Shining Force Online team launches Shining Empire on Kickstarter, first details here

Shining Empire is the new RPG project from Shining Force Online team Arcade County. The studio has launched a Kickstarter for the game after Sega put a stop to Shining Force Online, with a view to launching the game in November on PC, Mac and iOS devices.

We reported on Shining Force Online development back in November. It was never officially endorsed by Sega, and as it turned out, was nuked by the license holder.

Over on the Shining Empire Kickstarter, Arcade Country explained, "Last June we began work on 'Shining Force Online', a sequel to the original Shining Force games on the Sega Genesis. Unfortunately, Sega shut the game down and now we're left with a lot of completed work we can not release. Rather than scrap the project completely, we are going to re-build it into a massive single player RPG with huge improvements!"

The new game opens with the player inheriting a vast plot of land from their dead uncle and then building an empire on its soil. From there you can choose to forge your kingdom or set out into the world to search for your uncle's killer. It's a top-down RPG in the same vein as Shining Force, complete with retro visuals.

You can check out a Shining Empire gameplay tutorial with commentary through the link to see exactly how the concept will work.

Studio CEO R. Mulvaney explained how the game will work, and why it has moved on from its initial MMO concept. "It's single player! I promise!" he began, "It's funny how much people seem to dislike MMO's. I'm with them. I wanted to do something different with Shining Force Online but you get stuck in these traps where you just end up doing what everyone else did. There are some serious design flaws with MMO's that we can't escape.

"The only way to break the taboos is to stop making these games. So this is a complete 180 from where we were with Shining Force Online. it begins with building your own fantasy city. That's what these videos really cover. It's sort of a mash-up of Viva Pinata, Sim City 2000, and Roller Coaster Tycoon. The difference with our game is you can leave your land and explore the same as you can in any adventure game. It's not JUST a city builder."

We'll have more on the project as it unfolds, or if Sega decide to send in the lawyers again.