On the UbiBlog, a video has been released allowing fans a little peak into Ubisoft Montpellier and what Ancel and his team have been getting up to since E3. It’s very reassuring to know that BGE2 will lean heavily into themes of piracy. The Ship And Crew Update explains how the mythology or romanticism of the life of a pirate is all here – just with added space battles. Players can expect to go on inter planetary treasure hunts or even board enemy ships to take what they want in a more confrontational way. Some of it with online competitive elements. Later in the video we can the extent to which we can customise our base of operations.
This open ended space piracy can only be a winning formula as many of us still have fond memories of the first time we took a ship for ourselves on Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (if you’re a PC gamer, you can download it for free very soon). We’re also reminded of the glory days of Mass Effect when we’re told our crew is integral to BGE2’s story. It encouraging to hear as we can expect some good writing and character design to be poured into these integral crew members.
Perhaps more encouraging is Ancel’s attitude towards the larger gaming community by creating the Space Monkey Program. This is a program that anybody can get involved in to help the design process of BGE2 along. Perhaps you see a concept art for a particular character and the program will ask how you feel that character should behave in his final form. By asking pivotal questions in the Space Monkey Program, Ancel is not only taking his fan base seriously and treating them with respect. He’s also making the best game possible for those people. It’s a refreshingly inclusive aspect to game design as Ancel has explained that he’d like to “blur the line between player and developer” and those two groups of people have the specific passion he needs to make such a great game possible.
