Right, guys, remember that Doctor Who: Worlds In Time massively multiplayer online game we told you was coming earlier this year? Yeah, we’ve got loads more details on it now, but you have to promise not to shoot the messenger. This game isn’t some sonic screwdriver-based rival to The Old Republic. It’s a Flash-based game with a business model lifted straight out of Zynga’s playbook.
Doctor Who: Worlds In Time is a puzzle based multiplayer game that runs on any browser that supports Flash. It’s going into public beta today at doctorwhowit.com, with a full launch come March, and we got a chance to check it out ahead of release, and talk to the game’s creators.
You play as one of the Doctor’s trusty assistants (Companions from the show don’t appear in the game), plucked from your bed in your pyjamas, as the Timelord is wont to do. It’s up to you to travel across various worlds from the series, with his aid. And yes, the Doctor is voiced by Matt Smith.
“Smith is there to set you off on missions and take you around. By March we’ll have ten iconic worlds like New New York, and ten iconic monsters on top of that,” says Robert Nashak, executive vice president of digital entertainment at BBC Worldwide. Nashak says these will include daleks, cybermen and even the petrifying weeping angels.
It’s been developed by Three Rings, a Sega owned developer best known for Puzzle Pirates, a popular online game that predates the phenomenon of social gaming, led by huge giants such as Zynga and Playfish.
And yet, visuals aside, it’s these games’ business models Doctor Who: Worlds In Time adheres to. Starting off in a game lobby with about 40 other players, you then team up to travel to different worlds and complete various puzzles – one we were shown involved unlocking several doors with a Tetris style falling block game.
You can play the entire game for free, Nashak says, but here’s that Zynga twist: the hopelessly addicted can pay for credits to speed up progression through the game. £1.99 will get you 600 Chronons, the in-game currency, which can be used to unlock features and help you level up your sonic-screwdriver type gadget.
Unlike Farmville and other Zynga games, Doctor Who: Worlds In Time won’t be available via Facebook, though you can sign in via Facebook Connect.
We’ll be honest, Flash-based social games aren’t our cup of tea. But Zynga’s billion dollar flotation last week proves that it is for plenty of people, and there’s one thing that might get veteran Who fans involved: previous incarnations of the Doctor will be appearing too.
“Over time we’ll expand this universe to past Doctor Who manifestations,” says Nashak, but he refuses to say which ones and when when pushed.
Fingers crossed: the prospect of a Tom Baker avatar and digital jelly babies you can buy might just get you out from behind the sofa when Doctor Who: Worlds In Time launches publicly in March.
