The Chronicles of Spellborn

The Chronicles of Spellborn was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game initially released on November 27, 2008, developed by Spellborn International and distributed by Frogster Interactive, Mindscape and Acclaim Games; set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. Spellborn used the Unreal Engine, featured a European Art approach and contained notable contributions from Jesper Kyd.[3] In August 2010, the game was shut down. As of 2019, the game is still played on a proprietary private server that is operated by a former developer.

The Chronicles of Spellborn
Developer(s)Spellborn International
Publisher(s)Frogster Interactive
Mindscape
Acclaim Games
Composer(s)Jesper Kyd
EngineUnreal Engine 2.5[1]
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
ReleaseNovember 27, 2008 UK Only[2] US April 23, 2009
Genre(s)Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Gameplay

Spellborn consisted largely of conventional MMORPG gameplay, in which the player plays a character (avatar), and explores the gameworld in order to gain experience points and advance in level. In exploring the gameworld, the player encounters quests, the most important part of Spellborn's gameplay. The game had about a thousand of these quests.[4] Completing quests was the primary means of earning experience points. Repeatedly killing dolphins ("Grinding" in gaming jargon) to gain levels was not a practical option in Spellborn. Separate from other story-driven quests were the Ancestral Quests, which allowed the player to take the role of a major character in Spellborn's history to accomplish a specific requirement. Players needed to complete certain Ancestral Quests in order to advance their character's story arc.

Spellborn incorporated a first person targeting system.[5] In this system, the player selected an available skill to use, while aiming at the opponent. The player could also use two skills at the same time to create combinations.[6]

In Spellborn the player could choose Humans and Daevis as race, who can become all classes and feature no special advantages or flaws. At character creation the player could also select one of three archetypes, which then spread into three different classes each at level 5.[7] Every class got access to several different skills, which could be used in combat, but due to the Skilldeck system players can only choose between a few at any time. Every skill a character had learned in a career was listed in the skill book. Some skills were unique to certain classes, while others were shared between them. Characters learned new skills as they increased in level. At maximum level a character could also learn the skills of the other archetypes (but not classes) by exploring certain places in the game's setting.

Unlike most games of its type, armor and weapons in Spellborn didn't provide any statistical improvements to the player's character.[8] Instead, they served aesthetic purposes. Players could choose their character's appearance at the beginning of the game, and could change it later by using different items with higher requirements. Players could enhance their gear with Sigils. These enhancements were interchangeable between different items.

Setting

Since Spellborn focuses in a large part on doing quests, the game provided a certain amount of background information for the players. Spellborn's fictional history is divided into eight ages; players enter the world at its current age known as "The Time of the Enclave", 998 years after the shattering of the world. The game's world is divided into Shards[9] of rock, remnants of the ancient world that are inhabited by the survivors of the cataclysm. Four main Shards were available for exploration by players.

Development

In June 2009, the developers of Spellborn, Spellborn Works, went bankrupt. One of the publishers, Acclaim, announced the following month that the game would be re-developed as a free-to-play game supported by microtransactions. The new version would be released sometime after 2010, and until then the free-to-play version would remain active.[10] The game servers were shut down in August 2010. As of October 2017, Spellborn has not been re-released by any publisher. There is currently a private server running for The Chronicles of Spellborn right now, reviving the once dead MMO. [11]

References
  1. van Haren, Marco (2007-04-23). "The Chronicles of Spellborn: Exclusive Interview". WarCry Networks. Retrieved 2010-06-04. Over the course of development we made many changes to the [...] 2.5 engine
  2. "The Chronicles Of Spellborn Finally Gets A Release Date". Kotaku. Sep 19, 2008.
  3. "The Chronicles Of Spellborn Features Original Score By Jesper Kyd". Jesper Kyd's Homepage. Apr 14, 2006. Archived from the original on March 5, 2008.
  4. "Exclusive Spellborn Interview". CuppyCake.org. Jul 4, 2007.
  5. "Chronicles of Spellborn". IGN. Dec 7, 2005.
  6. "Fan-Submitted Q&A With The Chronicles of Spellborn Developers". TenTonHammer. Sep 28, 2007.
  7. Spellborn Video Interview from Leipzig. MMORPG.com. Sep 1, 2007.
  8. "The Chronicles of Spellborn Impressions". IGN. Mar 20, 2007.
  9. "The Chronicles of Spellborn Diary #2". IGN. Jan 31, 2006.
  10. Welsh, Oli (2009-07-01). "Spellborn MMO to go free-to-play". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
  11. https://spellborn.org/
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