Monsters & Memories - Old School Style MMO by Niche Worlds Cult

[Late Bloomer]

https://monstersandmemories.com/

Being helmed by Shawn Lord. He worked on EQ1 as assistant lead desinger of Planes of Power and lead designer on Lost Dungeons of Norrath, The Legacy of Ykesha and writing on Gates of Discord

Classes being worked on / considered

Archerr
Bard
Cleric
Druid
Elementalist
Enchanter
Fighter
Inquisitor
Monk
Necromancer
Paladin
Ranger
Rogue
Shadowknight
Shaman
Spellblade
Warden
Wizard

The are keeping instanced zones to a bare minimum. They are focusing on single group content with larger raids being for world type events. It will have zone lines like old EQ. You can be getting chased by a mob and escape via crossing the zone line. Western high fantasy setting. Being developed with a niche target audience in mind. No micro transactions. Developed for PC. Group focused MMO with simple, deliberate gameplay.

My favorite part about their faq states

Who is your target audience?

Our core target audience are PC gamers who have played MMORPGs during their “classic” eras or have come to them more recently while searching for a greater sense of challenge and free-form exploration.

Within this group, we are targeting individuals that prefer paying for a monthly subscription, over F2P with microtransactions.

They’re looking to figure things out on their own, prefer a slower pace, which allows for time to chat and/or drink an adult beverage or two.

They are looking for a sense of place, rather than a skill-based challenge.

They have a plethora of developmental videos on their youtube/twitch site. Showcasing animations, world building, model work etc. Here is a video of some gameplay in a dungeon.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Music in games can really set the tone. Or its something you turn off. I think the music as it stands is shaping up nicely. Here is a playlist of the six tracks they have so far.

 

[anvi]

I found that guy from a video series he did about EverQuest. It was amazing for fans of the game. Love the look of this, it surprises me there aren't lots of games like this in development... It's crazy, but I'm glad there's this.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Update 21: May 2022 - Monsters & Memories

Tech

Made headway on character customization system - work in progress.

Now displaying race models during char creation, with zoom in and lighting for customization

Preparation / work-in-progress for moving to Unity "addressables" for sound assets

Added support for randomized combat sounds

Added support for on-death sounds

Utilized new skeleton sounds in-game

Selected target tweaks for color and combat flashing

Fixes for weapon procs

Shrink/grow effects now change character collider size

Fix for some duplicate INVULNERABLE chat messages in GM invuln mode

Fix for NPCs not re-targeting nearest target when rooted

Refactored chat UI window for performance.

Various other small fixes and polishes

Concepts

Concept work focused on Night Harbor’s feel, structures, and racial design motifs; additional racial/environmental postcards; more monsters; Glass Flats feel; initial UI style ideas

Character Art

Finished the Jackal model

Rigged and weight the Beetle, Rat, and Snake in preparation for Animations

Beetle, Rat, and Snake set-up in Cascadeur

Began Animating the Snake (kick has not been animated yet)

Zukan was able to go enjoy some sunlight on a beach

Environment Art

Work continued on blocking out and building Night Harbor’s Western Districts

This includes the City Walls, Garrison, Training Yards, Naval Dockyards, Keep, and Prison

Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane received some love in the form of a prop pass, layout additions, and spiderwebs

Block out terrain meshes were cleaned up and optimized in Sungreet Strand, Glass Flats, Dragons’ Run, and Vale of Zintar

Some experimentation in engine on props and textures for Glass Flat’s Crystal Forest

Experimentation on a Greyscale Texture Pipeline with Hue Variation (both on environment textures, as well as characters)

Design

A big focus here has been on getting the lore foundation in place for Night Harbor, and the broad proof of concept’s, key factions and characters.

This is in preparation for a concerted push to begin implementing our first pass of player facing content.

More details on the progress here is likely to be provided in the next update.

And as always, we’ve continued to playtest, work on class designs, and player & NPC abilities.

 

[anvi]

Wow it's really taking shape. I was curious if it's more than that one guy and it looks like a great team. I love that one of them is a "farmer" in quotes lol.

https://monstersandmemories.com/team

This is what I've been wanting to see for ages. I ranted here about it, need to get people working together in gaming again, in small/medium size teams. The corporations with 500 staff are producing shit, and the 1 man indie devs are well meaning but just so small and limited. But teams like this could achieve amazing things.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Wow it's really taking shape. I was curious if it's more than that one guy and it looks like a great team. I love that one of them is a "farmer" in quotes lol.

https://monstersandmemories.com/team

This is what I've been wanting to see for ages. I ranted here about it, need to get people working together in gaming again, in small/medium size teams. The corporations with 500 staff are producing shit, and the 1 man indie devs are well meaning but just so small limited. But teams like this could achieve amazing things.

It is shaping up quite nicely. I have been watching (and playing a bit) Project Gorgon here and there. Keeping a close eye on Pantheon Rise of the Fallen too. Then this game kind of showed up out of nowhere for me. This is more in line with what I have been wanting from an MMO. They seem focused but relaxed in their development process.

 

[SerratedBiz]

I'll be keeping an eye out for this one. Reading through the webpage, I did come across this little gem.

Shawn aka aLovingRobot has been working in the gaming industry for the past 20 years at companies like Sony Online Entertainment and KingsIsle Entertainment.

He was a Lead Designer on several MMO titles including EverQuest and DC Universe Online. Most recently, Shawn was the Executive Producer and Chief Product Officer at Star Stable Entertainment.

You can't make this shit up.

 

[WhiteShark]

Our core target audience are PC gamers who have played MMORPGs during their “classic” eras or have come to them more recently while searching for a greater sense of challenge and free-form exploration.
...
They are looking for a sense of place, rather than a skill-based challenge.

...? ...???

 

[anvi]

I think he means not skill based like a MOBA or FPS with diving around and stuff. More -based.

 

[Late Bloomer]

...? ...???

Have you played current WoW? The pushing for mythic plus with dps meters running, go go go mentality. This appears to be more of a slow burn environment. One where you log in and hang out with your friends as you descend deeper into a dungeon. Pulling with care, needing to med to regain mana, camping a rare spawn, slow leveling speed, simple combat like EQ1, dark nights, no skill spamming dps races. We shall see if they can live up to the idea of it. Sounds fantastic to me.

 

[WhiteShark]

Have you played current WoW?

No, I haven't really played an MMO in many years (and even then never to that extent). I just browse this subforum occasionally to see if there's anything that catches my eye.

The pushing for mythic plus with dps meters running, go go go mentality. This appears to be more of a slow burn environment. One where you log in and hang out with your friends as you descend deeper into a dungeon. Pulling with care, needing to med to regain mana, camping a rare spawn, slow leveling speed, simple combat like EQ1, dark nights, no skill spamming dps races. We shall see if they can live up to the idea of it. Sounds fantastic to me.

I'm sure there are a lot of people like above who are hoping similarly. I never experienced that sort of MMO so I have no opinion but I've read many enjoyable posts from anvi describing EQ and it always sounded very immersive. Anyway, I wasn't trying to make some point about that style of gameplay, I just can't see how "greater sense of challenge" and "...rather than skill-based challenge" are reconcilable statements. It sounds like you both interpret that mostly to mean slower, non-twitch gameplay, but then I'm confused about where the "challenge" comes in (sorry if that comes off as provocative, I'm actually genuinely curious).

 

[anvi]

The challenge is more like a tactical RPG type of challenge. Enemies can be immune to magic or resist certain types, reflect spells, stun you, cripple you, fear you, out number you, out tank you, maybe there's a big bunch of healers and you have to deal with them first or it's hopeless. It's like Baldurs Gate 2 or Icewind Dale 2 or KOTC or whatever. It doesn't require much speed and reflexes but it needs a lot of understanding the mechanics and then applying your knowledge well.

But it's kind of a misnomer because one of the great things about EQ is that it was fast paced as well as thoughtful and tactical. You had a lot of RPG mechanics to understand and you had to build your character well too. But it was also realtime, so once you figure out some good ways to fight, you then had to practice it so you get fast and fluid with it. And it's a team game so you had to know how to fight well as a team which was even more complex and took a lot of practice too. It was tuned to be hard as balls too, so if you hesitated or made mistakes in a big battle then it could cause the whole group to die. And good plays could save the day.

Being able to target the correct enemy was really important, there were shortcut keys and you could select them with the mouse. But it was pixel accurate, so it required skill and speed and precision too. This shows targeting:



So if you imagine that in a battle, you maybe need to target one to put it to sleep, and target another to nuke it. And if you are slow, people die. It's really skill + smarts, not many games like that. They are usually one or the other.

 

[Late Bloomer]

I timestamped a part I found interesting. Well, I find most of these videos interesting. But maybe some passers by in this thread will find this intersesting too.

 

[anvi]

Lol EQ these days is full of those blinking textures, I was expecting him to just ignore that.

 

[Late Bloomer]

A video showcasing the new title track, along with some in-game footage. 2 mins 30 seconds long.

 

[Tweed]

Well, looks like the real deal, but unless I block hallways as an ogre or run a train on someone it's not authentic.

 

[anvi]

Woah, EQ Alpha vibes. Curious who they are aiming this at though.

 

[Late Bloomer]

This video goes over the classes and their roles. Nothing is quite set in stone. The game is still quite early in development. There are quite a few classes to start with. Mostly conventional class design with a few unconvential ideas in the mix too. The video is audio centered with each class getting an early design picture that matches the class being discussed

 

[Zeriel]

Why are they keeping instances to "a minimum"? They shouldn't exist at all if this is a classic MMO.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Found a channel that compiles interesting discussion from their streams. This one talks about combat systems, alignments, and a bit of class disccussion.

 

[Tweed]

Why are they keeping instances to "a minimum"? They shouldn't exist at all if this is a classic MMO.

LDON was a breath of fresh air when it hit. Not only did it mean people didn't have to fight over spawns, but it actually gave players a traditional dungeon crawl since mobs didn't respawn, you just traversed the dungeon and then you were done. Rogues finally got to put their skills to use too disarming traps. Instances have their place.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Wood Elf Female being worked on. Interesting design choice. He is working from the concept art.

 

[anvi]

So much potential.

 

[GhostCow]

I like all of the videos that have this guy in it. I get a very strong feeling that he's secretly pretty based due to little hints I've seen him give in his streams. He's definitely some kind of thought criminal.

 

[anvi]

Surprised it took so long for someone like him to do this. But better late than never!