Fantastic Pixel Castle Shares a New Prototype Milestones Update for Ghost

Fantastic Pixel Castle is sharing a new milestone update in the prototyping phase of their upcoming MMO, Ghost. 

FPC is  very clear that this is super early development and that's why they're calling it the prototype phase. Many questions guide them, such as whether the game that they are conceptualizing is fun? Does the gameplay loop work in its simplest form? And so on. A previous internal playtest with 16 colleagues from their publisher made it clear that they had some work to do before they could test again. Last month, they did test again, this time with a 20-player focus group.

They outline several key goals. One, the servers need to be stable and players needed to be able to run the game. Blue Zones, the dynamic zones that are at the heart of the experience, had to be varied.  In addition to being varied in terms of objectives, they also need to feel like places you want to explore. Now, players can load into different Blue Zones at the same time and have very different experiences and objectives. They also have a mini map that accurately reflects these new zones.

Other goals involved making Blue Zones and the classic-MMO spaces with others, Red Zones feel like they were connected via an interesting game loop. How to get players to leave these dynamic Blue Zones to go complete something in a Red Zone? “Players want to know where they’re supposed to go next but don’t necessarily want to feel like they’re being yanked on a backpack leash,” they said. There’s where earning a key in the Blue Zone to go unlock a Red Zone came in, even as the way to reach a final boss.

The full milestone update also introduces the Wychwood biome,  a perfect sneak peek for spooky season. The mystical forest was inspired by Northern Europe, and intentionally mysterious. The team shows off some concept art for environments, creatures, and the impact of magic.

Fantastic Pixel Castle notes three major points that they are taking forward: They feel well-positioned and on the right track, More work is needed, and more testing will help them get there. The potential to move from prototype to pre-production in early 2025 is there, but they’ll keep us posted.