MMORPG.com news Manager keith Cross traveled recently to Singapore to learn more about a new MMO being developed by Real U Studios based on the Otherland novel series by author Tad Williams. Today, Keith begins with part one of our introduction to this new game.

Recently, a group of European and North American game journalists were invited to Singapore to visit Real U studios, where we were promised a first look at a previously unannounced MMO project. Today, the embargo on the information has been lifted and we can freely talk about Otherland, a game based on the novel series of the same name by Tad Williams. Tad was the surprise guest of honor for the trip, and was at the main presentation along with Kevin Buckner, the Senior Producer on Otherland, and Andrew Carter, CEO of Real U.

Otherland is currently about 75% through the pre-production phase, and about 15% complete according to Real U. The game is being developed with a special version of the Unreal Engine 3, and is currently scheduled for release in 2010.

Read the article here.

Oooooof. Otherland as an MMO? I remember reading the books and I always felt confused. I hope the MMO can capture the spirit of the books.

Seriously though, a lot of Otherlands appeal was in the story and the plot-turns and twists. I wonder how they want to capture that.

I just, just, just wrote about this :P

http://www.cedarstreet.net/post/Otherland-e28093-The-MMO.aspx

I'm not holding my breath.

It's really hard to imagine making an MMO based on these books really work. Considering the MMO competition both now and in development, I'd say this particular game's prospects of being successful are pretty slim.

Originally posted by singsofdeath

Oooooof. Otherland as an MMO? I remember reading the books and I always felt confused. I hope the MMO can capture the spirit of the books.

 

Seriously though, a lot of Otherlands appeal was in the story and the plot-turns and twists. I wonder how they want to capture that.

Oh, I'm sure that it will be very confusing, being that is being devolped in Singapore...

Sorry, teasing...

The books were great, kept me on the edge of my seat, I only hope they can do the IP justice.

i haven't read the books, but the potential for the game sounds facinating. i really look forward to future articles and coverage of this one. thx.

Someday maybe you'll get one of these right. It's Otherland, not Outland. Check your thread title. *sigh*

I don't know about the game, but I'm at least interested in reading the books now.

Originally posted by ZodiaEclipse

I don't know about the game, but I'm at least interested in reading the books now.

If you like sci-fi with lots of plot complications, you will like the otherland series.

It's kinda funny, I just so happen to be re-re-reading these books again, and am on the fourth one.  It's a great series, and I look forward to seeing how well it pans out in game format.  Although, for those who are Tad Williams fans, this is most likely not too surprising of an announcement, since the official Otherlands forum, this was brought up and discussed in October of 2007 I believe...

I'd actually be more interested in a SP game than an MMO, but eitherway, I'm interested in watching this progress...

I loved the books, but to me it seems that an mmo like this would be hard to make without a linear progression.  Considering radically the areas changed from one spot to the next, I'm interested in seeing how they plan on doing classes and stuff.   However that said I'm excited to see how it progresses.

As far as its success, in a world with tons of fantasy mmo's and a few sci fi mmos, it could be a nice change of pace having a game that could be as bizzare as that Alice in Wonderland video game one second and then a typical fantasy mmo the next. 

The title says Outlands I thought you were talking about the James Axler series Outlanders which would have been cool too, a post apocalyptic setting.  Although his Deathlands series would have been better, hes got some crazy creatures in there.

Hmmmm singapore and Tad Williams.

Sounds like Free 2 play with a very expensive item mall, and a backgound check to make sure you come from the "Right Family"

As others are thinking, as soon as I heard it was being developed in Singapore, I immediately stopped giving a crap about this game. As racist as it may be, I have absolutely no faith in Asia-based companies being able to develop a good MMO.

Here's comes the next sci-fi F2P grind-fest with great graphics and a tad bit more story than the others.

The novels are great, and reading them I remember thinking some of the scenarios/worlds the characters found themselves in would have been really cool to visit and play around in(not gonna spoil anything for potential readers of Otherland), though preferably in front of the computer screen, wouldn't wanna be trapped in there for real hehe :)

The story line reminds me of the .//hack anime and games. Did this novel inspire that?

Tad Williams should have stuck to the fantasy genre.  His journey into Sci-Fi was at best mediocre.  Trying to imagine converting this world into a game is a real reach.

Wonder if they actually took the time to do some market surveys to actually see if they had an acceptable audience to play this game.?  If they had, I think the results would have been a shock to them in a negative sort of way.

To the guy above, I don't think you need worrying about spoiling anything to potential readers.  Most people won't even get through the first book.  To say they plod is an understatement. 

Never read the novel, but the world deeply need a sci-fi mmo.  In my book the only great sci-fi mmo ever produced was Anarchy Online, but it,s old now.

Though I do read quite a bit, i've never heard of this series. I'd love to check it out. I would also love to see a game based on Dietz's Legion of the Damned series..pvp wise, it would be so much fun. A more casual and fun community based series I'd like to see as an MMO would be Kim Harrison's....dunno what the series is called so I'll just say Rachel Morgan series...if anyone knows what I'm talking about...anyway yeah, I'll def. check out those books next time I goto the book store.

---

Originally posted by Irish69
The story line reminds me of the .//hack anime and games. Did this novel inspire that?

---

Yes, the series is very similar and probably did inspire it. I just bought the book series a few months back and haven't gotten a chance to read them yet. //hack is one of my favorite anime series, it's just too bad the games were so weak.

Originally posted by Irish69

The story line reminds me of the .//hack anime and games. Did this novel inspire that?

I was just thinking that too.  Either way it seems pretty interesting and I invite 'something different'.  It could end up like a story driven Second Life of some sort...

It reminds me of when I mentioned 'ReBoot' as an MMORPG because it allows players to get into all sorts of different 'games' and settings.  I still think a ReBoot MMORPG would kick serious ass hehe.  Good luck to Otherworld - I'll keep an eye on the project every now and then :)

It does sound interesting and I'll have to keep an eye out for it. I've only read his fantasy stuff, so I might give this a shot.

I did a few searches on the MMO, and every where I read, it is a company in Germany that is doing the game, not singapore. Unless that is old information, I wasn't really able to find any connection to Singapore.

Good for Tad, I hope he got the majority of his money up front. Fun books, hard to imagine an MMO based on them. It does have 'zones' built into the mythology, but the content of the zones could be anything and everything.

As for 'wish list' MMO based on novels, Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs trilogy would be a fun world to play in, with no 'real death' PvP and lose your 'sleeve' would be a fun concept. The film rights to the first book 'Altered Carbon' were bought up by the producer of The Matrix Films and is supposedly being directed by V for Vendetta's James McTeigue for a 2009 release.

If they can pull this one off and keep the story-line as a driving force in the game this could be awesome :P

  I'm a HUGE Tad Williams fan, specifically due to the Otherland series so this comes as quite a big surprise for me.

But, I'm really not sure how this will play out in an MMO setting, of course they COULD make it amazing, but I seriously doubt that they have money to put behind it to make it what it should be.  Also, I would imagine relatively few people even know about this series and everything behind it, so even though I'm a huge fan, I wouldn't say the IP is all that strong.

Its really surprising for me to hear this, but all I can do is hope that Tad actually has his hand deep into the development process for this game,  it could be awe inspiring if done right, multiple worlds, multiple game types,  honestly more could be done with this one IP than most any other simply because of how Otherland works.

Originally posted by anotheraddic

  I'm a HUGE Tad Williams fan, specifically due to the Otherland series so this comes as quite a big surprise for me.

 

But, I'm really not sure how this will play out in an MMO setting, of course they COULD make it amazing, but I seriously doubt that they have money to put behind it to make it what it should be.  Also, I would imagine relatively few people even know about this series and everything behind it, so even though I'm a huge fan, I wouldn't say the IP is all that strong.

Its really surprising for me to hear this, but all I can do is hope that Tad actually has his hand deep into the development process for this game,  it could be awe inspiring if done right, multiple worlds, multiple game types,  honestly more could be done with this one IP than most any other simply because of how Otherland works.

In a way not having read the series and not really knowing what's going on "behind the scenes" is kind of what it's all about and what they're aiming for, so that would actually be a benefit as a new player to not having read the series I guess, not sure how they're gonna make it as equally compelling for those who actually have read it and already know "what it's all about".

But I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that mr Tad Williams is deeply involved in the project, i seem to recall from author bio that he has a background in software engineering or something like that so it would be kind of cool if he was on hand taking part in the actual designing and programming of the project!