GDC 2007: Acclaim to develop Top Secret the community way

Top Secret, apt name for something that was heard little of in the Game Developers Conference almost two weeks ago, is Acclaim‘s recent MMORPG developed by the end-user. Jon Wood of MMORPG.com was able to sit down with Acclaim’s CEO Howard Marks and Chief Creative Officer David Perry to talk about Top Secret.

While Top Secret will be backed by 100,000 developers, they would mostly be game development students, avid fans, and amateur game development teams all working to carve out something out of nothing.

And they’re not hoping to make just another off-the-wall MMO either. They hope to make something that the game industry has been lacking for quite some time.

Ever since the game industry’s blind move into great graphics and mediocre gameplay experiences, the numerous titles available on all game platforms today lack creativity. Everything and anything banks directly from past award-winning franchises and intellectual properties. Perry, who left Shiny Entertainment, decided to hold a contest pitting actual game developers against everyone else.

The idea of competition with cooperation, as he believes, should be able to bring a community closer together. After a similar experience with Acclaim’s past MMORPG 2Moons, Perry wanted to tap into that community involvement and twist it into an even broader, more positive direction. Is Acclaim thinking about saving on development costs? That’s narrow-minded speculation and the details on the whole mechanics of development is still in the works.

As Perry said, “We’re not saving a penny team-wise.” Acclaim still needs its own development team to smooth everything out. What the others will be getting from the experience is the know-how, getting spotted by other development companies and by pushing out an eventually free MMORPG loved by an entire community.

Top Secret, apt name for something that was heard little of in the Game Developers Conference almost two weeks ago, is Acclaim‘s recent MMORPG developed by the end-user. Jon Wood of MMORPG.com was able to sit down with Acclaim’s CEO Howard Marks and Chief Creative Officer David Perry to talk about Top Secret.

While Top Secret will be backed by 100,000 developers, they would mostly be game development students, avid fans, and amateur game development teams all working to carve out something out of nothing.

And they’re not hoping to make just another off-the-wall MMO either. They hope to make something that the game industry has been lacking for quite some time.

Ever since the game industry’s blind move into great graphics and mediocre gameplay experiences, the numerous titles available on all game platforms today lack creativity. Everything and anything banks directly from past award-winning franchises and intellectual properties. Perry, who left Shiny Entertainment, decided to hold a contest pitting actual game developers against everyone else.

The idea of competition with cooperation, as he believes, should be able to bring a community closer together. After a similar experience with Acclaim’s past MMORPG 2Moons, Perry wanted to tap into that community involvement and twist it into an even broader, more positive direction. Is Acclaim thinking about saving on development costs? That’s narrow-minded speculation and the details on the whole mechanics of development is still in the works.

As Perry said, “We’re not saving a penny team-wise.” Acclaim still needs its own development team to smooth everything out. What the others will be getting from the experience is the know-how, getting spotted by other development companies and by pushing out an eventually free MMORPG loved by an entire community.