Black Prophecy Art Director Nick Ebenhoch has written the fifth and final part of his Art Direction Developer Diary, and this one focuses on the design of the Genide faction. His third and fourth entries presented the Human and Tyi factions, respectively.

According to Ebenhoch, "the Genides are a biogenetic advancement of the Humans. Progression in genetics, medicine and research are the animating spirit of the Genides, which is reflected in their faction logo." The faction utilizies smooth and calm design elements in its ships and stations.

You can read the full dev diary entry after the jump. Technical Director Cyrus Preuss will be writing the next series of dev diary entries, which will focus on the technical side of Black Prophecy. For more information on the game, check out our recent interview with Creative Director Timo Krahl.

Reaktor Media GmbH, developers of the much anticipated space action MMO, "Black Prophecy" narrowly missed declaring "insolvency" (which means a lack of funds) the other day as they noted that their parent company also declared insolvency, and this, in turn caused Reaktor Media GmbH to follow suit. The team notes, however, that they did manage to find an investor in time, and now the 36 employees of the company will get to retain their jobs. Black Prophecy is still slated to be released sometime next year, so let's hope that the team pulls through!

Black Prophecy Art Director Nick Ebenhoch has written the fourth part of his Art Direction Developer Diary, and this one focuses on the design of the Tyi faction. In case you missed it, the third part provided background information and details about the human faction.

"The mentality of the Tyi is characterized by their aspiration for strength and technological progress," Ebenhoch said. The faction doesn't care about cleanliness as long as everything works. "Like the Humans, the Tyi utilize modular construction which enables them to produce sheer unlimited variations of space ships and stations and to adjust them quickly and easily as required," he said.

You can read the full dev diary entry after the jump. For more information on the game, check out our recent interview with Creative Director Timo Krahl.

Last summer, ZAM took a closer look at the upcoming sci-fi MMO, Black Prophecy, in our early-feature format, "What We Know So Far." The game's developer, Reakktor Media GmbH, kept a pretty tight lid on news and information about Black Prophecy back then. Most of what we knew about the upcoming MMO came from its website and a smattering of developer posts in the official forums. One of the most puzzling aspects of Black Prophecy was its story; a darkly-woven universe created by award-winning German novelist Michael Marrak. It wasn't until last month that Reakktor launched its Stellarvox Veritas site, gradually offering new information about the story and lore behind this mysterious MMO.

Since then, Reakktor kept relatively quiet about Black Prophecy's actual gameplay while it continues searching for a publisher. In an effort to help understand the lofty claims made by the developer about Black Prophecy's innovative gameplay, ZAM sought an interview with Creative Director Timo Krahl. In one of the most comprehensive Black Prophecy Q&As to date, Krahl addresses many of the burning questions posed by the community throughout the past few months.

ZAM asks about Marrak's involvement in creating the game universe, the high-tech graphics engine used to develop the MMO, and the gameplay behind it all. Krahl explains how modular "ships" serve as characters, and that players will "gear up" their ships via action-oriented level progression. We also ask about the extent of Black Prophecy's PvE content, its PvP gameplay, the clan system and more. But that's not all; ZAM was thrilled to obtain four brand-new, exclusive Black Prophecy screenshots from Reakktor Media. This is the first time these in-game screenshots have been available to the public; just click the screens in the story below to view the high-res, un-cropped versions.

Reakktor Media has published the second part of its Genidia Project series on the Stellarvox Veritas Web site, which is a virtual news broadcast that's filling fans in on Black Prophecy lore. If you missed it, the first Genidia Project article can be found here.

Now that you're caught up, the second Genidia Project article is posted after the jump. According to the article, the project ran on 36 colony ships simultaneously, "its goal to exchange experiences and insights obtained in order to optimize agricultural results on the one hand and to provide equitable conditions for all emigrants on the other."

So many ships were sent out at the same time to avoid the possibility that a ship may end up orbiting the wrong planet or leave a member of the team stranded alone in space. Check out the full article for more details on the project's mission.

Black Prophecy Art Director Nick Ebenhoch has written the third part of his Art Direction Developer Diary, and this one focuses on the design of the human faction. In case you missed it, the second part discussed general faction and ship design.

The diary entry provides a lot of detail on the design aspects surrounding humans in the game, from the faction logo to space ships and stations. For example, the logo's art represents the Earth, Sun, Saturn, and other planets in our solar system. Keep reading after the jump for the full entry, as well as an image of the human emblem.

As we reported, Reakktor Media recently unveiled its new Stellarvox Veritas Web site, which is a virtual news broadcast that contains background information on Black Prophecy's lore.The articles on the site explore the chain of events that "ousted Homo Sapiens from the top of human evolution," which makes them an interesting read for both fans of the MMO and science fiction in general.

The site's third article was recently posted, and it's the first part of the Genidia Project series. It focuses on Explorer 422's analysis of the flora and fauna of Tau Ceti IV as the humans search for potential colony worlds. You can read the full article after the jump.

Reakktor Media just unveiled its new Stellarvox Veritas Web site, which is a virtual news broadcast that contains background information on Black Prophecy's lore. The first article explains the purpose of the site, stating that "Stellarvox will reconstruct that disastrous chain of events which led mankind into the shadow of their own superior creation; humiliated, despised and condemned to insignificance." Basically, it looks like the site will explore the chain of events that "ousted Homo Sapiens from the top of human evolution."

A second article was also posted today that looks back at the first fleet of the Explorer scout probes that set off in 2082 "to seek Earth-like exo planets orbiting their central stars within a habitable zone." If you're interested in Black Prophecy's story or are simply a sci-fi fan, check out these articles and keep an eye on the site for updates.

The second issue of the Art Direction Developer Diary has been released and Art Director Nick Ebenhoch uses the opportunity to give fans an overview of Black Prophecy's general faction and ship design. He says the team found inspiration for Black Prophecy's ships, stations and objects in "classic 1980s sci-fi movies, where models were created by hand up to the last detail." So if you're a fan of Star Wars, old Battlestar Galactica or the USS Sulaco from Alien, chances are you'll appreciate the faction design in the game.

Ebenhoch says "the level of detail is very high for stations, capital ships and fighters," but emphasizes it's important to make sure the designs look like they were made by the members of the factions. Humans, the Tyi and the Genides would all design their stations and ships differently, so the details can't be the same for each faction.

Ebenhoch says his next developer diary entry will go into detail with each of the three most important factions. Until then, you can read his current entry after the jump.

The third issue of Black Prophecy: Behind the Scenes has been released, and this one involves Creative Director Timo Krahl and Art Director Nick Ebenhoch discussing aspects of Black Prophecy's gameplay and art direction. They also talk about their careers in the games industry and their personal interests.

While the bulk of the interview focuses on the duo's interests and duties, there is some information regarding the game scattered throughout the piece. For example, Krahl provided some information on the in-game death penalty: "We don’t want to seriously punish the player – this would not fit the general atmosphere and gameplay direction. Therefore you will not lose any ship parts or receive any other permanent losses. But a ship gets "disassembled" slowly during a fight, single ship parts can be destroyed and alter the overall values of the ship – a ship with only one engine will become slower – if you lose a wing the attached weapons won’t be available anymore, etc. Of course these damages will not be permanent."

You can read the full interview below.