It was offering an MMO experience with real-time combat on a 28.8kbps modem back in 1999! Why is it that in 2011 with a broadband connection that most of my options for MMOs feature slow, simulated, stat-driven combat? Sure, there were a few games that were similar, but nothing to the scale of PSO. NP: Phantasy Star Online is one of my favorite games, so yes I was very much inspired by it! I think PSO is still a very unique game to this day and I was always baffled that no one other than Sega ever tried to evolve it. Is that a title the team has been influenced by? Sb: When playing the game, it constantly reminded me of Phantasy Star Online. Before Steam really took off, there were plenty of gamers out there that were really uncomfortable with the idea of not owning a hard copy of a game- I was one of them! But Steam did so many things right and was so convenient that now it’s hard to imagine a world without digital versions of boxed games and dlc to go with them. In our opinion, anything that helps grow the market is a good thing. NP: The more free to play games out there, the more potential players will come to understand them. Sb: Does the large number of pay to play MMO games going Free to play effect how you develop titles like these? The best part is that all players are given a chunk of energy to do as they please every day! Instead, we have a secondary currency in-game called ‘energy’ that allows players to do things like power elevators to the deepest depths of the Clockworks, build turrets in battle, alchemize unique items or even power up mechanical knights to aid you in combat. There is no ‘cash shop’ outside of the game where we charge real money for in-game items. Spiral Knights is unique in that everything in the game is available to a non-paying customer. Many free-to-play games limit what you can do in the game as a free player. It can be very challenging to balance giving players players enjoyment for free and still cover the costs of development, server operations, customer support, etc. With Spiral Knights we’re trying something really new, both in the payment model and with the game itself. NP: It’s very complex, but fortunately it’s an area that Three Rings has a lot of experience in. Sb:What’s involved in running a free to play game? I play it all the time on my tv at home with a gamepad and it’s great! NP: We haven’t announced any plans for anything outside of PC/Mac/Linux, but I think that Spiral Knights would be a great fit for consoles. Sb: The game feels like it was made for consoles, any plans on porting it to PSN or XBLA? Maybe even mobile devices? NP:No plans have been announced at this time. Sb:Since you are working with SEGA, any chance that you will be using SEGA IP inspired items? If even the slightest bit of character is added to a monster it can really change them from being perceived as fodder, or a source of loot. It’s an oddly specific requirement I know, but I think it makes a huge difference in how a player feels about the characters in the world he is inhabiting. So for the monsters in Spiral Knights, we wanted to be sure to have a nice range of really unfriendly types as well as a host of monsters that a player might be able to have a drink with in a monster bar. I’m also a huge admirer of Dragon Quest’s ability to use their monsters as both enemies and friendly characters when they choose. We have spent a lot of time perusing for inspiration! However, in order to preserve that look and feel we developed a series of rules that characters and environments must adhere to, such as how even though the environments are 3d, the tiles that compose them are arranged in the same manner as a 16-bit era sprite sheet. Early on we established that the look of Spiral Knights was going to be a 16-bit era game come to life in 3d. NP:The art direction was lead by my good friend, Ian McConville. Sb: Where did you guys get the inspiration for the art direction? Three Rings is an independent developer, and we normally publish our own games, but with Spiral Knights we thought a publisher would be a good fit and Sega seemed like an obvious choice given their rich gaming history (of which Spiral Knights draws much inspiration). Nick Popovich: I believe we approached them when we were looking for a publisher for the project. SEGAbits: How did you guys end up teaming up with SEGA for this title? Who approached who? We had the chance to get some of our questions answered by the lead designer of the game, Nick Popovich. Right now it’s still in beta, but you will be able to play on April 4th. You probably heard us gushing about how much we like it. Spiral Knights is Three Rings and SEGA’s upcoming free-to-play game.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |