One epic meta-game design I first remember talking about a decade ago while working on Warhammer Online is the multi-scale online game: a system of interconnected games in which you choose to be a solo operative, work in a small group, or command epic forces or huge space fleets and influence a single universe however you choose to contribute. It’s a recurring game design meme that I’ve talked about several times since and I’m sure many others have had similar discussions around the globe ever since multiple computers were connected together.

So, I’m super excited to see CCP games take a huge step towards realizing this epic game design dream today by linking the internet spaceship game EVE online with the brand new PS3 first person shooter Dust 514. Players piloting giant spacecraft in EVE online will be able to swoop down from space and interact with other players running around on the planet’s surface playing Dust 514. This is very cool.

I’m also very excited that the two games are connected using the CREST API that I helped to build: an API that will be usable everywhere. Not only will you be able to interact with the EVE universe at every scale from the human to the intergalactic, the clients used to connect to the universe will work on every scale of device from phones to desktops and every scale of interaction from web tools built by 3rd parties, through 5 minute casual experiences to epic space battles played out in full 3D over hours and campaigns played out over years.

Today’s connection of EVE and Dust is a historic moment, but it’s just the beginning of what will be a very exciting second decade for the universe of New Eden.

cc image by vdu, j4mie

One of the things I’ve been tinkering with since leaving Linden Lab is Creatarr: a creative, collaborative social game. Creatarr’s goal is to bring some of the magical collaborative creation found in Second Life to a wider audience and to push creativity in social games and the web beyond virtual farming and impact text on animal pictures.

I quickly got busy building the CREST API for CCP and I’m likely to have even less free time when I start my new gig, but Facebook are happy for me to continue to tinker with Creatarr and I like shipping code, so I’ve decided to make Creatarr public and run it for as long as people are playing. There are plenty of rough edges, but there are also some neat ideas and plenty of fun to be had, so head over to creatarr.com and dive in.

Thanks to @mrkemeny, Irene Soler, Chris James, @yandle and @profaniti for helping to build Creatarr.