Gatheryn, an upcoming MMO from Mindfuse Games, brings the Steampunk genre to Online Gaming
Being a fan of Steampunk in general, I had to admit I was excited to hear of an upcoming title by Mindfuse Games called Gatheryn and the demo didn’t disappoint. Gatheryn immerses the player in a Victorian Steampunk world and entices them to delve into various storylines and adventures. Meant for the casual player, Gatheryn is full of quests, mini-games, vivid characters, and a beautifully designed world. It will definitely appeal to players tired of the usual fair of kill xyz NPC n times...
Joseph Walters (CEO, Mindfuse Games) and Isa Anne Stamos (Game Director, Mindfuse Games) were nice enough to provide us with a hands-on tour of the game this year at GDC 2009. The current state of the game is pre-beta, and although development is still on going the game appeared to be very polished. There was quite a bit of attention to detail both in the game play and graphically. Steampunk elements are woven throughout the landscape, buildings, characters, and NPC’s. Some serve specific purposes, some are just for looks – but all together it creates a fascinating atmosphere for exploring a new world.
While there was not a ton of information that we are allowed to release about the game just yet, a few things we can talk about are character customization and mini-games. From what we saw, character customization is very detailed in Gatheryn, allowing players to create new technology, crafts, fashion, and even own and customize a house. The customization options seemed pretty limitless and that’s a big plus from our view. Gone are the days of everyone looking the same! /cheer
Another interesting aspect of Gatheryn was mini-games. Of course the game is filled with the usual style of quests you would expect from a typical MMO, but Gatheryn also has over 30 different mini-games ready to go for release and many more in development. Mini-games will offer players a variety of re-playable activities that will give a mix of rewards, everything from buffs to pets to items etc. The mini-game demo we saw was “The Chemistry Lab”, where our character was involved in mixing molecules (sorry couldn’t resist!) in a Tetris-like game to create new potions to use. It definitely changes the game play style and makes mundane tasks like crafting a lot more fun and interesting!
We spoke at length with Joseph and Isa about the many possibilities for the game and from their point of view the sky is the limit. They definitely have some phenomenal ideas for where they want to take the game and we think its going to be a huge success for Mindfuse. mmolecule will definitely keep tabs on the development progress for Gatheryn and bring you updates as we get them, we look forward to seeing what they come up with over the next few months.
In the meantime, we highly encourage everyone to take a trip over to www.mindfusegames.com to learn more about Gatheryn. While you are there, be sure to register for the mailing list to get notifications of when the Beta program will start. This game is definitely one to keep your eye on!
Written By: Tono
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