Ghost - a newly announced MMO from veteran Blizzard and Riot developers - is apparently taking big inspiration from the 1994 D&D setting Planescape, which already got the video game treatment in classic CRPG Planescape: Torment.
Publisher NetEase has formed a new studio called Fantastic Pixel Castle with veteran developer Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street at the helm - he was both the lead systems designer on World of Warcraft and an executive producer on the upcoming League of Legends MMO. The studio’s debut game is another MMO, for now simply titled Ghost.
"Imagine standing on the weathered cobblestones of an ancient city. In the sky above you are seemingly endless shards of broken worlds, a cornucopia of biomes that promise unlimited adventure and mystery,” explains the game’s website. The game is then split between Blue Shards (private realms) and Red shards “that deliver a more traditional massively multiplayer experience.” While Ghost is supposedly avoiding the usual fantasy tropes (no orcs or elves here), it is looking to another setting for some insight.
Street says on social media that “the Planescape prominence is intentional” and that it’s “a big influence” on the MMO. Those influences aren’t too subtle either. The Planescape setting goes across several planes of existence linked by magical dimension-hopping portals - essentially the fantasy multiverse - which doesn’t sound awfully dissimilar to traveling through “broken worlds” via mystical shards in the sky.
Ghost is still very early in development, but Street also says it’s fine for players to tune out until the game’s ready. “‘Wake me up on release day’ is a totally fine response!” Street writes on Twitter. “We still want you as part of our community. But we also wanted to take a stab at this ‘in plain sight’ development for players who are interested in the Day Zero Journey.”
That Day Zero Journey shouldn’t feel excruciatingly long, however, since Street also says the reason he opted for a “small studio” is because he and the team were “weary of 10-year dev cycles.” Fantastic Pixel Castle will livestream an AMA on November 8 to chat about what’s next for the studio, the game, and the community.
Ghost is likely years away, so occupy the time with our best MMO list. Planescape is also back in style thanks to the excellent Adventures in the Multiverse sourcebook.
