Not everyone’s cut out to be an Ark Hunter. For some, the idea of working for the likes of Von Bach is too much to stomach. Like working for The Man, and there are plenty folks round here who’ve had their fill. Others, well, they wouldn’t last ten minutes outside of town.

The world has changed. I’m not sure what history you’ve been watching, but the Arkfall, the wars and the terraforming changed everything. Now we’ve got aliens, both friendly and not, giant bugs, and who knows what else out there. Not exactly an easy place to make some scrip.

Me? I’ve never been too worried about where I get my scrip from, and at least Von Bach is paying for my time. It’s why I went through all that Ark Hunter Induction business, where they sign you up and jab you full of needles. Sure, it looks mighty pretty on the outside, but that place is full of sharps.

Defiance is about more than a game. For Trion Worlds, it’s about building a universe where a deep cross-platform MMO and big-budget TV series can co-exist and interact. Senior producer Rob Hill has been there from the start, helping to shape the idea of the game, and working with SyFy to grow it into something more.

I recently got the chance to try Defiance for myself (more on that later), getting stuck in with the post-apocalyptic third-person shooter, set in a sprawling MMO-ready landscape. Taking a break from mowing down Hellbug skitterings on my quad buggy, I asked Hill about what it’s taken to get this far, some of the nuances of the Defiance universe, and meeting that April 2013 launch date.

Want to know more about Defiance? The developers have assembled this video, dubbed "Multiplayer Without Boundaries", to explain how the PVP/co-op gameplay works, and what kind of experience they're aiming for. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Defiance, as a show. There's miles of material in the game for a good story, and I'm sure it's got talented writers behind it, but then I remember back when SyFy was called the Sci-Fi Channel, and they released Raptor Island starring Lorenzo Lamas, and I'm less certain. 

Regardless, here's a spiffy new trailer!

Julian "Mirai" Williams

Looks like quite a mature, confident game developer, doesn't he? Well that goofball right there's name is Nathan Richardsson, formerly a producer on EVE Online and Dust 514, and now he's joined Trion Worlds as a Vice President and Executive Producer on their new online action game, Defiance. You might better remember Defiance as the game that's got it's own SyFy Channel show that's launching around the same time in the same world.

All kidding aside, Richardsson is clearly an experienced veteran, and Trion's very excited to have him on the team. Richardsson himself is pretty stoked, too.

"Trion is an incredibly dynamic company and is already leading a revolution in the online gaming space. Defiance is the future of entertainment, and the collaboration between Trion and Syfy means you have two powerhouses blazing a trail that will fundamentally change the way both gamers and viewers consume entertainment. It’s amazingly ambitious and exactly the kind of immense challenge that I’ve been looking for."

I like this about him - he sounds like a guy who isn't looking at Defiance as an easy project to make money for his company, it's a challenge to him. It sounds like he's going to have fun doing it. Faith +1.

Julian "Mirai" Williams

Every MMO is an ambitious project. To get as far as launching a game takes hundreds of developers several years. What makes Defiance, Trion Worlds’ latest MMO, even more daunting is that it is being built as a skill-based third-person shooter that can be experienced on both PCs and consoles. A project this extensive sounds almost unfathomable.

But Defiance is about more than just making a game, as senior producer Rob Hill explained to us. When it comes to how we experience entertainment, Trion is looking further ahead than just the next couple of years. By facing the challenge of building virtual worlds that work on TV, PC and beyond, and by working out how to mesh multiple ways of creating content, this ambitious developer is striving to get ahead of the curve.

By announcing their release date - April 2013 - on a giant Skyscraper-sized poster overlooking San Diego Comic-Con, the two partners have literally nailed their colors to the mast. How does Rob Hill, Senior Producer at Trion Worlds, hope to navigate his team to that final destination? Find out more about their plans below.

Fresh out of PAX East is a brand new gameplay video for Defiance, the MMOFPS currently in development at Trion. This video is our first glimpse at the actual game, set in a radically transformed near-future Earth and inhabited by the disparate survivors of a universal war.

Defiance is an unusual breed, being both a television series on SyFy and a massively multiplayer online shooter. The title will be arriving on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, with events in-game having an impact on the TV series and vice versa. Casting for the show has already been announced, with information available on the official Defiance site.

Trion Worlds announced today that it plans to launch a platform codenamed Red Door that will serve two purposes: it will allow developers and publishers to build and run games, and it will let players connect to this content. According to VentureBeat, Red Door will roll out in Spring 2012.

Gamasutra has a lengthy interview with Trion Worlds CEO Lars Buttler and CCO Scott Hartsman that sheds some more light on this project. Buttler has big plans for Red Door, and feels it will be the catalyst for great change for premium games. Here's his vision for Red Door:

"We're talking about, over time, dozens of super-quality worlds of all different genres, and, honestly speaking, we think that unless core games make the same jump forward that casual games have made, they will become less and less relevant. And we are convinced that we have the technology, and the teams, and the spirit, and the openness, and the willingness to basically make sure that codename Red Door will literally host the future of premium games."

So what kind of games will be featured on Red Door? The company is already in talks with publishers and developers, but they're not releasing any details yet. Buttler told Gamasutra there will be tiers, and they'll also be selective. Other networks feature "thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Korean and Chinese crap games," he said, but Red Door will feature only a handful of targeted triple-A titles at first. He also mentioned Red Door will include a new realization of some of the world's biggest intellectual properties. 

Members of the Trion Worlds team are participating in Extra Life's annual 24-hour video game marathon to raise money for their local Children's Miracle Network Hospital. Team members like Rift Defiant Lore Lead Morgan Lockhart, Community Coordinator Amanda "Amary" Fry and Assistant Community Manager Erick "Zann" Adams will attempt to play video games for 24 hours straight on October 15, and all they ask in return is for you to donate to a good cause.

The Trion team members are attempting to raise $100 to $250 each for a grand total of $2,000. Let's see if all the Rift players out there can help them reach that goal! Head over to the Trion Worlds Extra Life page to make a donation.

UPDATE: In addition to donating, Trion is inviting players to register for Extra Life and play Rift with them on October 15. Everyone who participates will receive the in game title “the Charitable," and everyone who lasts the entire 24 hours will receive the in game title “the Insomniac.” Participants will also have a shot at winning one of these Community in-game items: Hooty, Cookie or the Spaulders of Earthen Might. Check out the community blog for all the details.

E3 has come and gone, and we learned a lot during our time at the Los Angeles Convention Center. While we invite you to browse through all of our E3 coverage, we wanted to point out some of the highlights from the convention. You'll find all of our original features and a list of other noteworthy announcements after the jump!

We'd also like to take this opportunity to present En Masse Entertainment and TERA with our Best of Show Award! As we explored TERA's political system, the demo shined as the most polished one we saw at the convention. Expanding the role of politics in-game will create a whole new dynamic for players, and we believe TERA holds a lot of potential for its North American audience. We'll definitely be keeping our eye on this game as we wait for details on the testing and launch schedule.

Keep reading below for our E3 roundup!