Recently we discovered a young – but promising – organization in Zhengzhou City, China. The Belgian founder, 30 year-old David Hanson, leads a team of 15 in a westernized work environment for both Chinese and foreign game developers.
PixelBeam strives to bring a new experience to video game development as their passion for games keeps pushing further along the road to perfection. To back up their promises, the company put the common Steam and Unreal engines aside and built its own Unity3D based engine for their First Person Shooter, Storm United. Using their own custom engine means the game can be played via pc, mac, console, mobile phone and tablet. You can truly play wherever you are.
Storm United, a futuristic fast-paced FPS, has already been greenlit on Steam and will be made available as a Free 2 Play game as soon as it is finished. The game will introduce an important MMO element where everything (weapons, gear, vehicles, etc.) has to be crafted, bought or traded, generating a dynamic economy.
This system will stimulate players to be part of an interactive community and form clans with friends in order to conquer and defend resource sites. The ‘clanmap’ will allow members of the clan to enhance equipment which is used in the FPS. There will also be colonies (free for all areas with rich resources) which can be fought over between rivaling clans.
What makes PixelBeam such a fascinating organization, is that they are actively asking people to send in their own ideas (designs, 3D models, concepts) which they would like to see integrated in Storm United. If the idea is accepted and considered feasible, it will be integrated in the game.
Make sure to keep an eye on these folks and give their game a shot.