The Paragon Successor Projects — Project CORE

Project CORE by Metabuff Studios was announced in November 2018. Initial videos shared concept art, a furnished level, and the essentials of working gameplay. Further trailers followed in early 2019, before an extended period of internally-focused production.

In August 2020, the team announced a change in direction: committing to development of original IP and art assets. I caught up with one of the Metabuff founders opolisprime to find out more about the team's journey so far and what's coming up next.

opolisprime: Firstly, as we've recently announced, we're taking the art style in our own direction. There's two reasons for that: market saturation and sustainability.

If you look at the quality required for Paragon skins, the sustainability does not make sense. I get why Epic chose Fortnite over Paragon; it's so much easier to monetise. Fortnite has one role which is to shoot people, while Paragon has a mixture. If you make a skin for an offlaner, only 20% of people are interested in what you made.

Fortnite skins and cosmetics are easier to produce. Stylised assets don't need a big team of artists and it doesn't take the artists two months. We had one of our artists do a Riktor skin, and for the number of players who would be interested, it wasn't worth it.

We're not going for Paragon's look, nor Fortnite's look; Project CORE will be something in between with elements of stylised and realism.

Another factor in sustainability is castability. We've consulted with some big names in casting, and if you can't connect with your audience visually, the chances of it taking off and being enormous are slim to none.

People play what they watch, and watch what they play — our art direction won't ignore that.

A last point on the sustainability is that owning the IP turns out to be a big deal. We consulted with marketing team for Rick and Morty, and marketing people for other games, and it became clear we'd never get someone to fund the game or expand it because we don't own IP. No-one can partner with you!

The second thing we're doing differently is that Paragon was categorically a MOBA. Project CORE is open to crossing genre boundaries.

The main thing we recognised though our research — we've been focused on research and going to legal for Epic and what licenses can be done, we've done a lot of that because we ended up with a team that's more into knowing everything before we put our foot in it — we've come to the conclusion that our Paragon players would make up 1% of the market for the game.

Paragon was never really in the positives; it never had the Overwatch or League of Legends playerbase. If you look at the MAU comparison; it's slim, extraordinarily slim. That's not sustainable; we wouldn't have enough.

We're looking to draw from others areas of gaming, not just from Paragon players. We've talked to Battleborn devs, top League of Legends players, competitive Overwatch players, and we're looking to draw some of that in. We ask questions, really trying to understand the psychology of why they play and what motivates them.

Paragon touched on a market that didn't exist; a 3D world of not just looking down on your character as you're playing a MOBA. Everyone has looked at League of Legends as the model; but you're much more immersed in Overwatch or Battleborn. If you don't look at those in an equal capacity, you're not looking at where the 3D MOBA is moving to.

Finally, we aim to create a high level skill involvement in the game. Paragon felt better than some games at accessibility, but if you didn't play MOBAs it was very hard to get into.

We want it easy to pick up, very hard to master. If you're a casual player, you won't feel like it's pointless for you to play. When I pick up Fortnite, I get obliterated by 12-year-olds who play all the time. The goal is that people feel comfortable and aren't priced out by the skill requirements.

When it comes to Project CORE, I want people to want to play because it intrigues them. We're creating a consistent presence of harmony between the art and the idea of the game to help make that happen.

opolisprime: We've been focusing on the psychological elements of Overwatch and other 3rd person shooters, and mixing that into the idea of a MOBA. We think painting with broader strokes is going to result in a completely different genre.

For comparison, in League you can see when somebody is walking up behind you. In SMITE you have a limited range of motion; you're not worried about somebody jumping down on you. We want the full 360° field of immersive environment; the immersion is what people are drawn to.

To scale up the immersion, we're creating more elements of danger, and more opportunities for 200 IQ plays.

In Paragon you could avoid most threats from the jungle by clinging to the other side of the lane; you never have any fear. League has bushes that create an element of surprise, we're looking for the same feeling: and we're exploring whether it'll be verticality, bushes, or potentially in some cases knocking you off the map and you die.

When the idea of pits first came up, one of our guys said "oh god we're not putting pits in the game", and it's become a joke in our team to mention "pits" any time somebody says an idea that's off the wall.

But we're exploring that; maybe you could Grux-rush, and Phase grabs you and pulls you back. That moment of almost falling to your death before being caught, and swinging below the map — it's immersive stuff! We could have supports that specialise in safeguarding from pits... we're forever developing, changing, and expanding ideas.

One of the things we're looking to do is add a bit of an off-shoot inspired by Overwatch and how they handle the more stationary objectives.

Remember in Paragon on the Legacy map, when you're in a dual lane and have that Harvester on the edge — that ring-around-the-rosie effect where you could utilise that area as part of the lane, and kite around that area with the other team?

We want to explore what happens if you create a more persistent clash point, something that extends the lane, rewards participation, and creates new gameplay.

opolisprime: To create something the community loves and has the passion for — the same as they did for Paragon.

Also, to create something that is inviting to you if you hadn't played Paragon. We have a heavy focus on accessibility: that's true in-game in the form of visual cues for where things are coming at you from, but also out-of-game.

People of any culture, any abilities, should feel like they have a place to play; Hnoss on our team originally put the focus on this and we've followed her passion to break down as many limits to everyday life as possible.

We have 27 languages we can translate into and that's our baseline for release. We'll focus on events for different cultures; not just the big ones like Chinese New Year. We want to bring players' everyday life into the game more. We don't want you to feel like you're playing "our game in Minneapolis"; it should feel like "your game in Shanghai".

It can be as little as the weather effects in your area, the time of day where you are. The overall goal is to eventually be relevant to the person where they are when they are, and extend that into bonding with other players.

One of our team members Riko has been playing with it and when he's presented with these ideas, he goes "holy crap I love it" and goes and figures it out. We have big grand ideas, but we also look at what's real and now.

Finally, there's a lot to say for out-of-game immersion, such as apps for changing kits or exploring builds while you're not gaming. That's a great opportunity for the community to connect over their ideas.

I would have given anything to have been able to adjust cards in Paragon on my phone. I spent 5-6 hours per month moving gems from one thing to another, to get that perfect tweak I'm thinking of. The ability to plan and strategise outside the game client is another big goal that we have.

opolisprime: I think the number one challenge is that everybody is remote and working in their spare time.

We work off a UTC schedule, and it's the idea that at 3am it's probably a better time for people in California than people in the UK. We've got Jaime who is in Mexico, Floris in the Netherlands, Joanne in Greece; we are spread all over the world.

The other difficult thing is that we've been working on this for almost 3 years without being paid for it. This is a passion project, and always having the same amount of passion... it's almost like a mana reservoir; at some point you're going to burn out. There's a discipline to maintaining it, and not burning it at both ends so you can pick back up tomorrow.

A lot of the time it's self-policing within our ranks; making sure Riko takes a break. He's in college studying game development; is he working on homework or on Project CORE? It's looking out for each-other; when my twins were born everybody took the time to write; Matt even sent a double-stroller. There was one point where one of the team had moved and left their workstation behind. I happened to be in a better position at the time financially than they were, so I sent the cash to have it shipped.

You either become a family in this situation or you don't — you don't make a game like this without becoming a family and knowing each-other's lives. I was in a phone call while we were at the hospital while my wife was in labour; she was doing fine, and so I'm on a phone call with the team telling them that my wife is 4cm dilated. They're the ones who hear first.

While you're on a call, you hear people in the background; you hear them talking about their lives. I can't count how many times my daughter has come into the room asking "Are you talking to Panda?" and he teaches her a new word in Dutch.

That extends outside of the game too: my goal is that everybody gets where they want to get in life out of this team. We pushed Riko to go back to school for this. We share resources; I can't count how many books I've got from Matt. We work on developing each-other's skills more than anything.

None of us are trained as game developers; I'm a tattoo artist! But I found out that everything I do in tattooing and marketing myself, it's relevant to marketing a game; same with project management. You figure things out, fuck up stuff, fix stuff... you find your weaknesses and learn to check your ego. People think they can do anything until they have to do it!

Project CORE by Metabuff Studios remains in development as they make the transition to original IP. You can keep tabs on their progress on their discord.