Mark Kern's Ember Now Em-8ER, Nostalrius Programmer Hired On

One of the downsides of using a single English word as a title is that it's really hard to ensure that you're the only one using it. When the old-school RPG Ember launched on Steam and mobile, Mark Kern's successor to the "original vision" of Firefall was no longer the only Ember on the market. Realizing that this might be confusing, Kern changed the name of the game to Em-8ER and released a new logo.

In more surprising news, Kern has announced that Nostalrius developer Ekiator has been hired on as Em-8ER's Lead Server Programmer, a move that he notes was only possible thanks to the success of the game's recent IndieGoGo campaign. The inspiration for the server software comes from "a conversation between Em-8ER’s Creative Director (Mark Kern, former Team Lead, vanilla WoW) and Gabe Newell (Co-founder, Valve), several years ago." According to Kern, "the servers are being designed for near-instant feedback, low-latency and a highly efficient backend" and "will incorporate innovative techniques that will make for a very fluid play experience, even with large numbers of players."

If all goes well for Em-8ER, a "playable mockup" of the game will be available in "early 2017" as a part of the game's upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Multiplayer development, led by Ekiator, will begin sometime after the Kickstarter has concluded.