The
saga of CCP Games' Dust 514, the PlayStation 3 first-person shooter
component to the Eve Onlineuniverse, will continue with the release
of its latest build in May, Uprising.
Uprising will launch
just one month before the Odyssey expansion
for Eve, which is designed to encourage players to
once again explore the Eve universe. The release of Uprising alongside
the expansion will be "that first step to real persistence and real
meaning in Dust 514," according to vice president of business development
Thor Gunnarsson.
Gunnarsson
told Polygon that the
ability to conquer planets, which will be added with Uprising,
has been one of the most requested feature from players.
"This
notion of introducing tactical and strategic gameplay, laying that over the
core shooter experience ofDust, is what our fan base has been clamoring
for since we first announced the game," he said. "It's been a
[broadly requested] category, certainly from our Eve players,
that they've wanted to see because it adds meaning to the Eve universe."
"With
many first-person shooters you fight to the end of map, and that's it, and when
you're done you go back and play the map again," added executive producer
Jon Lander. "It doesn't really mean anything beyond that 50-minute
session. But with Dust, if you win that battle, you win that
ground and you can start building up your infrastructure."
According
to CTO Halldor Fannar, console shooter players are "normally not in the
same seat" as PC players, making the development of an experience for both
kinds of gamers a challenge. He noted that CCP has been running Dust in
open beta as a way for these traditional shooter players to test the game's
mechanics and find their own way into Eve's world.
"Console
game players go to the store and put down money for a box, and if they don't
like it they can return it," he said. "We are running Dust in
open beta not because it isn't done, but because we want to do it. We don't
feel like this game is completely done. We want to hear what you think needs to
be done. But players are already spending their money on it, so in a way it's
already out."
Fannar
said CCP will keep Dust 514 in open beta for a while in order
to continue what he calls its "customer development phase.
"It's
the way Eve has evolved, and we're taking that same method and
applying it to the console game," he added.
The recent
Caldari Prime conflict, a large-scale battle involving Dust 514 mercenaries
and Eve ships, was the first in a series of in-game events set
up to demonstrate the deep integration between Dust 514 and Eve
Online. These events are designed to push players to create their own
stories within the larger game narrative, where CCP has set up the framework
for heroes and villains to be born. Gunnarsson called the lore CCP has set
up Eve a "canvas" on which players paint their own
tales.
"What
we provide is the high-level background and setting, but the true stories, the
real stories, are all player-generated and have nothing to do with us," he
said. "We wanted to make the right kind of sandbox and give players the
right kind of toolkit to make their own stories."
Lander
noted that player-owned territories and large-scale battles are not regulated
by CCP, but are entirely player-driven endeavors. The development team thinks
of Eve as a real place driven by player interaction and
contribution.
"Players
spend a frightening amount of time playing this game," he said, "and
it becomes an extension of themselves. We have to be very careful with that world,
we can't just go around randomly jetting things into it. We need to find some
sensible way to introduce new concepts, and this storyline for Dust 514 gives
us the background with which to start. From there, it's purely up to the
player."
"As
we open the faucet more and more, we lose more control," Fannar added.
"So we want to do that gradually, and ease people into it."
Fannar
said CCP hopes to expand the world of Eve onto mobile, adding
new experiences on smartphones and tablets sometime down the line.
"We
want to give you a relevant experience that makes sense for you on those
devices," he said, mentioning the ability to train and trade on
smartphones while away from the console or PC as one major possibility.
"We want to give that to you, but we're being very careful not to just
pile all kinds of games into [Eve]. We want to preserve that sense of
discovery."
"It's
less our game; it's more players coming together to achieve something,"
added Lander.
Eve
Online's
next expansion, Odyssey, will be available on June 4.
The Uprising build will hit Dust 514 on May
6.
