Archive Entertainment, an indie development studio, has announced that it is working on a new sandbox game called 8bitMMO. The title, according to devs, allows players to build the world brick by brick with up to 250 concurrently connected to the game.

The game's engine allows for a wide variety of player made buildings.  Players can build solo, or group up and create their own towns with friends for cooperative building projects.  In either case, a grief protection system protects the player's creations from unwanted interference. The game is humorous in tone, with amusing quests and unusual enemies.  There is also basic Player vs Player and Player vs Environment combat.

Even though the game is in ongoing development, players can experience 8bitMMO via the website on its Java platform.

Find out more on the 8bitMMO site.

Sorry I love sandbox mmos and I love indie mmo companies....but UO has had the 2D mmo category on lock for over a decade now. I'm not heading back to a mmo that takes it's graphical cues from a 1985 console platform no matter how much I love those two things I mentioned before.

I mean I know we're are asking for indie companies to throw us a bone here, but this is like getting thrown a single kibble (in 8bit form).

Originally posted by Ramonski7

Sorry I love sandbox mmos and I love indie mmo companies....but UO has had the 2D mmo category on lock for over a decade now. I'm not heading back to a mmo that takes it's graphical cues from a 1985 console platform no matter how much I love those two things I mentioned before.

 

I mean I know we're are asking for indie companies to throw us a bone here, but this is like getting thrown a single kibble (in 8bit form).

i feel you m8....i love sandboxes too but if i have to play a game with old gfx again i would go back to the sandbox of sandboxes.....UO.

i dont spend my money on a high end machine these days to play a game that looks like that tbh (altough i made an exception for minecraft).

Good luck to them but I'll pass.

I think it's a neat concept.  There are other 8bit MMO's out there that can be played on PC , iOS, or droid phones though.   However every time I see these games it gives me a since of nostalgia and sometimes that enough to get me to play at least once.  If they can hook me on that one play...who knows?

Replying to the first two commenters:

The trouble is, when it comes to sandboxes, none of the big guns are going to make one, because they get the idea that they won't make any money. If indie companies are making snaboxes and people aren't buying them, the big companies aren't going to think: "Oh, they would buy that sandbox game if only it had better graphics," they're going to think: "People don't want a sandbox game, they want the themepark epxerience."

So at this rate, you're not going to get that visually stunning 3D sandbox game, becausethe market impression is that no one will buy it. Sometimes you support the little projects, despite hteir limitations, because they pave the way for bigger projectsdown the road, either from that small company growing, or from other companies copying them.

I wish devs took out of Minecraft's success: "Hey people like to build and tinker and stuff in a sandbox too not just go on rides or kill things all day !" instead of "Hey people like to play with shitty shitty graphics".

I mean come on when are we getting a freeform sandbox MMO (or even just regular multiplayer game for a dozen players) that looks like an AAA title ?

There's Second Life sortof but that looks very dated by now and it just runs so badly + it's not an actual game. And EvE sortof again. Old SWG ?

I like that some indie teams are taking this approach, becuase it frees up the team's time, talent and resources to focus on the gameplay. It also significantly lowers the barrier to entry, allowing more people to play on a broader range of platforms.

Yuck, Java is not a language that you want to write games in.  I wish them luck, but I won't touch it.

Wow, the advancements they have made.  I'll stick to the Atari.

Themepark games have reached the end of the line with WoW, Rift, and SWTOR.

Future themepark releases are going to really feel the pain.

The future is sandbox, like Minecraft. Minecraft is an amazing prototype.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Yuck, Java is not a language that you want to write games in.  I wish them luck, but I won't touch it.

 

what are u talking about? minecraft is an awesome game and its java....it can be done, but yeah its annoying. Java just makes it so it can have a larger potential audience.nearly everything uses java is some way, even the newer parking meters

Originally posted by Cikbik

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Yuck, Java is not a language that you want to write games in.  I wish them luck, but I won't touch it.

 

what are u talking about? minecraft is an awesome game and its java....it can be done, but yeah its annoying. Java just makes it so it can have a larger potential audience.nearly everything uses java is some way, even the newer parking meters

He never said you cant, just that you shouldn't.  Yes minecraft is written in java and it shows.  It performs terribly where it shouldn't.  And why do we care that a parking meter uses java? Do you plan on playing this on a parking meter?  They should have used a language more suited to this kind of thing.

Im fond of the graphics, mainly cause I grew up in that generation :)

Im for sure going to try it at the very least, who knows, this game may suprise us.

*edit*Just logged in and started moving around, the first thing I noticed was..

A TARDIS!!!

Graal pulled off similar things in 2001

sooo they are taking the 16bit minecraft and downgrading to 8bit.... yaaaa this doesnt scream.. cashing in :/ whats next 8bit WoW? 

cant really talk about the game graphics as its 8bit... i personally got away from those years and years ago for 16 and 32bit stuff... while im sure the game is enjoyable to most.. ill stick to my minecraft as i can see the building aspects alot better and suits my creativeness atad easier then trying to build a realistic looking castle in 8bit..