Ember Sword is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing social sandbox game developed and published by Bright Star Studios for Windows and macOS. The game's narrative depicts a distance future in which an apocalyptic event devastated the fictional Galilean moon of Thanabus, on which Ember Sword's events take place.
| Ember Sword | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Bright Star Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Bright Star Studios |
| Director(s) | Maxim Zimnukhov |
| Producer(s) |
|
| Designer(s) | Maciej Ostrowski |
| Artist(s) |
|
| Writer(s) | Samuel Horton |
| Composer(s) | Jannick Damkvist |
| Engine | Project SERIUS |
| Platform(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Social sandbox, Massively multiplayer online role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Presented from a three-dimensional isometric perspective, Ember Sword players battle against each other or non-player characters, enhancing their character's abilities by equipping different weapons and armor. Players can trade with each other for resources or loot them from slain foes. Powered by the Ethereum blockchain, players can use non-fungible tokens to acquire items.
The game is scheduled for early access release in late 2024, with browser accessibility.
Gameplay edit
Players control a character avatar from a three-dimensional isometric perspective. With the camera locked onto their character, players may venture the landscape and engage in different activities. Characters are factionless; combat may be with hostile non-player characters (NPCs) called "mobs" or with other players in designated player versus player arena spaces. Abilities are tied directly to the types of weapons that are equipped, with armor complementing their respective character statistics. Items & currency may be acquired by looting corpses of slain NPCs or by trading with other players. Professions may be developed by earning points by participating in respective activities, such as mining, fishing and logging.[1]
Ember Sword follows a pay-to-earn business model; currency earned by slaying mobs, selling items and trading with players may be exchanged to ERC-20, which converts to Ethereum cryptocurrency. Players may acquire land, which they can use to build structures, crops and dungeons on.[1]
Setting edit
In the distant future, humanity was once a space-faring race that originated from Mars & Io and united under an interplanetary dominion called "Pangaea". In 3220, after humans have terraformed and colonized the terrestrial worlds of the Solar System, a godlike entity named Starzhen arrives, wielding a reality-bending weapon called the Ember Sword, claiming to sanction a rising threat. In 3225, he attacks Jupiter, prompting reprisal from Pangaea. Although Starzhen is destroyed in the subsequent battle, his death triggers an apocalyptic event called the "Catastrophe", which devastates the fictional Galilean moon of Thanabus into a dark age and led to the collapse of Pangaea.[2]
Ember Sword takes place in the year 3460, on Thanabus, which is tidally locked with Ganymede. The moon is divided into four nations: the forested Solarwood, the desert of Duskeron, the jungles of Sevrend, and the arctic tundra of Ediseau.[3]
Development edit
Production of Ember Sword began in 2018, under the Danish developer So Couch Studios, led by chief executive officer Mark Laursen. It was announced in October of that year. Initially developed on the Unity game engine, Ember Sword was intended designed for Windows & Android operating systems. The game is powered by the Ethereum blockchain, allowing for players to acquire tokenized cosmetics through gameplay, which can be traded for the in-game currency called "PIXEL".[4][5] In April 2020, the venture capitalist firm Galaxy Interactive announced a $700,000 pre-seed investment alongside Play Ventures in the game's developer, renamed Bright Star Studios, with Unity Studios' former chief executive officer Allan Kirkeby & SK Gaming's former managing director Andreas Thorstensson joining as a senior producer & business consultant, respectively.[6] An initial virtual sale of in-game land was held in May 2021; the four thousand available plots sold out within six hours.[7]
By July 2021, the in-game currency was renamed from PIXEL to the ERC-20 token "Ember". Bright Star held a subsequent virtual land sale, resulting in over $203 million being pledged. From the approximately 35,000 applications received, 6,000 would be selected for plots in Solarwood.[8] Shortly after the conclusion of the initial land sale, a $2 million investment deal from the previous May was announced, consisting of contributions from twenty individuals, including former chief creative officer of Blizzard Entertainment Rob Pardo, head of YouTube Gaming Ryan Wyatt, pseudonymous streamer Dr Disrespect, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, G2 Esports founder Carlos "ocelote" Rodríguez Santiago, chief operating officer of 100 Thieves John Robinson, Night Ventures, co-founder of Xfire Dennis Fong and co-founder of The Sandbox Sébastien Borget.[9]
Ember Sword initially relied upon Polygon (MATIC) as the platform for handling Ethereum, but with the establishment of Immutable Pty Ltd's Immutable X platform, Bright Star announced in March 2022 that it would migrate to the newer platform, with a $100 million partnership with GameStop.[10] Due to issues with Unity's capabilities for sustaining an MMORPG, Bright Star opted to explore a proprietary engine that would favor browser accessibility & streaming media in 2021.[5] According to Bright Star, the company initially contracted with a prolific engine developer, but due to misaligned expectations, decided to develop a proprietary engine in-house. Five game engines were attempted before Bright Star created Project SERIUS, which proved to be more acclimated for fast loading times in-browser.[11]
Release edit
In April 2022, virtual land owners & VIP badge holders were given access to a pre-alpha technical test set in Solarwood.[12] A year later, an alpha test was held, focused on the area surrounding Solarwood's capital of Burkhalter's Academy and featuring rudimentary core mechanics and weapon classes.[13] A subsequent vertical slice alpha demo was released in October 23, taking raiding parties to the Ultra Deep dungeon.[5]
References edit
- ^ a b "Immutable Games Spotlight: Ember Sword Announces Alpha Land Sale". Immutable Pty Ltd. July 28, 2023. Archived from the original on August 1, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ Horton, Samuel; Ivanov, Svetlin (October 25, 2021). "I Believe in Myself". Bright Star Studios. Archived from the original on April 26, 2024. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
- ^ Nambiampurath, Rahul (January 25, 2022). "Top 14 Play-To-Earn NFT Games". BeInCrypto. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
- ^ Daniel, Matt (October 18, 2018). "New mobile MMO Ember Sword is another cryptocurrency game". Massively Overpowered. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ a b c Hassfeld, Niels (October 26, 2023). "Ember Sword Hands-On Preview – Potentially great MMO, but worries about Blockchain". IGN. Archived from the original on October 27, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ Sheehan, Gavin (May 1, 2020). "Galaxy Interactive Part Of $700K Investment Into Bright Star Studios". Bleeding Cool. Archived from the original on May 3, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (July 13, 2023). "Bright Star Studios launches land sale for Web3 MMO Ember Sword". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on July 13, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ Ligon, Cheyenne (August 4, 2021). "Gamers Pledge $203M in 'Ember Sword's' Virtual Land Sale". CoinDesk. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ Kaser, Rachel (December 6, 2021). "Bright Star Studios attracts new investors following in-game land sale". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on December 3, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (February 3, 2022). "GameStop launches NFT marketplace on Immutable X, creates $100M dev fund". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on September 21, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
- ^ Laursen, Mark (January 24, 2023). "Bright Star Studios: Forging Better Experiences in Gaming and Technology in 2023 & Beyond". Bright Star Studios. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ Gonzalez, Christina (March 3, 2022). "Ember Sword Will Hold Pre-Alpha Technical Testing in April". MMORPG.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ Whitmore, Ralph (April 24, 2023). "Ember Sword Alpha Impressions - Did Bright Star's MMO Show Potential?". MMORPG.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2024.