Attitude Networks will soon have a new addition to its current gaming-site empire of Happy Puppy and Games Domain. To be called "Realm X," the new site will be created with Macmillan Digital Publishing, and will contain a collection of tools, tips, and fan pages for wannabe adventure, or "level," designers. The group also has expectations that the site will serve as a Star Search for game developers.
"There is a whole game life cycle there that's not being addressed except by the small independent gamer putting up a site by himself," says Gregg Bushyeager, director of software publishing at Macmillan Digital. "This serves as a showcase for the talents of gamers, and gives a lot back to the gaming community."
The Realm X site, unveiled this week in anticipation of a fall launch, will offer developer tools and professional advice to help avid gamers create new levels for their favorite games, such as Diablo, Doom, or Quake. The novice game developers will then be able to upload their levels to the Realm X site for reviews and testing by fellow gamers; the best of the bunch will be bundled onto Macmillan CD-ROMs and sold via retail. Realm X will also offer gamers space to post homepages, tip sheets, cheats, and any other gaming miscellanea they want to make public.
Avid gamers have long been developing non-commercial, unauthorized levels for their favorite games at the encouragement of game developers, many of which can be found on independent fan sites all over the Web; Realm X would be the first multi-game corporate site promoting that activity.
Macmillan already publishes the Level Master CD-ROM collections of game levels gleaned off the Net, selling an average of 30,000 to 40,000 units apiece, with the permission of the novice developers. Other companies have produced similar CD-ROMs - although several have simply stolen user-generated levels off the Net without giving due to the avid gamers who produced them.
"The advantage is that [Realm X] provides a common ground, and hopefully some structure and support to what has been a big free-for-all," emails Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. "Also, it would be nice to have some controls over the 'shovelware' companies that rake tons of levels off of the Net, slap them on a disc without concern for quality or copyright, and then sell them and rip off the consumer, the individual level designer, and the game developer."
But beyond simply republishing the efforts of the Realm X game community, Attitude and Macmillan are hoping to serve as a quasi-talent-agency for the gamers who contribute. If the Realm X community comes up with some terrific content, Attitude and Macmillan hope to license that to the game companies as official add-on products that extend the playability of the games. The gamers, in return, would be given credit for all content, potentially reimbursed, or given freelance work - in the ideal scenario, even getting jobs with those companies.
"Certainly the game publishers are going to watch the work being done," says Dave Rae, CEO of Attitude Networks. "I would love to be able to identify the star authors who will be making the games in the next five years."
