June 2010
Hi all! As you might have guessed from our low profile recently, there's lots brewing here in the FunOrb team and it's good to be able to give you an update.
First of all, we're glad to see that so many of you are enjoying Arcanists in high-resolution fullscreen mode and with resizable windows. Arcanists isn't the only game planned to receive the high-resolution treatment, though: Armies of Gielinor and Zombie Dawn updates are in the pipeline for the coming months, and we know you're going to love them.
But updates aren't all we're working on. Mod Crispy has recently been working with Mod Ken and Mod Thaddeus to put the finishing touches to a game that's rather close to my heart, because it's the first game I worked on after joining the team in February. If you like the idea of racing through macabre temples to collect coins and valuable idols - and who wouldn't? - then keep your eyes peeled for a release in the very near future. Says Mod Crispy:
It will be to my great joy to see Tom Bracer take his final steps to stardom. I penned his story a good 2 years ago. Finally we'll share with you the madness that's been kept under lock and key for so long. Over a year ago, Mod Cloud and myself started this project. After only a month or so, I moved on to other projects including the Armies of Gielinor campaigns. Since coming back to Tom Bracer, Mod Sporx, Mod Shade, Mod Thomas and Mod Iain have all worked on it too. Starting with Mod Cloud, allow me to bad mouth the lot of them [cut! - Ed.]
On a sad note, we've had to make a tough choice about Pirate Empires, which turned out to be a far larger project than we have the resources for at the moment. It was a hard decision to cease development of the game, but we realised we were essentially trying to produce a mini MMORPG, and we would have had to devote almost the entire development team to it in order to finish it. This would have meant putting all other projects on hold. The good news is that by cancelling Pirate Empires, we can bring you great new content for the games you already love, as well as bringing you new games on a more regular basis.
Speaking of new games, Mod Dunk has been working on a highly novel sci-fi shooter that sees you customising your own spacecraft before venturing forth to blow your opponent to smithereens. It's rather unlike anything else you've played on FunOrb, and we're really looking forward to seeing your reactions. Says Mod Dunk:
These last few weeks, the game has been going through early QA testing, with the finishing touches being added for a summer members' beta release of this real-time, multiplayer spaceship building and combat game. Right now, you can fly around, bolt a ship together (attaching hull pieces, weapons, defences and more), and fight your friends. And last week I added the ability to save your favourite ship as a blueprint. Once you have a blueprint, you have the option to rebuild it using nearby debris during a match, or spawn it in specialblueprint combatmissions.
Expect to see the fruit of Mod Dunk's hard work in a few weeks' time.
There's more - much more - in the pipeline (including Mod Wars), but I don't want to give away all our secrets just yet. Stay tuned, and you'll hear more later. ;-)
Until then, happy FunOrbing - and come and talk to us on the forums!
Mod Gabriel
FunOrb Editor
