OK, so it's been something like 3 months since the last update on Reakktor's mumblings from the TPN. This started out being due to lack of news, but eventually fell into habit. Anyway, we're back and with a fair amount to cover.

Anyway, the first thing that KK had to tell us about was the launch of the Stellarvox Veritas website. This is going to have storyline news from the game in both the lead up and presumably once the game has begun. So far, the focus is mainly on giving greater details on the events previously described in the Black Prophecy timeline.

Next of interest is the continuation of the art developer diaries. Nick Ebenhoch takes us through the design concept and realization from the Human (recognisable modern day/80s inspired tech), Tyi (Functional, knobbly, techy) and Genide (sleek, Apple-esque, hints of feudalism in logos etc)

ZAM scores an interview with creative director Timo Krahl and ask him a barrage of questions, starting out with the basic overview of Black Prophecy, before delving into Marrack's writing, PvP, flight systems, PvP, special abilities and clans.

Reakktor announced that they were offically no longer insolvent with the sixth community update. As well as the usual warp up here, there was also the mention of some "eye candy" to be delivered before christmas.

Finally, Technical Director Cyrus Preuss gives us an insight into developing the physics for Black prophecy in the first and second of his developer diaries.

Welcome back to another somewhat late episode of dev watch. Maybe one day this will be a fascinating window into the development of a game over time. Maybe it will be the rantings of a mad man. Anyhow, what have KK been up to this week(s)?

First off to report, the Black Prophecy behind the scenes talks to the creative and art directors on the project. As well as the general discussion about the creative process, we also hear about why there isn't a docking animation - combination of time and the fact that they don't want players to waste time watching the animation hundreds of times. The importance of BP's locational damage system is also brought up briefly as is the death penalty - details aren't given but we are told not to expect anything as harsh as EvEs insurance system - they want players to be playing the game, not spend all their time getting back to where they were. Beyond that, a large array of weapon types is promised. Still no mention of any suupport skills or equipment however.

In the latest developer diary from the Art Director, ship design is discussed - a priority for BP was apparently to create very industrial looking craft analogous to Battlestar Galactica (original) and Alien rather than some sleeker, "overdrawn" craft that have been seen in more recent TV and films. (Side note - to me, Homeworld still leaps out as having a lot of big similarities in design).

So, there hasn't been much more than mumblings from KK for the past few weeks, so no Dev Watch. This past week though, we have a couple of little pieces to report.

Web-magazine Thirteen1 interviewed Snowcrash (and incidentally have a much nicer "paper on the web" setup than MMOZine did). Here, the combat tactics/manouvers get compared to special moves in a beat-em-up. We also find out something about the travel system - players will have a large-scale map with various locations marked on it. Selecting them will enable the players to warp there. Some sectors are persistent, others will only be available for the duration of a mission.

Also dishing out the information this week was Art Director Nick Ebenhoch, talking in the Developer Diaries (which are oddly un-diarylike) about environment design in Black Prophecy. In terms of gameplay, the only new information here is that the start-point for players is the planet Triamon in the Ianos system. However, there was much said about the design of locations in terms of concept and technology. Apparently we will see details on planet we orbit around, there is an asteroid field generation system and a variety of other debris and objects to encounter. It also seems that each sector is designed with a strong colour theme.

Thats all for this time folks. Catch you again sometime.

Welcome back to Dev Watch. Again apologies for the three week silence - the first week there was nothing to report, but last week I merely got caught up in other things.

First up, we have the second of what was the "Community Q&A" and is now "Black Prophecy Behind the Scenes".  This time, the focus was on the QA side of the game - issues like the lifecycle of a bug as well as some detail about the challenges involved in programming an MMO were discussed. There wasn't much to be learned about the game here, but for those interested in the game testing and development process it makes for a good read. Next time around we have the design team talking, which can be expected to cover some game details, as well as the logic that leads to such gameplay decisions.

Then, there was a new commuity update on the forum. This attempted to clear up confusion about the date of a beta test - clarifying that while KK are technically ready to begin some degree of beta testing, they are waiting on discussions, approval and support from their publisher - and a publishing deal itself has not yet been signed. While Snowcrash underlined that KK are ready to begin the testing within days of such a deal being signed, it's probably important to note that this does not mean that beta testing will immediatley follow the contracting of a publisher. The plan to rename the community Q&A to behind the scenes was also discussed here, with it being explained that the sessions were more intended to be a window into the game development process rather than an actual conversation between developers and community members. After a round-up of rather tangential forum topics, plans for the future were mentioned as well. Story details will being being released through a Stellarvox news website at some point in the near future, while the first "developer diary" which should give details about developing the actual game I belive is on its way.

Here at The Prophecy Network, we spoke directly to people who'd worked in the development of Black Prophecy - but not at Reakktor Media. Instead, we landed an exclusive interview with Rocketbox Studios, who produced large quantities of the art assets for Black Prophecy. Markus, CEO of Rocketbox emphasised the efforts that they had gone to to ensure quality is consistent across the different visual elements - large space stations should be just as consistently detailed as small fighters.

Over at Colony of Gamers however, there was an interview with Micheal Marrack, german science fiction author and lead writer for Black Prophecy. Most of the discussion was about the artistic process and Micheal's work, but we also get a taste of the lighter, funnier side of the Black Prophecy story which we haven't previously seen. In addition, we're told that while the story will form a signficant part of the game, there has been an effort to avoid bogging the game down, and that to get the full benefit of the storyline and its little details then players so interested will need to pay attention elsewhere - to incidental side NPCs and to out of game sources, like presumably the Stellarvox site alluded to in the community update.

While not tightly related to Black Prophecy, Reakktor CEO Kirk Lenke has had some things to say to the Neocron community, including  alluding to the fact that external investors have influenced the direction of Black Prophecy.

Thats all for now folks!

Welcome back to Dev Watch - a little late, because of the TPN's downtime this week, but here once again.

The biggest thing to report on is definilty the interview Voodoo Extreme had with Seminus, now re-titled Senior Producer of Black Prophecy. Initally retreading some old questions (although I do feel that this is the best handling of the BP vs EvE question we've yet seen from KK), there is plenty of new information here too. First off, "station walking" is confirmed as planned rather than just possible. This comes as something of a suprise considering the response in community Q&A seemed to line with my opinion - too much expense for too little gain. We hear a bit about loot - apparently ships you kill, including those of other players will drop some kind of loot, as well as the discussion of the role of resources on PvP. The NPC system gets some coverage - apparently NPCs will be around for flavour, trading and granting missions. In addition we will also see various VIP NPCs around, presumably faction leaders and such - we've already seen the apperance of "Admiral Gira" on the forums. As ever in these interviews we see KK keeping the emphasis on BP as an ation game - stating that minimal role that trading will play, and dismissing the idea of resource gathering as dull - instead, players will fight over stations to gather resources for them. Perhaps the biggest news here however comes at the end, with talk that Black Prophecy is unlikley to follow a subscription based model for payment. Many assume this means micro-transcations, but it could also be that KK are considering a pay-as-you-go format or similar.

The most exciting news perhaps, is that KK have aquired a new coffee machine. Such lavish purcahses clearly indicate that any worries from the 10Tacle insolvency are long gone. Also, with double the quantity of coffee, presumable the work-rate in Hannover will double also!

Beyond that, KK staff have had little to say this past week - the interviews with WarCry Network and Thirteen1 not having shown up yet, nor has another community Q&A or a Dev Diary. While not explicitly through contact with KK, the recent preview on ZAM quotes 20,000 polygons per fighter, a figure I hadn't seen elsewhere.

See you all again next week.

Wow, it's been over a month since the last Dev Watch article. My apologies - this isn't a result of the lack of news on the BP front (well, save for one week), but of my own life taking me away and keeping me busy. I've barley been in a house to do this over the past few weeks. So, there is naturally much to report.

First off, Snowcrash tells us (somewhat dissapointingly) that KK will not be promoting BP at E3 this year. However, the costs of attending such an event make this perhaps unsuprising until a publisher iwwth a big PR budget would choose to pick up the bill. He does mention however the intention to attend the Games Convention (renamed GamesConn and moved to Cologne) this year. If nothing else, it's hard to imagine what their exucse for not making the 3 hour drive would be.

Next up we had Black Prophecy coverage in the "electronic magazine" MMOzine. The format wasn't popular with BP forum members, nor was anything new mentioned. MMOzine said to expect a highly atmospheric game - but then that's something KK have always nailed, despite the other faults of their games.

KK then decided that a few new screenshots were in order. More prettiness, more heavy use of effects visible on all. Perhaps of interest, ships looking the same as the "Ashara Drones" of the gameplay trailer are described by Snowcrash as belonging to the Restorers. Snowcrash also used this thread to discuss in some detail the difficulties of reaching a full agreement with a publisher over the various financial, practical and creative concerns involved in a game.

Clan and news site GameSNAFU got themselves an interview with Kirk Lenke. Perhaps as this was closer to a fansite than a mainstream news site, the discussion got into a lot more meat of the game than previous interviews we've read. Kirk reemphasised the idea that PvP is expected to dominate playtime "endgame" while the (again confirmed as "short") experience of getting there, while offering PvP opportunities along the way will be primarily PvE. We also discovered that despite the highly modular ship design, players still progress through 3 distinct ship classes in the process of levelling up. Light, Medium and Heavy fighters. The differences between these were not discussed and neither was the role of the playable Human shuttle. PvP and resource stations recieves a considerable bit of discussion, with KK saying that resources will influence respawn rates in faction and clan battles, as well as alluding to several different scales of combat - free for all, clan vs clan and faction vs faction. Perhaps most suprisingly from the whole interview, Kirk mentions the existence of "special tactics" that will temporarily take over control of the ship from direct joystick/mouse control. To speculate for a moment, my best guess is that these tactics will allow players to perfom moves impossible under the normal flight model, for example the often requested ability to invert the ship's direction.

In a really interesting development, Snowcrash sat down with Kirk and Seminus/Simon to put various questions collected from the forums over the past few weeks. The questions range from the pretinent - what KK want to see from a publisher and why the chase is so difficult - to the trivial - pirates or ninjas. The general focus of the interview is on the thoughts and background of the two interviewees rather than on game details, but it is interesting to see where the lead developers are coming at the game from. This thread is also enough to finally draw Kirk's forum account into activity, where he states that KK currently have 40 employees.

The 4th community update rounds up the other announcements mentioned above, as well as announcing the forthcoming interviews - with Warcry Network, Voodoo Extreme and Thirteen1. No news on the previously touted developer diaries - maybe the community Q&A is intend to fulfill this roll?

The more recent Black Prophecy Newsletter provides a much briefer look at all these issues again, but also contains a shout out to Dev Watch and the Prophecy Network as a whole. Woo, look at us go.

Whew, well that's all to round up for now. There shouldn't be anything as like as long a gap between articles in the future, although I may still miss at least one weekend in July. See you all next time.

Wow, not much to report this week. However, the collumn shall go on!

Closest we came to news this week was the 3rd community bulletin. Conspicously lacking was any further mention of the search for a publisher. Read into that what you will. Instead we had a roundup of the recent interviews and media releases. With regards to the forum threads mentioned, most of those picked were related to generating excitement/building a community, however the "5 favourite features" thread was highlighted, along with threads discussing PvP drops and mob drops, implying some interest in item aquisition and transfer.

Other than that, the only other news coming out from Hannover was the third newsletter, again rounding up recent interviews and media releases as well as forum changes. Also of note is that this is the first newsletter without a mention of the TPN - we must be slacking here.

See you next week.

So, what have the developers of Black Prophecy seen fit to impart to us this week? The short answer is not very much, but then that isn't the same as nothing, is it?

The biggest news to report this week is the interview with the German arm of Eurogamer.Mostly we hear about Reakktor as a company here, but with regards to game details, we hear that skills will be requirements only, not having any additional effects. We also learn (on the corporate side) that Black Prophecy currently has a team-size of 39. It's not entirley clear whether this includes people like Kirk Lenke or Snowcrash.

Beyond that, all the forums have to tell us is about the still undecided nature of the servers, although the hint is to expect regional servers and a comment about cutscenes that should shock noone.

In two weeks time, E3 will have been and gone - will be interesting to see if anythig comes from that. See you all next week!

Somewhat more exciting than previous weeks, here come's the TPN's update on just what Black Prophecy staff have had to say this week.

First off, although I believe the actual show happened last week, this week a translation and podcast of the radio show featuring the CEO of Dynamedion, the company that produced Black Prophecy's soundtrack has been made available. You may recall that theTPN has previously interviewed Dynamedion, also aquire an exclusive music sample

Then we had Reakktor CEO Kirk Lenke giving another interview, this time to german site onlinewelten. Thenew information here revolves around resources and clan battles. We learned of resource stations for clans to fight for control of as well as details about the purpouses served by clan stations. Apparently these resources will be critical in modifying weapons as well as having an influence on respawns. A translation is available on the offical forums.

KK also deigned to release a set of new, in cockpit screenshots. Here we see the progression of the HuD, with some new elements and some details changed from the gameplay trailer. Also, we discover that the player will also be able to fly human ships - and that is what the end of the gameplay trailer shows, not a Genide player. Best guess so far is that the player moves through the first few introctuion missions as a human before being forced to take a side. The opening of this game promises to be far more exciting than any MMO I've yet seen - here's hoping.

Snowcrash has also been talking to the media again this week, giving MMOSite an interview. Largley empty of new information, the only thing established by this interview that wasn't before were a few details on the background of The Restorers, confirming the most basic guess that they were highly xenophobic.

Not directly related to the game, but still of note: the offical forums underwent some changes this week too. A new section was added to the site "Archive of the Preservers" (new race/faction? or just a name?). This section is for fan created media, be it music, stories, artwork etc and has a suprising amount of threads for an unreleased game. Beyond that, the forums also have two new globabl annoucments - a welcome/explanation of the forums and a set of rules - many of which are amusingly the result of specific incidents on the old Neocron forums.

Oh and finally in the most exciting announcment of the week, Snowcrash revealed that all player-craft cockpits come equipped with built-in pizza ovens!. Pilots are DESTINED to never go hungry!

Well, an even sleepier week than last week for Dev Watch. No exciting interviews, no sudden public launch of beta, no publishers proudly dispaying Black Prophecy on their webpages.

What we do have is the second Stellar Vox Community Bulletin. The headline here of course is the "continued negotations" with "several" publishers. With no details given it is hard to say much in any way about this, merely that we wish KK sucess, and hope that the publishers don't want  to rip down the game and start again. Among the other items, there is a news round-up similar to what we saw in last week's newsletter and the community-enthusiasm items we saw in the previous bulletin. The gameplay aspects that KK are apparently keen to hear from the community about are the death/respawn system, joystick/mouse control and what draws people to the two factions. Dev Watch also gets a mention in this bulletin!

Beyond that, Nidhogg has said that KK are investigating why beta signup is currently broken. More presumably to come on that.

We should however keep our eyes out for more interviews in the future apparently, including some new faces talking. Stay tuned.

Thats it for this week.

So another week, another round up on what KK staff have had to say this week, although the short answer is: "not so much".

The first thing to note (and the only really interesting comment this week) is the interview with german site buffed.de (which has been kindly translated on the forums). Here Seminus (after a discussion with SnowCrash, I realised I was being a bit dense about the title "Development Director" - roughly equivilant to Project Lead I guess) discuss various game aspects, with buffed probing a bit over the mission system and end game activities.

Other than that we have the second newsletter which sumarizes the Black Prophecy events and coverage since the first newsletter - so gameplay trailer, offical forums, the TPN doing awesome interviews and resources and some quick links to the various interviews.

Snowcrash breifly confirms on the forums that the loading screens as seen in the trailer are what we can expect to see in the final game.

That's about it for offical developer comments this week, beyond some german bits which at the moment I don't want to translate and don't look overly relevant. Seminus and Kirk's forum accounts have remained silent and I can't find any sneaky comments elsewhere from them. It has been interesting to watch BP news slowly filter across the internet - some places are only just reacting to the cinematic trailer.

Welcome back to another round of Black Prophecy Dev Watch where we let you know what BP staff have been up to this week.

First off we have the tales ofKK's search for a publisher, initally alluded to in a forum thread about possibly boxed versions of the game. The search for a publisher is discussed again in the Massivley interview, where it is given (perhaps a little confusingly) as the reason for beta testing not yet having begun.

Next we have the launch of the Stellar Vox Community update. This seems somewhat like KK have produced a "community watch" in response to the TPN's very own Dev Watch. Important offical news is summarized here, while a selection of community forum threads are highlighted. It wouldn't seem unreasonable to imagine that the threads highlighted are about issues the developers are especiallycurious about still, perhaps as those features aren't fixed yet. Accordingly then, we have death system, clan station's roles (would seem odd that this isn't fairly fixed yet, but who knows) and the skill system, which we got some kind of preview of in the gameplay trailer. Then we have generating excitement about the game with clans and signatures etc. A bit of viral marketing can't hurt, right? IT also ads a note about how pleased KK were witht he reaction to the (frankly stunning) gameplay trailer.

All quiet on the offical forums from this point on, however things really start kicking off elsewhere on the Internet, with interviews appearing left, right and centre. The first to show was popular UK-based PC gaming blog Rock Paper Shotgun interviewing Snowcrash. Here we learn a little more about ship customization while economic aspects of the game are downplayed (is that a suprise from a self-described "Action MMO"?) We also hear that a suprising amount of things are still left open - including whether the game will be a single or multiple shard setup.

Next up on the interviewing agenda are Massivley and "development director" Seminus.  In this case we hear about the focus on missions and instancing is an attempt to make the game a lot easier to drop in and out of than classical MMOs, retaining the "casual" appeal that KK have been pushing with Black Prophecy. A bit more is talked about the levelling process and the interesting fact that players choose their side in the conflict not at character creation, but after a specially designed set of newbie missions. Perhaps excitingly for the "hardcore" crowd is the promise of being able to level up through PvP missions.

Finally for this week, emerging just today is an interview with Italian gaming site gamesource.it talking to KK CEO Kirk Lenke.This interview really brings together what has been said in previous interviews and the offical FAQ, rather than anything truley new to excite us - still, it's probably a good starting point for anyone asking "Just what is BP about?"

 Thats all for this week folks. If KK can keep up this pace, then writing a weekly article should pose no trouble at all.

Introducing The Prophecy Network's latest feature - Black Prophecy Developer Watch. In this section, we plan to bring you whatever the developers have been saying about the game since the previous article - specifically little comments that aren't worth of their own news post. Inital plan is weekly, but we'll see how things pan out. For this first article, we'll be reaching back a little over a week.

Obviously it has been something of a busy time with the launch of the gameplay trailer, closely following the cinematic trailer and also the extra information provided by the TPN's own interview with Dynamedion. Most of what else has been gathered through Snowcrash on the offical forum - it seems that noone else has really been talking to the press or players these past two weeks. So, starting with some of the earliest details we'll cover:

First off, Snowcrash lets us know that we should be expecting a glut of interviews across the gaming medai over the next few weeks. So, keep an eye out at your favourite gaming sites. Related to this, it is confirmed that keyboard/mouse will be a supported control method (no big suprise there) and that more details about the control issue will appear in one of these interviews.

Also as a combined topic, we have seperate posts confirming that A: BP will be targeted to as wide a spread of system specifications as possible and that B: while it is possible to submit a new beta application if your system has changed since then, it is in no way necessary.

Finally for this update, we also have some information on languages - despite what the gameplay trailer shows, the only confirmed languages for the game are English and German. Support for other languages is however under consideration - my guess is such work would depend on how big a splash the game seems to be making. If it's worth the money to have every bit of text and patch translated into Russian or French, I'm sure they'll go for it.

Thats all for now - pretty much all aquired from watching Snowcrash on the offical forums. Find the original posts by looking him up.