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EverQuest, Vanguard leader Kickstarting new MMO

"Classic, challenging, group-focused" Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.

Brad McQuaid - a decorated MMO developer responsible for the original EverQuest as well as Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - is making a new MMO.

It's called Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen and it'll be funded - he hopes - on Kickstarter. A campaign is expected to pop up imminently.

McQuaid announced the news on Twitter and on his personal website, which features a big sultry picture of his face.

At least the concept art isn't generic...

"... Brad formed a new company in September 2013," the website tells us. "They immediately began development of a new, classic, challenging, group-focused MMO called Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.

"The new company will launch a Kickstarter site in January 2014 which will reveal all sorts of details about both the company and the game, including videos, concept art, and even actual in-game screenshots and short clips of the game itself. Brad has assumed the role of chief creative officer and one of the producers of Pantheon."

On Twitter he added: "The game is high fantasy and if you've played EQ1 and/or Vanguard, you've got a general idea of what the game's about ... ."

He said Pantheon is at least three years from completion, will have a "long" beta, will be powered by Unity, and has nothing to do with Sony Online Entertainment.

He also said "Challenging Epic Planar High Fantasy", presumably referring to the game's setting and theme. He shared concept art of some kind of god-king, too.

Crowd-funding a project as big as an MMO is a tricky business, and how much money McQuaid will ask for we'll have to wait and see. But it's doable, as Dark Age of Camelot man Mark Jacobs proved, when last year he funded Camelot Unchained to the tune of $2.2 million (and then threw a further $3 million of private investor money in - $2 million of which came from his own pocket.)