Mechanics of a PW - GG::IoM(Blog 5);
by Christian S · 09/01/2007 (9:53 am) · 0 comments
As expected we are still working on our game project, and it being a PW (MMORPG) there is tons of things to work with so it never gets boring... but often frustrating due to the huge amount that have to be completed to get the feeling its moving ahead. Peter and I actually did calculate the amount of work we so far have thrown into this project, and if we counted 8 hour workdays it's similar to 3 work years as we sat drinking coffee after visiting a huge Nordic Viking smith fair.
Research to make the games environment, culture, buildings, clothing, items, etc as realistic as possible and writing it all down have been a huge part of the work, and actually still is. Doing environments and enemies like in Battle of Asgard is cool if you don't care whether or not the game actually have a wholeness. But it's not at all what we feel is needed to make players flock in joy, and stick around with pleasure month after month in a PW. Technology versus buildings and humans versus enemies and so on needs to be justified. Just as well as the placing of cultures, their interaction, and their grudges and bonds have to fit to make sense.
If things don't make sense we believe that people will soon notice the game settings and mechanics as elements that stick out and not as seamless layers and tools that makes the players integration into the world, and the players placement of the character(s) in the world hierarchy. And these 2 key elements is what makes players stick around, and is what drives them to use the mechanics of any game as I discuss with Phil C. here.
Regarding the research and the fun factor we are also aware that is wouldn't be fun to have a world of mud and turf huts, with a few timber forts and some skin dressed enemies. So our game DO have elements that are fictional and weird, but as Karl so nicely put it "Every monster, realm and weirdness needs to have its existence justified to be proper part of the setting".
A taste of our environment done by the new member of our team Adam Hunter Peck which's colors fit what we had in mind so much that when he approached us to join up -a single look and a short phone talk was all Peter and I needed to agree that this member was a huge gain. And at the moment Adam is painting all the racial pictures for the website so it soon will feel complete as visitors browse it.
We have also considered our strategy regarding our various elements of information stream (websites, forum, external blogs, etc.) so the site is undergoing some changes. And blogs are now only found in 2 places, a weekly Dream Games contest one here and a more philosophical and broader monthly one here at GG. We did take down our chat as it didn't have the community that justified its existence, and we will begin to use our forum a bit more to try build sort of communication with those interested in the project.
The project is by the way, coming along nice despite the fact that we are few throwing work hours at it. I do hope that there at some point are others that would like to hook up to the IoM team. If not to leave their mark on the game, then to be in a team that tries to evolve in the process and share their knowledge extensively internally in daily communication as well as in the bi-weekly Developer Newsletter.
At the moment I am coding away on inventories, character selection, skills grouping and usage. The focus is at the moment on the skill grouping and usage.
Peter is modeling and animating our human range consisting of 3 different models for each gender.
Dennis & Andreas are recomposing the music. As they received our alpha client they thought the music they had done didn't fit the various screens (main menu, character build, in game environments) so we are all exited to hear what they come up with.
Adam is currently making racial arts for the website due to the conceptual lines.
PS: I do know that I previously promised to describe the magic system in depth but the lack of coder aid have forced me to code and I have thus been unable to dive further into that area of documentation and I apologize for this.
Research to make the games environment, culture, buildings, clothing, items, etc as realistic as possible and writing it all down have been a huge part of the work, and actually still is. Doing environments and enemies like in Battle of Asgard is cool if you don't care whether or not the game actually have a wholeness. But it's not at all what we feel is needed to make players flock in joy, and stick around with pleasure month after month in a PW. Technology versus buildings and humans versus enemies and so on needs to be justified. Just as well as the placing of cultures, their interaction, and their grudges and bonds have to fit to make sense.
If things don't make sense we believe that people will soon notice the game settings and mechanics as elements that stick out and not as seamless layers and tools that makes the players integration into the world, and the players placement of the character(s) in the world hierarchy. And these 2 key elements is what makes players stick around, and is what drives them to use the mechanics of any game as I discuss with Phil C. here.
Regarding the research and the fun factor we are also aware that is wouldn't be fun to have a world of mud and turf huts, with a few timber forts and some skin dressed enemies. So our game DO have elements that are fictional and weird, but as Karl so nicely put it "Every monster, realm and weirdness needs to have its existence justified to be proper part of the setting".
A taste of our environment done by the new member of our team Adam Hunter Peck which's colors fit what we had in mind so much that when he approached us to join up -a single look and a short phone talk was all Peter and I needed to agree that this member was a huge gain. And at the moment Adam is painting all the racial pictures for the website so it soon will feel complete as visitors browse it.
We have also considered our strategy regarding our various elements of information stream (websites, forum, external blogs, etc.) so the site is undergoing some changes. And blogs are now only found in 2 places, a weekly Dream Games contest one here and a more philosophical and broader monthly one here at GG. We did take down our chat as it didn't have the community that justified its existence, and we will begin to use our forum a bit more to try build sort of communication with those interested in the project.
The project is by the way, coming along nice despite the fact that we are few throwing work hours at it. I do hope that there at some point are others that would like to hook up to the IoM team. If not to leave their mark on the game, then to be in a team that tries to evolve in the process and share their knowledge extensively internally in daily communication as well as in the bi-weekly Developer Newsletter.
At the moment I am coding away on inventories, character selection, skills grouping and usage. The focus is at the moment on the skill grouping and usage.
Peter is modeling and animating our human range consisting of 3 different models for each gender.
Dennis & Andreas are recomposing the music. As they received our alpha client they thought the music they had done didn't fit the various screens (main menu, character build, in game environments) so we are all exited to hear what they come up with.
Adam is currently making racial arts for the website due to the conceptual lines.
PS: I do know that I previously promised to describe the magic system in depth but the lack of coder aid have forced me to code and I have thus been unable to dive further into that area of documentation and I apologize for this.
