Camelot Unchained
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''Camelot Unchained'' is an in-development
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
from
City State Entertainment Mark Jacobs is an American game designer, programmer, author and businessman, and the former GM/VP/CEO of Mythic Entertainment, Inc and after Mythic Entertainment was sold to Electronic Arts in 2006 he served as its GM/VP/CEO at EA. Best known a ...
which was partially funded through
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
. Leading its production is Mark Jacobs, the former designer of ''
Dark Age of Camelot ''Dark Age of Camelot'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in October 2001 in North America, and in January 2002 in Europe. The game combines Arthurian lore, Norse mythology, and Irish Celtic legends with high fantasy. ...
''. Its
crowd funding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by cro ...
campaign has raised US$4.5 million with Jacobs contributing an additional $5 million from his own assets, and raising an additional $7.5 million from investors, for a total of $17 million. The game is based on its own proprietary game engine engineered for server-side physics and large-scale battles, and as such will focus primarily on open World PVP rather than "theme park" instanced encounters or battlegrounds. ''Camelot Unchained'' entered Beta 1 phase on July 31, 2018. Currently there is no release date available for it.


Gameplay

''Camelot Unchained'' is considered to be a
spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue the product lin ...
to Mark Jacobs' prior game '' Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC)'' and will prominently feature a Player versus Player (PvP)-centric design which Jacobs now calls "Tri-Realm". Also like ''DAoC'', the game will borrow from
Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...
,
Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
, and
Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths native to the island of Ireland. It was originally passed down orally in the prehistoric era, being part of ancient Celtic religion. Many myths were later written down in the early medieval era by C ...
while adding new and original elements to it. The game is planned to have large scale PvP battles as a primary focus to its gameplay. Jacobs denies considering the game a spiritual successor to ''DAoC'' although stating he could have legally done so had he chosen to.


Setting

Taking place after an apocalyptic event known as First Breaking of the World. Eons ago, the Veil was pierced. The Veil was the only border between our world and a stranger, more magical world Beyond. Through that tear in reality came the Dragons. Some hold that the Veil itself is alive; a mysterious entity that did not like being pierced. At all. Its violent reactions caused the Veilstorms. These storms tore across the earth and changed everything. Abominations and new races were forged from the fires of magic and winds of the Veilstorms, creating something new out of humanity. Sometimes, the changes made them stronger; usually, the unchecked magic made humans into monsters. Then came the Emissaries; mysterious creatures from beyond the Veil who came to this world during the Piercing. The Emissaries gifted the diverse races with immortality in order to repopulate the world. They forged three swords of power and who ever can pull the sword from anvil will become a king. Three brothers appeared, and took the three swords. With the power of these artifacts, they became what they were most like inside:
Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
,
Sigurd Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Meroving ...
, and Nuada. Each forged a Realm out of the tiny area of habitable land left in the world. In the center, they founded Camelot, the glorious place of peace known as the One True City. However, Camelot fell. The land broke apart as the stabilizers failed, and the three Realms were torn asunder by explosive magic. Three islands of civilization remained, lost in the vastness of the Stormlands.


C.U.B.E.

In addition to developing a modern MMO Camelot Unchained is being developed side by side with a building system called CUBE (Camelot Unchained Building Environment) which functions similarly to other block placing building games. The program runs with the same graphics and UI systems as the main game making Addons or mods fairly easy to write and possibly crossover. CUBE is intended to have a fully functioning physics system (although it is a player option). Currently CUBE is available to all backers of Camelot Unchained, and is open 24/7 even while the base game is still in early testing phases.


Development

On December 23, 2012, Mark Jacobs with City State Entertainment released the first teaser for the game which hinted at the premise a three faction PvP game, It was later confirmed in a subsequent interview that Jacobs was planning a Realm versus Realm (RvR) game similar to his prior game ''DAoC'' and that instead of building another "themepark-style MMO", he would focus on a more niche PvP game. City State Entertainment started a Kickstarter funding project for Camelot Unchained on April 2, 2013. By the Kickstarter's conclusion on May 2, 2013, it had 14,873 backers with US$2,232,933 raised. After the conclusion of their Kickstarter, CSE continued to receive backer funds to unlock various stretch goals. On March 3, 2015, Camelot Unchained entered into Alpha 1. The first Beta testing stage was originally scheduled for around July 18, 2015, but was delayed for what would become three years. In early 2016 during the "Crunch" buildup for Beta 1, serious flaws in the ability system were discovered. Subsequently, CSE decided that the entire ability system would need to be rebuilt from the ground up and the "re-abilitation" process would take place before Beta 1 would launch. This process took longer than expected and it was not until February 2018 that the start date for Beta 1 was announced. Camelot Unchained Beta 1 launched on July 31, 2018.


Funding for Development

The initial funding for the development of the game came from Kickstarter, with $2,232,933 being generated at the finish of Kickstarter campaign. Using an additional opportunity for people to keep funding the project directly through official website, the total crowdfunded amount was $4.5 million, in an addition of Mark Jacobs himself adding $5 million more. In 2018 City State Entertainment has secured additional $7.5 million investment from a company called GF Capital Management & Advisors, LLC. In April 2020 City State Entertainment has received a federal government loan as a part of Paycheck Protection Program, with "loan amount" listed as $639,841, later the status of this loan was updated to "forgiven" with "amount forgiven" listed as $645,311. In February 2021 City State Entertainment has received a second federal government loan as a part of Paycheck Protection Program, with "loan amount" listed as $716,927. On October 20th 2022 City State Entertainment has notified the SEC about offering additional (on top of initial offering back in 2018) shares of the company for sale in exchange for $10,000,000.


Controversy

On January 31, 2020, Mark Jacobs made an announcement during a live stream that City State Entertainment was silently developing another game, codenamed "Ragnarok: Colossus". It was based on same engine as Camelot Unchained and, according to developers, the work for Ragnarok: Colossus also benefited the development of Camelot Unchained. Backers reportedly expressed disappointment, as Camelot Unchained had no estimated date for release nor the next beta stage. Some backers requested refunds, which in some cases were delayed for over a year without developer communication, leading to speculation that the studio finances were in disarray.


References


External links

* * {{Kickstarter, 13861848/camelot-unchained, ''Camelot Unchained'' *
Camelot Unchained
' fund tracking at Kicktraq.com
The Unofficial Camelot Unchained Wiki
Fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing games Kickstarter-funded video games Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Upcoming video games Video games developed in the United States