Citadel of Sorcery

Game News
 
  • Well, E3 2010 (the game industry trade show) has come and gone. Our team went to the show to check out the competition, find games we might like to play, meet with some potential publishers and generally gather with our fellow game creators.

    Fun was had by all.

    Fortunately for us, we did not find any games in development that are even slightly similar to Citadel of Sorcery. This is not to say we did not find games worth playing, there were several, but in the MMO genre there were still a lot of clones or slight variations on the same thing we have seen before from MMORPGs. It was a little depressing from a game players standpoint, and a little exciting from our development teams standpoint since no one else is making a game like CoS.

    No fantasy MMORPG we could find was taking on the challenge of a non-static world with deep and involved storyline quests. They seemed happy to continue making the same thing over again, and in three cases when asked what their quests were like they actually stated: Just like WoW. Others touted that they had timed dungeons as their big game play (kill everything before the timer runs out). Some claimed great adventures in that you had to obtain an item to slow a monster before you could kill it, but the quest was simply the same old, Kill the Monster. Most fantasy MMOs were hack and slash affairs or grinds. There is nothing actually wrong with any of these types of game play, we only ask, why not give the players that and much, much, much more?

    And so our news report on E3 is fair. There were a few RPG games that looked very promising, but little in the MMO arena that really wound our clock. Fortunately, we met with several publishers who showed great interest in CoS, and we will continue to work with them until we sign a deal that brings Citadel of Sorcery to the game players who want more from their MMO than they have been given in the past.
  • We had our annual holiday party, much of which is held in the Citadel of Sorcery world due to our development team being from locations around the world as far as New Zealand, Europe and coast to coast in the U.S.

    This year we again ran a special game for all the employees, which tested their skills and knowledge of the game world as well as their ability to solve puzzles, riddles and cooperate with other members of the team.

    The special game ended with a giant hedge maze and a race to reach the tower in the middle. Inside the colossal maze were all kinds of riddles, clues and puzzles to help them find their way to their goal.

    Much fun was had by all, not to mention exclamations of woe when they first came upon the secret (and temporary) hedge maze.

    We put up a few screen shots of the team in game. One shows some of the team members at the exit from the secret mountain passage where they got their first look at the Holiday Maze. Another shot shows some of them at the entrance to the Maze. The last shot shows the entire team out in front of the courthouse of the Municipal District posing for this year's company photo as their Avatars. You may notice that the team has grown substantially since the previous year's party.

    You can take a look at the screen shots here on the web site in Screenshots / Holiday In Game Party 2009
  • Just a note, a few people have emailed us wondering when there will be 'news' about game progress. The Game News area is for exterior news. For internal progress reports, please read the Developer Log section of the web site.

  • Today we change the look of the CoS web site. This is still a work in progress as we have time, but we added a few new items to the site.

    1) A little of our concept art for the game will appear on the left side below the menu. We'll vary these over time.

    2) Some game models are shown on the right side of the main window (these are in game models, not high poly versions for rendering only). We thought it would be nice to show real game models instead of 2D art that looks cool, but has nothing to do with that the game actually looks like.

    3) Title graphic: These images at the top are always taken from real screen shots in the game, not 'faked art'.

    4) About CoS: In the About CoS area, there are now some tabs at the top: Introduction, Lore, Tour and Gameplay.

    a) Introduction: A simple bullet list of some features in Citadel of Sorcery.

    b) Lore: A history of the game world. This gives out a LOT of the back story of the world. This is only for those people who enjoy this kind of thing, but it will be important to know this information eventually. We plan to give this information out in a multimedia presentation at the beginning of the game, but here is the same information in pure text for those who want to read it early on.

    c) Tour: This is a walk through of part of a quest from the perspective of a player that we hope will demonstrate the unique game play experience in Citadel of Sorcery.

    d) Gameplay: A section to describe what is unique about the gameplay of CoS.

    So we hope you enjoy the new look of the site, and more importantly, the new information we have released on some portions of the game design.
  • Today we got our copy of the first game magazine article about Citadel of Sorcery. It is a large game magazine in Russia (250,000 subscribers). This is a two page preview article, with several pictures of the game. With CoS this early in development we were surprised when one of their editors contacted us about doing the feature, but we answered their questions as best we could. Getting past the language barrier is always exciting. We're not even sure what the final article really says about the game, since our Russian is a little non-existent. Still, we appreciate the exposure and hope to release the game world wide eventually. The article can be found on various web sites now as well, though again, the Russian makes it difficult. We look forward to doing some English (and other languages) articles in the future when things are further along.
  • Citadel of Sorcery is now listed on one of the premier MMORPG web sites. We debated whether it was too early to list the game, but in the end decided that we should let players know that this game is coming. This way we can start getting players used to the idea of a new type of MMO game. New things scare people sometimes. Also, we can get some feedback on some of the new concepts while it is still early enough to change the game as needed. On the negative side, making the game public this early is bound to get us some negative comments from people who cannot see past concept and placeholder art in some places. We decided the gains out weighed the losses and so, it is now listed. MMORPG.com has some forums, and in a public situation like this you always get a few flamers complaining, but so far generally the responses have been good or ask reasonable questions. There are even some good suggestions occasionally. We'll keep an eye on the site and assign a dev team member to answer some of the questions that are bound to come up.
  • We expanded the basic web site and put it live today, adding some screen shots of the prototype, and some other information including a Questions and Answers section where readers can submit questions and we'll post some of their questions and answers (if we deem the worth others reading). The new site graphics are simple fantasy leather and stone looks, we'll probably replace these later when we have more time to spend on graphics for a web site. Until then, at least the information is up on the game since we are about to release the news to the public of the games development.
  • Today we finally moved the web dev site and put it up live on the net. www.citadelofsorcery.com This site will go through many changes as time marches on. To begin with we just wanted a site up for news and to answer any questions people might have. Later there will be screen shots, forums, interviews, game art, and other informative sections added.
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