Open World and Survival - PUBG Dev is Working on a Huge Game
A few days ago, PUBG creator and „father” of the battle royale genre Brendan „PlayerUnknown” Greene left Krafton and founded the independent studio PlayerUnknown Productions, which is to create the game Prologue, announced in 2019. The developer is aiming for survival mechanics and a giant open world.
Last week, Brendan Greene, also known as "PlayerUnknown", the creator of PUBG and the "father" of the battle royale genre, left the ranks of Krafton, the company that published his title. The developer has set up an independent studio in Amsterdam, called PlayerUnknown Productions, to, in his words, "take the next step in his journey and create the experience he's imagined for years. The project he is working on, however, is Prologue, a title announced in 2019 with a short trailer (see below).
The game's official website mentions the newly founded studio, so its connection to the game was indicated rather clearly. What's more, Krafton is supposed to own shares in PlayerUnknown Productions and this would mean that the company will not be as independent as it was suggested. However, the support of the corporation may prove useful, because Brendan Greene has planned a huge game.
In the above video, the developer described his fascination with sandboxes and the freedom they offer. He also pointed out that creating content to fill them - resources, mechanics, locations, etc. - takes a lot of time. The solution to this problem, according to Greene, is to develop algorithms that would enable artificial intelligence to generate content-filled worlds (through so-called machine learning). In this way "virtual spaces with diameters measuring hundreds of kilometers would be open to thousands of players interacting, exploring and creating".
As described on the website provided earlier, Prologue is meant to be such a testing ground for self-learning machines. "PlayerUnknown" even referred to it as a tech demo, suggesting that payment for access to it will be voluntary. The aim of the players - at least at the beginning - is to find the way in the wilderness: we'll be shown the destination point and provided with the necessary tools to get there, fighting the weather which is supposed to be very harsh. However, we will have to find the way ourselves.
To sum things up, we are to receive a full-fledged survival game on a map larger than most of those with which we have had to deal so far. If the plan is successful, Greene intends to try and bring to life something he describes as Project Artemis - a virtual world the size of the globe. And they say Assassin games are too big...
