Blackstar Chronicles, Just in Time! (May 8, 2008)

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
There's good news from Spacetime Studios, a company made up of an amazing list of Wing Commander veterans including Anthony Sommers, Chris Douglas, Cinco Barnes, Jake Rodgers and Reece Thornton. They're worked out an agreement to keep the rights to the "Blackstar" universe, the setting of the MMORPG they had been previously been developing for Richard Garriott's NCSoft.

Their new title, Blackstar Chronicles, will be a traditional single/multiplayer experience which includes Wing Commander-inspired spacecombat and a truly brilliant style of artwork. A beautiful PDF with details on the game can be found here. Here's the official word:
AUSTIN, Texas – May 8, 2008 -- Spacetime Studios, LLC announced today it has acquired the rights to the Blackstar IP from its previous publisher NCsoft. Spacetime Studios, an independent game development studio made up of industry veterans, now fully owns all the tools, technology and intellectual property from their previous publishing deal. Set in the far future, Blackstar is a fresh universe full of wildly original space fighters, horrifying demonic enemies and epic drama. “The IP lends itself to almost any kind of gameplay that one could ask for, and was specifically designed to be a long-term franchise,” said Cinco Barnes, creative director and co-founder of Spacetime Studios. “It’s a nice sweet spot when you own all the puzzle pieces and we now have extraordinary flexibility in where to take the game universe next.”

“After two years of development, the Blackstar universe is quite near and dear to our hearts” said Gary Gattis, executive producer and co-founder of Spacetime Studios. “Owning the IP as well as the engine and tool set puts a tremendous amount of potential in our hands. With all the developed components under the Spacetime team’s control, the options for the IP are diversified.”

The new “Blackstar Chronicles” development underway is a space fantasy combat game based on the single-player traditions of “Wing Commander” and the multiplayer feel of “Descent.” “The Blackstar Chronicles is a very powerful product,” said Jake Rodgers, art director and co-founder of Spacetime Studios. “The Blackstar universe has the potential to be something special and it’s great that we are able to bring the IP to fruition.”
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Original update published on May 8, 2008
 
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Wow... That looks pretty wild..I like the ship designs there different that's for sure. Charecters with big hands hehe pretty funny to look at but looks awesome
 
Obviously, I want a new Wing Commander game more than anything in the world... but this might be pretty cool, too. Just check out their staff page -- Chris Douglas, asommers, Jake Rodgers... these are the Wing Commander guys I idolized when I was a kid! Back in the day a lot of games would have some writer or producer or something who was vaguely in one of the Wing spinoffs and they'd advertise as being FROM THE CREATORS OF WING COMMANDER and we'd all sort of chuckle at the selling power of our favorite game... but in this case it's the real deal! A lot of the real soul of the Wing development teams seems to be at Spacetime - and it's totally radical that they're doing a game styled this way instead of just another copy of Wing Commander. I've been saying for years that we needed more stylized space combat games...

(I have been saying that - just the other night I was telling Frosty about how I wanted to play a Colliers Magazine-styled space game... instead of all the gray-on-gray eastern European stuff we've been getting since 1998.)
 
I'm not too hot on stylised stuff, but wow, those backgrounds are nothing short of gorgeous!

Also caught my eye: the cross-platform bit. Even if you're a pure Windows person, think of it this way: when a company mentions that their game engine runs on Linux, you know they don't mind going after niche markets. And when a company doesn't mind going after niche markets, there's a good chance they'll dare to give us sophisticated gameplay, with real depth, and some real classic space combat!

Looking forward to hearing more about this...
 
What's fixed? I don't mind the news being posted here, I'm just pointing out that it's rather sad that the creators of Wing Commander won't continue with their brand.
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I'm not sure what's been fixed either.

But these guys don't have the rights to do a new Wing Commander game -- it's not some conscious decision to start a new brand in spite of WC.
 
Apparently, what needs to be fixed is my eyes.

I misread the post, thinking the thread and news article title was what was wrong (originally it read "Darkstar", which is another game altogether).

In short, it's Emily Litella time.

Nevermind.
 
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