2D Space MMO: your support needed!

Indie developers often give up a lot to work on their dreams. Some of the most dedicated give up their jobs and even personal possessions to be able to bring that special game to life. Paul Firth is among their number.

Paul Firth is the sole developer of 2D Space MMO, a fast-paced, massively multiplayer love letter to the days of arcades and wireframe gaming. It’s like playing Asteroids in online space. And guess what – it’s actually fun. It’s cool to be pointed at a gigantic asteroid tumbling your way and co-operate (or better, to fight) with others to bring it down to a chorus of arcade-esque blits, power-up sounds and bleeps. Here’s the official gameplay vid. It’s called mmoAsteroids because apparently that was the project’s working title.

In the works is a whole player-generated universe. Paul’s worked on the PSP version of the acclaimed LittleBigPlanet, and he’s taking a leaf out of LBP’s book in bringing the ability to imagine, develop and release your own levels without needing to resort to mods and code. Sounds complex? Probably. A lot of indies try to create MMO’s and fail, but Paul has spent 10 years in the console gaming industry, mostly at Sony, pumping out code and tackling programming challenges, so he’s actually got the expertise to make it happen. He’s also the mind behind http://www.wildbunny.co.uk, a blog / help center / guidance site for anyone who wants to step into gamedev.

Now at this stage the game is STILL more of a tech demo than anything else – it’s got one level. He’s set up a call for crowdfunding on Kickstarter at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1375039912/mmoasteroids-2d-space-mmo. There’s a lengthy explanation, gameplay videos, and you can even read his bio while you’re at it. While I have no doubt that Paul will keep on working at this thing even if the Kickstarter fails – he’s already sold his car to fund development – let’s give the man a leg up. Cheers, Paul. Keep rolling.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (@yudhanjaya) is the founder of IndependentGaming.net. After some lengthy and unpleasant exams, he’s returned to the world of indies. In real life he’s a journalist/writer for the Sri Lankan tech-mag Readme.lk. His personal blog is at 4250.