EA co-founder Joe Ybarra launches own studio, plans moon colonisation title
Joe Ybarra, EA co-founder and former executive at Warner Bros, Ubisoft and others, has announced that he has lunched his own studio, ‘Joe Got Game.’ Don’t be immediately put off by those management credentials, though. Ybarra has also been producer on a string of fine titles, including the original Wasteland and Bard’s Tale.
“I felt the need at this point in my career to leverage all that I’ve learned, and build a new studio from the ground up with a new kind of focus on the gamer experience, and to make that one of excitement, wonder and social relevance,” says the man himself.
It seems that Joe Got Game’s first title will be Shackleton Crater, a turn-based strategy game about colonising (and perhaps more importantly, surviving on) the moon. The game’s synopsis describes it as “non-combative,” so don’t expect to be battling off XCOM-style foes. Instead, you’ll be challenged by the difficulties of space colonisation, dynamic events and other environmental concerns.
That same page also states that real lunar data from international space agencies has been used to provide background to the title.
Joe Got Game plans to run a Kickstarter for Shackleton Crater, which is “about to” be announced. So expect that in the coming days.
Excellent! Someone needs to make a really good space colony game. I remember there were a couple attempts in the 90s (Outpost) which were poorly received, but nobody’s done it well.
I suppose I’m just in favor of any city building / management game with a bit of depth.