“We are not a blockchain game,” says the opening slide of Everywhere assistant game director Adam Whiting’s presentation. The weight of shared uneasiness among the journalists present in the conference room increases—not because any of us have any stake in Build A Rocket Boy’s upcoming debut venture (not that I’m aware of, at least), but because it seems clear at At this stage, we will hear the letters N, F and T put together much less during the studio visit than we otherwise might have. “Why no NFTs?” says Leslie Benzies – former Rockstar North president, lead Grand Theft Auto developer, Build A Rocket Boy founder and current Everywhere game director – later in the day. “Because we don’t need them.”
The confusion, for those out of the loop, dates back to last year. Shortly after the game’s big reveal at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, the internet noticed that Build A Rocket Boy had a subcategory on its job posting page for ‘blockchain’, which the studio itself later justified as being for research purposes only. Everywhere is built in Unreal Engine 5, not the blockchain, a statement confirmed at the timewhich again is the primary message conveyed and emphasized before we are shown the game in motion.
As a connected, player-driven experience that promises a mix of free-to-play and premium content, designed to be something along the lines of “Roblox but for older players,” what we’re shown is impressive, exciting, and hugely ambitious.
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Our hands-off exposition starts with a meandering camera shot that weaves around Utropia, the main multi-biome social area in the center of the Everywhere map. A tutorial introduces the basics of traversing in and around a wooded backdrop, filled with platforms of varying heights that can be reached by double and triple jumps as needed. Lore in Utropia is lightly touched on the developer side, Whiting explains, with players primarily responsible for the development of the world which currently spans a Combat District, Racing District, Entertainment District and an art gallery-like space called ‘The Collection’. Glowing portals act as gateways to these specialist areas of player-made “Sanctuaries”, and while the likes of Combat District are expected to depict elements of violence, in their attempt to appeal to players of all ages, Everywhere’s weapons are strictly energy-powered with no ballistics or bullets .
Everywhere, therefore, the purposeful universal appeal is rooted in creation. User-generated content (UGC) drawn from an exhaustive suite of building components allows players to create social rooms, battle arenas, race tracks and Zelda-like challenge rooms, just to name a few of what we’ve seen build from the ground up. In reality. Parts of the UGC are called “ARCs” in-game, with the tool for creating ARCs called “ARCadia” – with the overall goal here to help players gain an understanding of coding without being forced to use actual code. In doing so, Build A Rocket Boy hopes to empower players with the lowest barriers possible, helping them “manifest ideas in record time.”
Players can also save their handcrafted creations as “stamps”, which can then be found in shops and transferred to other players’ games via the in-game currency. This is demonstrated for us in practice with a sprawling, Hot Wheels-esque race track that culminates in a huge, poison-filled boss room that the developers drop a player-made Final Fantasy 7’s Ruby Weapon-like enemy into, which the player character must then blast to pieces. And breathe.
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Still with us? Don’t worry, I struggled to wrap my head around it all too, and I was shown it first hand. Even more so when Whiting led his character through the entertainment district to a cinema to catch a glimpse of MindsEye – the premium AAA action-adventure title that Build A Rocket Boy is working on alongside Everywhere, which can also be accessed in-game. . Follow that link for more on that, but know that it looks amazing, and again opens up the possibility of more similar projects in this space, using Everywhere as a platform for approach.
With all this, I will admit it I love what Everywhere suggests. The space for creation, for ingenuity, for socializing and for educating is exciting; as a gamer, and even as a parent of two young children taking their first steps into gaming, I think Everywhere is full of possibilities. But while all of this is impressive, it’s almost impossible to judge at this point without going hands-on, and without experiencing the world it promises to deliver until it’s full of like-minded creators.
There are glimpses of Fortnite here, of Roblox, Dreams, Minecraft, PlayStation Home and even Habbo Hotel – games and experiences whose collective success and identity were grown and forged over time. Everywhere and Build A Rocket Boy aim to enter the conversation at an advanced stage and without much introduction, which is a big risk in itself. But with the likes of Fortnite leaning more heavily on its creative side than ever before, using its mind-melting new mod toolsif Everywhere hits the ground running as planned, it could truly be a force to be reckoned with.
Is this the future?
“Because activity is the lifeblood of ambitious projects like these.”
The back end of Build A Rocket Boy’s headquarters is located at the foot of Leith Walk in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, and faces the North Sea. From the floor-to-ceiling windows facing the water, the MS Victoria stands proudly like a cruise ship that has been docked indefinitely, and has become temporary accommodation for over 1,200 asylum seekers fleeing the Russian-Ukrainian war. At the front of the old casino building, a mess of roadworks snakes down Ocean Drive amid the city’s oft-criticised tram installation plan, a project hundreds of millions of pounds overbudget and now in its 15th year. It’s a coincidence that there’s so much going on around the studio, but I can’t help but compare these converging realities to what Everywhere hopes to achieve in the game.
Because activity is the lifeblood of ambitious projects like these. That’s why Fortnite continues to impress and why PUBG Battlegrounds has been breaking records for six years. It’s why Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has topped Steam’s most played charts for over a decade, and why GTA 5 and GTA Online have managed to span not one, not two, but three consecutive console generations. Everywhere isn’t a blockchain game, Build A Rocket Boy is clear about that, but it has it everything to prove whether it will earn its place at that table. Time will tell if it has what it takes – but I’m sure excited to see it try.
Everywhere will arrive in 2023, first on PC followed by other platforms at some point thereafter
