March 25th, 2008

Face of Mankind Developer Diary #4

Face of Mankind Screenshot

The first version of Face of Mankind was first released in early 2005 where thousands of players played a character in a persistent semi-dystopian/cyberpunk universe. Much emphasis of the game was placed on player-driven and open-ended elements. The combat mechanics were twitch-based, relying more on personal skill rather than levels and statistics. Many political and social aspects revolved around the unrestricted dynamics of the roleplaying community, it was a delicate balance between a dangerous open-PvP environment and a meaningful atmosphere due to the existence of the Global Dominion government, law enforcement and the criminal/prison system.

In late 2005, Duplex Systems (The team behind FoM) partnered up with Ojom, a cellular company, to publish the game on a larger scale, at least they hoped. When this took place, the game’s design started to take a different path. The developers opted to make changes that would completely change its original appeal, taking away a lot of the sandbox principles of the game. This was known as the Milestone 1. Around the first and second quarter of 2006, the game went retail (P2P) and was in operation up until the end of the 2008. During that time, Milestone 2 was slowly being implemented into the game, which added minor gameplay mechanics that really weren’t enough to keep the game running strong. At the end of 2008, Ojom ceased hosting FoM and Duplex Systems is currently in the process of revamping the entire game for a new release called Face of Mankind: Rebirth.

Recently, Duplex Systems has been looking for an MMO site to help publicize their developer diaries for the new version of their sci-fi MMORPG/FPS, which they finally settled on MMORPG.com The first 3 were published at fomportal.com via PDF files.

Downloads of the first 3 developer diaries:

Face of Mankind: Rebirth Developer Diary #1
Face of Mankind: Rebirth Developer Diary #2
Face of Mankind: Rebirth Developer Diary #3

The 4th developer diary was just published today at MMORPG.com.

Click here for the reactions at the FoM community forum.