Jumpgate Evolution: The First Fifteen

How long do you play a game before you decide if you like it?

An hour, two, a day? Try 15 minutes.

The first fifteen is all the time a developer gets to convince a gamer that what they're playing is worth the price of admission, or so believes NetDevil's Scott Brown.

Following in the footsteps of the masters of the MMO, Blizzard, NetDevil is breaking away from the norm of game development for their latest pet project, Jumpgate: Evolution. Instead of trying to sketch out a complete world and then going back and filling in the details, giving the game its luster and heart in a soul-killing, deadline-pushing crunch, NetDevil is crafting their space flight massively multiplayer game one gleaming section at a time.

The team, which recently topped ten people, recently wrapped up their initial goal: Building out and polishing the game's first 15 minutes of play.

It may not sound like much, but in a year's time the team had to create the user interface, settle on the look of the game, and work out the games network and artificial intelligence.

They also had to give gamers a way to create their character, ships to fly, enemies to fight and places to go.

Codemasters' Connect '08 event at the Omega Sektor in Birmingham England is coming March 14th and 15th, and they've lined up some truly amazing freebies for visitors to their MMO showcase. Probably the coolest item is for RF Online players. They've had Masamune Shirow of Ghost in the Shell fame create a suit of armor for every class in the game, and my god are they beautiful. The suit above is for a female Cora Warrior, and the rest are just as cool! Lord of the Rings Online players who attend will get a special in-game title for their character, while Archlord players will get some exclusive armor. All attendees will also get a Jumpgate Evolution pack complete with a beta key! I was invited to go myself, but seeing as I am moving on the 15th there's not a chance in hell...and I want some Shirow armor dammit! You go look at the pretty armor while I go cry.

Exclusive Armour set for every connect attendee! [RF Online Forums]