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Old 08-25-2012, 11:26 PM   #1
DonathinFrye
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Atonement: The End

After an epic four day event known as [Sundown], Atonement RPI shut its doors earlier this week. I didn't do this because we were losing players (we weren't), or because we were tired of the game (we weren't). I did this, because I always envisioned Atonement to be a different breed of RPI; more than a sandbox, it was a story and character-driven RPI that moved across the solar system and presented a storyline more intricate and developed than what I've seen elsewhere. In the end, the remnants of humanity sacrificed themselves to save an alternate universe where they were, comparably happy and safe - where there were not Genetic Terrors. And, not wanting to go quietly into the night, they attacked the hive mind while being impossibly overrun by the Genetic Terrors' Mother-ships and turned their nuclear fusion engine into a giant space bomb - exacting vengeance upon their nightmarish hunters for the extinction of the human race.

There's some great threads going on on our forums, including the one that I started once the event ended. It details our team's next efforts (two new RPIs, one commercial PC game and the open-sourcing of the AtonementRPI Engine).



If you are an RPI enthusiast, or are seeking a powerful engine optimized for the design of an RPI, we have made our engine available as open-source; we decided to do this, because we believe that the RPI genre is an important one and deserves more original, high-quality game options. You can get your hands on it by following the directions in the thread below.



A great thanks to the community for being supportive of our efforts. Over three years, we managed to create an amazing story through Atonement with a firm beginning, middle and end. Whereas many Online RPGs continue on indefinitely, as a story-teller at heart, I was incredibly happy to keep our story compact and powerful. This game was a bit of an experiment, and it was probably one of the most rewarding risks that I've taken in my life.

I will certainly keep everyone in the community informed of our team's upcoming efforts.
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Old 08-26-2012, 09:03 AM   #2
Darren Brimhall
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Re: Atonement: The End

Sad to see this happen, especially after dealing with that Hack-Attack a little while ago.

But its good to see the Game end on a high note and not simply run down and die, as other have.

Still, the best of luck to you and your staff in future endevors.


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Old 08-26-2012, 03:58 PM   #3
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Re: Atonement: The End

Donathin, I just have to say that what you and your staff did with that MUD was completely amazing. I started playing in alpha and then lost interest due to real life taking over. I didn't get back in till after everybody had moved from Grungetown, and by that point I just felt so lost and disappointed because I didn't keep with it from the start. I couldn't keep interested in my characters, so I decided to just sit back and watch where the MUD went from an OOC perspective.

I did participate in one event that made me sweat. I haven't had any storytelling be that engrossing for a long while, and so, kudos and congratulations for finishing your story in such a grand way. I can't wait to see some of the things that you and your team are developing, not to mention the overflow of RPIs that I'm sure will soon be made due to the Atonement engine becoming open-source.
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Old 08-26-2012, 07:40 PM   #4
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Re: Atonement: The End

I'm glad that you enjoyed it. My goal with the game was to create a living tabletop campaign-style RPI. I know that the game diverged away from this concept to a more standard sandbox for a while, when I was gone and others had to step up to replace me. Ultimately, the sandbox approach seemed to be more popular - particularly with off-peak players who missed out on a lot of the constant events that would be run by the staff. Ultimately, my goal with Atonement was never to create the most popular RPI, but rather to create an unparalleled story with the aid of the community, utilizing crafting and technology in a way that I don't think many other MUDs have managed to do - and release the engine as open-source to hopefully inspire a new wave of RPIs.

I think that we succeeded in all of our goals that we laid out from the start and, in particular, I am very pleased with the story that we told. I am very excited to be heading up a commercial project with some of the folks from the community, next: I think that there is a lot yet to be done in the world of Independent RPGs in terms of immersiveness and storytelling.
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Old 09-11-2012, 12:37 PM   #5
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Re: Atonement: The End

We've had several new startup teams download our open-source RPI Engine and begin making their own games so far. You can learn more in the "code" section of our website's forums. Additionally, the team's efforts to create our first of several new games, Parallel RPI, is going very well. We suspect the new RPI to be open by the start of the New Year - and potentially sooner. It will be a purely science fiction RPI and not a fantasy RPI like Northlands/Shadows of Isildur or a post-Apocalyptic survival horror RPI like Atonement. It will have story tie-ins to Atonement as it takes place in an alternate universe from our most recent success.

The setting for the game is on a new colony on the partially terraformed surface of Venus. Needless to say, the team is pulling out the stops to make it even more interactive and environmentally immersive than our previous settings. I, for one, am very excited about this project (and some of the other projects we are working on!)
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Old 10-13-2013, 09:25 PM   #6
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Re: Atonement: The End

Sad to have seen this game go, but even sadder to notice that the website appears to have been snuffed from the face of the internet, too.

Is the code for APRI still available as open source?
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Old 10-15-2013, 02:12 PM   #7
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Re: Atonement: The End

The codebase lives on at parallelrpi.com which was originally to be an alternate universe in the same canon but was switched to a new world re-using some of the old game's objects. It will also be used when Shadows of Isildur reboots at some point in the nearish future.

The code was never open source, it was distributed on a request basis by Kithrater. Per his license, the code can only be used in a game if it is given to you by him. If you'd like a copy just to poke around with, you can toss me an e-mail at .

I also have a back-up of the website, but for a variety of reasons, it hasn't been really practical for me to bring it back online. Mainly 'cuz Joomla and the forum software it was using were pieces of ****.
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Old 10-16-2013, 06:43 AM   #8
arden
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Re: Atonement: The End

personally i feel that instead of deleting it you should have done a P-wipe, reset the world and seen if things took a different route than before
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Old 10-16-2013, 10:13 AM   #9
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Re: Atonement: The End


Time altering space phenomena?
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Old 10-21-2013, 04:45 PM   #10
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Re: Atonement: The End

I'm glad the game had a good run. You have always been one of the more positive and enjoyable posters about your game and the environment so I will look forward to whatever else you bring forth as I think many others will as well.
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