Ideallo.co.uk had a nice publicity piece for Stargate Worlds, highlighting the wisdom of basing the graphics engine on Unreal Engine 3.

Everything started with Roland Emmerich: the film Stargate from 1994 has since grown into a whole universe of stories: Television series and books are commercial successes. No surprise then that a computer game is now in development too. But Stargate Worlds is really giving effort and looking to be an ambitious MMORPG project. Thanks to the Unreal 3 Engine and multisided scenarios the graphics look absolutely stunning, like in most MMORPGs.

The “Make” e-zine blog reported finding aluminum molds in a scrapyard. Case in point, the stuff I found this week in a bin of what’s called ‘New Aluminum’ in the scrap metal trade. They looked like 12″x12″ pieces of 3/8″ aluminum plate until I flipped one over to reveal… The StarGate. In absolutely jawdropping detail. Really. Take a moment to scope these detail images and fantasize about what you could make if you had a cnc mill with this kind of resolution. Un-freakin’-believable… and there was a pair of ‘em! Both sides of a mold made specifically to crank out weensy little StarGates about 9″ across. Personally, I’d always thought Richard Dean Anderson was taller than that, but whatever… These things had come into the yard in a load of stuff from one of the movie industry prop shops…they’d seen some use (there were a few stray bits of resin visible), but were nearly new. I’ve done a fair bit of casting and mold-making over the years, but I experienced a complete WTF moment when I realized that this particular mold had no sprues.

I’ve a friend who’s picked up a few things while dumpster diving, and is a total wizard when it comes to garage sales (I mean, a total wiz!) but I could never have imagined anyone scoring movie/tv props like these!

Talking of sweet images, the recent WarCry Preview of Stargate Worlds (forum members got an exclusive look at the hi-res images linked in the article) showed off some nice details.

The article has some nice quotes:

Which leads into the second major differentiator for Stargate Worlds, and it’s all in the title. Unlike the last three sci-fi/rpg/shooter games [Hellgate: London, Tabula Rasa, Mass Effect], they have a major intellectual property behind them: Stargate.

They’re very aware of their own IP and have gone to great lengths to weave the style of the show into all facets of gameplay. Nowhere is this more evident than in their approach to classes and, as a result, basic gameplay.

“Frankly, we have the best writing staff in the game industry and we understand how to tell stories in the interactive space,” boasted Klug. He cited the team’s experience from Earth & Beyond, Ultima Online and other past projects as examples of their strength.

I play The Matrix Online for the ongoing story, and the chance to participate in the story. A quote that claims “the best writing staff in the game industry” sends shivers through me as it hits my “hot button” for gaming. Why else would my favourite XBox games be

• “Knights of the Old Republic” (I and II)
• Jade Empire
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (original, and Chaos Bleeds)

Yeah, I like story.

The WarCry article finished off saying an encouraging

They did say Stargate Worlds remains on schedule for a Fall 2008 release, but did not get into public testing timelines. The target date should put it up against some stiff competition in the form of EA Mythic’s Warhammer Online and potentially Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft. Nonetheless, Cheyenne doesn’t seem too worried. “All you can really do is make the best game you can,” Klug said.

I cant wait! Roll on Q4!!

To design the collectors edition … or at least put up your ideas, Head over to here to post your comments.

Kevin Balentine spoke with Curse.com in a recent interview:

Stargate Worlds Exclusive

Stargate Worlds, which is being developed by industry new comers Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, will allow players to take control of a character in the Stargate universe. Players will be able to explore an ever-expanding galaxy of planets, spaceships and aliens all the while waging war as part of one of two player factions – the light side or the dark side.

The interview features two nice screenshots of worlds in the game.

MMORPG.com have declared Stargate Worlds to be “Game of the Week”. The buzz here is that they

…will be speaking with Cheyenne Mountain about the game at this week’s Game Developer’s Conference.

Take a look at their site, and what they have to say about the game. It would have been a lot of fun to visit the GDC (Game Developer’s Conference) in San Francisco all this week (Feb 18-22, 2008). Maybe I could swing a trip to it next year on the grounds that it’s on right around my birthday? It would certainly beat visiting the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, that’s for sure!

So, keep your eyes open for news out of the GDC, I would put money on this being a venue for CME releasing new information and creating buzz.

Stargate Worlds Diary #1

Cheyenne Mountain’s Chris Klug discusses storytelling in massively multiplayer games and the writer’s primary job

Stargate Worlds Diary #2

The Creative Director on Cheyenne Mountain’s online project discusses scenes and their role in conveying a story

Stargate Worlds Diary #3

A new segment from Cheyenne Mountain on more of the creative thinking underlying the title’s storytelling element

Stargate Worlds Diary #4

A deconstructed mission to show us some of the thought processes employed by Cheyenne Mountain’s writing team

Today the 31th or the 1st depending where you live is the 2nd Anniversary for the Stargate Worlds forums. I think we should give a round of applause for the moderators and CME workers. It’s not often that a community for a game is launched so early in its production, But as you can see it paid off well. Bringing such members together like Jayna, Zoeff and Ryst making what the forums are today! Three Cheers for SGW and CME. Hip Hurray, Hip Hurray, Hip Hurray.

Full Story Here.

~Uplink

As promised, quite some time ago now, this is the updated alignment chart for races in Stargate. The big difference is how the Nox are classified: originally I thought of them as true neutral, but it was pointed out that they really are good (if neutral / pacifist). Moving them across suddenly made space for an important race that I’d not classified: the ascended Gate Builders themselves, the only race who are utterly bound by the rule of non-interference.

Thanks for the feedback that brought that particular aspect to life!

Dan Elggren and Chris Klug spoke with IGN recently:

Stargate Worlds Explored

Cheyenne Mountain tells us just about all there is to know about their upcoming MMOG.

It’s a powerful idea for a game, especially an MMO - an entire fictional universe built around the concept of shimmering circular portals that can lead anywhere. After 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1, there’s certainly no lack of material for Cheyenne Mountain to work with when converting the fiction to the MMO space.

The interview sparked a very healthy and lively discussion over on the main Stargate Worlds forums.

The Ten Ton Hammer gaming website has a great interview with the Stargate Worlds team, well worth a look!

MMORPG.com linked to an article over on Gateworld.net (so, it must be true!) saying

Gateworld.net has announced that when Stargate Atlantis returns to Sci-Fi on January 4th, they will be showing a trailer for Stargate Worlds.

Further to that, the Jan. 11th episode of the show will kick off a new SGW promotion.

See the MMORPG.com news posting.

And over on the Gateworld.net news article that they linked to, it says

…make sure to tune in to Atlantis when it returns from the holiday break on January 4. That night will feature the first look at the Stargate Worlds game trailer.

So, now we know why the main splash page for SGW has been updated!