'Project Cyber:' A Sports Game Built By Fans

Social media has made it easier than ever for fans to correspond with game developers, and Spearhead Games has taken this idea to its logical extreme with "Project Cyber." On its surface, "Project Cyber" is a simple multiplayer sports game, but it sets itself apart by letting fans make some of its most important design decisions.

Tom's Guide had a chance to play "Project Cyber" at PAX East 2014. The game is currently in a pre-alpha state, and although what's there is simple, it's completely playable. Players split intoteams of three and compete to score goals in something approximating a futuristic soccer field. Each player controls a unique character class, which can help either drive a hexagonal projectile toward the enemy goal, or prevent it from going into yours.

Right now, the game has only three classes: a goalie, a midfielder and a striker. We took control of the midfielder: a silver-haired woman with the power to either bump the projectile or send it bouncing around the edges of the arena. By coordinating with our teammates, we kept control of the projectile while our goalie threw up an energy shield whenever it got too close and our striker sent it careening across vast distances.

A representative from Spearhead told us that the company envisions "Project Cyber" as a soccer-based multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), like a shorter version of "League of Legends." Spearhead will design a whole roster of heroes to control, letting players fine-tune their teams and try out innovative teamwork strategies.

"Project Cyber" is a fun enough little game, but what makes it interesting is its development process, which has been opened up to the public via online streaming site Twitch. You can tune in during working hours to see the developers create character models and implement code.

More importantly, each weekday at 7 PM ET, Spearhead meets with its community via the Twitch stream. Here, they have discussed everything from character design to what kind ofbusiness model the game will eventually embrace (Spearhead envisions the game as free-to-play; fans may well convince them otherwise). In theory, the end result will be a game that fans dreamed of, implemented by talented designers and artists.
At present, Spearhead believes it has developed about half of the assets necessary for "Project Cyber" to enter its alpha phase of development in June. Anything past that, from price to final release date, will require input from the nascent game's community.