![\"A](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/c_fill,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_center,h_80,pg_1,q_80,w_80\/8589334a56a7bc9d0af6ed76ce7be64b.jpg)
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<\/figure>\n The democratization of game development has long been touted as a fresh, original idea, each and every time a developer does it. From releasing daily public builds to frequently updated Early Access editions, it\u2019s been done many times for many years. The difference with Dr \u201cHerschel Beahm IV\u201d Disrespect\u2019s upcoming FPS project, a battle royale-cum-extraction shooter from his Midnight Society studio? You have to buy a fucking NFT to play it.<\/p>\n Midnight Society\u2019s goal\u2014currently titled \u201cProject Moon\u201d\u2014is to create \u201cthe next AAA competitive PvPvE first-person shooter,\u201d which they say they will do \u201copenly and transparently,\u201d<\/span> via releasing what they\u2019re calling \u201cSnapshots.\u201d<\/p>\n These are effectively vertical slice builds of a game, which would more usually be created by a developer in pre-alpha to try to secure a publishing deal, or to show off during events like E3. Such samples of what a game will offer give an idea of the developer\u2019s ambitions, but in this case will apparently be used so backers\u2014sorry, \u201cFounders Action Pass holders\u201d\u2014can give feedback, and vote for features they\u2019d like to see removed or included. Which is otherwise called \u201cplaytesting,\u201d a position developers or publishers pay<\/em> people to perform, often poorly.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/figure>\n Midnight Society describes itself as a team made up of \u201cambitious game industry veterans,\u201d with its leadership team built from Robert Bowling, original member of Infinity Ward and executive producer of Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche<\/em>, money-man Sumit Gupta, and Beahm himself, a former community manager at Call of Duty<\/em> studio Sledgehammer Games. It also boasts Quinn Delhoyo, sandbox design lead on Halo: Infinite<\/em>, who has also worked on multiplayer for previous Halo<\/em> games and Gears Of War III<\/em>, and previously had the honor of being a level designer for Duke Nukem Forever.<\/em><\/p>\n They\u2019ve already put together a further team of 10 experienced developers, plus a further 12 non-development crew, amongst whom a few have the word \u201ccrypto\u201d written through their CVs.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a pretty small team to try to put together what appears to be a battle royale-meets-extraction shooter (think Hunt: Showdown <\/em>meets Plunkbat<\/em>), the genres via which Beahm first gained streaming fame. Yet, it\u2019ll be very simple to see how they\u2019re doing, given that every six weeks they intend to release a playable build to those who\u2019ve invested in the project.<\/p>\n \u201cOur high-level gameplay goals are to capture the essence of arena shooter level design,\u201d says Midnight Society\u2019s latest blog<\/span>, \u201cwith the scale and scope of battle royale player counts, and the session-to-session gameplay mechanics of extraction-based shooters.\u201d <\/p>\n The development studio previously attempted to garner attention<\/span> a couple of weeks back by paying for a pricey Times Square billboard. On it was teased the name of the studio, and little else, beyond a suggestion that some sort of announcement is due July 29. This, it seems, is to be the first \u201cFounders Event,\u201d where those who bought in before the game existed will get to meet up in Los Angeles to, er, \u201cdiscuss the first Snapshot of the game.\u201d What a time.<\/p>\n![\"Some](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/c_fill,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_center,h_80,pg_1,q_80,w_80\/679d8b5e8803b39b7272190623362c44.jpg)