The movement Stop Killing Games militant for the preservation of online games. Some developers are already taking the subject in consideration: MMO Solarpunk Loftia is designed to survive even if its developer was to close its doors.
Most online players have already experienced it: after having sometimes invested years in an online universe, having devoted time to advance a character and establish social relationships within a community, it can happen that the game which sheltered this activity closes its doors and that its exploitation ceases. Through the initiative Stop Killing Gamessome players are mobilizing both to raise awareness of the subject, and especially campaign so that online game operators have a legal obligation to maintain the online games they have marketed with players.
It is unclear whether the movement will reach its objective, but regardless of any legal obligation, certain studios are already seized of the subject and reflect on the options that would allow the exploitation of their games to continueeven if he had to disappear. This is the case of the independent studio Qloud Games, which is currently developing the Cozy MMO Loftia.
In a note published on the Official Blog, the development team is particularly aware of the subject, in particular because several of its members have already undergone the closure of some of their games – Chris Clay, the executive producer of Loftia, notably worked on Asheron’s Call and for example contributed to the provision of an emulator of the game following the closure of the official version.
Thinking about the conception of a game with regard to its sustainability
And as part of Loftia, even before the game is launched, he intends to make sure to ensure his sustainability. A will that passes in particular by the development choices of the studio. According to the developer, designing an MMORPG today is much easier than a few years ago, in particular thanks to the many resources made available to studios – so that according to the Loftia team, designing an MMO today consists more in arranging a multitude of services distributed by web giants than really developing them. The studio mentions the features of the Unreal Engine 5, the web services ofAmazon or the system of chat Vivox, among others.
Design an MMO is therefore easier, but developers are also more dependent on these third -party services and cannot distribute them freely (in open source) if the development studio disappeared. Reason for which Loftia is designed, as much as possible, so that the use of these different services is not blocking – for example, if the chat Or the high facts system falls in harbor, the base of the game will continue to operate. In the same spirit, Loftia is developed so that it is easy to host your own game serversthe code is also abundantly documented to be easily taken up by other developers. Qloud Games also promises to broadcast a “pack” containing all the tools necessary to be able to restart the game if the studio had to close.
In other words, The survival of a game beyond that of its creator is an issue which must be taken into consideration from the creation of the game. And obviously, the Loftia teams are aware of this: it is certainly a surplus of work and reflection, but the developer does not plan to see his game disappear and therefore gives himself the means to predict “post-shutdown” exploitation methods. And it is ultimately consistent with the philosophy of Loftia: the MMO intends to immerse players in a “Solarpunk” world, that is to say a world that has (to) prepare (for) the future in a positive way despite drastic changes. In a word as in a hundred, in all areas, “preparation” is the key.
