March 2, 2007

Seven Lights Introduces The Continuum's Key Game Features

The Continuum is the premier online collectible war game that blends the best elements of strategy gaming, collectible gaming, RPGs and digital goods into a distinctive game universe where players’ actions affect a gripping narrative, and their customized digital characters develop to change the combat landscape. In this ever-changing land, players develop armies through battles, equipment discovery, and upgrades. Their characters and abilities are built through victory, trade, and purchase. The game will launch in the Summer of 2007.

What’s a better way to introduce you to The Continuum than through its unique features? Listed below are the first six features about the game that Seven Lights would like to point out:

1. BLEND OF BEST GAMING FEATURES

The Continuum blends the best elements from gamers’ favorite genres like turn-based strategy gaming, collectible gaming, RPGs and virtual economies into an all-new yet familiar gaming experience. In addition, the gameplay and community elements are constantly changing to alter the gaming experience as well as to satisfy players’ desire for competition and recognition.

2. A CONSTANT STREAM OF NEW CONTENT

Seven Lights has created a system where they can introduce characters, abilities, equipment, events, tournaments and narrative in an ongoing, real-time basis. The game will respond to the needs and wants of the players, and the opportunities to gain exclusive content for the players’ collections will continue from launch until sequel. Also, as items and behaviors become popular and people start to show proclivity for specific battle maps and characters, the company will change the way content is created for players based on their tastes.

3. COST-EFFECTIVE GAMING

The Continuum game is free to play. With registration, you have access to the game and start with a number of starter characters. Additional character packs can be purchased at nominal fees of $2 -$10 for randomly generated sets. Players will also have the choice to buy subscriptions for the in-game collectibles, which on a per-unit cost will cost them less than buying all the assets individually.

However, paying for more characters will not give a player any advantage in gameplay. Players that practice and hone their characters, strategies and knowledge of the game will be the ones who have any advantage. The game is designed so that someone who only has 5 characters can find people with similar armies to battle against. A dynamic point-value system is setup so that players are matched by the relative strength of the armies they wish to field in battle.

4. EVEN PLAYING FIELD

The Continuum’s gameplay provides an even playing field for all gamers, no matter how much money or time a player has invested. Since The Continuum is a free-to-play, pay-for-items model, Seven Lights has gone out of its way to ensure that it’s not about “the more you pay, the better you are.” Rather, this system allows a player to spend $5 on the game and develop a smaller group of characters into an elite fighting force if that’s the way they’d like to experience the game. Spending more to collect the whole series of characters can be done, but that doesn’t mean all of them will be fielded in each battle.

There are a number of play-balancing systems in the game to keep things fair:

• The point-value system allocates a certain number to each character based on innate power, characteristics, and level.
• Players have a Rank, telling players where they stand in terms of experience/skill. Other players can examine their record and scout their play history as well. These elements are visible to potential opponents prior to playing.
• The Game Setup screen is a double-opt-in term negotiation that doesn’t progress without consent by both players.

5. DEEP AND INVOLVING NARRATIVE

Seven Lights will progress the narrative for The Continuum by releasing new web experiences, as well as comic books that expand the storyline. In the comic books, Seven Lights will introduce the game’s characters and histories, but players will also find secrets about the game, puzzles that, upon solving, open up game content, and previews of things to come. In addition, the narrative will change depending on the way players behave.

6. PLAYER ACTIVITY AND PLAY DIRECTS THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE GAME AND NARRATIVE

Actions by the players will direct the course of the game development and narrative as the most popular characters emerge, the course of battles is recorded and the nature of abilities is revealed.

Seven Lights will be able to monitor the way players behave and will be able to see the rate at which people use abilities, what the most popular maps are, etc… Seven Lights will then incorporate some of these game findings into the ongoing storylines, both online in the game and offline in The Continuum comic books. For example, if a particular battle map tends to turn out a certain way, with certain characters/combinations becoming dominant, the next comic book scene that happens in that environment will play out a similar result. In addition, Seven Lights will be holding “story” events, where the winners of a particular tournament or promotion will appear in the storyline as characters that figure prominently in the plotline.

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