Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street wants to rethink the MMORPG genre with his project “Ghost.” Now, after just a year of development, he has shown gameplay from the game’s prototype.
What does the video of Ghost show? The new video from the Fantastic Pixel Castle studio showcases gameplay from the current prototype of the MMORPG project. Meanwhile, studio head Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street (World of Warcraft, League of Legends, LoL-MMORPG) explains what can be seen in detail, why it is being shown in this early form, and what goals the developers are pursuing.
Unlike other projects, the MMORPG community has been involved in the development process of Ghost since its inception, in order to obtain early feedback on concepts, ideas, and content. The new video, which is almost five minutes long and can be found below, emphasizes this approach:
Status quo after a year of development
What does Greg Street reveal? The lead developer points out at the beginning of the video that players normally do not get to see such early gameplay footage from AAA projects. The current version of Ghost, for example, still uses many standard assets from the Unreal Engine marketplace, which will be replaced during development.
Furthermore, Street explains that the team at Fantastic Pixel Castle consists entirely of fans of the MMORPG genre, which is why many elements that work well within the genre will also be found in Ghost. However, many of these things are not yet part of the prototype because the focus is on the areas where they want to deliver innovation.
What are these innovations? As an example, Ghostcrawler mentions the way quest zones level up to remain relevant even in later phases of the game. In Ghost, when leveling up, experiencing the main story, and during endgame, players navigate through three different zone types:
- The central city, which serves as a social hub, base for factions, public sanctuary, trading center, and a place for seasonal events. You must help rebuild it.
- The blue zones, which are procedurally generated, invite exploration (sandbox), are private for each player or group, and have an impact on the world.
- The handcrafted red zones that are public and offer much content known from theme park MMORPGs.
In the current prototype, the city mainly serves as a meeting point for players to organize for adventures in the red or blue zones or to form groups. They can assume placeholder archetypes of tanks, healers, melee fighters, or ranged experts through placeholder wardrobes. Later, Ghost is expected to offer many specialized classes:
In the next part of the video, we see a group of three players visiting a blue zone. The content there is designed for solo players or small team sizes. You never know what combination of enemies, allies, and tasks awaits you (although there is always a main goal and several side tasks), or what the region will look like.
Exploration is to be particularly important in blue zones. You should be able to solve the assigned tasks in many different ways. In addition to combat, you can expect conversations with NPCs, gathering resources, or building structures that help you achieve the goals of the region.
Currently, according to Ghostcrawler, it takes about an hour to complete the tasks of a blue zone. The developers want to experiment with blue zones of different sizes. The rewards depend on the difficulty level of the zone and the number of tasks you could complete.
What about the red zones? In the last third of the video, the studio lead also shows the prototype version of a red zone. While these are handcrafted, they are also intended to have a certain dynamism – for example, by changing quest goals or the location of NPCs.
The video features a raid of 27 players engaging a world boss. Coordination is said to be important, as you need to react to adds and heal the right allies at the right time. Finally, Greg Street explains that it will take several more years until the final launch. This emphasizes how much work still lies ahead for the team.
How is the community reacting to the video? While some players are excited about the early gameplay material and find the ideas for Ghost intriguing, it seems clear to others already that the MMORPG will not be for them.
- Yashimasta writes on Reddit: “If this is still the first year of development, it seems to be progressing very quickly, and it appears they have a very clear vision of what they want to achieve.”
- Fawz is disturbed by one thing (via Reddit): “A lot of this sounds cool, and I’m glad they are sharing and testing early, but the moment they showed the concept art of the class, I lost all interest.”
- sooooober explains on YouTube: “I admit that the concept of the zones is probably not for me. I worry that the game will feel more like a theme park rather than a coherent world. I’m curious how the studio will tackle this.”
- Adartaer is pessimistic (via YouTube): “From my 19 years of experience with MMORPGs, I can say with full conviction that the ideas presented here sound like a game that will be dead at launch.”
What do you think of the material shown so far from Ghost and the explanations from Ghostcrawler? Could this MMORPG be for you? Let us know in the comments. More about the ambitious plans of Fantastic Pixel Castle can be found here: The new MMORPG Ghost from the former lead of WoW aims to value your time and allow breaks
