We sat down with Mark Laursen, the CEO of Bright Star Studios to learn more about his upcoming game Ember Sword.
Here is a full transcript of our conversation, as we discuss the game’s development, the recent alpha playtest, and the future of crypto gaming.
Hi Mark it’s great to sit down and have this interview with you! To start, can you introduce yourself and your role with Bright Star Studios?
Mark: Sure and firstly, thanks so much for your time today. My name is Mark Laursen and I am the Founder and CEO of Bright Star Studios.
I have a background in Engineering, Technology and Esports. I was a professional player at one point in first-person shooters and MMORPGs and enjoyed a lot of success there. I then transitioned into making games and then wanted to make game engines.
Bright Star Studios started in 2018. We were a small group of gamers who thought about the state of the industry and thought the current model wasn’t treating the gamers fairly for all the time they spend in their games. We really wanted to enhance the way players experience and access the games they play.. We are a strong diverse team spanning across the globe who are passionate about bringing these experiences to life.
Your new title “Ember Sword” has been making the headlines. Personally, we’re looking forward to it at Esports.net! Can you give us a briefing on the game for the readers at home?
Mark: Ember Sword is a fun, highly social and accessible game. We’re offering the same competitive PVP, PVE and social elements that we all know and love from MMORPGs, and modernizing it with the technology that we have built from the ground up. Using our engine, players will not have to wait for downloads or patches and will be able to easily find their friends and community across regions.
Ember Sword is our answer to the perfect game for hardcore and midcore PvE and PvP MMORPG gamers worldwide. We dream of being able to provide instant accessibility to everyone around the world in their browser to play a fun, engaging, adventure-filled, challenging, and rewarding game that gives them unforgettable experiences and solid friendships.
Ember Sword will compel players to play together, show them how rewarding it can be when done collectively, and give them a sense of true ownership over their character, their items, and, to some extent, the world. In addition to engaging gameplay, one of the ways we achieve this is through our economy. We are creating a player-controlled economy, without pay-to-win, with true ownership and the potential for player benefits in a free-to-play game.
You have quite a background in gaming. Did you ever think you would get to a point where you had a full team behind you, publishing a game?
Mark: My background in gaming fueled the desire to create better experiences for sure. I have always connected with talented people who aren’t bound by the traditional boxes of the industry. I have been making games for a while now and it has taught me that working with people who have the same values has been really critical for creating the games players will actually be passionate about.
Having researched Ember Sword, it’s clear your recent alpha playtest was a great success. With your upcoming dungeon playtest, what can players expect?
Mark: Well first off, we know that it is a bit crazy to open up our playtests, especially in Alpha stage of development, to the public with no restrictions. Studios often keep these things really small and controlled. But it is really important for us that we bring the community along with us on our journey. We also provide a feedback platform for people to give us their thoughts from their experiences, and we take that onboard and improve upon things for the next one.
This time around, players will experience a first look at one of the dungeons of Solarwood, the first nation to be released. This will be a pre-taste to some of the social experiences we will create for our players. We will create experiences which will glue people together, force them to optimize not only themselves but each other, and reward everyone participating. The players will feel their commitment and dedication reflected in the outcome and hopefully everyone will have a lot of fun.
Working in gaming, esports and now web3 what’s your favorite aspect of these industries?
Mark: I think with all of those things, the key element is that they are all challenging and ever evolving. I tend to thrive in environments where we are trying to push the boundaries of what is possible. They also come with interesting ways of using innovative technology to connect them all, and to make long lasting connections and relationships with one another. It is actually meaningful in people’s lives. We have several people on our team who have met life-long friends and spouses in games, so I really enjoy that aspect.
I have always loved gaming, specifically competitive and hardcore gaming. I love how these industries intertwine and how we’re utilizing this in Ember Sword to give the player’s the best of all worlds.
Ember Sword is still in the development stages. What have been some of the hardest hurdles you and the team have faced so far, and how did you overcome them?
Mark: In 2018 we were actually building Ember Sword on a well known engine. We described the type of game we were building and made it very clear that we wanted the game to be highly accessible on any platform in the browser with no downloads, anywhere in the world regardless of bandwidth or device. For a few years it was fine, but then when it came down to the next phase, the engine company said they could not do it. That they would have to rebuild and were not willing to do that. So just like that we were back to square one.
So rather than pack it up, we decided it was up to us to make an engine that would support our vision. This is how our SERIUS engine was born. I am so glad we took this decision and it will have a profound impact on the industry once we make it available to developers and IP holders.
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We’ve seen a plethora of blockchain games over the years. Many have stood the test of time, and some haven’t been as fortunate. What do you believe makes Ember Sword stand out in this still-fresh sector of gaming?
Mark: I think that unfortunately a lot of games out there had a good idea for a game, but then took the shortest route possible to get to the money. Some of them forgot that they need to keep the players at the forefront of all the decision making when it comes to the technology. You have to make the game fun to play first and foremost. Then build a sustainable economy on top of that.
Building an MMO is hard enough, adding in player control of the economy is a very different beast, and it needs to be done with care and consideration for the players who support the game.
We’re authentic. We’re gamers. And we want to create something for the community, filling out gaps we have identified as gamers. Our total visibility towards our community production wise is a testament to that statement.
Outside of your own ventures, have there been any blockchain projects you’ve particularly been fond of? (This can be anything from DeFi, NFTs, P2E etc.)
Mark: I’m looking forward to Deaddrop, PlanetQuest, Blocklords (as I love a good RTS), and one of more recent ones I really dig is Captain & Company with their fun pirate theme. The list goes on and on though, I could easily make a top 20 list of games I’m looking forward to and want to try. I truly believe we are on the right path, it’s just a matter of time before the “killer app” is here.
I think Chainlink announced future features, of how you can bundle cross-chain transactions into just 1 single one, and embed it with your token; it’s really amazing and a step in the right direction. There’s a myriad of great projects announced here though, from payment systems to integration, and not to mention how IMX (which we are using) are innovating a lot of user interaction.
There’s a handful of really more obscure and outlier projects too, especially within DeFi, that I am tracking, and getting into. They’re still quite early and recently launched, so I won’t go into detail here, but there are some amazingly innovative ideas out there that practically no one knows about just yet. They’re going to blow people’s minds on how efficient and solid they are.
Finally to round off the interview, what’s your stance on the future of P2E and blockchain?
Mark: Well. I think the term “Play to Earn” is misunderstood, and in my humble opinion, I don’t feel like we need another term for “Web3 Games” whether they have an earning element or not. It’s just games. Because if you look at any sort of game, like Diablo which had Real Money Trading once, it actually had a limit of 250 dollars – so a majority of larger trades would happen on third party websites instead. Which today, it still does, for any of these types of game – Path of Exile, World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike, DotA, and so on. There are billions of dollars being traded on third party websites, rife with scams, frauds, and shady middlemen.
I believe, that once we get over all the stigma, and we finally can get rid of all the bad actors in the space (like rug pulls, cash-grab NFT projects, or influencer scams which are rife in the estimate of many millions of dollars) and bring those to justice, it will help improve the player’s experience.
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