Ghost is the brand-new MMO worked on by Fantastic Pixel Castle Studio. This also brand-new studio was announced on November 2, 2023, on their Twitter. The Studio is filled with very talented employees, as it has been founded by Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, the ex-development lead for the Riot Games MMO.
The Team behind Fantastic Pixel Castle Studio is filled to the brim with talents from all around the industry. Employees from Riot Games and Blizzard have joined Ghostcrawler on the adventure.
The People Behind Fantastic Pixel Castle Studio
FPC was founded in 2023 to create their take on a modernized fantasy MMORPG, code-named Ghost. They are committed to being a fully remote and global studio, so that they are able to hire the best of the best. World-class developers and employees that work and live their best live.
The Team thinks that top-heavy bureaucracy stifles creativity, so they want to stay small to focus on delivering a game and world that we can love.
Fantastic Pixel Castle Studio is aiming to foster a trusting work environment where they can have fun playing and developing the game while also partnering with us, the players, to make the game the best it can be.
The Team is led by Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, who has previously worked on World of Warcraft, League of Legends and was also previously the Lead Game Designer for the highly anticipated Riot Games MMO. It would be an understatement to say that he is more than capable of finding talented people and developing a great game. He is joined by people who have been working on games longer than I have been alive!
Just to name a few examples, Brian Holinka has spent a decade designing Weapons and Vehicles in various shooters and another decade to craft the combat in WoW. Candace Thomas has developed WoW for over 13 years spanning from Burning Crusade to Shadowlands, worked on Diablo 4, the Lord of the Rings MMO from Amazon, New World and the Riot MMO. She's also apparently a Healer main, which can only be good for team building.
The World Of Ghost
Not much is yet known about the game, code-named “Ghost”. They intend it to be a fantasy-themed Massive Multiplayer Online Game in a world that was ruptured by an apocalypse lost to memory.
It is a brand-new IP with a fantasy world full of heroic adventures and mysteries. While you will fight with axes, crossbows and magic FPC is trying to avoid the tropes of fantasy that we have seen hundreds of times. That also means that we won't be seeing any elves or orcs in ghost. It is something that they are pouring a lot of passion in early so that we can enjoy it for the decades to come.
Seemingly endless shards of broken worlds, unlimited adventures and mysteries are promised in many unique biomes. You travel between these world shards to increase your power. We collect resources and build a civilization with diverse and changing factions, where our choices shape the epic story.
The Gameplay of Ghost
While we don't know a lot about Ghost yet, FPC have decided to share a little bit about their plans on the gameplay. Do keep in mind that the game is still in early development and things can always change.
Those World shards will alternate between blue and red shards. The blue shards will play more like a survival game, where you and your friends can gather resources and build bases. They are extremely variable, and FPC guarantees that you will never see the same one twice. Because those blue shards are for you and your friends only, your changes on them are permanent.
Red shards will be crafted by some of the best artist and encounter designers to provide a massive multiplayer experience with many players at once. That means challenges, rare resources and even end game raiding instances. The core way to play the game is to travel between the 2 shards regularly, as well as the big hub area.
Ghost wants to be a game that respects your time. The Story will unfold in chapters, so players can take a break after an important story part and won't be left behind when the next part releases.
They also promised that from the moment you first log in, you will be able to play with new and old friends. No special unlocks needed.
The game will feature a plethora of classes. Some of they might be iconic healers, tanks, or damage dealers, while some will be a bit unusual. They are also planning to make the game alt-friendly to further incentivize trying out new classes.
Fantastic Pixel Castle is developing the game for PC, but they do want to ship for console as well. While there is no release date or even anything close to it, yet they want to move quickly into development and plan to be faster than the average AAA game. They also mentioned that it's still too early to talk about monetization but that we don't need to worry about gacha-systems, loot boxes or pay to win mechanics.
Personally, I am really excited to learn more about Ghost. What do you think should be in the game?