A few of you may have heard about Kovok’s newest project, Nebula, but did you know that even though they didn’t meet their goal on their kickstarter, that they are still coming to a PS4 near you? Thanks to a private investor, they will be launching the Project Nebula Beta on the PS4 later this year.

For those of you that aren’t familiar, Project Nebula is a 3D interactive world for the PS4 where users will be able to socialize, play games and explore.

With Home in its final days, I thought it would be a good time to catch up with the Community Manager of Kovok and get the latest updates on what to expect from Nebula.

During your kickstarter you announced a ton of features that would be available in Nebula. Since you did not reach your kickstarter goal, which features will you be focusing on first?

The Core of Project Nebula will contain the following features:

* All avatar customization features

* All the chat and message features

* Pets support

* Friend list support

* Dances and gestures

* A set of clothing for your avatar, male and female

* A default personal space

* XP reward system and store

* A Blessing of Nebula personal space (for subscription only)

* Public Space with the following features:

Pool table mini-game, Crazy golf mini-game, Bowling mini-game, Interactive Swimming Pool and 24 hour dance floor and music.




How long do you project Nebula being in Beta?

That is a difficult question to answer, we don’t want to be in perpetual beta like Home, but we don’t want to rush it either. Closed Beta will start November of 2015.

Will there be a charge for using Nebula?

Project Nebula will be free-to-play and it is not required to have PSplus.

Sometimes we buy something then after realize its not what we expected, will we have the ability to preview items such as dances and LMO’s?

We will offer a way to preview all items before purchase, some will be in-game and some as PV’s (promotional videos).

Will there be any clubhouses offered? If yes, will there be a fee to run one?

Yes! Clubhouses will be offered and they will be free to own. We are also looking to expand upon the number of members per club (64), personal spaces (32) and public spaces (128 or more). It will all be dependent upon stability.

One of the biggest hurdles of Home was the item limit when decorating, how many items will we be able to use while decorating?

We are aiming for 500 decorating slots; we would love for players to put as many items as they want, but unfortunately it cannot be unlimited due to stability issues.




Many people enjoy fashion, but it’s hard to take pictures of your clothing with the current camera in PlayStation Home, do you plan to have a similar camera feature or something more substantial that will allow close up’s, better lighting, etc.?

We will be incorporating as many camera views as we possibly can; we want users to be able to move the camera wherever they want for pictures.

Do you plan to incorporate your creations in Home in Nebula, such as The Greenhouse, The Dressing Room, The Raven Culture line?

Our creations will also be available in Project Nebula.

At some point in time, I can imagine that our inventories could become bogged down with items that we may no longer want anymore, do you plan in incorporating a delete or hide feature?

You will be able to delete an item, but also see a list of items deleted.

One of the biggest hits in Home was the ability to gift items to friends, do you plan on offering a similar feature?

Yes! You will have the ability to gift friends in Project Nebula, actually the plan is to make every item giftable.




Do you plan on re-creating any of the popular spaces in Home such as the Central Plaza, Bowling Alley?

We will have a public space that will have pool, golf, chess and bowling mini-games as well as a 24 hour dance floor and an interactive swimming pool, but we do not plan to do a recreation of Home. We want Project Nebula to be a unique and different experience.

Have you been approached by any third parties interested in creating content yet?

We definitely welcome the opportunity to work with other developers as a collaboration or 3rd party.

When you were running the kickstarter, it was mentioned that on the computer, players would have “the freedom to use their 3D custom avatar to socialize, play games, explore and customize 3D spaces.” Do you still plan to do this and will this feature be available on the PS4?

Yes of course! All of these features and more will be available on all platforms.

While watching the trailer for Project Nebula, I noticed that there will be games incorporated, do you plan to offer rewards for the games?

That is correct; players will earn rewards for playing the games. Players will also earn daily XP which they can then use to redeem rewards.

Since the PS4 is big on cross chat, how will the voice options interact with Nebula in-game? Will you be able to talk to people not currently in Nebula?

Players would have to be in Nebula in order to chat, but we will have private, club and group chats available and in the future we will incorporate an IOs/android app that will allow you to chat/send messages with players in world.

Do you plan on allowing third-party advertisers to advertise or have promotions to help with funding?

Absolutely! Not only would we want to advertise games, but we would like to advertise major brands like Pepsi/Coca Cola, Red Bull, maybe even Apple some day!

Will you be able to share gameplay via Twitch or Upstream?

Players will be able to share game play, but we have to keep in mind this is something that would have to be implemented at a later time.




Will there be any trophies available?

A trophy for completing in-games is a great idea and will be considered.

What is the projected release date for Nebula on the PS4?

We don’t have a release date as of yet, we first have to do the beta and make sure we have all our ducks in a roll (so to speak) before we can announce a full release date.

Will there be a visible moderation presence?

Moderation will be visible to players

What steps do you plan to take to prevent users from hacking the system and gaining access to moderator controls?

It will be all encrypted, but even so there isn’t a 100% safe formula, we will do as much as we can to prevent this and will do our best to quickly patch any exploits.

What steps do you plan to take to prevent ISE?

Make no mistake we take any type of exploit hacking very seriously and will take any necessary measures to punish those who are found with exploited items.

Project Nebula is being advertised as 17 and up, how do you plan to regulate this?

Players will have access to Project Nebula via the PS4 and we will utilize the Sony registration process to verify age.

How long before Nebula will be available on the PC?

As soon as we generate enough revenue we will port it to PC.

When the PC version is released, will users be able to interact with those on the PS4?

That’s the idea! For players to be able to interact with each other whether they are on the PS4, PC or Mac, similar to how Final Fantasy works.

What kind of currency does Nebula offer? Will there be a subscription?

Our in-game currency will be called Nebula Crystals, but we will also offer a subscription called “Blessing of Nebula”. Subscribed accounts will earn XP faster, have access to exclusive content and receive monthly rewards. Blessed account holders also have the option to fly around with a pair of wings rather than walk.

We would love to thank Kovok for taking time out of their busy schedule to answer a few questions for us and for giving us the exclusive opportunity to show off their Blessings of Nebula Apartment, which will be available via subscription. Do keep in mind that these pictures are works in progress, but nevertheless, the graphics are simply amazing.



Source: pshomegazette.com

This looks really great. I had not even heard of this until a few days ago. Only Atom Universe, neotopia and avakin. Avakin is cute and I know they are working really hard on Atom Universe but it kinda looks like Kovok will blow them all out of the water. I'm super excited for this and I hope your efforts pay off Frosty. Wink Wink.

Thanks for the update ice pop . Looks fun. Let's see what happens.