Avalon Keep: Heavy Water Brings Us Camelot
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
When you think of Heavy Water in the context of Home, what comes to mind?
I bet it was tattoos. This is their hallmark in the Home community. But if you dig a little deeper, you realize that there’s a lot more to Heavy Water, particularly when it comes to personal estates. This is, after all, the same company that brought us the Chamber Apartment and the BioShock 2 apartment, amongst others — to say nothing of the work they’ve done under contract for other parties.
When I wrote the Dream Space article many months ago, proposing new kinds of personal spaces that people might want in Home, mine was a castle. I have always loved history — and British history in particular, with all of its knights, lords and ladies has always been my favorite. Arthurian legend has always held a special allure for me and I have read a great many books dealing with it over the past fifty years or so. My favorite recent find in this vein is Jack Whyte; he blends real history into his fictional work and it is amazing.
If you like this kind of genre, you are probably going to love Avalon Keep.
Although Norse and Cubes have been aware of Avalon Keep for a while, I only heard about this coming personal space the other day for the first time, and right away my reaction was, quite frankly, that it’s about time. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us! From the promotional video that was just released, I think we will all be very happy with what they have come up with:
The first thing you notice is just how big this place is. It’s not a bunch of barely-interlinked estates like the Mansion, nor is it a scaled-down pretense like the French Chateau. It’s a properly big castle. It does seem to be partially furnished, and there appear to be even more furniture tie-ins, possibly based on this “house allegiance” system they’re advertising.
There it is! Camelot!
Of particular note, there are several NPC guards about for you or your guests to speak to, all of whom can be decked out in a variety of crested uniforms based upon your choice of alliance from a menu. This menu will also change what the interior carpets, flags, windows and banners will look like to make the castle your own. This adds a nice touch of interactivity that most personal estates don’t offer.
One of the neatest new things they are giving us is called the Dragonfly Automaton; this device will give you a birds-eye view of your space, which is a new idea for any personal space I have ever heard of. And there are tantalizing hints about a scavenger quest, possibly similar to the LocoRoco pickory-collecting quest, which should keep people coming back long-term. Innovation in personal spaces seems to be taking off like a cannonball shot out of a Heavy Strike cannon, and Heavy Water stands a good chance of revitalizing a saturated market segment with Avalon Keep.
(Personally, I’m really looking forward to getting this space, and I can only hope we are given the costumes to go with it because I really liked the look of that lady sitting by the water!)
For years, there’s been demand for a medieval castle of some sort in PlayStation Home; fantasy settings lend themselves extremely well to Home, and lord knows there’s no shortage of RPG gamers in this virtual world. Hopefully, Avalon Keep could shake things up in a big way — and it certainly appears poised to do so.
August 7th, 2012 by Burbie52 | 15 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
Heavy Water loobest the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!
‘O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy.’ And the Lord did grin.
And the part of the first part shall pulleth the pin. after the count to 3 -not-eth to one and not-eth to two and 4 is right out!
Wonderful change in personal spaces. I love this genre. My favorite history classes were European History. This looks great Heavy Water.
great article Burbie
I guessed right all those months ago.
I love the idea of a castle and can hardly wait for the “keep” to come out. I look forward to seeing all the extras they’ve packed into this estate, too. Preview tomorrow! I’m sure developers are going bigger and bigger because of consumer demand, but I don’t see how 100 items will ever fill this space… and forget active items. So, now we will continue to demand a larger item count in our spaces -- a never ending spiral of consumerism.
P.S. Here’s hoping that they put in a lot of furniture spawn spots.
Very interessting indeed… Love the alligeance function.
But one thing I must ask Heavy Water. Who’s the composer of the music and what piece it’s from! LOVED IT!
Yes, harpsichord and cello. And all those lovely rooms to fill with new goodies. This place will leave me completely baroque.
TIS BUT A FLESH WOUND!
*ahem*
This’ll be good for pushing the technicalities of what personal spaces can do but to me, as a person that lives in one of the oldest towns in Britain, this looks a bit like a toy set really. Like, if someone asked you what a castle looks like, would you show them the Disney Castle?
No offence LostRainbow ; ) but I guess kudos to the devs for trying new stuff, it’s all a foot I’m the right direction. Speaking of feet, where did I put that giant Monty Python foot thingy, I have knights to crush…
you know here is the thing… it does look like a toy set. I much prefer the artwork from your black and white picture Burbie. And were it called Camelot as opposed to Avalon which is the island where the monks built their monastery. -See when I think of Avalon I think of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “Mists of Avalon” Which is a deep and well-thought out political commentary about a new regime taking over an old one -social and religious in its movements. When I think of Avalon I think of something mysterious and not fully understandable but beautiful and ancient and powerful and natural. Like a Ruin stumbled upon while lost in the woods -like a Will o’ the Wisp -A stone arch where secret lovers might meet and make a sacred vow.
This in graphic falls painfully short of my imagination. This is much more like Shrek -which is great when taken for what it is.
The huge spaces are daunting to me… will they increase the number of people that can enter the site with you? Are most of the furniture items already set in place? What would I do with this space other than play the scavenger game? Is there an opportunity to add my own expression?
Having never been in a country that is older than three hundred or so years, I would love to see what it is like to stand in a building that is a 500 years old -A building that stood when the renaissance blew through rejuvenating thought and creativity. A building that housed the great minds of its day.
I know exactly what you mean. The castle in my town was actually built in 1200 I think, which means it’s a pretty damn old building now lol. Also I think it’s due for its bi-century rent hike by now! Heh, but seriously, the thing is falling to bits. Places near me however would have made good models for basis, like Scoone Palace; a beautifully preserved castle of a home that was never attacked. The down side to it that its decendants and rightful owners are still around. The way I hear it, the grandchild of the previous remnants claims ownership. The grandparents loved their history and lived in the annex so the public could tour and view this exquisitely kept palace ( I’m talking nurseries that hadn’t been changed in over a hundred years. Anyways, this spoiled best came along and decided he needs the whole place to himself! So only the ground floor and and the grounds are open to the public now. The grounds are nice; full of waterfeatures, a massive old hedge maze and peacocks.
About time i had a proper home for my dragons
have heard this one will be spendy, so i hope i can afford it when it comes out.
Been seeing more videos for this since it’s about to be released today and I never realized that you could change the colours of the whole place! I gotta say, after getting a little peek at it in darker tones (rather than that garish purple) it’s not looking too bad now. Also, visitor rewards are cool, furniture for owners, a day/night cycle and the new birds-eye-view (or should I say dragonfly’s view) are becoming better reasons to put some money down on this. But then, we all know that you’ll need the massive pack of medieval stuff to do the place justice, could get expensive!
Hello all, I am the founding partner and creative director at Heavy Water. The team and I have spent an enormous amount of time making Avalon. I very much appreciate all the kind things that are being said here about the Avalon Keep, however I am more interested in the constructive criticisms. I am very interested in hearing what we could have done better with the Avalon Keep. I would love to hear what your thoughts are on the space since it was released. The comments above look like they were made before the product went live. I also really want to know what you would like to see from us in the future. Please understand that we are constantly trying to make the content we create for home the best it can be. With that being said there are limitations to what is possible in HOME. So we do have to work withing those parameters. RiffRaffse7en and Krazyface, I fully understand and appreciate your critiques on the art style. I personally and intentionally made the art for Avalon Keep different from the standard mediocre photo real that is all too common in HOME. But that doesn’t mean that it is the only way that a castle can be envisioned for HOME. I really want to hear what your ideas for a Castle are. Krazyface, I live in San Diego. I don’t get out to places that have Castles too often. I would love if you could send me some pictures of the location you describe above. I would love to see if I could incorporate the things you describe in a future version of Avalon. Thanks, Hope to hear from all of you soon.
I actually did a wishlist that included some things that I would like to see in Avalon. Here is a link to it for you. http://www.hsmagazine.net/2012/08/wishing-on-a-star/ I am glad to see that you are implementing some things already. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.
Thanks Burbie,
Sorry I missed this. I don’t often have time to follow the threads. We have been so busy with development. I’ll take a look at this later this evening.
Stephen does a great job keeping me up to date with the community but I need to spend more time reading things for myself.
BTW, I very much appreciate all that you and your team have done for us!