Dark or Light
logo
Logo

Indie MMO Spotlight: Blockchains, Xmas Events, And Stoners

Mitch Gassner Updated: Posted:
Category:
Columns 0

With less than three weeks remaining in 2021, the indie MMO universe is still as busy as always. Alphas and Betas are still popping off, holiday events are starting to ramp up, and there’s enough concept art and dev videos floating around to keep you busy for hours. So let’s quit wasting time and get things moving with this week’s Indie MMO Spotlight.

Book of Travels

TMO Book of Travels got a big update this week. You can read about all of the minor updates here. However, the big news is that the update includes Skill Pack 1 and Achievement Pack 1. The skill pack adds six new skills to the game, while the achievement pack adds twelve achievements for you to earn during your travels.

Corepunk

Artificial Core posted a new progress update video this week. Once again, it’s not good news. Or is it? The bad news is that the Corepunk Beta is being delayed until next year, which should be no surprise considering it’s mid-December. The good news is that progress is still being made, just not as fast as planned. And instead of rushing into Beta just because of deadlines, the team is waiting until the client is truly ready for release.

The Cycle: Frontier

A new video series, Life on Fortuna III, debuted on the Yager Development Twitch channel this week. The pilot episode featured a variety of video clips from the recent Beta Test.

Ember Sword

VentureBeat reported this week that Bright Star Studios had brokered a new investment deal, bringing on twenty new investors for Ember Sword. While it’s still unknown how well the new breed of blockchain MMOs will fare with players, this round of investment attracted several industry execs and influencers.

Foxhole

Siege Camp shared their last Foxhole devblog of the year this week. Along with a quick recap of 2021, we were treated to a glimpse of the 2022 roadmap that includes Update 48 in early 2022, followed by the major update of Foxhole 1.0: Part 2 later in the year.

Gloria Victis

2021 may be coming to an end, but the weekly updates to Gloria Victis keep on coming. Update 299 is all about the previously mentioned combat improvements. These changes include udpates to the UI, faster attack speeds, and weapon block resistance, to name a few.

Hordes.io

Hordes.io Update 0.40 went live on Saturday. Along with the usual bug fixes and behind the scenes upgrades, all of the classes received some new spells and abilities. You’ll be able to test out those new skills on the new world boss, Gloomfury. There are a ton of other changes as well, and you can find the full patch notes on the Hordes.io Discord channel.

Ilysia

If you’re into everything Ilysia, you’ll definitely want to check out this tweet sharing over a dozen pieces of original concept art.

Mad World

Jandisoft announced that the Mad World Alpha Test 4.0 would run from December 20 through December 24. You can check out all of the details from our news post.

Mist Legacy

Mist Legacy received a new update this week. Version 0.1.7.0 includes a new level cap of 35, new bosses to battle, and new crafting skills to master. You can read about all of the changes on the Mist Legacy Steam page.

Profane

INSANE has been sharing a lot of concept art and videos on the Profane Twitter account, and this week they shared a short video of all things pew pew pew.

Prosperous Universe

Devlog #314 may not be that exciting in and of itself, but it does mention that the secret project the team has been working on will be revealed before Christmas.

Realm of the Mad God

Lots of stuff on the RotMG devblog again this week - Oryxmas, BB_Smooth, and a Kensei event.

A Township Tale

Just in time for the holidays, there’s a new ATT merch store. It’s a little sparse at the moment, but they are offering holiday cards with artwork from one of the ATT community members, OtherVal.

Trials of Ascension

I’ve said it before, but one of the best parts of following indie developers is how much they enjoy showing off their works in progress. Like this test of a dragon setting things ablaze with its fire breath.

Villagers & Heroes

It’s full-on holiday joy in Villagers & Heroes right now. In addition to the Grinchta’s Lair Event Zone and the Secret Santa Gift Exchange, the 12 Days of Christmas Event started this week. During the event, there will be a new contest every two days, giving players a chance to earn 12 gifts (2 per event). You can read all about the 12DoC event on this forum post.

Wagadu Chronicles

It’s been a while since The Wagadu Chronicles were in the IMS, so I was happy to come across a tweet sharing a video of the UI flow for the character generator. They say it’s only the first draft, but it’s already looking pretty good.

Wurm Online

It’s time for a new Valrei International. This time the dev update is showcasing an upcoming update that will add new visuals to stone items (pillars, benches, fireplaces, etc.) that will reflect the type of stone used to create the item. 

Zenith: The Last City

Tribe VR posted a new video this week. It’s called Zenith Baseball (with swords). I’m not sure what it has to do with baseball, but they are definitely having fun coming up with new ways to kill things with swords.

Loose Ends

  • Ravendawn - If you missed the livestream from last week, here are the portions that talk about the studio’s thoughts on NFTs and the planned housing system rework.

Splattr

Mitch Gassner

Part-time game reviewer, full-time gaming geek, Mitch was introduced to Pac-Man and Asteroids at Shakey's Pizza in the '70s and has been hooked on games ever since. Mitch has always had an opinion to share on anything gaming, but it wasn't until 2018 that he began his writing side hustle. Mitch currently writes about gaming and tech for MMORPG and Gamespace.com. You can find him on X @mitchgassner.