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A new studio called Runic Games has arisen from the ashes of Flagship Studios’ demise. I managed to get a hold of Travis Baldree, founder and president of Runic Games and formerly the creator of Mythos, to ask him a few things about his new studio and the plans he has in store for it.
Check it out here.
Diane “Tiggs” Migliaccio contacted me with the following news on behalf of Flagship Studios with regards to Mythos.
<blockquote>Travelers of Uld,
We, the ancient elders of Uld are issuing this warning to all citizens and travelers. Hurry! The great darkness that once plagued Uld is returning. Everyone is ordered to close down their shops and prepare. We predict the when night is at its peak the darkness will arrive. The ancient elders of Uld will be leaving immediately in order to preserve the lore of this wonderful world. Citizens please prepare thyself and know that the elders will be back from their travels some day.
From the team:
We regretfully announce that on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 11:59 CST the world of Uld known as Mythos will be going on hiatus. On behalf of all of the Devs and Community team we want to say thank you to everyone for their support and assistance with Mythos Alpha and Beta testing and we will see you soon.
The Mythos Team</blockquote>
Travis Baldree, Project Lead and Programmer on Mythos created a thread on the official Mythos forum to bid his farewells to the Mythos community and other members of the Mythos team have since added their heartfelt goodbyes to the thread.
Well, it’s an interesting few days here for all of us. It’s just been killing me not to post until now, but I really needed to wait until some things were settled and announced. As you may or may not know Flagship Studios laid off almost all employees effective friday - you should be able to see the press release in the Announcements. Now, on the face of it, that really does sound like the end of Mythos as we know it - but we have a tight-knit team that feels like family and hopes to stick together. Unfortunately, I can’t speak at any real length about our immediate plans just yet - but let’s say that we hope to have you back up and Beta testing for us in one way or another sometime soon.
You’ve been an incredible community that we’ve all felt priveleged to be a part of, and we’re not quite ready to let go of that little family just yet. No matter the outcome, this has been a fantastic experience, and I and the team would like to thank each and every one of you for the tireless hours of testing and discussion you’ve undergone, and the uniquely friendly community spirit that you all helped foster. It’s been a treat every step of the way.
So, I’m not exactly sure how long Mythos in its current form will remain up, since it is effectively a testing server. I’ll try to get you that information as soon as I can.
In the meantime, I know the rest of the team would love to post their farewells and thanks to all of you. We’ll try to keep you as up to date as we can in one way or another.Thanks again to all of you - and I hope to be seeing all of you online again very, very soon.
Travis
Others of Flagship Studios who have contributed their farewells and goodbyes to the thread include Jason “Grimby” Beck (Art Lead), Adam “HamSandwhich” Perin (3D Technical Artist), Kyle “SkyCrickett” Cornelius (Concept Artist) and Taylor Balbi (Community Manager).
History will, perhaps, remember Mythos as one of those “great games that should have been”, along with Black Isle Studios’ Van Buren and Troika’s post-apocalyptic RPG. Hope may yet exist for the game, so we’ll be crossing our fingers for a miracle.
Flagships’s Community Manager, Taylor Balbi, has revealed to VE3D that all Ping0 and Flagship Studios staff have been made redundant. According to Taylor and the VE3D article, employees were notified at a company meeting and subsequently informed that the offices will be officially closed on Saturday. The source went on to reveal that three of the studio’s top brass dug into their own pockets to provide 30 days of pay to all employees.
As mentioned earlier, word of the studio’s closure reached HanbitSoft, leading to an early press release regarding the control over the Hellgate: London intellectual property that lead to a stern rebuttal from an official source in Flagship Studios, which, subsequently lead to a HanbitSoft lawyer posting the following sentence on our very website: “It is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open.”
As also referenced in the legal release, HanbitSoft hopes to independently continue development of Mythos, to which it owns the rights thanks to a loan agreement enacted with Flagship. Comerica now owns the Hellgate: London rights through a similar loan agreement, and will likely continue Asian development with HanbitSoft. As for English-language releases of the two games, it is possible that the Asian companies would continue development, but the fate of the US, Japanese and European version of Hellgate: London remain a mystery.
In short, Flagship’s time has run out, and all intellectual property may have been lost, all staff fired, and the studio closed. Flagship, we hardly knew ye…
A new article has popped up today about Mythos. It deals with the way that Hellgate was received as well as how Mythos plans to make a larger dent in the market.
The article has appeared on Eurogamer and it’s sister site GamesIndustry.biz.
“If we made a mistake with Hellgate, it was trying to do too many things for too many people,” admitted Schaefer, in an interview with our sister site Eurogamer.net.
“We wanted a cutting edge graphics engine, we wanted multiple business models with subscriptions and free play, and single-player, we wanted to combine third-person play with first-person play, we wanted to do random 3D levels, and when you’re starting with a brand new game studio with very limited budget and no existing technologies, that was probably biting off too much.
“We ended up rushing it to market and not keeping it in the oven long enough, just out of necessity.”
[...]
“With Mythos we’re definitely taking our time, we’re well within our budget and our means to make it. It’s a little bit of a turning point for us - don’t try to do everything for everybody. Just be more realistic about your design goals. Bring it back to nine tenths instead of ten tenths and things will go much sooner,” he detailed.
[...]
“Can we take down the big boys? I think we can take down some of them. And I’d like to put a dent in the others.”
Enjoy 
WarCry network has a new interview up with Travis Baldree, whom we know as the lead behind Mythos.
The interview is quite short, however gives some interesting insights.
WC: The business model for Mythos is unusual. Please explain how Mythos will ‘make money’ if not through subscription play. What sort of items will be sold through through the premium shops?
Our initial plan is to utilize a dual-currency system similar to what is used by Three Rings for Puzzle Pirates. In this system, there are two ingame currencies - one that is earned, and one that is purchased for actual money. Certain goods and services will be available for purchase with the ‘purchased’ currency. The unique part of this system is that players can trade purchased currency for ingame currency or items - in this way, even those who never pay any actual money can still have access to goods that require it. Our aim is not to sell game-in balancing items, but rather convenience services and cosmetic options, primarily.
WC: Mythos has had the ‘casual gamer’ label slapped on it by MMO purists. How do you respond to that? What sort of gamer is Mythos attempting to attract?
I don’t have any problem with being labeled a casual game - primarily because as I grow older I am making the shift from hardcore to casual myself. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about a fun game with a deep core experience - it means I’m unwilling to put up with needless time wasting and grind. Casual gamers don’t want less of a game - they just want the time spent playing it to count. We’d like the hardcore to play as well - we intend to keep layering the experience, and deepening it with late-game content that we hope will keep players interested and active, without feeling they need to commit an extraordinary chunk of their life to do so.
See the WarCry page for the rest of the interview.
Enjoy
The official Mythos website is reporting on a couple of bits of new Mythos things.
First is a set of new exclusive screenshots of the Overworld by RPG Vault and second is a front page magazine review of Mythos, in an online Magazine, Thirteen1 Online.
Over at RPG vault there are six exclusive Mythos screenshots of the Overworld now available in our Test Center server. Check them out by clicking Read More… below.
Click [HERE].
——
Mythos was given a cover spot on the latest issue of Thirteen1 Online Gaming Magazine as well as a three page preview. Check out the June 13th issue over at their website.
Check out their website [HERE].
Enjoy
Hey there fellow Mythonians.
Are you tired of having to pester Flagship Studios for small tidbits of news about the game?
Are you bored of not having any recent exclusives?
Are you eager to hear about some new and exciting information about Mythos?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you’ve come to the right place!
That’s right! We here at Mythos Guru have gone out of our way to do the job for you. You won’t have to wait in line to get one measly question answered. You won’t have to leave your kids alone in the car, baking under the hot sun, as you dash to your news press to find the latest goss on the game only to find a police officer waiting for you with a warrant and a pair of silver handcuffs when you return. You won’t have to sit there doodling words and pictures on your wall hoping they will be the new exclusives for Mythos.
All you simply have to do is feast your eyes upon our wonderous interview with the amazing Max (Note: Max may or may not actually be amazing, but the interview is indeed wonderful!). Not only do you get exclusive new information at Mythos Guru about the game’s upcoming new modes of transportation, brand new ways to live and die, new ways to dress and express, as well as the secret race that was going to be put in until Max was abducted!!!
You will see the answers to these questions and more by read not one, two, or even five, but twenty four whole questions that will make you wish that you could hibernate until open beta!
So what the hell are we talking about? Read the Exclusive Interview with Max Schaefer and find out!
Enjoy
Headshot Radio has a new review up of Mythos, where they talk of the various aspects of the game, as well as having a short interview with the devs at the end of it.
This is exactly what it feels like to play Mythos. Mythos is a game in production by Flagship Studios, a company with numerous people who worked on the Diablo Series, worked at Blizzard, and more talent from other companies, such as programmers from FATE as well. The combination is a fast paced, imaginative, and fun dungeon crawler with a sprinkle of MMORPG elements spread throughout. All the things that made Diablo and Diablo II fun are there: Multiple classes, randomized dungeons, lots of loot, multiple skill trees, item customization via crafting, gems, enchantments, etc., and so much more. To make it even better, there are numerous new elements in the game, such as different races, Achievements (which can be equipped for stat boosts and such), a PvP-only version of the game world, and much much more awaits. To top it all off, the game is free to play, with an in-game store (described in the interview at the end of this article) as the company means of making money from the game.
Enjoy
As ThyrsaM has reported on our forums, the new Overworld is now live on the Test Center of the game.
To add to that, Massively is also reporting on the new layout and what the experience is like. They also have a whole set of screenshots to go with the launch.
For the past week, the folks at Flagship promised the Overworld Real Soon Now. A deathwatch was kept on the forums. It was going to be the next day, or the day after, or in a few hours. Players gathered on Mythos‘ IRC channel where devs tossed out tantalizing hints of what was to come. Then around 9pm EST dev Taylor Balbi advised everyone to re-patch and log in to the Test Center to see the Overworld. He gave some advice as people hurried to be the first into the new world.
- Test Center will be a separate server.
- Test Center and Beta Server will be online at the same time and require the same client.
- To tell which version you currently have, the login screen screen will make it obvious (two different ones).
- Test Center will start lagging after like 800 people, Mythos Beta won’t.
- Taylor Balbi is Awesome.
We think the other Flagship devs are pretty awesome as well. Though there were more than a few glitches with patching, we were able to eventually get in and take a quick run around some of the Overworld, its dungeons, the villages outside Stonehill, and the city of Stonehill itself. All we have left to wait for now is the open beta, expected in the next several weeks.
Enjoy
P.S. Also congratulations to ThyrsaM who is now a moderator on our website!
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