‘Dual Universe’: Developer Talks Server Population, Cloud Technology, & More
French indie studio Novaquark announced Dual Universe, a massively multiplayer online game that will be the first of its kind.
There hasn’t been too much in the way of information that has been released. Fortunately, Founder & Creative Director Jean-Christophe Baillie has come forth to talk Dual Universe and what it entails.
In a report by WCCFTech, we learn about how Baillie plans to handle servers for the MMO and the players that will inhabit its world. When asked about how servers will work, Baillie responded with the hope that every consumer would be able to join the same server.
“For us, it’s about getting back to the root of what it means to be an MMO, with one giant world where everybody is at the same time. There’s no different instances, no different server: the concept is called single shard, EVE Online does that but that game has different zones, you also can’t get into zones if there’s a certain number of people in it. We are one step beyond that, with what we call continuous single shard. We can have tens of thousands of people in the same place.”
Dual Universe is a daringly ambitious mash-up of Minecraft and Eve Online https://t.co/4Mv0EhtvaY #tweetfleet
— Rixx Javix (@RixxJavix) September 13, 2016
This seems to be a rather difficult task to execute. Traditional MMOs generally use different servers to fit the millions of players that might be logged on at the same time. If Dual Universe plans to function in a separate manner, one can only wonder if developer Novaquark has the power to maintain consistency across all boards.
Jean-Christophe continues to weigh in on how he plans to execute the Dual Universe world and its consumers, namely the utilization of cloud technology. He weighed in on the cloud, having this to say in regards to its inclusion and purpose.
“Yes, mostly to deploy machines. But the core technology behind Dual Universe is developed by us. The other trick is that when people are far away, we don’t update them as frequently. It won’t matter for gameplay as Dual Universe is not a competitive first person shooter – shooting accuracy will be based on a ‘lock & fire’ mechanism.”
4,000 backers on board! Thank you! ??
1st Social Goal unlocked!
Keep spreading the word about #DualUniverse guys! ?https://t.co/mhFME07fuC— Dual Universe (@dualuniverse) September 16, 2016
Baillie also mentions the increasing number of players that may come to populate servers. It appears that he has tested Dual Universe to be able to handle such stress on its single server.
“So yeah, we could have millions of players in this world, though honestly I think it would take some time. I don’t expect to get one million players on Day One… But based on our testing, it should work. It’s exciting, because it’s another genre of MMO, one that has not been done before.”
According to a report by PCGamesN, the existence of thousands in a single space or location was the goal of Novaquark from its beginning.
“When we started the company we asked ourselves if we could create a technology that makes having tens of thousands of players gathering in a city possible,” Baillie admits. “It would open possibilities for immersive gameplay and allow players a collective story that has never been seen before.”
Ultimately, it seems to be quite the task to fulfill what other MMOs have not. There’s usually a plethora of issues that stop an MMO from launching successfully on its first day. The Kickstarter campaign for Dual Universe continues, and interested consumers can expect more to be revealed as time passes. If the contributions are any indication, the fruition of the game could be coming sooner than expected. Time will tell, but Baillie appears more than hopeful.
How do you feel about Dual Universe? Do you feel that the game can be successfully run on a single server? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
[Featured Image by Novaquark]
