The XMEN Clan Forums

Shacknews—always poking and prodding the Internet to see what new discoveries may be extracted from its endless depths—has discovered a few videos of a new browser-based online shooter in development by game (and Torque engine) developer GarageGames.

The video—as clarified by "a source close to GarageGames"—shows alpha footage of a game similar to PC favorite of yore Tribes, right down to the jetpacks and rolling hills. No surprise there; GarageGames was founded by four former employees of Dynamix, developer of the Tribes series.

This new, unnamed game runs entirely in a web browser, allowing for play on nearly any PC platform with an Internet connection. As part of GarageGames' browser-based game site InstantAction.com, this new title will also have InstantAction's integrated friends list and 'party system'—which enables an established group of players to hop from game to game—available to it.

Shack: As far as core gameplay goes, how far are you edging into original-Tribes territory? Is this really a spiritual sequel?

Tim Aste: We don't own or have a license to anything having to do with the Tribes games, though of course we love them and GG was founded by some key members of the Tribes teams. Still, we'd never set out to create a simple rip-off.

We're taking inspiration from all sorts of games, as all game developers do. Really, we're trying to build a game we've always wanted to play here, taking the best of games we love and hopefully adding some unique and cool things of our own. As far as inspiration, we loved the freedom of movement Tribes gave players--it was unlike anything else at the time--and offering players freedom of movement at a level that hasn't been seen before is a core goal of our design for this new game.

We also love games like Tribes that emphasize team play and strategic combat, and our design rewards good team play and strategic thinking too. I love the trend that Tribes helped start where games are integrating more community features like leader boards, chat and more, and of course being on the web within the browser we're pushing the envelope on community features too.

We're not doing a real successor to Tribes... We can't. But we do love the spirit of Tribes and other games that play great and take chances doing innovative new things with their gameplay. If we succeed in having the same sort of spirit of innovation and focus on fun gameplay, then that's an accomplishment we'll all feel proud of.