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.

Novaquark have recently hired Högni Gylfason as their Chief Technology Officer. Gylfason was previously a Technical Director at CCP, where he lead the DevOps team and implemented games-as-a-service cloud solutions for EVE Online, helping to turn it into one of the most revered games in its genre.

Gylfason’s expertise lends itself perfectly to Dual Universe, where he will help optimize workflows and support the development of a highly scalable platform with potentially millions of players in the same game world. This will ensure that every player has a great experience in spite of the sheer volume of traffic — truly a unique feat in the scope of online gaming. “Given the popularity of other games that serve as an outlet for players’ creativity, Dual Universe can rival even the largest ones while providing a single world for everyone worldwide to play together; a world that is also entirely editable thanks to Novaquark’s integrated voxel technology.”

When asked about the similarities between EVE Online and Dual Universe, Gylfason brought up the single-shard universe, a concept where everyone plays in the same world at the same time, and the technical implications of implementing it. “Where the two differ however,” he continued, “is how Dual Universe deals with the issues surrounding supporting a massive number of players in the same location.”

Hiring the best talent has always been imperative to Novaquark, and both the team as well as Gylfason are excited to start working together. When asked to comment, Novaquark’s CEO Jean-Christophe Baillie said, “We’re very excited to have Högni working with us on the game. The company has always focused on hiring extremely skilled and creative people and I'm certain that with Högni joining the team, we can truly realize Dual Universe’s goal of pushing the limits of massively-online, emergent experiences to new heights.” 

Gylfason’s arrival comes at a pivotal time, as the company heads into the Alpha 3 release for Dual Universe coming this January, with the Beta 1 planned to release in Summer 2020.

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.