Tell me that city doesn’t look fun to explore.
Back in February we talked about Lila Dreams, a promising, indie, in-the-works MMO based on exploring imaginative landscapes in the mind of an eleven-year-old girl. It’s an awesome idea, but the question is: will it pan out?
Designer Jason McIntosh has been updating the Lila Dreams blog with concept art, info about classes, and even fiction vignettes inspired by the game world. Still, the site feels more like an effort in creative brainstorming than the annals of project well underway. And with an estimated beta release at the end of this year, implementing all those imaginative ideas sounds pretty ambitious. Still, when a game maker describes a world like this, I can’t help but get my hopes up:
“There isn’t really any single ‘goal’ for the game, since it’s more like an ongoing world that you can explore. But there are creatures, villains, and some characters to meet. The game is very light on story, though, and is more about exploring and going on short adventures with others.”
That sounds like, well, pretty much everything I’ve ever wanted in a game. So fingers crossed.
Bonnie Ruberg is a sex, technology, and video games journalist who contributes regularly to publications like The Economist, Forbes, and The Village Voice. By day she's also a comparative literature PhD student at UC Berkeley, where she studies French, English, gender, sexuality, surrealism and perversion. You can reach her at [her first name and last name, all one big word] AT gmail DOT com.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Seeing as the game is a bit too close to a game concept of my own from 5 years ago (an RPG where all the monsters are the product of the overactive imagination of an 8 year old girl), I wouldn’t be too sad if Lila Dreams couldn’t deliver.
They’re looking for a programmer, and it’s going to be a flash based project for Kongregate, so I can’t imagine it turning out well.
Remnants of Skystone (Lila Dream’s steampunk sister for the same site) shows promise AND screenshots! Lila Dreams I feel should’ve been produced for the PC with an old tough publisher (with a thick furry mustache.)
July 8th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Yeah, the fact that they’re looking for a programmer at this stage doesn’t bode well. And I agree that a tough old publisher would have given them more structure and support for such a creative project instead of letting it suffice as a Flash title.
As for Remnants of Skystone, it certainly looks more realistic and further along in development–however it also looks less interesting. I suppose that’s because I can still dream up all these crazy things I wish Lila’s Dream would do, and with Remnants of Skystone you have to see the pragmatic reality :).
July 8th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I’ve been keeping an eye on Lila Dreams for a while, and even though things have been shaky now and then I’m still holding hope that it can deliver. I’d really enjoy a non-traditional MMO in terms of gameplay and storyline.
July 9th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Good to know someone else has got their fingers crossed. Maybe together we can make it good :).
September 10th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
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