14 DAY TRIAL // Bio Ware announced this Tuesday it has officially licensed the new Hero Engine MMO developing platform from Simultronics. The recently founded Austin division will be in charge of future endeavors regarding the yet unnamed massively multiplayer title. BioWare Austin is the company's second studio and the first to be located outside of Canada. Among those working at the studio is lead designer James Ohlen, BioWare's creative director, as well as MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton.
The engine is already used in the development of Simultronics own MMORPG, called Hero's Journey. Hero Engine and its potential were showcased in the Simultronics booth during this year's E3, and will be presented again in early September at the upcoming Austin Game Conference. Developers spent the past five years working on the platform, and have only recently begun making Hero Engine available to the open market.
"At BioWare we selected Hero Engine because it had the most sophisticated and complete development tools available for building an amazing online experience," said Gordon Walton, Co-Studio Director of BioWare Austin. There are great plans in store for the future. "Our team wanted a great rapid prototyping environment and to work with experienced MMO developers. The Hero Engine from Simultronics is a perfect fit for BioWare Austin's requirements."
Hero Engine's technology provides a complete, component-based solution for MMOs and handles server clustering, scaling, deployment and even back office functions. The Hero Blade tool is said to give Game Masters the power to interact with players in many new ways, becoming part of the game by running creatures, becoming NPCs and even orchestrating events in a live game.