There’s an interesting but brief article at Massively titled “Could Smaller Be Better?”, asking whether the “massive” aspect of Massively Multiplayer Online Games takes some of the fun out of gaming.

Before this company existed, i entered the 2007 Vortex Game Competition. The competition turned out to be a disappointing event catering to students, and run by staff and friends of the incredibly dodgy International Academy of Design and Technology, a school about which i’ve heard stories to curl your hair. (i almost hesitate to link to them. Well - here it is in a nutshell: don’t go.)

The Vortex entry was called Islands Untold. It’s exactly the kind of small MMO the Massively article talks about. One of the posters there says:

To replicate this sort of experience MMO’s would have to forcibly seperate people and that just wouldn’t work out.

Au contraire! Islands Untold solves this problem by grouping players together on islands.

Here is the original game proposal for the competition:

Islands Untold

Islands Untold is a casual multiplayer online game in which teams of five players co-operate to survive, settle, and defend a tiny tropical island. Every island is home to a Thinker, a Maker, a Worker, a Gatherer, and a Shaman. As each player brings a special skill to the island, success depends on teamwork and co-operation. Even so, some players may decide to backstab each other … even if it means angering the island god “the Big Pao”. As players research and create new tools and technology, they will be able to communicate with, and even invade, the thousands of other islands adrift in the endless uncharted seas.

Players will be excited to log into Islands Untold every day to feed their online avatar, much like a virtual pet. Fellow island dwellers will see logged-out players as though they are sleeping. While he is away from the game, a player’s team members might feed his avatar to keep him alive, or decide to murder him! The Big Pao keeps an account of all injustices, and will recincarnate players on different islands if they fall victim to a mutinous tribe.

Every day, a new random item will wash up on the shore of the island. This could be a common item or a rare one – players have to log in to find out! Along with the survival mechanic, the random crate reward is an excellent hook to encourage repeat gameplays.

Project Elements:

The game will utilize a Flash front-end and a PHP/mySQL solution for the backend. Communication between the two will be handled by SmartFox Server, a multiplayer gaming server built specifically for Flash.

Point of Difference:

Islands Untold will appeal to casual online gamers who claim they have no time to play games, yet end up playing as often as so-called hardcore gamers. The game’s depth and complexity will there for players who want a more enriching experience, but to new players, Islands Untold will seem a fun, survival-themed Tamagotchi game.

This game is unique in that it is technically a massively multiplayer online game, except that the potentially thousands of players are grouped together in teams of five on isolated islands. This has the dual effect of speeding up messaging between players, and focussing on co-operation before competition. Since co-operative play is often cited as an appealing element to female gamers, Islands Untold will have a broad consumer reach.

Regular content updates will be supported by micropayments.

<< end submission >>

The judges didn’t show me much love because i didn’t discuss financials, a required component of the competition. (i may have had a more complete presentation, but the organizers confirmed my entry two business days before the event!) The judges also figured i “didn’t need the help”, because i was gainfully employed at a Canadian media conglomorate.

Little did they know that within a few short months, i would leave my company and resort to scrounging for improvised loin cloths in city dumpsters to keep my body warm in the ensuing winter.