|
 2Moons is an upcoming MMO that succinctly sums up its premise as:
"No mercy for the weak, no pity for the dying, no tears for the slain" Despite his busy schedule I got a chance to converse with David Perry from Acclaim about development on his MMO project. Here is what he had to say:
1. Since you have console and strategy specialist can we expect a more "twitch reflex" based MMO or will this game still stick to the standard MMO conventions of leveling equaling more power? I'm a big fan of action fighting and yes, I much prefer console style fighting (like God of War) to basic MMO fighting. That said, if the game has good spells and skills that need to be mixed in, then the MMO fighting can get dramatically more interesting. MMO fighting is the way it is for good reason and so programming convention dictates the way things will work. I've always been from the school of "There MUST be a way", much to the frustration of the programmers I work with. So my suggestions for radical changes are usually followed by "There MUST be a way?" The kind of programmers I enjoy working with the most are cool with experimental concepts. They can take an idea and run with it, seeing the goal and finding a course to get us there. Other programmers can only see problems, they point to every hurdle, even if only imagined. Those dudes are frustrating! With this project I've been promised a certain amount of attention. Initially that's very focused on getting the game functional and getting the BETA testers happy. That said, one of my favorite things about MMO's is you get the ability to keep adding. So if a programmer was truly too busy in BETA, after shipping is when he can get to the "new" stuff. So in a very long answer, the answer is YES, I've identified ways to make MMO's more twitch and at some point, they will just "appear" in the game. 2. With the usage of advertising to allow for free game play has the development team maybe considered corporate sponsorships complete with decals? It has been mentioned that advertisers can sponsor an item purchase for a character, why not take further and allow character to purchase branded items, such as a Coca Cola (tm) cloak with logo. In-your-face advertising is tacky, especially modern logos all over a fantasy game. I'm always trying to think of ways we can approach problems from new angles. Advertising can be a nightmare, or if it benefits you, it can be a friend. I ask you, would you like adverts on the Google homepage? I don't. What if it was a choice? Your choice? No adverts if you want, or if you turn them on, the benefit is unlimited free MP3 music from a library of 800,000 songs? Suddenly advertising isn't such a pain, if it's not at your expense. That's my idea for games. Can we come up with a business model were we can give the consumer the control? A model where nothing needs to be forced on them. We think we have found the way. Publishers probably think we're on glue, but I think (long term) and they need to judge us on that. 3. What sort of challenges have faced with the development of the game being handled overseas? Well we have me as the Design Director for the USA So if anyone has an idea on this side, it passes through my filter. The same goes on the other side, if they make a change, they want us to test it out. So we use programs like SKYPE / MSN to communicate and it's been really helpful. On a day to day basis, we have a translator working on the text conversion to English, not to re-use, but to understand the meaning of everything they did and how the game functions. Then our writer uses this to give him ideas as he re-writes it all. I think we underestimated how much work this would be as it's really a double translation. In 2 Moons this is probably about 1,000 pages of text. It's funny you hear about out-sourcing, when people get artwork done overseas etc. This is outsourcing on steroids, where the whole project (pretty much) is being made overseas. So we need to communicate a lot, that conversation normally happens around midnight, so I've had to change my day to run from around 11AM to 2AM. 4. Seeing that 2Moons will be an adult themed MMO is there any concern that outside sources may seek to limit and restrict your game audience? We’ve been given the all clear to do whatever we want as long as we don't surprise anyone with it. Acclaim strictly follows all rules like the 'Children's Online Privacy Protection Act' (COPPA) and this game will be rated MATURE with qualifiers. There's no hiding here, we will NEVER pull a 'Take 2'. We're being up-front. Lots of Blood = Check, Lots of Swearing = Check, Agonizing Screaming = Check, Skimpy Costumes = Check and etc... This is a game for adults only. 5. Its appears that as player level increases the AI of enemy NPC's will continue to get more aggressive and the "Bring a Friend" code will ensure high level zones would be extremely treacherous for a solo player. As such will grouping be a requirement at upper levels or will players still have zones that will allow them to solo on their own? I would have answered this question with a "yes" to the need to get into a party or guild to take on the really dangerous stuff. However our writer was just given a test character by the development team. This character was over level 100 and he was able to kill a Dragon in the game, that has handed me my ass on many occasions. So now I'm starting to think that solo could be possible. I'm sure someone will find a way. 6. What, if any, form of regulations will in place to reduce users from experience a 'negative' game experience, e.g. due to griefing and/or open PKing. Will the game be an open PvP world or will zones be put in place to allow players to level before 'fending for themselves'? We will keep PvP to zones. I wish Acclaim would let me hire GM griefers. These are people that just grief the griefers with Admin account power. :) Seriously though, we are lucky this game is already a hit in Koreaas they have already worked out (or already dealt with) much of the kinds of issues we will experience. 7. You've indicated you want beta testers with designer DNA because you want good, solid feedback. What are the ideal qualities for your 'perfect' beta tester? I simply want real useful feedback, not just opinions. "This is too hard" would be a comment a regular tester would make, a designer tester would say "This spell needs it's range increased by about 25%". Two very different approaches to testing. (Opinion vs Solution.) If you are a solutions guy, then PLEASE sign up for one of my games! 8. What if any new features have been added in during development that you can't wait to get user feedback on? To be completely honest, one of the most important things is to work on letting people get into the game easily. To not get stuck or frustrated. That's what I'm hoping to get a lot of feedback on. 9. If you could change anything about 2Moons, what would it be? I have a giant list of things. Lots of new ideas. I hope to get them all in at some point. I think the most complicated will be my fighting changes and scaling the visual experience based on the processor power you have. Then there's the AI to increase the game's dramatic ability to get your emotions going. (AI is one area that just about every MMO has much room to experiment.) So I would love to pour time there later. So come help me out: http://www.2moonsgame.com/ Additonal Screenshots: 
  
  
  
  
 
Clicking on a thumbnail will open a new window with the image. |
