Anyone have some recent info on the Carbine Studios MMO?

This game has been in production for 6 years and the only pertinent thing about it that I've managed to find is the rumor that it could be sci-fi themed…

Wouldn't care half as much if it wasn't for the fact that Tim Cain's been with them for all that time.

Not much specific. From what I've read it should be more story-based than previous ones, which I think is the area that Tim Cain is working on. In terms of budget it is maybe slightly larger than Rift. There are some interviews on carbinecentral.com you can read, and there's a twitter stream.

There are a lot of open positions for senior staff. Maybe they've done most design and is getting ready for full production.

Looks like they'll soon give us a preview of what they're working on. It will be shown at GamesCom (17.08 - 21.08 2011)

We have a number of ideas we've developed over time about what we think is important in gaming - we think it's about letting players play how they want, when they want, and with whom they want.

We're gamers that want MORE out of online gaming, and we're all ready for the Next Big MMO. Don't get us wrong - we're not dissing existing games. We can't; like we said, most of us have helped make them.

But we think we've learned enough to make some dramatic steps forward. We have developed some new ways of making online games; games that can adapt to you instead of the other way 'round.

I know, I know - you may have heard it all before. And we're not here to feed you a bunch of hype - that stuff kills us as much as it kills you.

With that in mind, we'll just say that Carbine Studios will be attending this year's gamescom in Cologne, Germany, quickly followed by PAX Prime in Seattle, Washington.

Our entire team has been making a game we enjoy ourselves - and we're pretty excited to tell you about it as well.

-Jeremy Gaffney
Executive Producer
Carbine Studios

Very nice, thanks for the heads up.

A new devblog entry from Eric DeMilt (producer):

In addition to helping us identify important issues, these sessions also encouraged us to do more of the things that people liked. We'd sit in the conference room, agonizing as we watch a player struggle with a particularly hard puzzle, wondering if we'd just made the most frustrating piece of content ever. We'd cheer when they finally solved it, but would still wonder what we should change to make the puzzle easier. Later during the Q&A we discovered the player really enjoyed the difficulty, and felt a real sense of accomplishment when he solved it. This type of scenario played out in our testing so many times, rather than take it out or nerf it, we decided to do more.

One of the best parts of all the testing we've been doing lately is finally getting the opportunity to see the game we have been working on come together and watching people react to it the way we hoped they would! We've got a unique art style that has allowed us to build an epic world filled with technology and magic. We love it! We've worked hard to create a world we want to be in, and so far, the people who have seen it have really enjoyed it.

A cool artwork for the game part of the promo for their announcement at gamescom.

Accompanied by a post by their art director:

When we started this project, we had a couple goals in mind for the art. We wanted to be sure that we developed something that was iconic and recognizable as a signature of our game. When gamers see our game, we want them to instantly know that it's Carbine's MMO.

So, we started looking at the things out there that have influenced us as artists. Mainly, American and European comics and American and Japanese animation. Across all of these were some recurring themes, such as expressive characters with high-personality, and lush beautiful backgrounds.
…
We believe our art style has an element that is missing from a lot of games on the market, and that's a sense of fun. I love looking at our art. It tells a story. It screams "Come out and play!" I'm happy when I run around our world. It feels magical - like anything is possible. I often find myself running around the world for hours just to be there.

That pretty much covers the history of our style but as for the style itself, I'd describe it as "hand-crafted." We paint all of our textures from scratch. We try not to use any photo reference in our assets. We make sure everything has a strong silhouette with really strong personality. Everything from a mountain to a chair should be an expression of character whether that's a specific mood or the history of the asset.

Some shots from their upcoming trailer.

From RPG Codex apparently Tim Cain got married to Robert Land and has left Carbine Studios.

http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=62035

I dunno if it is real though, i have no idea about facebook.

If true i am really bummed out by the news, simply because of the fact that his age is going to limit his making of games, this might have been his last game. Hope he can still make another good game.

That Facebook page is gone. Robert Land is the new community manager at Carbine Studios (just hired recently). Beside this, the game seems to have had some growing pains during its 6 years development, so its not entirely impossible that he has left. But given RPGcodex is the only reference to this it is probably be better to wait for a more reliable source. Either way, he has spent almost 6 years of his life on this game so there's bound to be some greatness to it!?

More information from the Ark Ship. This time featuring a monster!

A small gameplay video. I think its fair to say I'm not in its intented demographics, hehe. A little too cartooney for me with a little Rachet & Clank feel to it, but I'm sure there is lots of people will find it appealing. Seems like a better fit for consoles than PC though.

Now if only someone made an mmo out of this one.

Originally Posted by hishadow
A small gameplay video. I think its fair to say I'm not in its intented demographics, hehe. A little too cartooney for me with a little Rachet & Clank feel to it, but I'm sure there is lots of people will find it appealing.

I've always been confused with gameplay that involves shooting a gun at point blank range. Having said that, it sort of reminds me of a Tabula Rasa and WoW lovechild. This is both a good and bad thing. And the graphics aren't something I usually put much emphasis on, but they look really bad

Pessimism aside, I hope the game becomes a surprise hit. There are way too few sci-fi games out there. I just hope the release doesn't take another 6 years.

Originally Posted by Damian Mahadevan
From RPG Codex apparently Tim Cain got married to Robert Land and has left Carbine Studios.

http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=62035

I dunno if it is real though, i have no idea about facebook.

Looks legit, imo. Was posted by Drog, Arcanum modder extraordinaire, not some random putz looking for attention. And Tim's Facebook confirms it. Maybe he'll hook up with Boyarsky again once Diablo 3 ships… you know, in 2015.

Cant say i blame Tim for leaving if it is indeed true.
Judging by those gamecon videos floating around on youtube WildStar looks about as bland and generic as it is possible for an mmo to do.
Only innovation it seems to bring is being the 1st mmo with quicktime events. yeah.

Yeah it looks awful.

Originally Posted by Biff The Understudy
Cant say i blame Tim for leaving if it is indeed true.

He has been there from the beginning and was also design director, so I highly doubt he was without influence. If he has left I would guess it's because the development dragged on for too long.

ed: also, their lead composer Jason Hayes left during the summer to work for Valve, and so did their lead concept artist who joined Disney. With so many leads leaving it's not all improbable Cain left also.

Looks awesome.

They should have made an animated movie… It would have taken less time and made more money.

I have never heard of the game so I have no any info