Em-8ER - The spiritual succesor to Firefall

[Liberator]

Since "The9" took over "Red5 Studios", sacking the original designer and CEO of the Firefall (Mark Kern) and eventually killed the spirit of Firefall, there have been rumblings from him about producing a successor to his original game.

The game we used to play on the Firefall servers was a slightly gutted version of what he was producing in beta, it was still fun and I spent many an hour on it. A lot of the original beta players loved the version he was producing and were slightly annoyed at his firing and dumbing down of the released version. They kept Red5 running the project for a long time after, but then really started messing with them. They sacked half the developers at Christmas 2015, redesigned a lot of the game and eventually collapsed Red5 after pushing out a massive game-breaking update that nobody wanted.

Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on the rumours around Mark wanting to recover some of what was taken away.

So from the crash and burn of Firefall there is an ember (or Em-8er) which has taken hold.

They have done a few IndieGoGo campaigns for money to pay for graphic designers and modellers. They now have a final IndieGoGo before they move on to a prototype game which will be used to build a viable KickStarter campaign.

IndieGoGo here Em-8ER - Mech vs Kaiju
Main website here Em-8ER

They asked for $20K to get a working pre-alpha prototype and have already passed $55K (including direct PayPal backers). They have been adding stretch goals and rewards every other day. 3 Days left and it has "never to be offered again" awards to the backers on the already funded campaign. I loved Firefall and I owe it at least a punt for a few quid to get the 1st game tier. A lot of the rewards are based on Firefall tech in homage to it.  

He's going for the same premiss, a huge PvE MMO with changing warfronts, reclaimable areas, a mysterious enemy, omni-frames and drilling "Thumpers" which will attract the locals. The "Thumpers" in this one will be large mech drilling robots which you have to defend while they drill and then escort back to safety.

[Liberator]

Mark did want to buy the rights back to Firefall and follow it up, but "The9" won't sell it.

He went off and developed "Crixa", a Sc-Fi tabletop RPG game. I believe Em-8ER is going to set in the same universe.

Mark Kern was involved in a lot of the Blizzard MMO games.

[Chaosphere]

I quite enjoyed firefall. Keep us updated lib I would be keen to try a spiritual successor.

[OldBloke]

I quite enjoyed firefall. Keep us updated lib I would be keen to try a spiritual successor.

This ^^

[Liberator]

Originally they planned to do 3 rounds of $20k funding for the mock up project.

They have now scrapped that because this first round has already reached $68k.

Latest stretch goal is a one off bike for backers..... the only bike they intend to put into the game.

NEW Stretch Goal! $75,000 for Bikes!

 To help fund a non-playable but in-engine mockup of an Em-8ER  invasion, we are putting up a new stretch goal! If we reach $75,000 or  1500 backers (whichever comes first), we will offer player characters  bikes to backers. This bike will be exclusive to this round of funding.  No bikes will be offered in game again. This is a thank you and a  reference to the bikes that Firefall veterans loved so much. Below is a  concept render of the bike. Thank you for all your support!

[RogueTaylor]

has anyone backed it yet ? this looks really good and if they do all what they say then it could be an amazing game. i was there for a bit of firefall but it was when you lot were just finishing up with it

[Liberator]

Yeah, I bunged in enough to get the game (if it appears).

But remember this is an IndieGoGo to produce a playable mock up of the game, prior to submitting a KickStarter to produce the full game. Even though this level has gone over 300% of the requested money it just means they won't have to fund raise again before KickStarter.

The final game is NOT funded yet, hasn't started funding and may never appear. But this initial campaign is a huge step in getting to that point. I just feel that bunging them a few quid at this early stage is the least I can do for the time I had playing FF for free. All I've done is contributed to get the pre-pre-pre-alpha demo to look at and if they pull it off I get the final game as well.

[Liberator]

Well, they asked for $20k and the shutters have closed on the funding.

They were funded over 550% at $110k, they kept adding stretch goals just to cover what they were pulling in.

And this is just to make a running mock up.

Goal rewards were, skins, pets, decals, visuals and such. But some of the best ones were.....

FF style motorbike (only bike that will ever be produced for the game and only available to this round of backing) 2 Seater.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]4089[/ATTACH]

A special voice pack for the Omni-frame voiced by Laura Post (aka Aero, your controller on FF), she will also be doing an NPC.

"Tiki Torch" to throw down and confuse new players, anyone who played FF knows about these.


"IF THE GAME REACHES RELEASE", this was just to get them to the Kickstarter campaign level.

[Liberator]

And on the day they closed the IndieGoGo, Red5 released the following statement........

With heavy hearts, we regret to inform you that after much review  and analysis, Red 5 Studios have decided to suspend the Firefall efforts  on 7th, July 2017.  Thank you for being an important part of the  Firefall experience and for your loyalty and dedication to the online  community.
 
Your efforts and loyalty will not go without recognition, however.   Firefall is currently developing a mobile version of the game and all of  Firefall’s founders and players will be rewarded greatly in the new  game.  We will be sure to provide everyone with more updates as we have  them.

 
Thank you for your support and enthusiasm throughout the years; we will see you at the next battle.

Farewell FireFall, it was fun while it lasted.

Anyone wanna buy some Redbeans?

[BrotherTobious]

:sad::byesad:

[OldBloke]

Can't say I'm surprised. BBFF