Dr. Disrespect: His video game will be a rival of Escape From Tarkov

Dr. Disrespect

Last year, Dr. Disrespect announced that he had opened a development studio called The Midnight Society. The streamer, a former developer at Sledgehammer Games, however, has not disclosed further details on the matter, at least until today. In fact, thanks to a post published in the last few days, the software house has revealed the very first information about the title, still known by the code name of Project Moon.



How stated by the developers, Project Moon will be a vertical extraction shooter, or a PvPvE game, with some raids available as already happens in the game such as Escape from Tarkov or Hunt: Showdown. All earned loot will be kept if the player survives, while in case of game over he will lose all earned items. "Our goal is to capture the essence of arena shooters and their level design, with the size and purpose of Battle Royal games," the additional information available on the nature of the project.| ); }
At the moment Project Moon doesn't have a proper release date, just as neither will the first test. However, on July 29, 2022, an event will be held in Los Angeles, both online and live, where the developers will discuss all the steps following the publication of the first snapshop. Keep following geekinco for all the news and announcements in the pipeline from the world of video games.

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Dr. Disrespect Reveals What Type Of Game Midnight Society Is Making

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - APRIL 29: Video-game streamer Dr DisRespect announces the San Francisco 49ers' ... [+] 93rd overall pick during round three of the 2022 NFL Draft on April 29, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

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I continue to be fascinated by the development of Project Moon, the game being made by streamer Dr. Disrespect’s self-proclaimed AAA studio, Midnight Society, which includes industry heavy hitters like Call of Duty’s Robert Bowling.

Now, there’s a new blog post detailing what this game actually is, along with some initial, extremely early screenshots. There’s also a lot of new information no how development will work alongside its “founders,” which raises a whole crop of new questions.

Previously, we heard that Project Moon was going to be a “AAA competitive PvPvE FPS” which is reiterated here. But now Midnight Society is defining the genre, which they’re calling a “Vertical Extraction Shooter”

“Our high-level gameplay goals are to capture the essence of arena shooter level design with the scale and scope of battle royale player counts, and the session-to-session gameplay mechanics of extraction-based shooters.”

Project Moon

12am

So, as many players as a battle royale, so presumably 60-100, with PvE enemies, and a central extraction mechanic. The most famous “extraction” shooter these days is Tarkov, and presumably the “vertical” idea here is that this is some sort of Raid/Dredd-like Tower that must be escaped. Maybe you have to make your way to the top fighting off other players and AI enemies?

On paper that actually sounds…kind of cool? I actually dig that concept. But it’s the rest of the new blog posts that continues to cause me to have questions about the viability of this project.

In what they describe as “transparent” development, Midnight Society is giving its first 10,000 Founders Pass holders an unusual role in the game. The post details a schedule where every six weeks, the Midnight Society will produce a vertical slice of the game focusing on one element or another for Founders to play, and they will “create specific tasks and iteration goals coming out of these sessions” in order to steer development. Founders Pass holders will be able to vote on game features.

I posed the question to the game developers who follow me on Twitter whether or not this sounded viable. Answers ranged from “probably not” to “definitely not” to “lol,” and there was a good amount of skepticism. Doc himself did not seem terribly concerned with the opinions of actual game developers:

One of the more thoughtful replies is from Destiny 2 game director Joe Blackburn, who says something interesting could come from this, but it seems…ambitious:

“Innovation comes from trying stuff that others think won’t work, so maybe they’ll discover something cool. My 2 cents are the cycles seem too fast for meaningful new changes. Games are bad for a long time, I’d worry most features get panned before they get a chance at iteration.”

There’s also the additional factor at play here that this is a web3 venture. The Founders Pass holders are not just people who signed up via email. They are fans who claimed NFTs and “activated” them for $50 to be a part of this select group. So essentially the game is being tested by superfans who are paying for the privilege. A big part of the blog post talks about the upcoming meetup Midnight Society has planned in LA, and in some ways it feels like the cart is being put before the horse here. The idea is that they are focused on creating “community” above all else, but it is one, right now, based on paying NFT holders, and it’s unclear when a public, playable product will emerge from this.

As ever, I will be watching this project very closely.

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