Bright Star Studios to launch play-to-earn, NFT MMORPG Ember Sword

Aspiring game developer Bright Star Studios has announced plans to launch a play to earn, NFT MMORPG, Ember Sword. Founder and CEO Mark Laursen said that the next major update involves combat similar to popular battle arena games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends.

The pre-alpha version of the game is available to those who took part in the Ember Sword land sale last year and have either an Ember Sword NFT or an Ember Sword badge.

In response to a question about the NFT game’s long development time, Laursen said that Bright Star planned to release a more comprehensive version by the end of the year. The studio is currently onboarding new talent to accelerate the development process.

“Either way we’re looking to put out the full game by around the end of 2023,” Laursen said. “We’re adding a lot of really high-star talent that I’m sure will shock everyone. They’re people who are actually changing to our startup from huge companies and taking pay cuts because they believe in our vision.”

Until its official release, Ember Sword NFT holders will have to wait and see if the project lives up to its promise.

About Ember Sword

Inspired by MMO giants such as World of Warcraft, Runescape, and Guild Wars, Ember Sword is an open-world sandbox role-playing game, developed by Danish company Bright Star Studios.

The developer team behind the game said they emphasized accessibility, striving to eliminate barriers to entry for both novice and veteran MMO players. Role-playing games generally have specific classes, but this game does not. By contrast, Ember Sword lets players experience all the game has to offer through a single character, including leveling up skills, crafting, and combat.

Ember Sword is set on the planet Thanabus, on which four nations reside—Duskeron, Ediseau, Sevrend, and Solarwood. Every nation is divided into three territories, namely Kingship, Outlaw, and Wilderness, each featuring unique game objectives, including open-world boss fights and player-versus-player combat.

Using blockchain technology, the company said Ember Sword would facilitate community involvement and allow players to own their in-game items. Players can use cosmetic items and vanity items to customize characters and decorate their land plots with Ember Sword land plots that will be tokenized on Polygon.

NFTs in Ember Sword

There are two main forms of Ember Sword NFTs, namely land and cosmetics.

There were five types of plots in Ember Sword land—settlement, city, town, and capital. Cosmetic items are also tokenized in Ember Sword. Although these NFTs do not give players any in-game advantages, players can use them to change the appearance of plots and characters in the game.

Laursen stressed that NFTs in Ember Sword would not make the game “pay-to-win” as in-game gold, armor, and weapons would not be NFTs.

“You can’t buy power in the game. You can only buy looks and cosmetics and vanity, all that stuff,” said Laursen. “If you’re just farming gold and selling it, you’re kind of doing yourself a disservice because there’s not really stuff that you need to buy. It’s the NFTs that you want, and you can’t bot farm those. You have to actually be good at the game and go out and play it.”