One advantage AAA game development companies have over Indie game developers is content. Quantity of quality content, that is.

Lets face it. Most AAA employees are Indie game developers, or at least they’re potentially Indies. There are quite a number of
Most of us have the same tools as the big guys, but we have less content than them because we have fewer resources. Quite possibly, Indie game developers are mostly programmers, so we also have a bit less talent available to us, at least when it comes to artwork.
So, the solution?

Well, there’s more than one solution… but one solution is to spend time improving ways to generate game content in a mass-production sense. The same thing that made guns, automobiles and computers possible could level the playing field.

The typical Indie developer has several things that most of the people working for the big shops don’t have… heart, sweat, and the willingness to put more time, effort and ethereal substance into the project.

In short, this is what I have been doing over the past few months. The Fractured Universe game developers have paused their development on the MMO game and some of us have been concentrating on creating a great game development toolchain.

If you are interested in helping us or if you’re interested in using the new software we’re creating, head on over to www.IndieZen.org to find out more.

The next version of Fractured Universe is due out any day now.

New Features:

• Additional music and sound effects in the Lasphar zone.
• Leska can now train toons. Although some of these skills might be standins,
• Level 0 toons receive two skills and a dagger
• Level 2 toons receive one skill
• Level 5 toons receive two skills
• Additional monsters
• Alpha wolf
• Skeleton
• big bad monster that doesn’t have a name yet
• New quests
• Elder Johan has a two stage quest that is available after you complete Ventin’s quests
• Father Fryn has a two stage quest
• Elder Johan has a one stage quest available after you’ve completed his first two quests and Father Fryn’s quest
• Ryth has a quest available to all Arcane’s level 3 and above.
• Minor improvements to the lighting in Lasphar.

The patch should automatically download when it becomes available.

“This is easily the worst idea you’ve ever had,” muttered Kessa. The four of them clung to the slanted rooftop, looking down at the chaos that erupted in the center of town. Guardsmen and mages, bearing the blue crest of King Garl, swarmed like ants around something – a shimmering pillar of light. “How can you even be certain that it’s a portal? There hasn’t been a single one since before my grandfather’s days.” Hent, the alchemist’s son, propped himself up on his elbows and squinted. “It’s a portal, all right. I’ve seen them in my father’s books, what precious few weren’t burned during the Purge.” “Shh,” whispered a taller lad with skin like candle wax. “Keep talking like that and the guards will be breathing down our necks before we’ve even had a chance to break the law.” Arhael only snickered. “These are the very same guards that we evade almost daily, Lars. Come, all of you. I want to show you exactly why I want to do this.”

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Alpha client 0.1.0.0 was released this morning. Other than a few minor tweaks and the addition of some NPC’s and new monsters, this is close to the final version that will be released as the Contest client.

Although the game isn’t finished enough to be considered a true “beta” at this stage, it’s starting to take shape.

The Contest client will be released as a public “alpha” release so we can test server load. I expect this load testing will begin on / around Feb 4th.

If you’re interested in participating, check back here on Feb 3rd for more details.

There has been a bit of discussion going on in the private alpha/beta forums dealing with classes. I thought I would clear up some potential sadness or confusion.

Due to time restraints from the contest we entered in to gain extra momentum for Fractured Universe, the Marksman was left out of the initial base class list. We do plan to include the Marksman, a ranged/hunter type class, into our base class list.

[PyroGuNx]

The Home page for the main site got an skin overhaul today! If you don’t see it make sure to clear your browser’s cache.

Welcome to Fractured Universe.

Click on the Community link to go to the Fractured Universe forums.