Yesterday at PAX we got the chance to speak with the Chronicles of Elyria team. The indie MMO had a booth at PAX just a few weeks before their Kickstarter goes live on May 3. The game was showing off its first combat build. The team explained their plans moving forward as they build out the team and the game for fans.
Chronicles development team is finally reaching a strong capacity. They have a composer and full character artists working on the game which brings the team up to the core that they needed. The game is being built on Unreal so they are looking at making sure the client will sync up with consoles as well as PC. Those aspects are a long way off as the team continues to build out the world and character systems for now.
The sandbox dynamic is critical to the game’s design. They wanted to keep that in as one of the core features of MMOs that they always admired. Another core system they want to have is a “contract” system which allows players to create their own open trade and economy. If you maintain a contract with your fellow players then you can also generate quests for them, open a bank, or even give them a loan. This free economy will help players work on their own content for the game and allow the binding contract to work among people they trust. It also ties into the stylized RTS approach to building up towns. You will begin with a hamlet and then eventually be able to upgrade to a village, or even a full town.
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When it comes to combat the team is serious about keeping it based on player skill. The demo showed two fighters squaring off with swords in quick action. Players really were able to control their fighters well and it felt like a strong action combat game. There will be a variety of weapons on the game to cover all of the medieval styles. Being able to balance dodge, parry and precision strikes is what makes the combat come alive. However, when it comes to magic the team is taking a much more conservative approach. Since the lore takes place years after magic has died, it will be a ritualistic approach to how magic is used. Players will not be zapping spells left and right, but more commit to large events in the game to make magic happen.
The game world continues to grow and get more refined. The team showed off a great aging factor of your character as you grow old in the game world. They were also showing weather effects and the wide landscape of the world. All of these features are being added into Chronicles to make sure when it is ready for players to enter in, there is a complete package.
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For those of you following the game, they are about to launch their Kickstarter next month on May 3rd. We will keep you posted on the event and bring you more talks with the team. Despite a small team, there is loads of passion being poured into this project. We are excited to see where it goes as more and more independent MMOs are coming onto the scene.
