideas we need. Most companies decide what they think makes a good game, with no real player input until after the game has been released. I think it's important to develop a game that the gaming community wants -- we just have the technology to do it.

But seriously, if you think you've got an idea, jump on board, we'll listen. I think there is so much to talk about to cover in a single thread, so if you'd like to take part, pop into our forum and join in the discussions.

You makes me want to start designing MMOs again. I have tons of stuff that I could submit for ideas if you open to about everything imaginable.

it looks like you have an ogre there.

So its gonna be scifi? will it have a free trade player driven economy?

put a hidden easter egg in the game thats a soviet russian flag somewhere :)

Or some space pie.


Or both!

Hey Daniel, nice to hear from you buddy. This is the first time I've heard of these projects you're working on and I have to say I'm impressed. Exciting stuff. Looking forward to future developments.

Sounds like an awesome project! And it looks really nice too!