Midnight Society: "Project Moon" the AAA game from Dr Disrespect

What are Dr Disrespect and Midnight Society building in there?

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Dr Disrespect

Back-to-back 1993, 1994 Blockbuster champion. 6 foot 8. 36-inch vertical leap. Google prototypes... We've all heard about Dr Disrespect. The fictional character rose to fame during the heights of PUBG. His aggressive, cocky attitude towards gaming and his viewers seemed to really connect with his fan base. He became one of Twitch's most successful streamers before he was banned and moved to YouTube, where he has become a juggernaut for live streaming there.

Guy Beahm and his all-star team are building a Video Game, which in their words will challenge even the most prestigious triple A franchises like Call of Duty. It's a bold statement, especially for a team of some 20 developers who haven't made a game together before. Perhaps, comments like this are being made by the character Dr Disrespect rather than his IRL persona, Guy Beahm.

What does Doc know about making games?

Before Dr Disrespect was a house hold name, he was a developer at nonother than Sledgehammer Games, one of the three main studios that produce the Call of Duty games, along side Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Although, some would argue that Sledgehammer has never really got to grips with what making a good title in the franchise means with most of their titles flopping in spectacular style, most recently Call of Duty Vanguard.

Doc worked for Sledgehammer Games at the time of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in 2014. Advanced Warfare was the first attempt from the franchise to take boots off the ground and allow players to double jump and boost themselves with futuristic exo-skeleton suits. The game was met with extreme critisisms, and still has the fanbase divided on it today.

During his time at Sledgehammer Games, Dr Disrespect was a level designer on the Advanced Warfare game. Helping to create some of the game's most beloved maps, like Ascend and Solar. Most recently, Doc has worked along side the developers at Rogue Company, helping to design and implement his own map, Arena.

Who are Midnight Society?

The company is made up of veteran Video Game Developers from legendary first-person shooter titles like Call of Duty, Halo and Gears of War. Midnight Society was founded by four people but is slowly growing its talent as time goes on.

Co-Founders

Dr Disrespect - as above.

Robert Bowling - Worked at Infinity Ward as Creative Strategist and Community Manager until 2012. Left citing that the franchise wasn't revolutionary enough.

Quinn Delhoyo - Worked at 343 making Halo Infinite and Halo 5: Guardians. Also worked on Gears of War 3 and Gears of War: Judgement

Sumit Gupta - Founder and CEO of Boom.TV, an eSports entertainment platform.

Studio Art Director

Darren Bacon - Also came over from the Halo franchise.

Midnight Society seems hell bent on changing things up, breaking the mould and doing things their own way. They announced that players would be invited to shape how the game is created through feedback and playtests from day one to decide key features of the game along its development.

What are Midnight Society making?

Codenamed "Project Moon" is an Online PVP Multiplayer Experience.

MS is working on a Player-vs-Player multiplayer game they call a “Vertical Extraction Shooter” they continued on to say "Our high-level gameplay goals are to capture the essence of arena shooter level design with the scale and scope of battle royale player counts, and the session-to-session gameplay mechanics of extraction-based shooters."

This sounds heavily Tarkov-inspired, a game Doc has been playing a lot recently, with its extraction. A large verticle map with battle royale player counts. A screenshot was recently shared that shows a huge tower block of some kind in the centre of the screen. Perhaps each player spawns in on a random floor and has to battle their way to the rooftop to extract. Doc has always been a keen Battle Royale fan and has previously said he wanted to create the ultimate BR experience with his own spin on things. This is certainly that.

Players who purchase the Founders Access Pass and select Content Creators will be able to play the game from day Zero of production. A portion of the game will be playable each month so that feedback can be given 'en-route' through development.

NFT Founders Pass Backlash

The studio found itself under heavy fire when it announced that players could purchase a Founders Pass for $50 that would allow them to have special privileges and be given a unique NFT as a reward for doing so. NFT's have caused a stir for several gaming companies in recent months with many being openly against the idea of them altogether. It was certainly an interesting move from the newly formed studio.

Final Thoughts

simply put, we're excited for the game. It sounds like they truly are trying to be something different over at Midnight Society. But perhaps it is worth considering the reasons why every major Studio follows certain rules. The NFT thing seems to have done some serious damage to the brand on Twitter with many hateful comments directed at Doc and his Studio in the replies of their posts. They say that actions speak louder than words, so these actions are going to have to be extremely loud.

As for a release date, we have no clue. It's not even worth guessing. The team over at Midnight Society is about 20 strong now which is a push to create a triple A title. Although, it was always rumoured that Modern Warfare 2 (2009) was made by just 21 developers.

With all the chest beating and bragging on Twitter this game really needs to live up to its name. We are wishing the team the very best success and look forward to getting hands on with the finished product.

Lets end on a high. Here is a vintage clip of Robert Bowling saying Fuck You to the perk Last Stand.

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