Brad McQuaid is making an MMORPG. That isn't in itself a surprise, seeing how he was the key designer of EverQuest and executive producer of the not-terribly-successful Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, but hey - a new Brad McQuaid game is big news. Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen hasn't officially been announced yet, but after the game's (currently dormant) twitter page was uncovered a couple of days ago, McQuaid revealed the logo and a few early details in a series of tweets .
First, here's that logo . McQuaid describes the setting as "Challenging Epic Planar High Fantasy", which would explain the presence of a ringwraithy type thing in the corner.
McQuaid also revealed on his twitter feed that there will be a "minimum 3 years to [Pantheon's] release. Also, there's going to be a long beta". When asked if the game will be a 'true open world MMO', he replied that it will feature a "more open world, with quests and stuff to do, but you don't have to do them all."
One more titbit comes from Pantheon's twitter account, which describes the game as "the modern, challenging, group-focused MMO Game".
Interestingly, McQuaid points out that the game's twitter feed "is not owned by SOE", as it's not been entirely clear whether the game has any links to Sony Online Entertainment, or whether it's a new venture by an entirely separate company. [UPDATE: Pantheon's PR Manager Benjamin de la Durantaye has confirmed to me via email that "SOE is not currently involved".]
We'll likely know more very soon - McQuaid and co are planning to launch a Kickstarter for Pantheon.
Ta, Ten Ton Hammer and Blues News .
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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.