Last summer, ZAM took a closer look at the upcoming sci-fi MMO, Black Prophecy, in our early-feature format, "What We Know So Far." The game's developer, Reakktor Media GmbH, kept a pretty tight lid on news and information about Black Prophecy back then. Most of what we knew about the upcoming MMO came from its website and a smattering of developer posts in the official forums. One of the most puzzling aspects of Black Prophecy was its story; a darkly-woven universe created by award-winning German novelist Michael Marrak. It wasn't until last month that Reakktor launched its Stellarvox Veritas site, gradually offering new information about the story and lore behind this mysterious MMO.

Since then, Reakktor kept relatively quiet about Black Prophecy's actual gameplay while it continues searching for a publisher. In an effort to help understand the lofty claims made by the developer about Black Prophecy's innovative gameplay, ZAM sought an interview with Creative Director Timo Krahl. In one of the most comprehensive Black Prophecy Q&As to date, Krahl addresses many of the burning questions posed by the community throughout the past few months.

ZAM asks about Marrak's involvement in creating the game universe, the high-tech graphics engine used to develop the MMO, and the gameplay behind it all. Krahl explains how modular "ships" serve as characters, and that players will "gear up" their ships via action-oriented level progression. We also ask about the extent of Black Prophecy's PvE content, its PvP gameplay, the clan system and more. But that's not all; ZAM was thrilled to obtain four brand-new, exclusive Black Prophecy screenshots from Reakktor Media. This is the first time these in-game screenshots have been available to the public; just click the screens in the story below to view the high-res, un-cropped versions.

Reakktor Media has published the second part of its Genidia Project series on the Stellarvox Veritas Web site, which is a virtual news broadcast that's filling fans in on Black Prophecy lore. If you missed it, the first Genidia Project article can be found here.

Now that you're caught up, the second Genidia Project article is posted after the jump. According to the article, the project ran on 36 colony ships simultaneously, "its goal to exchange experiences and insights obtained in order to optimize agricultural results on the one hand and to provide equitable conditions for all emigrants on the other."

So many ships were sent out at the same time to avoid the possibility that a ship may end up orbiting the wrong planet or leave a member of the team stranded alone in space. Check out the full article for more details on the project's mission.

Black Prophecy Art Director Nick Ebenhoch has written the third part of his Art Direction Developer Diary, and this one focuses on the design of the human faction. In case you missed it, the second part discussed general faction and ship design.

The diary entry provides a lot of detail on the design aspects surrounding humans in the game, from the faction logo to space ships and stations. For example, the logo's art represents the Earth, Sun, Saturn, and other planets in our solar system. Keep reading after the jump for the full entry, as well as an image of the human emblem.

As we reported, Reakktor Media recently unveiled its new Stellarvox Veritas Web site, which is a virtual news broadcast that contains background information on Black Prophecy's lore.The articles on the site explore the chain of events that "ousted Homo Sapiens from the top of human evolution," which makes them an interesting read for both fans of the MMO and science fiction in general.

The site's third article was recently posted, and it's the first part of the Genidia Project series. It focuses on Explorer 422's analysis of the flora and fauna of Tau Ceti IV as the humans search for potential colony worlds. You can read the full article after the jump.

Reakktor Media just unveiled its new Stellarvox Veritas Web site, which is a virtual news broadcast that contains background information on Black Prophecy's lore. The first article explains the purpose of the site, stating that "Stellarvox will reconstruct that disastrous chain of events which led mankind into the shadow of their own superior creation; humiliated, despised and condemned to insignificance." Basically, it looks like the site will explore the chain of events that "ousted Homo Sapiens from the top of human evolution."

A second article was also posted today that looks back at the first fleet of the Explorer scout probes that set off in 2082 "to seek Earth-like exo planets orbiting their central stars within a habitable zone." If you're interested in Black Prophecy's story or are simply a sci-fi fan, check out these articles and keep an eye on the site for updates.

The second issue of the Art Direction Developer Diary has been released and Art Director Nick Ebenhoch uses the opportunity to give fans an overview of Black Prophecy's general faction and ship design. He says the team found inspiration for Black Prophecy's ships, stations and objects in "classic 1980s sci-fi movies, where models were created by hand up to the last detail." So if you're a fan of Star Wars, old Battlestar Galactica or the USS Sulaco from Alien, chances are you'll appreciate the faction design in the game.

Ebenhoch says "the level of detail is very high for stations, capital ships and fighters," but emphasizes it's important to make sure the designs look like they were made by the members of the factions. Humans, the Tyi and the Genides would all design their stations and ships differently, so the details can't be the same for each faction.

Ebenhoch says his next developer diary entry will go into detail with each of the three most important factions. Until then, you can read his current entry after the jump.

The third issue of Black Prophecy: Behind the Scenes has been released, and this one involves Creative Director Timo Krahl and Art Director Nick Ebenhoch discussing aspects of Black Prophecy's gameplay and art direction. They also talk about their careers in the games industry and their personal interests.

While the bulk of the interview focuses on the duo's interests and duties, there is some information regarding the game scattered throughout the piece. For example, Krahl provided some information on the in-game death penalty: "We don’t want to seriously punish the player – this would not fit the general atmosphere and gameplay direction. Therefore you will not lose any ship parts or receive any other permanent losses. But a ship gets "disassembled" slowly during a fight, single ship parts can be destroyed and alter the overall values of the ship – a ship with only one engine will become slower – if you lose a wing the attached weapons won’t be available anymore, etc. Of course these damages will not be permanent."

You can read the full interview below.

If you're interested in the process that's going into writing Black Prophecy, why not go to the author himself? That's exactly what Colony of Gamers did. The site recently conducted an interview with Michael Marrack, a German sci-fi author and illlustrator who is writing the space action MMO, and they discussed everything from the game's plot to the differences between writing for games and writing prose.

Before Marrak even started working on the missions, he "worked for weeks on things like the game’s background, the story of mankind, its expansion into space, its motivation for the creation of new human races, its fission and the resulting race wars and different technical concepts about future technology like weapons, engines, etc." He said there's about 700 pages of manuscript material, with 300 pages focusing on missions. He's even been involved with the art direction for the game from the very beginning.

Despite all this detail, Marrak does acknowledge players won't need to be familiar with the game's background to play. However, he did say "it will definitely be enriching to pay attention to the overall context and to keep this in mind if you are interested in the whole picture."

The second issue of the Black Prophecy Community Q&A has been released, and this one focuses on the daily development routines of Lead Programmer Marco Nowara and QA Manager Stephan Bast. While most of the questions are personal and geared toward readers who want behind-the-scenes details of working in the game industry, some of the answers will be of interest to any gamer who's looking forward to playing Black Prophecy.

For example, Nowara and Bast were asked what attracted them to Black Prophecy, both from a player and a developer point of view. Nowara said the game is "no simple standard click & wait MMO but is very similar to a traditional space shooter where the player has to aim and evade. My personal favourites are the so-called tactics that allow players to make special manoeuvres to irritate enemies or shake them off."

Bast had a similar answer, saying he is a fan of the game due to "its direct controls and fast-paced combat." So if you're a fan of action games set in space or want to know more about the daily development routine surrounding Black Prophecy, keep reading the full Q&A below.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled upon the recent "Community Q&A" released by the development team of Black Prophecy, an upcoming sci-fi MMORPG. The Q&A was an interesting read, although it didn't prove to be a spectacularly informative piece for MMO fans who haven't been following the game's continued development. Since I fell into that category as well, the Q&A piqued my interest more than anything else. After all, there's not a whole lot to choose from in the mainstream market right now if you're a sci-fi fan and you don't play EVE Online. Sure, we have titles like 2029 Online, Exteel and PlanetSide—along with a few others—that have been generally well-received as niche releases over the years.

But there are thousands of players who feel that they haven't been able to really sink their teeth into a sci-fi MMO since Anarchy Online (or maybe Tabula Rasa, if you strayed down that path). Today, there's more hope for the future of sci-fi MMOs than there ever was; games like Earthrise are just over the horizon and some really big IPs are in development, like Star Trek Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic. But aside from the "classics," we're still waiting to see which of the new sci-fi IPs will offer the most enjoyable MMO experience.