In-Development Indie MMORPGs

[francisbaud]

Independent developers have flooded the MMO market with titles ranging from less than $100K to more than +$300M. So "indie" isn't really synonym of smaller budget or resources, it instead means that the studio is independent from big publishers or investors. Here are 12 of the most popular ones.

Dual Universe [Beta]
Setting: Science-Fiction || Focus: PvP || Budget: ~$25M* || Engine: Unigine 2

• Single shard persistent universe shared by all the players
• Voxel-based universe: player-made cities, stations and warships
• Space warfare: pirate ships, coordinated attacks, skirmishes
• Player-controlled global economy: mine, craft, build, optimize, barter and trade

Crowfall [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvP || Budget: $38M || Engine: Unity 5

• Spiritual successor to Shadowbane
• Player-created worlds with parcels of terrain and pre-fab building pieces
• GvG/RvR campaigns that guilds or factions can win
• Deep crafting system inspired by Star Wars: Galaxies

Camelot Unchained [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: RvR || Budget: ~$20M || Engine: Unchained

• Spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot
• Large-scale RvR battles and sieges with more than a thousand players
• Open world with islands that players can move to strategically reshape the world
• Block-by-block construction with server-side stability and destruction

Ship of Heroes [Beta]
Setting: Superhero || Focus: PvE/PvP || Budget: $? || Engine: Unreal 4

• Spiritual successor to City of Heroes
• Defend Apotheosis City from criminals and alien invaders and explore whole new planets
• Unique character customization with countless options
• Thousands of power combinations to form a unique playstyle

Gloria Victis [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Realistic || Focus: PvP || Budget: ~$4M* || Engine: Unity 5

• Skill-based combat mechanics à la Mount and Blade
• Class-less system with diversified equipment
• Open world with housing, territory control and sieges
• Complex crafting system: leatherworking, armorsmithing, weapon forging

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen [Pre-Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvE || Budget: $? || Engine: Unity 5

• Spiritual successor to EverQuest
• Deeply social: dungeons require teamwork and group strategy
• Thrilling climbing system
• Perception system: the world reveals its secrets through the environment

Ashes of Creation [Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvP/PvE || Budget: ~$30M* || Engine: Unreal 4

• Nodes system: player participation influences the type of content in the surrounding areas
• Open world housing: players have the ability to survey and develop land anywhere in the world
• Castle sieges with hundreds of players with many moving parts
• Harsh, unforgiving and stunning environment

Star Citizen [Alpha]
Setting: Science-Fiction || Focus: PvP || Budget: $348M || Engine: Lumberyard

• Spiritual successor to Freelancer
• Procedurally generated and handcrafted stunning worlds
• Open world PvP with high speed dog fights with multi-crew ships or intense FPS warfare
• Exploration: hidden outpost, abandoned ships and beautiful sunsets

Project Gorgon [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvE || Budget: +$1M || Engine: Unity 5

• Exploration: many hidden secrets awaiting discovery
• Ambitious skill-based leveling system allowing the player to combine skills
• Old-school MMO with innovative ideas, such as morphing into animals
• 16 combat skills, 71 trade skills, 11 beasts skills

Corepunk [Alpha]
Setting: Cyberpunk || Focus: PvE/PvP || Budget: $? || Unity 5

• Seamless open world with top-down view and fog of war
• Explore the world, participate in trading, complete dungeons, or engage in PvP battles
• Day / night cycles as well as weather conditions
• Flexible character customization with a wide variety of builds

Mortal Online 2 [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvP || Budget: $? || Engine: Unreal 4

• Open and realistic sandbox world
• True, real-time combat where outcomes are decided by skill rather than levels or gear
• Legendary crafters trading across the globe, famous warriors studying the art of combat
• Individual reputation: people will recognize you by the impact you've made on the world

Rise Online [Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus PvP/PvE || Budget: $? || Engine: Unreal 4

• Spiritual successor to Knight Online
• Full PvP-based maps and events
• PvE content like missions, creatures and bosses that take several groups to defeat
• An endless war between two kingdoms

Cross post. *Personal estimate, may be inaccurate
Feel free to suggest improvements to this post!

 

[Kazama]

Star citizen, its Indie? Wow..

 

[francisbaud]

Star citizen, its Indie? Wow..

Yea, indie means independent from big publishers or investors. Star Citizen's funding comes from crowdfunding, so no string attached money. I know it sounds crazy as SC has racked up ~350 millions.

 

[Unkas]

As someone vigorously awaiting for Ashes of Creation here some nice info from their wiki about Lineage 2 inspiration:

Inspiration

Ashes of Creation has taken inspiration from various other MMORPG titles.[303]

• Eve Online with its regionalized economy and risk vs reward in transportation.[303]
• ArcheAge with its building systems, transportation and naval combat.[303]
• Lineage II with its risk vs reward, castle sieges, flagging, open world PvP and guild progression.[304][303]
• Star Wars Galaxies with its crafting systems.[303]

A lot of the systems in Lineage 2 were based around a concept that got lost today in mmorpgs, and that's risk versus reward. You know this idea that the more you risk the greater potential reward should be present is a complete paradigm shift away from everyone's a winner, everybody gets a participation reward, and here you go, congratulations you're a player in this game; and that's boring. It gives nothing for a person to aspire to achieve something, or to feel the bite of loss when you fail. Those are the driving forces of why people want to play games and it's a reason why new games when they come out have such a short lifespan, because they are always competing with WOW. You don't have to compete with WOW. You don't have to be a WOW killer. You can focus on something that is different from a philosophical design standpoint; and I think that's just what a lot of studios today don't want to take the risk on.[304] – Steven Sharif (Creative Director at Intrepid Studios. )

Source: Ashes of Creation

 

[francisbaud]

Not the first time I hear a crowdfunding studio saying the game doesn't need to be a "Wow killer"! Other than that, risk/reward features well implemented in a game is great I guess. Didn't know AoC wanted to have naval combat (or even transportation). That's very ambitious. We'll see if they deliver!