Played in first person view, Dual Universe takes place in a vast realistic universe made of millions of planets, and focuses on emergent collective gameplay based around exploration, mining, crafting, trade, politics and warfare.

The concept of Dual Universe is described by Novaquark as a “Boundless MMO”: based on an innovative server technology called CSSC (Continuous Single-Shard Cluster), the game enables everybody to play in the same world, at the same time, without any slicing of the game universe into instances or zones. In addition, for the first time in a single-shard MMO, the world is entirely modifiable and an unlimited number of players will be free to build together, cooperate or compete. The focus has been made on giving the keys back to the MMORPG fans: using the building blocks provided by the game, the in-game community will make the choices and create the content they will play in.

In this new video recorded in Novaquark’s Montreal studio, the company’s CEO Jean-Christophe Baillie addressed changes to the Dual Universe roadmap, while maintaining the game’s key dates. With an Alpha 3 still scheduled to release in January 2020, the future looks bright for prospective players and backers alike.

The Novaquark team aims to continue their trend of hard work and success, starting with their biggest update yet, Alpha 3, coming in January 2020. They’ve listened to their community’s feedback, and have been busy implementing major gameplay additions such as organizations and PvP. While avatar-vs-avatar combat is still planned, Novaquark has decided to postpone this feature while focusing on their innovative construct-vs-construct PvP format.

Novaquark will be releasing an updated roadmap highlighting the next phases of Dual Universe’s development cycle — starting with January’s planned Alpha 3, and looking ahead to the upcoming Beta and final launch — in tandem with an upcoming podcast providing further insights into the company’s priorities and roadmap changes. 

Players can initiate first contact and join in the Alpha stage by supporting the game on the Dual Universe website.

Traditional approaches in gaming and entertainment are based around companies spending substantial amounts of money to create content, and sell it. Most of the time, players have little influence on the value of the platform, as they passively consume the content, and then move on to another game. Novaquark aims to reverse this logic with its one-of-a-kind technology providing users with a stage to collectively create the content and share it together, at an unprecedented scale. The value of Novaquark comes entirely from its users and the material they generate, giving the power back to them instead of a centralized system.

Beyond its initial release, Dual Universe is set to be a long term continuous development project and will grow with regular updates.

At the heart of Dual Universe is a truly innovative proprietary technology, that was developed to lay the foundations of the game: the CSSC (continuous single-shard cluster) manages one single universe with potentially millions of people interacting in it at the same time, with no loading screen. Coupled with this is an innovative voxel engine enabling players to physically modify the world and foster a persistent, continuous form of reality where meaningful contributions can accumulate.

Dual Universe Gameplay Features

• UNIVERSE (available in test version): The first fully editable universe made for players by players. The only limit is your imagination! Gather your friends and build on a truly epic scale, from ships, cities and space stations, to Lua scripted puzzles and interactive constructs.
• MASSIVE (available in test version): Dual Universe is the first game where potentially millions of players can interact together simultaneously, inside the same giant universe. We call it the Continuous Single Shard Cluster (CSSC) technology. This proprietary technology means no multi-server player separation, instances or loading times, just one enormous, persistent universe.
• EXPLORATION (partially available in test version): Explore & Discover new worlds with your friends, find rare resources and build the greatest place in the universe. Will you be a nomad treasure hunter, or a calculating profiteer?
• ECONOMY (work in progress): Dual Universe will have the most realistic economy system ever made in a game. From weapons and tools, to spaceships and giant space stations, build and trade everything to everyone - at your price - on your own market.
• WARFARE (work in progress): Fight for supremacy, resource control or geostrategic advantage, as you join with fellow players and create your own defense systems, build warships, cities and space stations. Will you defend yourself or lay waste to your enemies?
• POLITICS (work in progress): Be a lone wolf or choose an organization or build your own, hire new players, fight other alliances, cut deals with them or rule your own part of the Universe with this completely open political landscape, full of emergent gameplay opportunities.
• Technological Features
  • Procedurally generated planets, revealed as players explore further and further.
  • 25cm precision voxel technology to modify the environment or construct buildings/ships
  • Unlimited LOD (Level of Detail) technology allows planet-sized construction to be built
  • 64bit Planetary Engine: Smooth transitions from planet surfaces, through atmosphere and into space with no limits to how far the player can travel or see.

Dual Universe is scheduled to launch in 2020.