GDC 09: Gatheryn Impressions

Before I strolled to the Moscone Center to finish my last day of the Game Developers Conference, I walked over to Union Square in San Francisco to get a preview of Mindfuse Games’ Gatheryn, a steampunk MMORPG. Mindfuse Games is based out of Berkeley, CA; just over the bridge from San Francisco. During my meeting with CEO Joseph Walters and Game Studio Director Isa Anne Stamos, they explained what Gatheryn is, and what it is planned to be.

I was first shown the character creation screen, which the player would start with when they begin the game. Gatheryn is using the Hero Engine, which provides a strong graphical front for the steampunk theme. The game has the standard character customization, meaning all parts of the body can be adjusted to fit the player’s tastes. From what Stamos told me, the world of Gatheryn is going to be split up into different islands. As the game is updated, players will actually be able to see a progress of production in the creation of the island.

In the build I saw, much of the world was empty except for the environments. I’m sure once the game is up and running, it won’t be common to see players roaming around the world constantly. CEO Walters showed me the inside of a building into a hat shop where dialogue trees functioned for communication. Another interesting aspect of Gatheryn is that it’s a MMORPG, but geared more towards casual gamers and social interaction.

There is a quest that opens the story of the game, but many of the mini-games, like chemistry or furniture making, all appear familiar to most casual gamers. The two games I saw were translations of popular Flash games out now. That is also an interesting aspect of the game, that many of the mini-games run through Flash. There wasn’t any lag or stutter in the loading of them and they ran smooth.

The character that was shown didn’t have much of the steampunk Victorian style except for the clothes, and I wish I could have seen a character fashioned in full steampunk regalia. Though I did see a steampunk constructed monkey, chicken, and humanoid; all with moving part animation as well as idle animation. I’m curious to see how unique character appearances can get. An interesting fact that I was told was that the game will be free to play, with the addition of subscriptions and microtransactions. The subscriptions will speed the acquirement of certain items quicker, like an apartment. As for microtransactions, I’m not sure what the plan is going to be.

Gatheryn is still in a beta format, but from the build I saw there are a lot of good elements in place. With an expected release coming in 2009, this free to play MMORPG will interest the steampunk community, but should also bring interest from other MMO players and communities.