All Of This Has Happened Before: Battlestar Galactica MMO In Development
Fans of the reimagined Battlestar: Galactica TV series and its spinoff Caprica have another title to look forward to in a few months. At GDC last week, German game-developer Bigpoint announced it's developing a BSG-themed MMO designed for browser-based play across a wide variety of devices. The developer wants the game to scale well enough to enable iPhone vs. PC match-ups. We're not sure if that's possible given the iPhone's interface but this is one of the first times we've seen a developer talking about games that scale vertically across the entire range of devices without effectively sandboxing the mobile version.
The Unity 3D engine at work. The fact that a German developer is involved is amusing, given that this looks like Bavaria
Bigpoint plans on leveraging the Unity3D engine to create the game, which helps explain how it plans to scale a single product across such a wide range of devices and detail levels. The Unity engine (currently on version 2.6, with V3.0 in the works) is specifically designed for browser-based gaming and supports multi-core processors, both D3D and OGL, and continues to be updated with various performance enhancements.
Unity at work again. We think of this as a metaphysical puzzle. Why is the ball there? How is the ceiling holding it up? Was your interior decorator on crack?
Browser-based games are still in their infancy, although id's Quake Live has helped push the idea that browser gaming doesn't have to be sluggish, primitive, or based entirely around Flash. Unity3D is clearly capable of generating good-looking content; gamers interested in seeing a few current products can check out The Quest For R2-D2 or Batman Streets of Gotham. Both of these are small free-to-play games; we assume that a browser-based MMO would be a bit more polished, particularly if Bigpoint intends to use a monthly subscription model.
The Unity 3D engine at work. The fact that a German developer is involved is amusing, given that this looks like Bavaria
Bigpoint plans on leveraging the Unity3D engine to create the game, which helps explain how it plans to scale a single product across such a wide range of devices and detail levels. The Unity engine (currently on version 2.6, with V3.0 in the works) is specifically designed for browser-based gaming and supports multi-core processors, both D3D and OGL, and continues to be updated with various performance enhancements.
Unity at work again. We think of this as a metaphysical puzzle. Why is the ball there? How is the ceiling holding it up? Was your interior decorator on crack?
Browser-based games are still in their infancy, although id's Quake Live has helped push the idea that browser gaming doesn't have to be sluggish, primitive, or based entirely around Flash. Unity3D is clearly capable of generating good-looking content; gamers interested in seeing a few current products can check out The Quest For R2-D2 or Batman Streets of Gotham. Both of these are small free-to-play games; we assume that a browser-based MMO would be a bit more polished, particularly if Bigpoint intends to use a monthly subscription model.
