dtp Entertainment and RealU have announced that they are developing an MMO based on the Otherland novels by Tad Williams.

Hamburg, Germany, 01 October 2008 – dtp entertainment and the development studio RealU, based in Singapore, today announced the MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) Otherland. Otherland, based on the best-selling novels by fantasy author Tad Williams, will appear for the PC in 2010.

Game fans can expect a completely new MMOG experience with Otherland. Based on the Unreal Engine 3, Otherland will set new technical standards for the MMOG genre. ‘Unreal Engine 3 is the basis for our client side game and graphics engine. To push it over the top our developers have also made countless additions to ensure outstanding graphics quality over huge environments. At the same time our artists and engineers are exploring the boundaries of Unreal Engine 3 to create fresh new visual styles for the game. At Real U we are developing completely new architecture that allows us to build a groundbreaking MMO game with Unreal Engine 3 at its core,’ says Andrew Carter,
CEO RealU.

MMO fans can also expect a fascinating gameplay experience. Based on the globally successful novels, the Otherland gameplay is distinguished by a unique narrative structure. Rather than retelling the story, players will experience their own individual stories within the Otherland universe and will encounter many of the familiar characters from the books. The game world will change dynamically around them during the course of the game.

Starting from the player lobby Lambda Mall, an Entertainment, Meeting and Communication centre, players will teleport into a wide variety of game worlds. As in the books, virtual reality is a central topic of the game. Nothing is what it appears to be at first glance in this futuristic vision from the pen of Tad Williams, who played an important role in the development of the game.
‘Tad Williams visited us during the conception phase and was very actively involved in the realisation of this project from the beginning,’ comments Andrew Carter. ‘Because this is a MMOG, a linear storyline would not be feasible. Therefore, we had to find an alternative way of telling a story. I think we have found a terrific combination of innovative narration and faithfulness to the books,’ Carter continues.

Andrew Carter is the leader of a development team, now consisting of 80 people, based in Singapore. The international team is composed of game experts with years of experience in the gaming industry. The core team had previously worked at Melbourne House, EA, THQ and other major international studios. RealU is a 100 % subsidiary of dtp entertainment AG.

Read more here.

Something rather funny for everyone to chew on. This is a Virtual world game played on a computer, that is based on a novel, about people in the future going into virtual worlds, on a computer. The Irony is reeking off this game already.

Wow.

I'm not sure how to react to this.  I loved the Otherland books very much, but for some game company working out of Singapore to grab the license and throw together an Unreal3 based MMO(RP?)G based on the books sounds like a recipe for disaster.  I know they said Tad Williams worked extensively with them in concept planning stage, but I still have little hope this will ever really make it to market let alone be any good.

Prove me wrong devs.  Please.

I don't know what to look at in those screenshots!

Originally posted by Lydon

I don't know what to look at in those screenshots!

Screenshots?  Are you in the wrong thread maybe? :)

Originally posted by AlienShores

Originally posted by Lydon

I don't know what to look at in those screenshots!

Screenshots?  Are you in the wrong thread maybe? :)

There's another article in which they showed a few screenshots ;)

Hmm I don't see that anywhere, can you post a link for us?   I'm very interested to see the style they're going with.

Screenshots are here: www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/2284

Thanks for the link.

As I posted in the discussion thread for those screenshots, I'll say here as well - they look surprisingly good if you know the source material.  I'm totally ok with that as the general VR shopping, meeting, business area laid out in the Otherland books.  It'll be interesting to see some of the other "worlds" though since if you follow the books even a little bit then many of the worlds should be pretty darn realistic.

the screenshots dont make this game look interesting to me.
If I remember correctly then Star Gate World is also using Unreal Engine 3 and will be released much sooner than Otherland.
"The day" also scheduled for 2010 release is based on CryEngine2 that i think is better than Unreal Engine 3.

Yeah I can see your point - these don't really tell you anything about the game or draw you in.  For me it's entirely because I know the source material so I'm interested in that sense.  I haven't the faintest idea how they'll make a game out of it all though.  There really wasn't much of a game to be had in the main storyline of the books, though it could be a killer movie :)

Not sure why they would pick this author or this SF series.  Certainly are a lot better ones out there.

I can bet not many MMO players are even familiar with this series to start with.  Hopefully the game will be better than the books.

Not sure why they would choose Sci Fi to start with, the genre has not had a lot of success lately and doing a cyberpunk game?  This is really reaching to find an audience.

I liked the Otherland books, they had a unique way. The screenshots do not look bad, but you can't really see anything.

As it is not a typical fantasy mmo, i doubt it will be that successful. That has nothing to do with cyberpunk or not being familar with the books, it's just that the only sure thing is a fantasy mmo.