The Norwegian Film Fund have just announced that they are sponsoring (1.5 mill NOK) a new MMO by
Funcom (Age og Conan, Anarchy Online, Dreamfall) and
Artplant.no (Computer Animation/Artwork) with the working title "
Heltenes Mønstring – Den siste kampen" (no English translation yet, as I've found, but it should mean something like "Gathering of Heroes - The Final Battle"..)
No official info from Funcom yet, but according to the Film Fund it should be released in December this year..
http://www.filmfondet.no/icm.aspx?PageId=1960&Hgf=1
This will be a browser based game, with the same graphics "quality" as WoW.
The game will be turn-based and in full 3D, and they aim to make the game easy enough for first timers as well as complex enough to satisfy the more "hard-core" MMO players.
Funcom are pretty experienced on MMO's with titles like "Anarchy Online" and the upcoming "Age of Conan" and Artplant's got very good experience with shockwave games and animation so it's possible that they'll be able to come up with something good here.
"For lenge, lenge siden ble menneskenes verden skapt som et fredfullt rike uten innflytelse fra monstre og magi. Menneskene søkte makt og rikdom og deres sivilisasjoner vokste seg stadig større. Snart var de mektige nok til å kunne utfordre selve naturens krefter. Til slutt fant de en mulighet for å tappe den guddommelige kraften gjennom pergamenter de kalte gudekort. Men denne makten var mer enn grådige menneskesinn kunne takle, og snart fyltes verden av krig og kriminalitet i søken etter de mektigste kortene."
Rough translation of the story concept:
"For long, long ago the world of men was created as a peaceful place without influence of monsters and magic. Men sought power and riches and their civilization grew stronger and stronger. Soon they were powerful enough to challenge even the forces of nature. In the end they found a way to use/control the divine power through parchments called "God cards". But this power was much more than greedy human minds could handle, and soon their world was filled with war and crime because of their search for the most powerful cards"
Concept art from the game
Links to larger images:
http://images.gfx.no/441/441714/envroment.jpg http://images.gfx.no/441/441712/moria_fin.jpg
More info in Norwegian:
http://www.gamer.no/artikler/nytt_mm...ra_norge/49563
This looks really interesting and I'll post more info as soon as I find it..
