Planned Kingdoms of Amalur MMO Project Copernicus is - or was, should 38 Studios close for good - shaping up to be something truly special, according to the game's author R. A. Salvatore.

Speaking in response to a post on Daily Kos, the veteran fantasy writer revealed that the game was much nearer to completion than many have speculated and was shaping up beautifully.

"This game is much further along than is being reported - I wish I could show you some if it - and the environments, the animations and the game-play would blow you away," he explained.

"Truth is, most of what you've seen is rough compared to what we have. We had zones in WHITE BOX that were prettier than many you'll find in running, completed, published games. And the combat and animation… super… top-notch all the way around.

He added that his intended narrative for the game is on a massive scale.

"Something else I probably shouldn't say, but what the hell: Reckoning showed a TINY slice of the world 2,500 years BEFORE the MMO. A TINY slice of a past age that ties to the meta-story of Amalur in the way a tale of the Schism in the Catholic Church might relate to modern day Earth…yes, the world lore was THAT BIG."

"And the music - Look up Aubrey Hodges, Duncan Watt and Gene Rozenberg. The things they were doing with music and ambient sound took the entire concept of sound in a video game to another level… I could go on all night, but I'd probably get sued."

Salvatore didn't offer any insight on whether the game will ever be completed but did admit that the MMO business is currently an extremely tough market to crack.

"The MMO market is very different now than it was six years ago," he wrote.

"Star Wars is aching, by all reports, and it's a solid game with groundbreaking voice-over work. EA bought Mythic, and Warhammer crashed. Bioware's MMO is hurting (they just laid off a bunch of people in their Austin Studio)."

38 Studio's future currently does not look bright. Yesterday it laid off its entire payroll and closed down subsidiary Big Huge Games.