Year 2021. The birth of the project. A mobile prototype for Quest 2.
March 2021. Without a doubt, it was the time of the next heyday of VR technology and the total domination of Oculus Quest 2.
Concept of a new project was formed on the basis of the VR horror story we developed a few years before. The idea of a mobile game in the adventure genre was born, with elements of the action and horror-quest genres. That's how the Morganica was born.
By the end of the year, a prototype for the Quest 2 helmet was created, but in October 2021, everything changed dramatically.
October 2021. Zuckerberg's speech. The concept of metaverses.
Mark Zuckerberg's speech at the Facebook Connect conference on October 28, 2021 had a significant impact on the computer game industry, initiating several key changes and trends:
- The concept of metaverses was formulated.
- Everything is so serious that Facebook is becoming Meta.
- Explosive growth of interest to VR
- Metaverses, VR, bitcoin and NFT are the main trends of that time.
Then it seemed that all this was for a long time. The gaming market reacted instantly. Everyone seemed to have gone crazy.
After Zuckerberg's speech, the term "metaverse" began to be actively discussed in the context of various games such as Fortnite and Roblox. This led to the fact that many gaming companies began to view their projects through the lens of the metaverse, which contributed to the growing interest in this concept.
In response to the growing interest in metaverses, companies such as Epic Games have begun to actively invest in creating their own virtual worlds. For example, Epic Games raised $1 billion to support its vision of the metaverse, which highlighted the seriousness of the intentions of major players in this area.
Mark Zuckerberg's speech became a catalyst for a paradigm shift in the gaming industry, initiating an active discussion and development of the concept of the metaverse. This has influenced companies' investment strategies, approaches to game development, and the creation of new economic models within virtual worlds.
What was happening could not but affect the overall concept of Morganica. From a single-player game, the project has transformed into a multiplayer virtual city. The single-player version remained, but turned into a marketing tool to attract attention to multiplayer. VR remained, but as an option. The ability to complete the game and then visit a virtual City using a monitor, keyboard and mouse is very important for expanding the audience.
After a short pause, we started the second version of Project Morganica.
2022-2023. Working on the demo version.
From March 2022 to August 2023, Morganica was finding its new face. As a result, by the end of the summer of 2023, we have almost completed the single-user demo. It was possible to visit the City, learn its history, get acquainted with key characters, immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the Project. At that time, we were already actively working on social networks. We launched the project page on Steam. We talked with representatives of major gaming companies. We demonstrated our achievements and received feedback.
Based on our communication with representatives of Riot Games and correspondence with one of the founders of a well-known New York venture fund specializing in gaming projects, it was decided to raise the quality of demonstration materials and to develop a new presentation. And first of all, we need a high-quality video. A trailer or a game cinematics. August 2023 was devoted to the adjustment of plans and in early September we started work.
The year 2024. Cinematics. Neural networks. Realistic view of what is happening.
Are you aware that from 2022 to the present day, the share of queries on the topic of generative AI in Google search results has increased by almost 700%?
The global AI solutions market is expected to grow from $137.7 billion in 2023 to more than $1 trillion by 2030, which corresponds to an average annual growth rate of about 33.8%. 7.5 times growth in seven years!
While working on Morganica Cinematics, we continued to follow trends in the gaming and technology markets. It is obvious that we are experiencing another decline in interest in VR technologies and in general in the metaverse. At the same time, the market is experiencing an explosive growth in the capabilities of generative neural network services. What is happening made us think about the chosen direction of the Project development.
Market analysis. A realistic assessment of the available opportunities and our goals. Calculation of budgets and deadlines required for the implementation of our plans. The emergence of a large number of very useful and effective tools based on AI. New ideas based on the use of neural network services. All this has led to the need to reconsider the concept we have chosen. And we reviewed it.
Morganica today and tomorrow. Kickstarter.
Two modes:
- Singleplayer, with a first-person view, in the horror-adventure genre. It includes action fragments of the Blood Harvest ritual, between which the Player follows the plot of the Game and can take part in additional missions in the horror-quest genre, collecting artifacts and weapons.
- Multiplayer is a Blood Harvest ritual from the storyline single-player version, inspired by the gameplay of the legendary Quake 3 Arena.
And also:
- In-game market for artifacts, weapons, skins and other useful items.
- Retention mechanics and procedural generation of combat locations are widely used.
- The latest achievements in the field of neural network technologies in the creation of key NPCs.
- Two modes - standard and VR.
That's what Morganica is today.
We are currently working on refining the cinematics. We are working on the basic gameplay. We are launching a new PR campaign for the project on our social networks. We are preparing a website update. The analysis of the new tools is carried out. The necessary staff are being selected for the upcoming pre-production stage. At the end of this year, we plan to launch the project on Kickstarter.
More than ever in these three years, we need questions, advice and comments from our subscribers. Adherents of Morganica. Interested observers of our work.
We hope for your help. Your interest. Your participation.