TCoS: Free to Play FO YO FACE!

This is from the TCOS Developer's Blog:

It happens sometimes; a really good game will slip through the cracks. There are a lot of reasons why this happens and I know you will have opinions, but I’m not here to talk about that.

I feel like Spellborn was one of those games. A solid MMORPG with a twitch combat interface that meant that player skill actually mattered in PvP. Most of those who played it enjoyed it. And it did pretty well in the reviews online. It was originally a subscription based game with servers in EU and North America, and is now in redevelopment to be converted to a F2P. Acclaim still has servers running the original version and that is why I’m writing this.

We felt like people missed out. They didn’t get to see what Spellborn was really like. And we are going to fix that.

Today, as you read this, Spellborn as it currently exists is now free to play. Keep in mind that there will be no upgrades and no patches. It has become in effect, an Action RPG with superior Multiplayer. The only thing it will cost you to play is the time it takes to download.

So play it. http://www.tcos.com

Now because it is frozen in time, we will be creating events for the players and we will help support any players that want to make their own events. And if you have thoughts on how we might make this version more enjoyable as we wait for the New free to play version, we are glad to listen.

David Historian DeWald
Community Manager
Acclaim Games Inc.
community@acclaim.com

I did get a chance to play Spellborn, and I've got to say, one of the best parts of that game is the character "look" customization. I easily spent an hour making sure I looked spiffy in red and black. But as for the game itself, I didn't get very far because while I enjoyed the FPS like combat system, it just didn't grab me. It might have been me getting ganked by wolves along the road and dying in seconds, but ego aside, I didn't see enough in it to subscribe.

But now that it's free, I may just go back and check it out.

TCOS: Acclaim Named as US Publisher

Well, I've been scarce as of late (wahahaha), but I've been busy busy busy with stuffs! (Plus, for some reason, I got addicted to Atlantica Online for a bit!)

At any rate, the folks at TCOS have been shopping around for a US publisher, and they've found one that's almost legit. And from what I read, there's even going to be a "free to play" beginning area to hook you. Yay!

Are we still excited?

Here is the official blurbage and a link to the official press release:

North American publisher for Spellborn revealed!

TUESDAY, 19TH OF AUGUST 2008 :: POSTED BY BANSHEE :: 19 COMMENTS

We are very proud and delighted to announce that our North American publisher is Acclaim!
Acclaim is impressed by the work and dedication that has been put into The Chronicles of Spellborn and is looking forward to releasing TCoS in North America! You can read the press release here.

Also, here's a link to the open letter from David Perry, Acclaim dude and the US Director of Spellborn:

OPEN LETTER FROM DAVID PERRY TO THE SPELLBORN COMMUNITY

Hi,
My name is David Perry, and I’m the Chief Creative Officer of Acclaim Games (the new Acclaim) that is now the #1 American publisher of Free-to-Play Online Games. Some of you “old school” gamers might remember me from the old Sinclair Spectrum/Amstrad CPC/Commodore 64/Amiga/Atari ST days, back before the MMO concept even existed!

The CEO of Acclaim (Howard Marks) was the Chairman of Activision Studios through their massive growth during the 1990’s, and together we travel the world in search of the best new games that we can possibly find. Right now we’re tracking over 400 MMO games (yes it’s insane!). My poor old gaming PC is literally peppered with games in every conceivable language, and I’ve just kept playing, patiently waiting for that WHOA! moment. The game that finally got us there is Spellborn. When we saw it running, our jaws literally dropped to the floor. “Who the heck made this? We need to talk!”

Two reasons why I knew this game was really cool:

REASON 1
I had been at the G-Star Game Conference in Korea, and I had a note in my notebook saying “Frogster �" Spellborn” with a big giant STAR beside it. From the zillion games at the show, it was this game that really stood out to me. I remember going back several times just to take another look.

REASON 2
My staff (who absolutely LIVE for these kinds of games) have been bugging me like crazy. “Have you heard of this ‘Spellborn’ game? Come on Dave, you know people, can’t you get us a developer account?” One of them just asked me again today!

So now the word is FINALLY out! I just want to officially say to the creators that we immensely appreciate the hard work that’s gone into this game, and I know, that they know, that I know just how tough that work is!

So congratulations to the entire Chronicles of Spellborn team for making this game. We will make you proud in the USA/Canada and will soon have tons of gamers eager to play with you all in this amazing new world. I also want to say thanks to the Closed Beta testers that are helping with balancing. At Acclaim, our players & testers are highly valued, and we form player advisory boards for each of our games so that the Gamers have a voice to Myself, the CEO, the Acclaim Team & the Developers of the game.

At the keynote speech of this year’s Leipzig Game Developers Conference, and I reminded everyone of the three golden rules of running an MMO like this:

(1) Community
(2) Community
(3) Community!

A game like this, using a cutting-edge engine (thanks to the talent over at Epic), is an incredible opportunity for us all to grow this world, to make it a success and to make new friends.

So I look forward to meeting many of you in the world of Spellborn!

David Perry.
USA Director - The Chronicles of Spellborn

Spellborn: The Top Ten Hammer Interview

I've obviously been distracted by sexy AoC, but I did have some time today to read this very nice interview about "The Chronicles of Spellborn," from Ten Top Hammer.

It's 2 pages so I'll let you read it fully below at the following link:

Page 1
Page 2

Just a snippet:

Spellborn has a very unique clothing and combat system.

Ten Ton Hammer: For a U.S. player that’s unfamiliar with Spellborn, what’s the most important thing they should know about the game? Why should they be looking forward to this particular title?

Deslandes: The uniqueness of Spellborn resides in several main features, the first one being the manual targeting combat system, where players have to aim at their opponent to damage it thanks to a reticule à la FPS. There are absolutely no random dice rolls in Spellborn. You won’t see any randomly generated critical hits. In addition all attacks can be dodged, evaded, by moving around the target. The combat is 100% real-time, so if a player stands in front of an enemy and hacks at it, it’s almost certain death. Moreover, The Chronicles of Spellborn introduces a unique six-tiered and 5 slotted rotating skill deck. Like in a trading card game, players can configure this combat bar before every encounter. After every attack the deck turns and offers a new row of five skills to be chosen from. You can imagine that this skill deck is a very powerful strategic feature, because every player can configure it the way he or she wants – may it be offensive, defensive, for solo game, group fights, you name it…

Besides, Spellborn features a system we labelled “Dress to Impress”. Since gear doesn’t have any statistics, players are not bound to wear the same armour just because without it, they would die like flies. From level 1 to 50 (level cap) players can wear whatever they want; it’s not going to make them less powerful. There are no class and race restrictions, so even a Rune Mage can wear plate looking-like armour, it’s not a problem.

Our classes (9 in total) are completely unique and all have some healing abilities which gives more survival abilities to the players. Their skills are totally different from anything you saw before.

To sum up, Spellborn is a new game with a brand new Lore taking place in a fantasy setting. We implemented lots of innovative gameplay features (manual targeting, rotating skill deck, dress to impress…) so that players are totally free to play the game the way they want to without any limitations. We hope it will bring some fresh air to the MMO genre, and players like it as much as we do.

TCoS: Belated US Release News

I've been slightly (*cough*) sidetracked by AOC so I haven't been keeping up with TCoS, but, looks like the EU and US launches will be taking place simultaneously sometime optimistically in Q3 and realistically in Q4:

Hello Community members !

Today, we would like to share an important update with you about The Chronicles of Spellborn.

After we attended the GDC in San Francisco, TCoS and Frogster have been in contact with different parties regarding the distribution of Spellborn in the USA.

Recently, one major MMOG publisher has signed a letter of intent as a potential partner for the release of The Chronicles of Spellborn in the USA, assuming a time of six months so that Spellborn can be successfully introduced to the US public.

Frogster and we, TCoS Devs, decided to use this extra time to improve our server architecture as well as apply further polish and balancing.

Thanks to this additional development time, we will make sure that the flow of the gameplay and the performance correspond to the high quality expectations for the game even with high numbers of players.

The launch of Spellborn is now estimated to take place in Autumn 2008, simultaneously in Europe and in the USA.

Our current Beta planning remains the same, and our tester pool has been increased by one hundred community members recently, ramping up towards bigger numbers as more testing needs arise.

To conclude, we will make sure to reveal the USA partner as soon as a final deal is signed, but in the meantime, keep on being active and helpful to the community, for it’s your best chance to participate in the Beta test and make Spellborn an even better game!

For the Oracle !
_________________
*Mirage*
PR Manager
Community Manager
The Chronicles of Spellborn

The timing I think, will give people time to try out AOC, see if they like it and move on with a clear conscience if it wasn't what they were looking for.

If it delivers on its promises, I'd definitely like to try it regardless!

Spellborn Finds Its NA Publisher?

According to the front page of their official website:

TCoS Project Update!

THURSDAY, 10TH OF APRIL 2008 :: POSTED BY *MIRAGE* :: 68 COMMENTS



Hello Community members !

Today, we would like to share an important update with you about The Chronicles of Spellborn.

After we attended the GDC in San Francisco, TCoS and Frogster have been in contact with different parties regarding the distribution of Spellborn in the USA.

Recently, one major MMOG publisher has signed a letter of intent as a potential partner for the release of The Chronicles of Spellborn in the USA, assuming a time of six months so that Spellborn can be successfully introduced to the US public.

Frogster and we, TCoS Devs, decided to use this extra time to improve our server architecture as well as apply further polish and balancing.

Thanks to this additional development time, we will make sure that the flow of the gameplay and the performance correspond to the high quality expectations for the game even with high numbers of players.

The launch of Spellborn is now estimated to take place in Autumn 2008, simultaneously in Europe and in the USA.

Our current Beta planning remains the same, and our tester pool has been increased by one hundred community members recently, ramping up towards bigger numbers as more testing needs arise.

To conclude, we will make sure to reveal the USA partner as soon as a final deal is signed, but in the meantime, keep on being active and helpful to the community, for it’s your best chance to participate in the Beta test and make Spellborn an even better game!

For the Oracle !

*Mirage*

To read on the full Press Release, click on "Read more".

Click on the linkie and you find the follow:

TCoS Project Update!
THURSDAY, 10TH OF APRIL 2008 :: POSTED BY *MIRAGE* :: 68 COMMENTS

New Release Schedule for Spellborn
Results of closed beta and potential US publisher

Berlin, 10th of April 2008: After a first review of the beta tests of The Chronicles of Spellborn, which began at the beginning of March, the Dutch developers have decided to make a revision to the server infrastructure. At this time, the game-play mechanics and graphics of the game client have already matched the high demand for quality. These have been mostly completed and will now be thoroughly optimized and polished. In reworking the tools and the network code, Spellborn NV now wants to ensure that the flow and performance of gameplay live up to the general expectations. At the same time, the developer will lay the foundation to allow for quick expansion of the game, with new content and updates, once it is released.

Meanwhile, Frogster Interactive has found a renowned MMOG publisher to be a potential partner for the release of Spellborn in the USA and has already signed a letter of intent. For a successful market introduction, the potential licensor will require a lead time of six months at least. As a consequence, both Frogster and the developers of Spellborn NV have decided to initiate the revision of the server architecture and to use this time to prepare for a coordinated worldwide release of the game. Considering the new strategy, Frogster assumes a launch of The Chronicles of Spellborn in autumn 2008. Nevertheless, the developer will continue the current closed beta tests for the time being. Just yesterday, Spellborn NV has expanded the circle of accredited testers by one hundred committed members of the community to balance and optimize the gameplay even more.

What lies hidden, must be found
With The Chronicles of Spellborn players enter into an impressive online scenario with scenic landscapes, majestic cities and the remnants of an ancient civilization. Alone or with a party of allies, PC adventurers step into a huge fantasy realm consisting of varied shard worlds floating in the magic Deadspell Storm. Those who want to prevail in the staged combats of The Chronicles of Spellborn need to apply their mighty arsenal of spells, melee and ranged attacks skillfully. Battles with bloodthirsty creatures, hostile peoples and human opponents in PvP battles are waiting. An innovative and tactically challenging combat system with shooter-like controls and rotating skill deck provides a fresh breath of air for the dusty MMORPG genre. Thanks to the largely extended Unreal Engine 2.5 The Chronicles of Spellborn boasts stunning 3D graphics, spectacular effects and countless elaborate details. Depending on the current closed beta test, the game will be published in Autumn of 2008. More information, images and videos can be found on www.tcos.com.

So what they're trying to say is...be on the look out for a release date about mid-October/early-November? Wouldn't that be a precious precious birthday gift! XD

TCoS: Release Set for the 2nd Quarter of 2008

Da da dan!! Finally moar news about this from the horse's mouth:

Hello TCoS Community members! Time for an update on this little project of ours called The Chronicles of Spellborn.

We have recently started the final tests for The Chronicles of Spellborn. Beginning of last week, a new phase within the internal beta phases has been initiated with a brand new version of the game. Up to now these tests have performed very satisfactory, so that they can be expanded pretty soon to larger participants groups like enlisted community members. Server stress tests have been successfully completed by our team in Autumn already.

Thus we expect a release of The Chronicles of Spellborn in the second quarter of 2008. Based on the test results of the next weeks and the upcoming series of Closed Beta tests, we will announce the beginning of the Open Beta and then specific release dates for each territory.

To conclude, I’d like to remind you to make sure the email address you used to register on our website is working and not full, for, who knows, there might a nice little email coming your way.

For the Oracle !
_________________
*Mirage*
PR Manager
Community Manager
The Chronicles of Spellborn

Looks like if AoC tanks, we'll have tons of other choices, including Aion, WAR and TCoS too. Wahahah. Is the drought finally over?

The starting area vid:

TCoS: Beta Looms Closer

I've been in a bit of a COD kick so I haven't been paying attention to my usual forums but...check this post out from Freeze from the TCOS boards out:

Things are going extremely well here at the Spellborn office. The game is looking, sounding, feeling and playing better every day. Over the last few weeks we matched the development schedule with the release schedules of our publishers and we are happy to announce that we have defined dates for open beta and for release. Open beta can be expected to start early April 2007 and release in Europe is planned for May 2007 with other continents following in Q2 and Q3. The third closed beta phase is planned to start early February 2007 and we are looking forward to the feedback from all our closed beta members.

These last few months the entire team will focus on finishing the game and preparing all services needed for launch such as customer support and billing. To ensure that we have a clear and direct channel of communication we decided to close down our open irc channels and focus all our communication efforts on our official forums.

The next few months are going to be very exciting and we want to thank you all for taking this journey with us. We hope to welcome you in our closed or open beta soon!

At this point, I'm so starved for an MMO that I'm willing to pay for a sub to a European server...if the game's good that is. :) My FilePlanet subscription is good to go too. Hope I can reserve a beta spot!

Chronicles of Spellborn: In Game Footage Reel

Hmm. What is this shit? Fury!? WTF!?

But...I shall still try it given the chance!

Chronicles of Spellborn: Release Date, Publisher Info

This was posted by Mirage, the Global Community Manager on the official TCoS boards:

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:14 am Post subject: Spellborn: Project Update!

Hi TCoS Community,

Time for an update on this little project of ours! The update will deal with three important topics and come to think of it, they all bring good news!

As you might have noticed already on our forums, a press release sent by Frogster Germany has been posted mentioning a new timeframe for the TCoS release. The mentioned delay is indeed correct and the new release period will indeed be Q1 2008. This extra time will gives us some more flavour content and give us more time to QA all features. Next to that it also gives our publishers time for an extensive upcoming marketing effort.

Talking about our publisher, I’m very proud to break some news to you that will be very good news for the community. We recently finalized a historic deal with a Japanese partner! Frogster issued a press release which you can find here: http://www.frogster-ip.de/read_pdf.php?file=fip/2007_10_10_pm_en_tcos_japan.pdf.
This new deal is one of the largest ever made for the Japanese PC market. This is not only excellent news for the development and publishing parties, for this new partnership clearly shows the anticipation around TCoS on a worldwide scale, but we couldn’t have expected anything better for our game. Yatta!

To conclude this update, I’d like to share a major achievement for the game, specifically in terms of Tech, which happened recently. For the past weeks we’ve been actively performing different series of stress-tests to check and test the progress made in server and network stability.

You most likely have encountered in your past or even present gaming experiences serious downtimes or even server crashes when many players gathered in the same place. This can be very frustrating and I dare say annoying if it happens on a large scale. Brace yourselves, because during one of our internal stress tests we simulated more than 500 players in real gaming conditions in one single zone (Hawk’s Landing/Hawksmouth) without any crashes or other downtime. This might not look so extraordinary at first glance, but trust me, for a game with heavy action-based combat and such AI; this is one heck of a feat for an MMO. This might even mean we might not need the “silent instancing/copying system” mentioned on the forums in the past (take that with great care, we still need to assess such possibilities). So not only is it a great achievement, it is also very, very, good news! This marks our truly professional and amazing cooperation between our in-house devs and the Korean reinforcements. Way to go guys!

That’s it for this update. I want to personally thank all of you Community Members for your support. This is very much appreciated (even more than you think), especially now the release is getting really close. This is the final dash before the finish line, and we’re delighted to have you on our side till the end!

For the Oracle!

*Mirage*

Now cut to the stickied FAQs and:

Question What about USA? I read game might be released in EU first?

We still cannot disclose details about our American publishers, since deals haven't been finalized yet. Our goal is to release the game at same time for all countries, however it still depends on our partners.

Excitement!!

Chronicles of Spellborn: Q&A Session

It's long! And incredibly informative! So read it when you have some time (like during work.)

The link:

http://www.tcos.com/sbforum/viewtopic.php?t=11442

This particular Q&A Session covers body slots, skills and combos.

For me, the body slots (no, not body shots) were the most interesting read. A couple examples:

Bodyslots:

Q: How many bodyslots will one receive and how many can be visible on any given time (on the blood warrior and the runemage for example)?

A: It’s different per subclass, ranging from 10 to 15 bodyslot items per subclass. Only 5 can be equipped in the bodyslot-bar at any time, though. Tattoo’s and Scars show on torso, arms and head.

Q: The rune mages body slots are tattoo’s.. Will it be looking like normal tattoos or will they have some glow particle effect, etc.?

A: They’ll look like normal tattoos, but with specific shapes. Glows and particle’s, however awesome, are on the post release to-do(/wish) list. It’s one of those things I really want, but then again there are many of those.

Sounds pretty sweet. And different. I like it!

The Chronicles of Spellborn: Trailers/Updates/Screenies

This is old but I think it still shows off some nice images for TCoS. Unfortunately for that entire duration there's some ho singing in it blocking the game footage. (MOVE!) Apparently a lot of people said the trailer and singing gave them goosebumps but for me it was hives as I don't particularly enjoy that type of wahhmbulance type music, oh sorry, "Symphonic Metal." *snicker*

Anyhoo, the link. You have to give 'em an email address:

Spellborn and Within Temptation today released 'The Howling' to selected music and game websites worldwide. 'The Howling' is a 6 minute long gametrailer for The Chronicles of Spellborn featuring a song written exclusively for the game by Within Temptation. You can check out a 1 minute preview on the websites listed below or you can surf to www.the-howling.com to register for the full 6 minute version. Enjoy!

As for release dates, the there's still no US publisher (which is fine by me since I'll just play the EU-UK version). The most recent post about open beta is dated JULY 2007 and says:

darkone1687 wrote:
Any Idea when open beta starts... It says in the first post around April but it's July and it's still not open... Are there complications or is it going to be open really soon?

Since our release date was postponed since the first post of this thread has been made, open beta date moved to the future as well.

And as I chronicled a bit before, the 3rd CB was extended...but for how much moar!?

Meanwhile, the great INTERWEBZ gossip column that is the MMORPG.COM community suspect the following:

Its been set for a Q4 release this year in europe. I've heard that US should be a month or two after the europe release. Being in the US, this upsets me because I can't wait to play this game...I would throw away the halo 3 i'll be getting in a few days to play this game...but I'll have to wait...

Until then...time to blast some demons. WAHAHAH.

p.s. The newest screenies can be found in dis thread.

Chronicles of Spellborn: Game Play Video

ZOMGZ!! "IZ NOT VAPOREWHERE!?" (*snicker*) Yes, the game is getter realer and realer.

Source:

Chronicles of Spellborn - Live Gameplay @ GC2007 - WEB.DE Video

*purr purr*

GC 2007: The Chronicles of Spellborn Dev Interview Vid

This is a long ass video that the guys from MMORPG did with some of the Chronicles of Spellborn devs:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gc-germany.cfm/section/videos/id/1107

Like I said, it's long (27 mins long), but it's got a lot of info in it and the devs seem like pretty cool guys too. I've been lurking on their boards for over a year (because I'm shy of course...*snort*).

Anyhoo, TCOS is currently in an extended closed 3rd beta stage in preparation for, and I quote, a "flawless" open beta.