Incline Brighter Shores - new MMORPG by the brothers that created Runescape

[ADL]

Brighter Shores is an all new adventure from award winning MMORPG designer Andrew Gower. Explore a land of magic and mysteries, with a huge number of professions to try, and something new to find around every corner. Brighter Shores features an ongoing story and hundreds of hours of gameplay.

As the newest recruit in the Hopeport town guard, you are looking to make a name for yourself. This soon turns out to be a more challenging role than you had anticipated, with a strange storm raging over the harbor and unrest from the local goblins.

You will discover powerful magic sources and become one of the legendary classes of old: Cryoknight, Guardian or Hammermage. Which is fortunate, because something is corrupting the deepest reaches of the nearby Hopeforest, and only through the strength of your new-found powers will you be able to deal with it.

Learn a diverse range of professions, such as Fisher, Forager, Chef.

Woodcutter, Miner, Alchemist

Stonemason, Merchant, Blacksmith, and many more!

Encounter a huge variety of fantastical foes over the course of your adventures.

The game will be constantly expanding, with new content being released in an episodic format. Each episode features its own unique side quests, professions and lands, as well as advancing the central story.

There are hours and hours of content you can play for free. However, if you want more stories, professions and places to explore, you can buy a Premium Pass. A Premium Pass gives you many benefits, including access to all released episodes:

tl;dr - new grid-based MMORPG by the original creator of Runescape that he's been working on since 2010 coming out later this year. Doesn't seem to be asking for anything like a Kickstarter.

 

[lukaszek]

whats up with this vid quality

trailer & job types appear to be hogwards heavy, while combat showed warriors exclusively. Yet I guess one can expect full runescape spectrum?
Based on fishing bit monster I hope that random monsters attacking players are making a comback, like rock golems, ents etc

 

[ADL]

It would be very odd for a game set in a 'world full of magic' to not have magic classes but I do see a crossbow on the steam listing.

 

[Shrimp]

Are all the Gower brothers behind this or is it just Andrew? I remember he started his own company well over a decade ago, but I don't think anything ever came out of it before now.
If all three of them are involved with the game I honestly wish them the best of luck with this project because I imagine they'll inevitably have the game compared to either of the two versions of the 'real' RuneScape, even if their goal might not necessarily be to be a direct competitor with those games. The brothers always gave me the impression that they were fairly down to earth regular geeks who had just happened to strike gold with a game they made together and I know especially Andrew was disheartened by the direction the game took after he and his brothers sold their shares in the company.

The store page description and images makes it sound like their primary focus will be on gradually adding smaller quests that are a part of a longer overarching story line, something I think most people who've played the original RS generally liked about the game.
Based on the screenshots it seems like the areas are going to be lots of (very) small instances. I assume this is just to ensure people end up running into each other, but I'm still not entirely sure how it's going to feel if you frequently need to change areas.

 

[ADL]

Are all the Gower brothers behind this or is it just Andrew?

Looks like all of them but Andrew is getting top billing.

 

[Caim]

At long last.

Runescape 3 2.

 

[Virgil Brummond]

This could be promising. While I like the concept of OSRS, it just never jived with me.

The breadth of professions looks promising. I also like the lofi reto inspired (but decent looking) graphics and tile setup.

Let's hope the monetization model is fair and doesn't break the game.

 

[ind33d]

Brighter Shores

0% chance Globo Homo allows a game that isn't demoralization propaganda to ship. Can I make a prop bet this gets cancelled?

 

[Shrimp]

Seems like it'll be entirely self-funded by Andrew in order to ensure he and the other developers have full creative control over the game. I guess he's still scarred from having investors and other external financiers meddle with how he wanted to run the original game.

https://www.gamesradar.com/runescap...-down-my-neck-i-want-people-to-enjoy-my-game/

RuneScape creator says his new MMO doesn't have to worry about investors: "There's no publishers, no one breathing down my neck ... I want people to enjoy my game"​

As original RuneScape creator Andrew Gower marches toward the release of his new MMO, Brighter Shores, later this year, he's comforted by the fact that his small team of just eight developers only has to answer to themselves.

"We're in a very lucky position where there's no external investors," Gower says in an interview with GamesRadar+. "Because I've been able to fund this entirely myself off my previous success. There's no external investors, there's no publishers, there's no one breathing down my neck saying we've got to meet these guidelines.


"I want players," he continues. "I want people to enjoy my game. That's what I really, really want. You know, I miss running an MMO and having lots of players enjoying it. So yeah, I'm really, really focused on getting as many people playing as possible rather than making as much money as possible. Obviously, I'm hoping one will lead to the other to a degree.

"The reason we're a team of eight, you know, I could have been putting in more, but I wanted to do it at a level that was sustainable based on what I can afford to fund without having to resort to external investors. Obviously, once we've launched the game and we've got some revenue coming in, my hope is to grow the team. And as such, you produce content more quickly. But the reason why we've stuck with it for so long is because I wanted something where I would not have to rely on that external investment."

Brighter Shores will launch on PC and Mac via Steam in Q3 2024. It will be free-to-play featuring an episodic content format, with an optional, purchasable premium pass attached.

"You buy the premium pass and it gives you access to absolutely everything we've released up to that date," he explains. "But obviously, we expect that when we release new episodes, that will drive people to take out a premium pass to enjoy that new episode. And then they might play that for a bit, and then we'll bring out another episode, and then they'll buy another premium pass and enjoy that season."

 

[Caim]

He and his brothers got very rich off of Runescape (in the 200 million pound range), so funding something like this should be doable. Let's hope that it works out.

 

[ADL]

 

[luj1]

Idk this looks very derpy

 

[ADL]

Idk this looks very derpy

Part of the charm.

 

[Hoodoo]

For my generation runescape was the first MMO we played and there was many a day spent after school huddled around whichever bros computer as we talked game or figured out ways to scam people or kill and steal their stuff. There is not much to compare in my gaming experiences with the sheer joy of being like 12 yrs old and getting death threats from some guy on the internet as you and your bros roll in laughter on the floor. Interested to see how this turns out.

 

[ADL]

 

[ADL]

 

[GaelicVigil]

Idk this looks very derpy

Part of the charm.

It's a gimmick. Just like the pixel art style fad, or cell shading, or any of the other stupid quirks drive-by developers use to lure you in to their shallow games.

 

[ADL]

November 5th release date

 

[Crispy]

This looks rather intriguing and utterly bizarre at the same time.

 

[Caim]

It launched. Can't play now, more later.

 

[Fedora Master]

Imagine banking on an MMO in 2024

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

fuck them. first patch in 20 years is to change "male/female" with "body a/b". ultrafuck them.

 

[Tacgnol]

It also has a very stupid progression system where your combat skills are essentially tied to the chapter you are in and are for all intents and purposes reset whenever you progress.

So in Chapter 1 your Guard skill level gives you hitpoints, extra attack and dictates what you can equip, as soon as you enter Chapter 2 then it becomes obsolete and your hp/fighting ability bonus resets back to 0 and scales off a new skill called Scout which starts from 1. You also can't equip any of the gear you found in Chapter 1. If you re-enter an area from Chapter 1 everything starts scaling off your Guard skill again.

It's being torn to shreds in reviews currently due to this as it completely kills any feel of progression.

 

[Caim]

It also has a very stupid progression system where your combat skills are essentially tied to the chapter you are in and are for all intents and purposes reset whenever you progress.

So in Chapter 1 your Guard skill level gives you hitpoints, extra attack and dictates what you can equip, as soon as you enter Chapter 2 then it becomes obsolete and your hp/fighting ability bonus resets back to 0 and scales off a new skill called Scout which starts from 1. You also can't equip any of the gear you found in Chapter 1. If you re-enter an area from Chapter 1 everything starts scaling off your Guard skill again.

It's being torn to shreds in reviews currently due to this as it completely kills any feel of progression.

So just like how gear works in mainstream MMOs every time a new expansion releases, then?

 

[Tacgnol]

It also has a very stupid progression system where your combat skills are essentially tied to the chapter you are in and are for all intents and purposes reset whenever you progress.

So in Chapter 1 your Guard skill level gives you hitpoints, extra attack and dictates what you can equip, as soon as you enter Chapter 2 then it becomes obsolete and your hp/fighting ability bonus resets back to 0 and scales off a new skill called Scout which starts from 1. You also can't equip any of the gear you found in Chapter 1. If you re-enter an area from Chapter 1 everything starts scaling off your Guard skill again.

It's being torn to shreds in reviews currently due to this as it completely kills any feel of progression.

So just like how gear works in mainstream MMOs every time a new expansion releases, then?

Kinda, though in this case it happens every few hours. It also feels awful as you are losing stats the moment you walk between areas.

The game also doesn't have any sort of automatic equipment retention so you have to manually equip items between each story area.