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Greg Street, aka Ghostcrawler, revealed his new game studio today: Fantastic Pixel Castle. The game developer teased an announcement earlier this week, and this morning, the tweet came live.
The new studio, working alongside NetEase Games, will be developing a AAA MMO codenamed “Ghost.” The developers have an upcoming livestream/AMA that will shed more light on the game and the overall vision for it
Ghostcrawler is a name people have come to know and respect in the MMO community, owing to him working for years at Blizzard Entertainment on World of Warcraft and also aiding the development of Riot Games’ upcoming MMO.
Here’s what we know so far about Fantastic Pixel Castle studio.
Former Blizzard/Riot dev Ghostcrawler reveals Fantastic Pixel Castle studio
This morning, Greg Street, better known by many as Ghostcrawler, revealed his new remote-first studio, Fantastic Pixel Castle. They will be working alongside NetEase Games to develop an MMO codenamed “Ghost.” The studio’s website gives a tiny tease of what you can expect from this upcoming title.
It speaks of a series of floating islands in the sky, a variety of biomes that promise “unlimited adventure and mystery.” As a survivor of an apocalypse, players seek to rebuild the world that has since been shattered. The reasons why are long since lost to time, and the memory of this destruction has long faded.
Players will alternate between private realms (Blue Shards) and more public realms (Red Shards) to create this MMORPG experience.
The website also says it will play similarly to a survival title. They will need to gather resources, build bases, and explore a wilderness filled with danger.
One thing that all MMO players inevitably need to know about is alt-friendliness. Some titles, like Final Fantasy 14, don’t require alts at all. However, in Fantastic Pixel Castle’s upcoming MMO, investing time in one character benefits all of them.
According to the website, it will also have “dozens of classes.” The ability to gain benefits no matter what character you’re playing sounds like it will make the game very alt-friendly. That way, you aren’t held back by just playing one class all the time or doing the same tedious grind on each character.
In a press release, Ghostcrawler spoke openly about their plans and commitment to be open and upfront with their playerbase:
"With Fantastic Pixel Castle and Ghost, we want to demonstrate our commitment to open communication and development in front of players. MMOs are arguably one of the most challenging genres of games to make, but we have some big advantages. We are a fully remote studio, allowing us to hire the best game developers, and we plan to stay small, so that we can iterate on our design quickly. We also want to show the game early and often to the community and make sure we are on the right track to incorporate constant feedback. This is possible because NetEase Games is a strategic partner that understands our vision, and gives us the creative autonomy, resources and support to be successful."
Ghostcrawler announced in a video via X (formerly Twitter) that they will be hosting a livestream on their Twitch channel (fantasticpixelcastle) on November 8, 2023.
In this livestream, Ghostcrawler will be introducing the development team, discussing the game itself and its goals, and talking about the studio in general. There will also be an AMA component, where MMO fans can hope to learn even more about what’s to come.
Simon Zhu, president of global investments and partnerships at NetEase Games, also spoke about the new studio in a press release:
“Fantastic Pixel Castle is bringing some of the best MMO talent available to NetEase Games to develop this original fantasy IP, and they will have our full support to make this vision a reality.”
As Ghostcrawler is a name synonymous with successful video games, and MMOs in particular, there is a great deal of hype and hope that this could be one of the next great MMORPGs to hit the scene.
Fantastic Pixel Castle’s upcoming livestream will take place on November 8, 2023, at 2 pm ET on their official Twitch channel.
