Curious What 1 Year Of Development Looks Like For An MMO? Fantastic Pixel Castle Shows Off "Ghost" Gameplay A Year In

When Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street first announced his new team at Fantastic Pixel Castle (FPC) and their new MMORPG project "Ghost," I was interested in what the industry veteran had to say, but also skeptical. Street obviously has a mega MMO past with World of Warcraft and it wasn't his (or his team's) chops I doubted, it was more a question of if we'd actually SEE a product from them. I mean, this dude just left the Riot MMO to come and do this? Why?

I've written my fair share of "previous X game dev creates new studio to make Y" articles throughout the years to know that even these types of projects seldom actually release.

While I wouldn't say that today's reveal from FPC totally does away with my concerns, it does provide a glimpse into gameplay, shows the team was serious about their "development with the community" promise, and makes me slightly more interested in an MMO that was very "conceptual" in nature for the last year...at least publicly.

Today the team is showing off what Ghost looks like after 1 full year of development and, yes, they are showing some actual gameplay. It isn't a long video and there's plenty of placeholders in the footage still, but the previously "conceptual" nature of FPC's plans look a little more defined to me now.

We've heard "red zones, and blue zones" when it comes to Ghost for a while, but now we get some clearer definitions on each, how they function, and we get to see them in action.

Blue zones are smaller zones for you and a group of friends. You won't see anyone else there, and these zones generate each time you enter. The zone will look different, the objectives or quests you're doing will be different, and it's all about exploring. Red Zones are your more traditional "MMO" crafted zones. Think large amounts of players, big boss fights, and more.

The combination of zones, conceptually, does away with the idea of "I leveled through that zone and now will never go there again." We'll have to see if it behaves that way in practice.

In the video, Street also confirms that yes, Ghost will have dungeons and raids.

Why are you getting this footage earlier than most MMOs would ever show it? Because FPC wants player input to actually determine developmental paths. You can't react to feedback at a certain point in development (at least not quickly), so they want you to see it NOW, when things are still able to be molded to this feedback.

Obviously we've still got years to go before Ghost will be in the general public's hands, but seeing a group take down a boss means we may be more likley to see this one release than some others and I'm here for it.