Ex World of Warcraft and League of Legends dev finally showcases new MMORPG

We've finally been given our first live look at the upcoming MMORPG known only as Ghost, the ambitious project from Greg Street's Fantastic Pixel Castle. Often known by his moniker 'Ghostcrawler,' Street was previously lead systems designer on World of Warcraft, which he followed with a stint as lead game designer on League of Legends. The first project from his new studio, which includes multiple notable Blizzard and Riot Games veterans, is therefore one we're watching with keen interest, and now we've finally been given a look at it in action.

In a 90-minute livestream, studio head Street and director of production Juno Blees are joined by YouTube and Twitch personalities Ben 'Cohh' Cassel, Joseph 'JoCat'Catalanello, and Josh 'JoshStrifeHayes' to walk through a first look at Ghost. The new MMO has been in active development for around 14-16 months, Street comments, following an initial concept phase. What we're seeing here is a relatively early prototype, then, and it's important to keep that in mind, but a lot of the core fundamentals are immediately visible if you're familiar with any of the best MMORPGs in recent years.

Ghost is split into two core pieces: 'Blue Zones' are one-off maps that draw inspiration from roguelikes, and are focused primarily on exploration. Street says that the early format of Ghost's Blue Zones resembled the likes of Valheim more than traditional MMOs, with players initially building a base right from the start. That was eventually scrapped in favor of the team's desire to encourage players to discover the areas for themselves.

"Exploration is the vision," Street remarks, "and if we got a lot of feedback that said, 'Well what I want is, just give me the map of the whole thing and show me where everything is, then I could just go to the next part,' we wouldn't do that. That fundamentally violates the vision of the game."

The other piece of the puzzle is 'Red Zones,' which aim to capture the more traditional 'massively multiplayer' feel of seeing lots of players around you. These more classically designed regions are public and feel "like an MMO on steroids," according to Street. There won't be too many of these; the team wants them to bring players together and feel memorable and epic, he explains.

When asked who the game's target audience is, Street responds, "We really want to target [the West] - by which I mean players who love World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14, Elder Scrolls Online, Guild Wars 2. A lot of those games are, in some cases, decades old, and there's a sense that it's time for a new, big, tentpole MMO. When we ask players, 'If we made a new MMO, would you try it?' The numbers are that 80% of players say, 'Absolutely.'"

While we wait on more concrete news about when we'll be able to try Ghost for ourselves, you can follow the team's regular blog on the Fantastic Pixel Castle website for additional updates and insights into development.

If exploration is your jam, the best open-world games invite you to partake with glee. Need a bit of a boost to help them run smoothly? We've picked out the best gaming CPU to suit your budget.

I'll certainly be watching Ghost with interest, and if you're doing the same and want to share your thoughts on the current state of MMOs, feel free to do so in our community Discord server, where you can chat with your fellow readers.