Project News

Greetings to all!

It has been some time since this DevLog was last used. In fact, it was on a completely different system the last time it was used. As of now, our DevLog is back in operation.

For this first entry, I'm going to limit things to getting everyone caught up on the first part of what has been happening in the interim. I realize that the great lack of information over a long period of time has probably left a lot of people wondering, which is totally understandable. I want to thank everyone who has maintained an interest in this project despite the long periods of little to no information. It's good to know people still want to know about it.

In the interest of filling everyone in (and also not being too wordy in the process), it's probably somewhat obvious for me to say that the MMO project in general has hit a lot of setbacks. They started not long after the Runes Gambit game was released... and also were completely coincidental to said release. I haven't been given leave to go into specific details, but a lot of the MMO team members have endured some measure of upheaval in their personal and/or professional lives. There have been illnesses, financial stresses, job changes and life changes, to paint with a few broad brushes. We have lost team members as a result of these, while some others can make brief appearances now and then but not commit a greater, persistent effort. Most have seen their contributions diminish for one reason or the next, and many of these have persisted or simply taken a new shape even today. The words “holding pattern” would be a very appropriate description for the project over the last couple of years.

Beyond personal difficulties, we've suffered a bit of a technological set-back as well. The game engine we had been using (TGE) was a little antiquated and we spent a fair amount of time trying to modernize it for visual quality, integrating better rendering and the like, yet we stuck with it because it fit the bill of being cross-platform. TGE's successor, Torque3D, looked promising and modern, yet it was Windows-only. After the personal setbacks, we began scouting other possible engines. This turned out to be well-timed, as the company responsible for Torque was shuttering that division due to a change in ownership. Torque resurfaced a few months later, but by that time, we had decided to move over to a new game engine.

Overall, it has been a difficult time for many on this project, yet we are still looking forward to the next generation and Layonara's future in general. In coming posts here, I'll talk more about that future.As I said, I don't want to be too wordy, so I'm saving the rest for my next DevLog post.

Until then, thanks for reading!