Austin Game Conference 2004 Report

RPGVault is providing a report of their visit to this year’s Austin Game Conference, which includes updated information about a few RPG and MMORPG titles. Check it out:

Richard Garriott and Starr Long represented Tabula Rasa, which is from the publisher’s internal studio, Destination Games. Although neither was prepared to divulge any significant new information, both were clearly enthusiastic about their science fiction fantasy project, which, as of Friday, is slated as a 2005 release. The creator of the Might & Magic property, Jon Van Caneghem is heading up a team on an unannounced online world that is still in the very early stages. He said he has been playing massively multiplayer games since Ultima Online, and that he is eager to build a persistent state game that captures some of the distinctive qualities of his single-player work.

Not surprisingly, Jack Emmert, the Lead Designer on Cryptic Studios’ City of Heroes, was in good spirits. With a content update impending, the City of Villains expansion in the works and release in markets outside North America pending, it would seem he has good reason. During our conversation, he mentioned that the company has roughly quadrupled in size since the first time we met. This would put the current staff complement at about 50, which would lead me to wonder if everyone is assigned to a single project.