It’s a little bit of a paradox that a company called Supermassive Games doesn’t have a massively multiplayer online game in its portfolio — but that might be changing soon, if a job posting on the Dark Pictures Anthologies developer’s website is what it appears to be.
First spotted by GameRant, Supermassive is looking for a Multiplayer Game Designer based out of its Guildford, UK office. The position is considered permanent and would require experience developing multiplayer titles in the past, including “Multiplayer rules, combat systems, progression, and tutorials system.”
While previous Dark Pictures games, like Little Hope and House of Ashes, have had multiplayer functionality, that’s been limited to two-player co-op (or not, depending on how you act…). The requirement for “combat systems” and “progression” would seem to indicate something more, as do several other required skills, such as:
- Knowledge in designing and writing scripts to handle multiplayer gameplay systems
- MP Systems, Balancing, lag compensation, online economies, instancing
- Social features like Guilds, Events, ELO/Glicko/Trueskill etc., matchmaking
Other open positions, such as Network Gameplay Programmer and Senior Game Programmer, requires “Understanding of network coding for multiplayer games”; the Senior Game Programmer also needs to have “Experience with Virtual or Augmented Reality.” All together, it adds up to something sounding more like an MMORPG or competitive PvP game than anything the developer is currently known for.
All that adds up to … well, something worth speculating about, at least. Personally, I like the look and feel of the Dark Pictures Anthology, and the notion that we could get a multiplayer game with a similar ambience is enough to pique my interest. It might be the closest thing we’ve had to a “spooky” MMORPG since The Secret World, which was well-designed but came out in a time when people were still chasing the high of playing in a huge, all-encompassing World of Warcraft-style MMO. Ten years later, the gaming industry, and gamers, have changed to the point where an atmospheric MMO could have a solid chance of success.
