Games
Project Argento – Dynamic Online Sci-Fi RPG
Project Argento
Project Argento is a Sci-Fi MMORPG in stealth development
From the Echoes to Eternity Novels
Our long term project is a Sci-Fi MMORPG titled Project Argento which leverages our XR and game development experience to deliver a community centric experience in several phases designed with a unique monetization strategy to ensure players find value in the worlds we’re building with them. Everyone on the team are gamers who have dreamed about making video games for a living and Project Argento is that 20+ year dream for many of us. The game takes place on a distant planet after escaping a post-apocalyptic earth hoping to find paradise, but instead our heroes discover something that conjures up the age old saying of, “be careful what you wish for.” Transform a desolate planet into a thriving world, rebuilt by you and your community while defending it from other factions in a co-op/competitive war system designed to make players question decisions and carefully navigate gaming politics we’ve all come to know and love from other sandbox PvP games.
The rise of Cyberneuretics led to experimentation with leveraging underutilized parts of the brain and other neurological systems to act as network nodes for distributed quantum computing. Over time this led to a novelty concept of Humans-as-a-Service allowing individuals to give up portions of their brains in exchange for cash payments and access to premium entertainment services. While the world tore itself apart with wars and cataclysmic events, these human nodes continued on in a blissful ignorance floating along inside the Metaverse. A powerful and wealthy elite class grew tired of the political and caustic behaviors of mankind opting for transcendental meditation in an effort to heal the world. What they experienced instead was a way to escape their earthly shackles and achieve a higher level of consciousness shedding their mortal bodies. In place of their previous lives they created a society devoid of emotion believing it would free them of the mistakes of the past. In time they realized this was their biggest mistake and absolute regret. In an attempt to combat the lack of emotion, they created the Pleasureverse using the Humans-as-a-Service model to derive experiences and sense from their Nodes.
Several artificial planets were created to experience a wide variety of narratives. To the dwellers of these planets life goes on with the occasional incident between their reality and those who inhabit their minds to derive emotions leading to the genesis of myths and legends. Emotions-as-a-Service users inhabit their human Nodes to varying degrees with some becoming addicted needing more extreme experiences to satisfy their lusts. To the Nodes they appear as demons or angels driving the religious doctrine of their cultures. More extreme cases lead to the naming of deities and the rise of Inquisitors and Exorcists. Exorcists have determined methods for rooting out the possessed by using their own Nodes inhabited by Users who are so deep in their addiction that they have lost all self-control, trapped in the Pleasureverse. Inquisitors monitor their counterparts, always suspicious that the void into which they stare will begin staring back. Users continue to inhabit Nodes as life goes on between both planes of existence with each struggling to redefine humanity as it spreads throughout the universe in all its realities.
– Excerpt from Book III of the Echoes to Eternity Novels by Brandon Sivret
An MMORPG Built in Phases, Starting With our Social Hub
The best way to stay accountable to the community is to “deliver early and often,” the Agile way. By building in phases, we can ensure that we get something playable in the hands of gamers in a way that makes the most sense. While it is not the final product, it mimics the way that Early Access works in a well defined roadmap where we feel we can communicate progress and discuss expectations in a fair and transparent method. We like to focus on features first where we can test out mechanics in their ‘closer to final form’ state then focus on the content with a later stage test for balancing. Our Social Hub or main location for the game is coming in first so we can engage the community inside the game itself.
We also want to put out monetization early so players will know what to expect and can support us if they feel we’re delivering on our promise of value. Many developers promise certain mechanics, features, and strategies only having to back peddle when they don’t look like they’re going to work out. Our goal is put these out front early and generate feedback to ensure we’re on the right track.
Tying it All Together With Our Other Properties
We’re a game studio. We make games. Not just video games. We’ve run multiple guilds and communities over the past 25+ years ever since games like The Realm, Ultima Online, Meridian 59, and Everquest. Some of us have worked on other indie projects, made mods, and even ran a brick and mortar tabletop game store. Games are central to our DNA and we love to tell stories whether around the kitchen table, online through our vast library of games, and through the creation of amazing experiences of our own.
It’s all part of the wider Argentoverse and our titles all come together in some way, whether it’s some absurd reference or a nod to another property we’ve developed. Keep your eyes open for our other games.
AVAILABILITY
Mon-Fri: 8.00am – 5pm PST