Q&A, 4th June 08

[draganess]

Heres a new set of questions and answers from the dev team. Oh and they are still saying autumn of this year for its release.

Recently, the good folks over at Ten Ton Hammer published a brand new Chronicles of Spellborn Q&A, talking about USA publisher plans, about what the team has been focusing on recently, the challenges and joys of game development, as well as general outlines of the gamedesign. You can read this Q&A here.

But I wont make you go look for them, here they are, in all their copy and paste splendor!!

Questions by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
Answers by Pierre-Yves Deslandes, Public Relations Manager for Spellborn

A few months ago, the developers behind the upcoming dark fantasy MMOG titled The Chronicles of Spellborn opted to push the release of their title back to the later half of 2008, setting it squarely for autumn 2008. When the delay was announced, the Spellborn fans were disappointed and wondered what could have caused the six month hiatus. To answer these – and other – questions, Ten Ton Hammer’s Cody “Micajah” Bye had a chat with Pierre-Yves Deslandes, the public relations manager for Spellborn. Thankfully, Deslandes has answered all of our questions and given us the responses we needed!


Ten Ton Hammer: The Spellborn development team recently announced another delay to the game, which pushes the release of Spellborn back to autumn 2008. Why was the extra six months needed for the development schedule? What sort of in-game features can you improve in six months?
Pierre-Yves Deslandes: Correct, the release of The Chronicles of Spellborn has been pushed back to autumn 2008. In order to make sure we introduce The Chronicles of Spellborn properly and with the best service possible to our US players, it has been estimated that 6 more months were needed for further polishing and balancing to guarantee that we live up to these expectations. By making sure our real-time manual targeting combat system works smooth as we intend it and by further stress-testing our server capacity, we will ensure that the performances of Spellborn meet the anticipation of our fans all around the world.



Ten Ton Hammer: How are you planning on exposing the game to the U.S. player base? Do you intend to develop and use some sort of overseas marketing plan?
Deslandes: The good thing is that TCoS already has a reasonable player base in the U.S., since US is one of the strongest and most active communities we have among our members without having an US publisher so far. But of course we will widen our activities significantly once we have signed with an US publisher in order to build up a big TCoS community in the US. That´s why we want to work with an US partner, who is really focused on MMOs, knows how to work with the community and who is able to put an effective marketing campaign into action.


Ten Ton Hammer: Now that a letter of intent has been signed with a U.S. publisher, are you planning on running a widespread beta test in North America? When might we hear news about that?

Deslandes: We already have US players who are currently in our Closed Beta Pool, but, yes, we also plan to have a widespread beta test in North America as well. We want to synchronize beta and release schedules in the US and Europe as far as possible in order maximize the impact and not to disappoint either the US or the European communities. We will release further details regarding closed and open beta phases soon.


Ten Ton Hammer: From the development side of things, what has the team been focusing on recently? What area of the game has been receiving the most attention?
Deslandes: Our Art team is working on many things right now, but lately the focus has been on extra visuals like UI icons, as well as on some new buildings, for instance the High Houses. We really want these Houses to play an important role in Spellborn, so we decided to improve their looks in-game. The result so far is truly amazing. Each House breathes life and “epicness”. Moreover, we are putting some small additional touches on the Mount of Heroes Shard which make it so much better. Just a simple rescaling of trees and it’s like this place has been improved by a thousand times.

Regarding Gamedesign department, the focus is on balancing and improving our combat system with the help of our closed Beta testers as well as in-house testing. We performed a fairly large improvement of the starting area and its quests, thanks to the feedback coming from the Beta.



Ten Ton Hammer: For a U.S. player that’s unfamiliar with Spellborn, what’s the most important thing they should know about the game? Why should they be looking forward to this particular title?
Deslandes: The uniqueness of Spellborn resides in several main features, the first one being the manual targeting combat system, where players have to aim at their opponent to damage it thanks to a reticule à la FPS. There are absolutely no random dice rolls in Spellborn. You won’t see any randomly generated critical hits. In addition all attacks can be dodged, evaded, by moving around the target. The combat is 100% real-time, so if a player stands in front of an enemy and hacks at it, it’s almost certain death. Moreover, The Chronicles of Spellborn introduces a unique six-tiered and 5 slotted rotating skill deck. Like in a trading card game, players can configure this combat bar before every encounter. After every attack the deck turns and offers a new row of five skills to be chosen from. You can imagine that this skill deck is a very powerful strategic feature, because every player can configure it the way he or she wants – may it be offensive, defensive, for solo game, group fights, you name it…

Besides, Spellborn features a system we labelled “Dress to Impress”. Since gear doesn’t have any statistics, players are not bound to wear the same armour just because without it, they would die like flies. From level 1 to 50 (level cap) players can wear whatever they want; it’s not going to make them less powerful. There are no class and race restrictions, so even a Rune Mage can wear plate looking-like armour, it’s not a problem.

Our classes (9 in total) are completely unique and all have some healing abilities which gives more survival abilities to the players. Their skills are totally different from anything you saw before.

To sum up, Spellborn is a new game with a brand new Lore taking place in a fantasy setting. We implemented lots of innovative gameplay features (manual targeting, rotating skill deck, dress to impress…) so that players are totally free to play the game the way they want to without any limitations. We hope it will bring some fresh air to the MMO genre, and players like it as much as we do.

And on to page two

Ten Ton Hammer: Now that Spellborn has a fairly solid release date in mind, can you describe what the most difficult part of the entire MMOG development process has been for your team?
Deslandes: To be honest, I’d say that sticking exactly to the project planning was the hardest for us. TCoS has been delayed quite some times already, so I guess it’s no real surprise for you to read that. We really want Spellborn to be fun and all our efforts are put into making sure everything plays as smooth and best as possible and also, as we intended. Nothing which we’re not 100% happy with will be in-game. So, yes, our pace might not be the one of the cheetah, but at least we make sure the game is fun. We wouldn’t expect players to have fun if we don’t have fun ourselves first.

Strangely enough, another most difficult part of the development process has been channelling all the ideas we came up with and trying to fit them in the planning. When we develop Spellborn, there is always a great and brilliant idea which spawns in someone’s mind, but sometimes, no matter how awesome this idea is, it would cost too much time. It can be frustrating to put some concepts in this “ideas for later” box, but it’s never forgotten.



Ten Ton Hammer: Conversely, what was the most enjoyable aspect of the whole journey? What was really fun and entertaining?
Deslandes: These moments of fun and entertainment are numerous, but for sure, seeing a feature play fine, seeing a new building in the game, even a critter performing some scripted action; all these things that you take for granted when playing, have all been created from scratch, and every single time it was an awesome moment to share. It’s really like seeing something coming to life. The hard work, countless hours of work, suddenly transform into a game, into a smile on everyone’s face and this is by far the most enjoyable and rewarding moments of the development process.

Playing the Beta with the current testers and grouping with them for some quests is also a great moment of enjoyment.


Ten Ton Hammer: The development of Spellborn has been a long, long road, and it’s safe to say that everyone will be happy when the game is released. What sort of impact do you believe Spellborn will have on the MMOG marketplace? How do you think players will respond to this unique game?
Deslandes: I believe Spellborn will bring lots of innovation to the current MMOG market. There are no other MMOGs with 100% real-time manual targeting combat system, and even though it is quite different from what you are used to the very first time you play it, it eventually becomes so natural and intuitive, that it’ll be hard to go back to the standard auto-attack pattern. The idea we had behind this combat system is “easy to learn, hard to master”. I think players will feel challenged by the innovative features we implemented and will feel really rewarded when they master them. I mean, it feels so good to defeat an opponent in PvP because you know it’s because of your skills (both classes and player skills) that you won, and not because of random critical hits, or other dodged or resisted attacks. The players are truly in full control and I really believe it’s a feature they will be delighted to experience in an MMORPG as innovative as Spellborn.



Ten Ton Hammer: Speaking of the rest of the MMOG market, what sort of unique features set Spellborn apart from the rest of the crowd? What should players expect when they finally enter your world?
Deslandes: As I already hinted in the previous answers, the real time manual-targeting combat system with reticule and the dress to impress features are really unique and set Spellborn apart from the crowded MMO market. We also have a deep and unique Lore which players will experience during their quests to level up. Some quest chains will even take them to the discovery of hidden foes and intrigues that could very well jeopardize the stability of the world. In terms of graphics, The Chronicles of Spellborn offers a fresh take on the world and level design. Everything looks organic as it has been shaped by nature for hundreds of years. The universe showcases grandiose sceneries and sounds with lots of life. The AI of Spellborn is advanced and features a predator-prey system. That means that critters and fauna will “interact” with eachother, even though interact could also include “eat”. Hostile NPCs can adapt their combat patterns and skills to these of the players, creating even more challenge during these encounters.


I could go on for hours about all the different things players can expect upon setting foot in The Chronicles of Spellborn world, but there’s one thing for sure Spellborn is about, and it’s the fun. We are developing Spellborn because, as gamers ourselves, we want to play something different, something that we wouldn’t see in any other games, and something that is free from the restrictions and limitations present in other titles. All the design and concepts are based on this goal and to check how we made it, then you’ll have to see it for yourselves!



Ten Ton Hammer: Finally, is there anything else you’d like to tell the Ten Ton Hammer readers and Spellborn community members?
Deslandes: I think most of the people in our Community and the Ten Ton Hammer readers are anticipating the announcement of the US Publisher. Securing such a partner is a great and reliable sign of potential and success for a MMOG. So far, talks are going really fine, and it shouldn’t be too long before the news is broken. It will be a great surprise, for this partner is definitely a major actor of the games industry. So stay tuned on .:: The Chronicles of SpellBorn - News ::. for it may happen quite soon. I won’t lose a second announcing it to you guys!

To conclude, thanks to the Ten Ton Hammer crew for their continuous support and for this Q&A! We’ll meet again!