The Phoenix Project
Status Update: Monday, June 17
By: Segev

The response last week to our announced date for the Kickstarter was overwhelmingly positive, for which we here at the Phoenix Project and Missing Worlds Media thank you. We're really excited about it. As most of the work for it is already done, we've begun shifting our resources and our volunteers' time towards working on some of the more boring to discuss, but still critical for a fully useful program, aspects of design. We're testing XMPP-compatible third-party clients for windows to use with our already-functioning server; unfortunately, while there are several clients that provide the functionality we seek for Linux, Unix, and other operating systems, we've yet to find a good one for Windows machines. If you know of one that supports, in particular, voice, please feel free to chime in. While ultimately we're going to code our own client for use in-game and to interface with out-of-game communication, we'd like to stress test things and get our main bulk of conversation to our own XMPP server. As voice chat is part of what we wish to support, we don't want to do a half-move while that's only functional for non-Windows users.

One of the more exciting things is a successful construction and import of a modular character frame with numerous options to turn on and off. We currently utilize components from the Cryptic open license animation rig, so will not be in our final game, but the off-the-shelf animation rig verifies that Unreal works with our approach. Congratulations and thanks to warcabbit for getting that working! The next step is to import our customized assets.

This image, again, uses off-the-shelf components from the Cryptic animation rig. The important note is that these components are modular, and can be "on" or "off." They're key to making the customizable avatars we all expect. Currently, all of them are turned on in this image, which is why it looks so blocky. As stated, we will be replacing these GPL elements with our custom components as we get them designed; that we can load this means we are that much closer to loading our own when they're ready.

This is only a part of what has us feeling very excited. We mentioned last week that certain things were ahead of schedule. While the product itself is still quite some ways off, our avatar builder has many of the pieces of underlying code set up and in place, putting us much further along on it than we expected to be at this time. The list of currently-functioning "moving parts" of the avatar builder includes:

* Scaling of body parts
* Asymmetrical scaling
* Character view rotation
* Zooming in and out on the character
* Texture changing
* Color tinting

There's not a lot to look at on the UI side of things, but here's a glimpse of what the rotation and zoom controls look like right now. We will be developing a more customized UI to go with our look and feel for the game. But this is what the basic controls look like for functioning camera elements.

There's still a lot to be done, but this is major progress under the hood!

Finally, we would like to thank Minotaur for stepping in to help as a forum administrator, and to welcome Zombie Man as our Online Community Manager. With the impending shift to the new site and forums, the extra volunteer to keep an eye on things is definitely needed. Minotaur's presence in a much earlier time zone will also help facilitate closer to 24-hour administration. Zombie Man will be helping us maintain more steady contact with our community, both by managing overall forum and other community-facing site design and by generally being our voice and ears should there be anything the community needs to hear or has to share with us.

With the push to recruit and grow between now and September, he will be pivotal in helping us organize community events and providing aid to all of you in telling your friends and circles of acquaintances about us! He will also be helping in scouting out conventions and making contacts to do more panels and other group events. If you have any desire at all to do something in a physical group of people in your area, let him know. He will help pick out somebody to be the physical site manager for that event and help direct any resources you might need in that direction.

We're very pleased with the response we've had so far, and we know many of you have a lot of pent up energy just waiting for ways to help out. Planning and attending fun events designed to spread the word is one way you can help and do so more or less to your own schedule. Art assets have been collected for your use, and more will be coming. We're also listening; if you have requests, let us know, and we'll see what we can do!

As always, we want to extend our hearty thanks for your support. You, the community, are vital for this project, and you've risen to the occasion every time. We're humbled and honored to be able to work on something like this project with all of you.

The Phoenix Project Status Update: June 10, 2013

The Phoenix Project
Status Update: June 10, 2013
By: Segev

For the last several weeks, we've been talking about the Kickstarter, and all we've been doing towards it. As we've come closer and closer to the mark, we've had more time to take stock of where we are. As the full set of materials for the Kickstarter site and its accompanying PR assets are all but wrapped and tied with a bow, our business team is evaluating it and making sure all our numbers add up. We're putting together the business strategy for all the things we will be releasing through the campaign to reward and keep your - our audience's - interest piqued for the duration.

An evaluation of our goals as a project, a business, and most importantly a community, has revealed that several of our technical and creative thrusts can be developed more fully much more swiftly than we realized. We only get one shot at the Kickstarter, and we want to really prove to you that we're going to deliver with your support. After careful consideration, we have determined that we can make it something spectacular with a slight delay. Our materials are all but ready, and before long we will be able to launch at the drop of a mask, but we can do better. To show it, and to give people time to save up cash for when the big day arrives, we are officially announcing the Kickstarter for the end of the Summer.

That's right: On September 8, 2013, the Phoenix Project kickstarter will begin! It will run until October 11.

This will give us a little time to work on a few additional spit, polish, and technical and creative developments that make it more likely that we'll succeed. We know it's important to the future of the project that we hit the target. Not only does it prove the strength of our community and the viability of our market, but in so doing it opens up the possibility of outside funding. It demonstrates how serious we are. So, while we have enough to make a strong KS, we want to make it iron-clad.

But still, we recognize and are thrilled that there are those of you who are burning to do something now. It may interest you to know that we're now officially the biggest COH community on FB, which is awesome. We've done our sums and have worked out that if everyone who 'likes' us on FB donated to the KS, they'd still have to each donate a sizeable amount to help us reach our goal. But times are hard, and while we want to give you the chance to put a bit aside, we also don't want to ask too much from you financially. It wouldn't feel right. So, in the time between now and September 8th, we're calling on you to help expand our community! Help spread the word, rustle up your old SGs - please help us in a real recruitment drive between now and the kickstarter 'live' launch - we need to find as many of the COH community as we can, we need to create a real buzz. We need people hyped up. The more people we have, the less we need from an average donation and the further the generous donors' large sums will go. Moreover, the more we prove what our community can do when it wants to support its goals.

Our new web site, with a smoother sign-up system, will be up within the next few weeks. In the meantime, signing up on the forums is not the only place to be a part of this. Get your friends to friend us on Facebook so they can more readily see our weekly updates. Ask your tweeter friends to follow us on Twitter @MWorldsMedia for news and links to new materials as we get them ready. Email us to be added to a mailing list (using the subject line "Sign Me Up to Find Missing Worlds!") that will be used for special announcements and to help us integrate it with our new web site.

We're so excited by your support, and we now want to turn you loose to really grow our base, so that on September 8th, we can blow everybody's - even our own - minds!

2,000 friends! Developer questions, part 4

Q1. What will you do if by some miracle COH comes back? What will happen to TPP?


Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director: 

"We'll still be here. I'm fairly certain we're past the point of no return."

Nate "Doctor Tyche" Downes, technical director:

"Even if CoH comes back, it is past the point of no return for it. There will never be the development it once had, the coders and support personnel have moved on and gotten new jobs. Any new team will find itself facing a code base which was bordering on needing replacement anyways. If anything, CoH coming back would make TPP more critical."

Dying Phoenix. Geddit? Geddit?

Q2. What will happen to tpp if the game doesn't come to anything, doesn't get off the ground, or has to be closed :(? 

Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director:

"There's a number of avenues to take, should it happen. And I'm sure we're all reluctant to even think about things like that at this point. Even if TPP doesn't take off and we have to drop the project, Missing Worlds Media is still an incorporated company and I for one would like to stick around to see it successfully launch a product."

Q3. Can we have a 'carrying' travel power? For if people are 'killed' in game, or are natural origin and don't have flight or something? 

Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director: 

"Huh... I was just mentioning the other day to the other Officers about having a "plushifying" temp power to allow other players to either carry you away from or to a destination. Of course... I made it in jest because I wanted to make the "IT'S SO FLUFFEH!" comment, so take that with a grain of salt ;) It is a very interesting game mechanic idea, however. Ultimately how well it integrates into the game and engine, plus the animation and model limitations is going to determine whether the players get it or not and we're not quite at that stage yet."

Q4. When can we expect the product to be finished? And please, no Blizzard Entertainment answer of "soon." LOL.

Lauren 'Rae' O'Neill, press, PR and social media: 

"Soon. Ish."
 
Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director: 

"The goal for initial product launch is late 2015."

Q5. Any idea what the game will be called yet? The Phoenix Project is a cool name for a TF in game, but it doesn't seem like a marketable name to let the masses know what it is. 

Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director: 

"We will let you know Soon(TM). It may or may not surprise you to know the name is something we've been... discussing for the past- what? 5 or 6 months? We are very close to announcing the chosen name of our game, just have a Berlin wall to bring down before we do."

2,000 friends! Developer questions, part 3

 As you might've noticed, I'm impressed by numbers. For example, 2,000 people is a lot of people.

And today I spotted that this blog has has over 10,000 page views.

And that our YouTube teaser trailer has been viewed 23,881 times.

That's a lot of people. I'm pretty sure all of them can be me pressing refresh to make sure I haven't posted something stupid.

..23,881 times. And a Spanish re-post has had an additional 50 views.

Wow. Seriously. Wow.

That's more people than I know in real life, and everything.

A entirely-gob-smacked Lauren

---

1. Are you really all secretly former COH devs?

Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director: 

"If I am, then someone forgot to tell me and I have a bunch of backpay that needs rectifying ;).
Actually, all our Officers in the MWM company (most of which who hold developer roles in the project) will be brought to light (some a little more than others) when we get our ducks in a row and launch our Kickstarter.

"There is planned at some point to be a Team page on our refurbished MWM website where ALL of our team leads will get a write-up and let you know a little bit more about who we are."

2. Will the choice between hero/villain be at character creation or after tutorial (or later)?

Tom "Cerulean" Filiaggi, game architecture lead:

"Alignment is a tricky trick, and it has yet to be fully ironed out. But, we do expect a choice at character creation, with alignment being largely dynamic as you go, so it will be possible to "change sides".

"The biggest difficulty in handling alignment is in regards to mission sharing and how alignment progresses. We don't want to limit teaming opportunities."

 3.  What type of travel powers will be available in the game?

Tom "Cerulean" Filiaggi, game architecture (GA) lead: 

"The following is a list of travel powers we are targeting, but please do not take this as comprehensive or all-inclusive. This just gives you an idea of what we are wanting to do: flight, teleportation, extreme jumping, extreme running, tunneling/matter-meld, swinging, crawling, sliding/surfing, gliding - and variations thereof."

Nate "Doctor Tyche" Downes, Technical Director: 

"We've so far tested out Flight, Teleport, and Jumping to conclusion, with others still being worked on.

"We have a huge pile of options to study, to find the right way in which to do them. We don't want swinging, for instance, to just be a re-skinned flight, with the cable going up into nothingness.

"No, we want it more like the old Spiderman 2 game, where you're actually swinging off of the buildings. And that is but one example. We want this to be a very solid experience, where each travel system has its own uniqueness about it."

4. How do you take your coffee?

Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director, Missing Worlds Media: 

"Well I like to take out all the coffee and replace it with hot cocoa and whip cream. Caffeine makes me drowsy."

5. Will there be a 'shakes pom-poms' emote? You guys are awesome!

Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director: 

"That would certainly be a fun emote to make and have!"

Nate "Doctor Tyche" Downes, technical director: "Well, we do have Pep Rally as one of our artists..."

2,000 friends! Developer questions, part 2

1. Question. I'm sure I'm not the only one who really appreciates all the efforts the team are making to get this project to go live albeit on a voluntary basis. Has anyone at MWM done a cost study of how much would be needed to employ (full time) the people needed not only to get the project live, but also to maintain and increase the content on a regular basis, to maintain the servers, and to rent a "home" for all the assets, and how much are we talking about in real terms to make this a going concern? 

This is pretty much what the Skype backscroll looks like, most days.

Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, studio director Missing Worlds Media:

"We have. The number came in at the high six figures, and we were told by outside experts that we had overestimated it.

"This number drops a bit if and when we have an active revenue stream; this number reflects a static pool of money needed to pay salaries to keep people alive if they shifted to doing this full time before we had money coming in. We are continuing to look into these sorts of things.

"After the Kickstarter, there will be more potential to get some interested money looking at it, as it will demonstrate that we have a fervent and willing-to-support-us audience. Eventually, we WILL be having full-time staff supported by the revenues of this (and possibly others to develop down the road) game, because that's what will be needed to sustain it.

2. When TPP goes live will you have a marketing campaign to promote this outside the community? What promotional ideas have you tossed around. That time will be here before you know it! You all are working so hard *shakes her Pom-poms*

Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, studio director Missing Worlds Media: 

"We absolutely will. We're even exploring - though sadly, with our budget, it's not likely at this time - options to advertise the Kickstarter itself outside our normal community venues.

"If any of you have connections that could help us find ways to spread the word when the Kickstarter goes up, we would GREATLY appreciate it. Getting even a little bit of attention outside the "shell" of gamer news and community will help a lot, especially if we can tap into the popularity of superhero movies coming out this summer. Marketing is going to be a big part of this game's success!"

 3. Will there be badges like in CoH? 

Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, studio director Missing Worlds Media:

"While we're not sure what we'll call them yet, a very familiar system of recognitions and achievements will be in the Phoenix Project."

4. I know this is way ahead of us, but have you thought of offering a lifetime subscription rate during the beta phase? It would give you some extra cash up front. Or maybe some sort of tier level in-game bonuses for donations of varying amounts?

Nate 'Doctor Tyche' Downes:

"We are not to hit the beta stage for awhile. We've discussed several options for subscriptions, but it is too early to decide that."

 5. Will there eventually be a Halloween event?

Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director, Missing Worlds Media:

"There will, quite hopefully be all sorts of holiday related events including Halloween. Will there be one this year? Well that's iffy, but we do plan on having them in-game."

Making an MMO - by DC James 'Terwyn' MacKay, president of Missing Worlds Media

One of the hardest things to remember about making an MMO is that the goal is not to simply build a solid game to be played, but to provide a social networking platform through which games are played.

It is all too easy to fail to recognize this fact, and get caught up in trying to perfect the wrong aspects. As with any project, it is important that we note that it is impossible for us to succeed at this on our own. We may build our city, shape our new world, and record a rich and fascinating history, but only a community can give our work life.

Testing the Unreal engine with some stock assets

As we build this world and its inhabitants around the needs and wishes of a pre-existing community, there are some things that must be acknowledged. All of us involved see something good and noble about this project, as it is an effort which gives an unprecedented level of flexibility when it comes to interaction with our fans and our methods of accomplishing the goals of the project.

I’m not going to lie. Striking the quintessential balance between incredible systems and other valuable elements – whether technical or narrative – is a constant challenge.

Continual changes will be necessary to keep things going if the project is to accomplish its goal of being a long runner. This is why it is extremely important to bear a constant reminder of the community which the project will serve, and to always strive towards building a better world for its inhabitants.

LIGHTING NEEDS TO BE REBUILT!

While not everything necessary to succeed with our goals will be popular, it is an unfortunate reality of the industry. I certainly hope that everything we do will be understood as being what we think necessary to uphold the standard of quality that we’ve promised with this project.

We’re not just building a game; we’re building a world, which we hope will be able to stand on its own merits in an environment fraught with intense competition. It will only be able to do so with the support of its surrounding community.

Without the community from which we came, and which we serve, there would be no Phoenix Project, and a multitude of incredibly skilled and talented people would be bereft of the opportunity to apply their abilities in new directions.

Those of us involved have learned a great deal over these past few months, and I personally want to thank everyone involved for the knowledge and expertise they have shared.

~D.C. James “Terwyn” MacKay
President, Missing Worlds Media

2,000 friends! Developer questions, part 1

2,000 friends.

It doesn't seem possible.

I remember how I felt when I was sat here writing about getting 1,000 Facebook friends, and just the overwhelming sense of appreciation and feeling completely humbled. And just a few months later, here I am trying to find the words to express what it feels like to know that we've doubled that number.

And, like last time, we sort of smashed through the big number.

I was talking to Cameron (Segev) Johnson on Skype about our upcoming Kickstarter, and the fact that we were starting to approach 2,000 friends. I asked for ideas of what we could show our community as a thank you, Nate and Yoko threw some ideas out there, DC promised to write a blog. We thought of a few ideas of things we could give our 2,000 FB friend.

"How long do you think we've got to organise this?" Segev asked.

I ummed and aaahed, and said that it could go either way. Some days we get 30 new friends, some days we get three. There's no real science in it and I tried to explain that to him, as best as I could, and with too many smiley faces.

"Best guess..probably 9, 10 days?" I said.

The next morning, I woke up to discover we had 2,009 Facebook friends, and messages of congratulations from the gaming websites, the podcasts, and you guys who have supported us and thrown your faith into what we're trying to do. 

Seeing the notifications of new 'friends' on Facebook always warms the cockles of my heart. Each little red number is genuinely like finding a new friend, a member of a community that was scattered to the winds too early.

..but you sorta got there a bit fast, so bear with us a couple of days while we iron out a few details.

In the meantime, while I try to wrestle screenshots out of Nate (he hides them in his beard, don't you know?) and we get the final details of our next Livestream event bashed out, here's the first set of questions you asked us, duly answered by our devs.

If we haven't answered your question yet, don't stress - it'll be posted up soon.

As always, a huge, huge thank you. Whether you're here because you're genuinely interested in TPP and what we can offer, or if you're just here because we're becoming one of the largest former-COH communities on the net, you're here, and that's all that matters.

-Lauren
Press Officer, public relations, and that chick who is still, despite all the odds, posting stuff on Facebook, Twitter and G+. Seriously. Can you believe they haven't got rid of me yet?

--

1. Curiosity question: Is Samuiko on the team? 

Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, Studio director, Missing Worlds Media: "To my knowledge, she is not - if she's on under a pseudonym, I don't know about it. She would be welcome, however, if she is interested!

2. 

• What can we expect in terms of end game content? Are we going to see raids like Hamidon that anyone can go on or will you need certain items/skills/flags.
• What will be at endgame? Raids pvp ext... Will raids require tactics to take bosses down or tank and spank?

Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, Studio director, Missing Worlds Media: "Endgame is actually something we're still thinking very hard about.

"Personally, I want to design it so that it doesn't feel like you suddenly changed the game you're playing when you reach it.  Too many MMOs have the nature of the game change significantly at the end, shifting to PvP and mass-raid with gear-centric advancement.

"Players who enjoyed the game leveling up suddenly feel like they are no longer welcome; players who want the end-game feel that the levels leading up to it are a speed bump to get through before getting to the "real" game. I would like to design our game and endgame so that they merge fluidly. Exactly how we are going to achieve this remains a matter of brainstorming.

"We have numerous ideas and half-ideas; at least one is inspired by the Incarnate system. I'm thinking to some extent that base-building and indirect PvP in influence-spreading of factions or alignments around the city might be a part of it, but again, this is still in the "what can we do?" stages.

"An attractive bit of that is that player characters can be involved at any level. But it would have to be carefully done to maintain the comic book feel, rather than turning into "Politics: The MMO."

3. Asymmetric costume patterns - yay or nay?
 
Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, Studio director, Missing Worlds Media: "Yay."

Lauren 'Rae' O'Neill, press office, Missing Worlds Media: "Really? Yay!"

Jessica 'Nytrinhia/Yoko' Weaver, art director, Missing Worlds Media:  "One of our very first considerations when we started planning for our costume creator is just that.

" Among such things as quadrupeds, upgrading the "Radmonize" button to allow you to lock in features you want to keep and how much slider customization we can do before we break the game and/or model mesh, the ever popular request of Asymmeticality is on the table and in the plans"

4. Will there be a facepalm emote? That's a dealbreaker for me

Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, Studio director, Missing Worlds Media: "I don't see why not."

5. What steps are you taking to avoid legal issues that COH had to deal with early on, such as limiting costume options to avoid tribute creations that Marvel, DC, even NCSoft may be keeping an eye on? Will there be policing of names and costumes? 

Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, Studio director, Missing Worlds Media:  "Well, we are not going to have anybody else's IP inserted into the game "officially," first of all. It will be stuff only our contributors developed.

"The actual question, though, focuses on the problems of customizability leading to TotallyNotWolverine, the PC. We will have a banned list of names; it obviously won't be exhaustive, as there are so many ways to sneak some weird spelling of, say, "Wolverine," into a name generator.

"We won't have explicitly banned costume combinations, because honestly, that's just not possible to do usefully. Our EULA will state that no creation that violates copyright, trademark, and IP laws is permitted, and that we reserve the right to change any that engender complaints thereof.

"We will be responsive to such complaints, as well. It's the best I think we can do. We're in the same boat as the ESRB when it comes to rating online user-driven interactions. We can be responsive, but pro-active prevention is largely futile. We can only do our best and show good faith under the law."