Recently, Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down with Produceer Hermann Peterscheck to take a look at the progress of NetDevil's upcoming MMORPG, Jumpgate Evolution.

“Another area is "realism".” Hermann said to me as we discussed the subject of the game’s look and feel, “I kind of think that games are escapism. I know space is black and empty and silent and void of things. But I wish it wasn’t. I wish it was full of cool stuff to do and nice things to look at.”

“If you watch PBS specials you'll notice that they show space as full of asteroids and colorful nebulas... giant flaming suns and so on,” he continued, “they don't show the 99.999% part of space that is empty vaccum.”

The developers succeed in creating a more interesting and vibrant spacescape than strict realism might dictate, without making the game look cartoony and over-done. In the end, from what I’ve seen, the team seems to be striking a nice balance.

Read it all here.