Simutronics attended the Electronic Entertainment Expo as an exhibitor and
presented the first public demo footage of Hero's Journey. The company used this
opportunity to meet with prospective publishers and members of the media.
The Simutronics team launches a series of IRC chat rooms on the Stratics IRC
server.
Sadly nothing was heard of from Mr. Slick - or anyone else from
Simutronics - regarding the Hero's Journey project...
Until...
Once again, Mr. Slick is not heard from for some time and members
of the community begin to speculate that the Hero's Journey project has been
cancelled.
Hero's Journey Producer, Eric Slick, is in attendance, but no new information is
released about Hero's Journey.
Hero's Journey Stratics closes its doors. The Hero's Journey project, at this
point in time, is believed to have been cancelled.
Hero's Journey re-emerges at SimuCon where a new graphics engine is demonstrated
for those in attendance. The believed cancellation of Hero's Journey was, in
reality, a media blackout.
Hero's Jounrey Vault closes its doors. Unfortunately no report was made on
SimuCon 2003 and the last piece of coverage on the title was Eric Slick's letter
from April 18, 2002.
A Hero's Journey panel fields the questions of attendees. The panel included,
but was not limited to: Eric Slick (Product Manger), David Whately (CEO), Tracy
Butler (Artist), and Dave Dean (Designer).
Media coverage continues in full force from this point forth.
Simutronics returns to the Electronic Entertainment Expo as an exhibitor and
though the Hero's Journey title received minimal coverage, it managed to land
MMORPG's Best of Show Award, GamersInfo's Editor's Choice Award, and the
runner-up position in two of Stratics' Golden Cog Awards: Best Graphics and
Biggest Surprise.
February (Hero's Hall Fansite Launches!)
May 8 (Hero's Journey Stratics Re-Launches)
Hero's Journey
Interviews from 1999 and 2000
HJ Vault - October 1999 Developer Chat
Originally published at HJ Vault on October 26, 1999
<luxor_vault> Again, welcome to the first Hero's Journey developers
chat! I'd like to thank everyone from Simutronics for participating,
especially David and Bruce for helping set this up for tonight. Be sure to
check out www.hjvault.com for all the latest, and we'll see you on the
boards.
<luxor_vault> This will be a moderated chat. This means only ops (simu
and vault people) can post messages. To ask a question, either join channel
#hjquestions or send a /msg to that channel. We'll then post it here for the
developers to answer. You can start asking now!
<luxor_vault> Tonight's chat is scheduled for one hour, but if things
go well we can extend that. Afterwords we'll open it up for a free for all.
<luxor_vault> First off, I'd like everyone from Simutronics to say
hello and tell us a bit about their work, and how you're involved with
Hero's Journey?
<David_SIMU> :)
<David_SIMU> Who me?
<Suz_Simu> You first, David :)
<David_SIMU> (smile)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Shall we climb down the ladder or up?
<David_SIMU> My name is David Whatley, and I am the President &
CEO of Simutronics Corporation.
<David_SIMU> My role is basicly to not screw too many things up while
the turely skilled people get their job done.
<David_SIMU> Sometimes I achieve that, sometimes I don't.
<David_SIMU> In the case of Hero's Journey, I'm leading some of the
technology and game design inititives. But the actual creation of the
product is the work of many others.
<Bruce_Simu> Hmmm, that means I'm Bruce Ferguson, and I am the
Executive Producer of Heroes Journey. That means I get to do budgets, talk
to Press, and be happy, while other people do all the work. :)
<David_SIMU> (Don't forget milestones)
<Bruce_Simu> And I get to bug David when we need some of his design
stuff "RIGHT NOW!"
<Bruce_Simu> This project is so large, we have two other producers as
well.
<Suz_Simu> I'm Susan Dodd, and I will be producing "The World"....
<Andy_Simu> in 6 days with a day of rest?
<Suz_Simu> ...which is the geography and all the things you see in the
world of Hero's Journey.
<Suz_Simu> Something like that :)
<Suz_Simu> My job is to make the world exciting and beautiful and
terrifying -- or to get my team of GMs to do that. On time. ;)
* Suz_Simu winks at David.
<Suz_Simu> Eric?
<Eric_Simu> Hmm?
<Eric_Simu> tickles Suz
<Eric_Simu> I'm Eric Slick, Producer of Game Systems for HJ.
<Eric_Simu> My job in HJ will be to direct the development of all game
systems.
<Eric_Simu> I started in GemStone III and moved to the job of making
DragonRealms a reality.
<Eric_Simu> Who's next :)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> My name is Mike Paddock. I was a customer service
supervisor for Simutronics, but recently was hired on as a Product
Developer.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> So I'll be one of the ones the preious people will be
bugging.
<Dave_SIMU> I'm Dave Dean, another Product Developer, and I get to
wade in and do the fun part. While dodging Eric :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> I'm Jeff Gatlin, Product Developer which means I also get
to do all the work and on time even!
<Jeffg_SIMU> plus I do Music and Sound so I get to be an 'artiste' as
well.
<Dave_SIMU> Oh yeah, assuming I get my act together I'll hopefully be
working on some music too.
<Andy_Simu> I'm Andy Finkenstadt, a network and systems and server
dude.
<Andy_Simu> -30-
* Suz_Simu grins.
<Russ_Simu> My name is Russ Whiteman. I started as a GemStone III GM,
although the majority of my time over the last couple years has been spent
working on our billing systems. I've no idea -what- I'll be doing in HJ, but
I have every intention of being involved in building some of those game
systems Eric's responsible for. I suspect that most of my time will be spent
like it has lately...getting involved in as many discussions of new ideas as
poss
<luxor_vault> Thanks guys, onto the questions!
<Aurum_Vault> <Waffleboy> Will there be riding animals? If yes,
will it be limited to horses?
<David_SIMU> Yes, and no. :)
<David_SIMU> The real question is can animals ride players.
<Bruce_Simu> :)
<Eric_Simu> Yes and no.
<David_SIMU> ha
<Jeffg_SIMU> heh
<David_SIMU> You can already ride a dragon. :)
<David_SIMU> Seemed more interesting to do first than a horse.
<David_SIMU> ga
<luxor_vault> <Purr> What trade skills, if any, are likely to
be in HJ? Blacksmithy, Jewelry, tailoring, baking, etc for example What
about a real economy? Price differences between towns for the same item?
Prices fluctuating with supply/demand?
<David_SIMU> You have to be careful about the idea of a "real
economy" If you mean a self-regulating economy, then no.
<David_SIMU> Because that doesn't work, because it isn't zero-sum.
<David_SIMU> However, economic systems are nothing new to us. All of
our games have various levels of complexity of econimic systems...
<David_SIMU> DragonRealms is probably the most sophisticated with
fluctuating exchange rates between currencies.
<David_SIMU> This is yours, right Eric? A game mechanic?
<Eric_Simu> We've learned much about what works and what might be
possible. HJ will benefit from those lessons.
<Aurum_Vault> <Alerlean> Will there be weather not just rain
like EQ and AC but real weather with effects ingame slippery surfaces and
mud maybe wind ,fire flopod ,famine, maybe sesons etc.
<David_SIMU> The hardest of all to do is wind.
<David_SIMU> A convincing wind effect would be neat. A tornado would
be even neater.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Hurricane Simu
<David_SIMU> The first rain effect in a multiplayer game was done in
the original CyberStrike which I wrote 9 years ago.
<Eric_Simu> We've talked a great deal about it. We'd like the
environment to be as changeable as is possible. We'll only be limited in
what the technology can deliver...and we'll be pushing the technology as far
as we can manage.
<David_SIMU> So far we don't have the engine doing weather effects,
but it is planned. The extent remains to be seen as we get into the R&D
of it.
<luxor_vault> <Skystreak> What is the status of current game
development and what progress has been made toward finding someone to
produce [publish] the game?
<David_SIMU> We are currently in serious talks with a major
CD-ROM publisher (who shall remain nameless) who is looking to partner with
us on this project as well as bring a lot to the table.
<David_SIMU> I wish I could say more, but you know how that is. Await
the press release. :)
<Bruce_Simu> Which we will do as soon as we can :)
<David_SIMU> The patner is interested in making an even more ambitious
project out of this than we even were, so it should be interesting.
<David_SIMU> ga
<Aurum_Vault> <Vil> Experience, will it be level or skill
based?
<David_SIMU> Someone take that one. :)
<Bruce_Simu> Mike?
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Possibly a hybrid.
<Jeffg_SIMU> both unless we do one or the other
<Russ_Simu> heh
<Dave_SIMU> heh
<David_SIMU> hehehe
<Jeffg_SIMU> hey that was a serious answer!
<David_SIMU> One thing....
* Jhyrryl_SIMU nods at David.
<David_SIMU> There is the possibility of a licensed game system being
used depending on how some negotiations go. So the answer to that question
really depends...
<David_SIMU> If things go way (A) then the unnamed game system
dictates this. If it doesn't, and we devise our own, then the answer is what
we are brewing in our design process (which includes the HJVault
participation).
<David_SIMU> So we are kind of in a crossroads and need to let a thing
or two settle on the business side before we commit.
<David_SIMU> ga
<luxor_vault> <Benzali> What type of spell/magic system is
being favored right now? As in premade spells, open system, or a combo.
<David_SIMU> (See previous answer)
<Dave_SIMU> See above. :)
<luxor_vault> lol
<Ilibard_Vault> Doh!
<luxor_vault> <Jereau> Is there any chance of using a
Roger-Wilco-ish program to have real-voice in game instead of text?
<David_SIMU> Good question!
<Eric_Simu> Ifdef# unnamed system
<David_SIMU> I have resisted voice communiction until...
<David_SIMU> you could manipulate your voice to match your roleplaying
identity.
<Bruce_Simu> There's always a possibility... but it should be a
choice. What if you are a male, playing a female character? You'd need what
David just said...
<David_SIMU> The greatest difficulty is in cross-playing. A male voice
does not sound female just by altering the pitch.
<David_SIMU> The other problem is pruely technical...
<David_SIMU> If you've notiec in EQ, AC and UO...
<David_SIMU> There just ain't much bandwidth left over for anything.
THere is hardly enough bandwidth for keeping people for warping all over the
screen.
<David_SIMU> Throw voice communiction on top of that, and you blow out
any consumer modems. When we are all DSL, maybe it'll be possible.
<David_SIMU> Which reminds me, I live too far away for DSL. And I'm
pissed. So I'm moving. (smile)
* Suz_Simu whistles nonchalantly.
<Russ_Simu> I'd love to see that, personally... the issue of voice
changes just doesn't seem that great to me. I don't see a mismatched voice
as being any more distractive than having to read text in a window.
<Eric_Simu> There's allot of simmering hostility betweent he "haves"
and "havenots" at the office because of this DSL thing.
* Andy_Simu has not.
<Russ_Simu> Yeah... we're all gonna -get- Suz. :P
<Eric_Simu> In place of voice, we are working hard to be sure our
"chat" system is easy to use, powerful and works wtih the 3D aspects of the
game.
<Aurum_Vault> <Torinak> How much has the competition (both
real and announced) affected the development and vision of HJ?
<Bruce_Simu> Let me take that one
<David_SIMU> Ok
<Bruce_Simu> We are certainly aware of whats going on out there in the
market (we are all gameplayers, after all) and we always do research
::cough:: on the latest things,
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Hehe research. Yeah. Hehe.
<Bruce_Simu> But we also have a vision, based on all of the
information we've gathered from producing GemStone III, DragonRealms,
CyberStrike, and our other products.
<Dave_SIMU> I'd like to think our competitors have more to learn from
us than we do from them... every new MMORPG that's come out lately, I wonder
why they didn't pay more attention to us :)
<Bruce_Simu> 'So we know what we *want* to do, and we know what
they've done in a different fashion. So yes, there is some impact, but it
really is minimal.
<David_SIMU> Of course when we see what is currently being done, we
get quite motivated to show what is possible that no one is even coming
close to delivering yet.
<David_SIMU> Mostly its a matter of approach.
<luxor_vault> <Vil> how will you handle PvP?
<David_SIMU> ohgod
<Bruce_Simu> Carefully. :)
<Dave_SIMU> I knew somebody would ask that!
<Russ_Simu> You -knew- it was coming... ;)
<David_SIMU> Only my character is allowed to kill other players. :)
<Dave_SIMU> lol
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Hey.... but... you promised!
<David_SIMU> hehe
<David_SIMU> Who wants that one?
<Eric_Simu> I'll take it.
<Eric_Simu> <grin>
<David_SIMU> Have fun.
<Eric_Simu> First off, a bit of clarification.
<Eric_Simu> There is a huge difference between character based
conflicts (In Character conflicts) and those between the players themselves
(OOC conflicts). PvP is not just killing players, it's harassment and many
other things.
<Eric_Simu> PvP is really anything which one player does to another to
ruin the other player's fun.
<Eric_Simu> It could be killing them or just simply following them
around and hassling them.
<Eric_Simu> But I think the question was more if we would allow
players to kill other players.
<Eric_Simu> If we do, it'll be kept under strict control. We've
learned a great deal about this from GSIII, DR, HX, MO and the toher online
RPGs.
<Eric_Simu> Exactly how we'd control it is yet to be determined. IN
fact we may simply not allow it at all or handle allowing it in one of the
ways currently being used in our competitor's product.
<Eric_Simu> But simply preventing PKing in the game won't prevent PvP
actions (under my definition) so when we deal with the problem it will be
from a comprehensive viewpoint about what PvP actually is.
<Eric_Simu> done :)
<Suz_Simu> One of the problems you have if there is absolutely no way
for one character to attack another is - how do you deal with annoyances,
like the guy who follows you around stealing kills?
<Suz_Simu> So if we do that, there would have to be ways to deal with
such things, beyond killing the other character. (Done)
<David_SIMU> And how do you kill all those pesky GMs.
<Suz_Simu> That's the real problem, David. :>
<David_SIMU> Oh I know.
<Dave_SIMU> This is easily the most complex issue that MMORPGs face,
and there's no perfect solution... hopefully we can find one that's good
enough without getting in the way too much either :)
<Aurum_Vault> <Waffleboy> How will death be handled? Item
loss? Experience loss? Temporary penalty? How does one become "undead" so to
speak?
<David_SIMU> See above.
<Aurum_Vault> Oops
<Bruce_Simu> :)
<Dave_SIMU> heh
<David_SIMU> If we use a licensed game system, that's all decided for
us (mostly at least)
<Russ_Simu> I was rather fond of Gannyx's "life-force" suggestion
myself...if we end up with home-brewing the system.
<David_SIMU> Haven't seen that one yet Russ, point me in that
direction in an email.
<Russ_Simu> Will do. :)
<Aurum_Vault> <Taven> Will there be a limit on basic
subscription character slots. EQ allows multiples per server.
<David_SIMU> You'll be able to ahve multiple chars.
<Bruce_Simu> Role players these days want to have the option to play
different personalities at different times. I'm not sure what the social
impact of that is, but we aim to make our customers happy.
<luxor_vault> <Will> When will focus groups commence?
<David_SIMU> Once we have our partner deals in place. I hope in
the next couple months.
<Bruce_Simu> We'll be posting on the Vault when it happens.
<David_SIMU> Yup
<Bruce_Simu> 'We know you all want to be in there, and we value your
opinions
<Suz_Simu> And the Vault boards really provide us with a lot of that
kind of input as well, already
<Bruce_Simu> Can anyone tell I play GemStone III and DragonRealms a
lot, by the way I tend to put a ' in front of my sentences?
<Eric_Simu> Yes, in a way the HJ Vault boards is a focus group of a
sort.
<luxor_vault> <Densetsu> Will simu employees actively keep a
world plotline going on? Players can only do so much...
<Russ_Simu> They do, although there's a distinct tendency
to...shall we say, drift? <g>
<Bruce_Simu> Short answer is yes.
<Dave_SIMU> Why stop at just one plotline? ;)
<Suz_Simu> History and all that will fall under my group - and we have
a lot of ideas for that kind of thing.
<Suz_Simu> (This is if we build our own system from the ground up,
rather than using an existing system). We'd like the players to learn about
the world, what's going on, and what has gone on through in-game means...
<Suz_Simu> ...like libraries, in-game periodicals, etc.
<Suz_Simu> And as far as plotlines - we'll have a whole slew of people
whose job it is just to make sure fun things are going on at all times
<Aurum_Vault> <Stonur> Will there be some sort of player
allegiance system sortof like in Asherons Call, where players can actually
run some sort of "office"
<Eric_Simu> We've looked closely at that possibility. We are
still developing ideas along those lines.
<David_SIMU> Its always worth taking a look at our existing products
so you can get an idea of how we think. We've had player organizations going
back about 10 years now.
<Russ_Simu> Hope I'm not giving away any secrets, but Mike's real big
on player-centered political systems.
<David_SIMU> Guess he'll be running for office soon then.
<Dave_SIMU> Mike for Mayor!
<Bruce_Simu> he's corrupt enough :)
<David_SIMU> Mike, wana comment?
<Russ_Simu> Anyway, those who want such things have an ally already in
place. ;)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> 'Mayor?
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> I was thinking more gandoise.
<Dave_SIMU> Intergalactic Space God is already taken though.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> I'm very intrested in politcal systems that give
players a sense of control over the environment.
<David_SIMU> One thing to keep in mind is that our products are
evolutionary. Because they are a dynamic toolset, rather than a static
"game" per se. GameMasters are constantly adding new aspects to the game.
This will be true of HJ as well.
<luxor_vault> <A_Paladin> Thing I loved in DR was the town
invasions, fests, and quest(non-$)... Will you be keeping those in HJ... I
just love thoses rare items from invasions and protecting my city till the
end(Gorbesh)..
<Russ_Simu> I can't imagine a Simutronics game without that sort
of thing...
<Suz_Simu> I sure hope so. That's one of my favorite things too. :)
<Dave_SIMU> That's what we do best. :)
<David_SIMU> Yes.
<David_SIMU> Only we'll be doing them on a much bigger scale.
<Russ_Simu> That was an -easy- question!
<David_SIMU> And with graphics.
<David_SIMU> (grin)
<Jeffg_SIMU> definately, even to the point where the invaders win and
start selling their own gear in the shops hopefully
<David_SIMU> Yeah, and enslave the entire player population.
<David_SIMU> That one is already planned.
<Russ_Simu> Oooh! Can I hang members of the resistance then?
<Dave_SIMU> Our NPCs will even sell themselves on ebay... well, maybe
not
<Jeffg_SIMU> nah save em for catapult ammo
<David_SIMU> Don't laugh. A pirate invasion in one of our games had a
lot of players taken hostage.
<Aurum_Vault> <DaveMarkell> I'm curious about HJ bot
performance and spawning. Will bots be mobile, stationary, or both? And will
spawn points be constant, or random? I hate the camping that predicatable
spawns/stationary bots causes. I also have concerns about multiple
characters per server, and the muling that always results from this.
<David_SIMU> bot?
<Russ_Simu> critters.
<David_SIMU> Critters are called BOTS!?
<Aurum_Vault> AI/spawning I believe
<Eric_Simu> Critter AI and Critter deployment.
<Russ_Simu> Hehe
<Eric_Simu> Megatron just arrived.
<David_SIMU> The second critters are called BOTs you KNOW it ain't a
roleplaying game anymore.
<David_SIMU> The only predictability in critters will be that they
tend to inhabit logical areas of the world...
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Well, not fantasy RP anyway.
<David_SIMU> Which brings up an interesting story...
<David_SIMU> We are as guilty as anyone when it comes to having Giant
Rats in our games....
<Eric_Simu> glances at David.
<David_SIMU> Well, like most, these are low level critters... In one
of our games...
<David_SIMU> We had a lot more newbie players than rats to fight...
<David_SIMU> So some of the players hit on an idea to try and lure
some of the rats out of the crowd by...
<Russ_Simu> I'd like to think that the only "fixed" spawn points will
be in places that players can't reach...without clearing the surrounding
areas, like the center of the Orcan Empire (just an example).
<David_SIMU> buying cheese at a local merchant and dropping them like
crumbs for them to follow...
<David_SIMU> Of course the rats didn't know anything about how to deal
with this, but the second a GM noticed what the players were trying to do...
<David_SIMU> the rats were recoded to actually be attracted to the
cheese.
<David_SIMU> The lesson here is, in a dynamic game like we make...
nothing is predictable.
<luxor_vault> <Torinak> If multiple characters per game world
are allowed, how will the problems of character mules be handled?
<David_SIMU> Eric?
<Eric_Simu> Very carefully.
<David_SIMU> (smacks forehead)
<Eric_Simu> there has been some discussion about this...
<Eric_Simu> ...we could put storage lockers into the game like we have
in our toher games...
<Eric_Simu> ...we could prevent "mules" by not allowing dropped items
to stay in the game when they log...
<David_SIMU> I favor having personal "space" possible. Ownership of a
home allows for more logical hording of "stuff".
<Eric_Simu> I agree with David.
<Russ_Simu> I don't really see mules as -the- problem. They are
generally a symptom of imbalances in trade skills or justice systems. With
careful work on these systems, you'll rarely see any use for a mule.
<Eric_Simu> We dont' have mules in DR or GSIII simply because people
can store their items in an IC way.
<Dave_SIMU> It's mostly a matter of planning in advance... making sure
that a solution for one problem isn't going to create a whole new problem.
:)
<Eric_Simu> People need to store stuff.
<Eric_Simu> So we'll plan for it.
<Aurum_Vault> <Fulrak2> Are there plans to let players fly?
And if so does that include a flying race?
<Bruce_Simu> See above :)
* Suz_Simu is already an angel.
<Russ_Simu> Heh
<Dave_SIMU> Just build a big enough catapult...
<David_SIMU> So far, yes.
<David_SIMU> But lower priority... compared to getting the game to
market.
* Valen_vault saw a player fly on a dragon at E3
<David_SIMU> We can always add as we go, given our technology
foundation.
<David_SIMU> Anyway, if someone is annoying you can tell them to buzz
off. And they might be able to.
<luxor_vault> <Qyan> What modes of travel might be used?
(boats, baloons, wagons?)
<David_SIMU> Yes.
<David_SIMU> Dragons, too.
<Eric_Simu> and more
<Suz_Simu> Horses, carts... whatever we can dream up
<Dave_SIMU> trains? :)
<David_SIMU> Should see the boat system in DR.
<Eric_Simu> Gerbil powered trains.
<David_SIMU> We can just add them as we see fit.
<David_SIMU> Just kinda pour the content and mechanics in as the game
goes along. This is how our other products work.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Movement is a basic function of characters in a game.
In our current game, moving characters is a very simple thing, it's more a
matter of how to represent the movement.
<Bruce_Simu> The real benefit of the engine we're designing is that
anything can be added later on down the line. Nothing is fixed, everything
is variable :)
<Suz_Simu> as an example, in GS3 we have an airship, a juggernaut
(that travels by burrowing underground), boats, ships, rafts, etc. We love
doing it all
<Aurum_Vault> <A_Paladin> In combat: Are you going to stay
with the on idea in DR that there is no TRUE hit points. Where you lose an
arm... get a scratch, bolt goes in mouth and out the back of the head, etc.
I think you guys did a great job on that.
<David_SIMU> See above.
<David_SIMU> If we use our own system, it'll be quite unique. I favor
modeling the FEEL of combat.
<David_SIMU> That is something not done very well so far in the
graphical games.
<Dave_SIMU> nod
<David_SIMU> Regardless of the mechanics, the real trick is to make
the on-screen representation of combat more interesting thatn just
characters waving swords at a bobbing critter.
<luxor_vault> <Gannyx> Hiya...my question is: has a definite
decision been made to include a complex and interesting trade system in
Hero's Journey? (shameless plug: we the players want it!!!)
<David_SIMU> Oh I hope so. I wouldn't let DragonRealms ship until
traders were working.
<Dave_SIMU> or doing math at each other until somebody hits zero. :)
<Eric_Simu> glances at David.
<David_SIMU> :)
<Eric_Simu> We reworked Traders twice before we opened.
<Eric_Simu> And we've reworked them several times since then.
<Dave_SIMU> and at least twice since then.
<Dave_SIMU> heh.
<Jeffg_SIMU> What we do not want to do is add whole systems of trade
that produce items that have no use.
* Jhyrryl_SIMU nods at Jeffg.
<Jeffg_SIMU> There's no need to write an intricate blanket weaving
system if no one wants to buy blankets
<Dave_SIMU> No Hummel figurines.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Nothing like spending 100 hours building systems no one
uses.
<David_SIMU> Issues, Mike? :)
* Jhyrryl_SIMU whistles.
<Dave_SIMU> hee
<luxor_vault> Well it's been an hour! You guys want to go a bit
longer, right? ;)
<David_SIMU> Okay, we'll keep answers briefer to try and get
through some more.
<David_SIMU> We apologize we can't be more specific regarding game
mechanics just yet. But we should have this resolved shortly.
<Bruce_Simu> I'm gonna have to leave in about 5 minutes, but others
might be willing to stay :)
<Aurum_Vault> <Fulrak2> Is there any possible way we can have
just one instance of the game world? I really hate seperate servers/shards.
<David_SIMU> That is our goal.
<luxor_vault> <Bill> Please comment on Overland Travel.
<David_SIMU> One of the ideas we are working on is this...
<David_SIMU> Areas of the virtual game world will be segreagated into
servers...
<David_SIMU> So you will be in one world, and can travel to see your
friends regardless of what server they are on. It should be relatively
invisible.
<David_SIMU> This works into the overland travel thing too...
<David_SIMU> Chunks of the world segregated into servers will be
accessable only via the over land travel abstraction.
<David_SIMU> (Since they are not connected in a high-bandwith,
real-time sense)
<David_SIMU> BUT...
<David_SIMU> We also want to have the possibility of completely
seperate servers so that we can have alternate universes... For example,
we...
<David_SIMU> could setup a server where it's bacily a free-for-all PvP
enviroment.
<David_SIMU> For those unfortunately people who like that.
<David_SIMU> :)
<David_SIMU> ga
<luxor_vault> <Stonurhasnot> Is there gonna be a sky? it adds
realism
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> <g>
<David_SIMU> Uh
<David_SIMU> Our camera view is a lot like UO (only in 3D).
<David_SIMU> So, yeah... the most amazing sky you can imagine!*
<Dave_SIMU> Nah, the planet is inside out, so you can look up and see
the ground on the other side <ducks>
<David_SIMU> *You can't look up.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Cloudworld, Vigil
<Suz_Simu> Only out? ;)
<David_SIMU> By the way...
<David_SIMU> The reason the camera is 3rd person has a lot to do with
the dyanmic nature of the world. Since the terrain (and everything else) is
streamed down...
<David_SIMU> and dynamic, you need to have a limited view distance in
order to accomodate such a thing in a low-bandwidth enviroment.
<David_SIMU> ga
<luxor_vault> <Alerlean> Will there be a premium package
where one group of people eg the monied ones gets an advantge from real
world wealth.
<Bruce_Simu> Sorry to bug out, folks... another committment calls
me. Have fun, and thanks for sharing your excitement with us, both here and
on the boards. Good night!
<Aurum_Vault> Thanks for coming Bruce!]
<Suz_Simu> Night, Bruce. :)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Later, Bruce.
<David_SIMU> The business model is still to be decided.
<luxor_vault> thanks bruce!
<David_SIMU> Depends on the partnerships we strike too. :)
<Bruce_Simu> My pleasure :)
<David_SIMU> But, traditionally, we like to offer various levels of
game play at different price points. We were the first wih $9.95, by the
way. :)
<Aurum_Vault> <A_Paladin> How will you handle GORE in the
game... I say keep it all in the game and make it feel more real
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> We need people to model their intestines...
<Suz_Simu> oy
<Russ_Simu> I heard someone say we wanted it gory enough to turn
stomachs...then offer player options to tone it down to personal taste. ;)
<David_SIMU> I love gore. You can adjust it to suit.
<David_SIMU> You can already turn off the blood spurting.
<David_SIMU> ga
<Suz_Simu> Have sort of a gore-ometor with a dial you can spin? From
Mildly Bruised to That's Disgusting!, David?
<Jeffg_SIMU> lets add a pressure system so it can be set to ooze,
pour, spurt or blast
<Eric_Simu> From sissy to paint em red!
<luxor_vault> <LegendWeaver> If you end up having to develope
your own in house game system, will it be possible for outsiders to submit a
system for your consideration?
<David_SIMU> Of course!
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> It's called getting hired as a GM. :)
<Russ_Simu> We've got dozens of folks already doing that on the Vault
boards, too. ;)
<David_SIMU> Though we do also work closely with our customer base in
our own message boards and forums (chats).
<Suz_Simu> All the GMs and Producers were players first, remember. :)
<Eric_Simu> Yes, get involved on the boards.
<Andy_Simu> and BOY do they post.
<Eric_Simu> Many of the systems in our games were first suggested on
our message boards.
<David_SIMU> Yup.
<luxor_vault> <ADS> What can you tell us about the graphical
emotes and our ability to customize them? (If implemented at all)
<David_SIMU> A special area of interest for us...
<David_SIMU> First of all, a lot of animations will be devoted to
expressing yourself...
<David_SIMU> And as time goes by, more and more will appear (they just
download on demand)....
<David_SIMU> The key, though, is in the ability for you to personalize
your character by grouping animation sequences...
<David_SIMU> and adjusting some of the properties of them (speed of
playback, flamboyance, etc.). Then those groups are assigned to say
'moods'...
<David_SIMU> Then you simply adjust your mood-of-the-moment.
<David_SIMU> You can always vary these settings as your character's
personality evolves.
<Aurum_Vault> <Stimwalt> Seems HJ will have an industrial
meets magic world, what kind of items will the industrial side of this or a
combo of indie + magic yield for players?
<David_SIMU> Suz?
<Russ_Simu> Steam-powered rollerskates!
<Suz_Simu> Currently, we're planning on a look that is sort of...
<Suz_Simu> Da Vinci inspired, so things like ornithopters are the
first that come to my mind (for some unknown reason)
<Suz_Simu> Technology that has been gained and then lost and is now
being rediscovered gives us a whole slew of possibilities
<David_SIMU> Too much MtG
<Eric_Simu> De Vinci is pre-industrial ... technically speaking.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> And the steam comes from entrapped fire and water
elementals.
<Russ_Simu> minaturiztion is gonna be a real problem, though...
<David_SIMU> hehe
<Suz_Simu> I personally love contraptions - not sure about the other
guys, although I think David is with me on that
<David_SIMU> It gives a unique flavor.
<Jeffg_SIMU> if you've ever seen that film about the history of
flying, where all the goofy airplane inventions tried to fly and failed.
Well in HJ, all those attempts would work.
<David_SIMU> THOUGH, this is also subject to the possible existing
game system out.
<Russ_Simu> I like it, for one... I was always fond of Weis and
Hickman's tinker gnomes.
<Suz_Simu> It'll be interesting to build things without having to
describe them in text. Something new for me. :)
* Suz_Simu nods to David.
<David_SIMU> You
<David_SIMU> oops
<David_SIMU> You'll have to describe them in text for the artists. :)
<David_SIMU> ga
<Suz_Simu> True. :)
<Lockeworth> <Benzali> Are you considering using Inverse
Kinetics to allow players to aim their attacks and do special maneuvers made
on the fly in combat?
<David_SIMU> IK is part of the animation system to allow it to
adapt pre-recorded sequences to the situation.
<David_SIMU> So, I think yes is the answer.
<David_SIMU> But you don't aim, as in say Quake.
<David_SIMU> But the combat sequence should appear more natural as a
result of this.
<David_SIMU> ga
<luxor_vault> <weasel> Any word on training / teachers?
(player's teaching players, etc?)
<David_SIMU> Eric?
<Eric_Simu> Yes, we've discussed it as a possibility.
<Eric_Simu> It's something that's pretty neat in DR because it
encourages groups to sit and talk to each other.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> It's also partially dependant on the 'see above'
mentioned above, as well.
<Eric_Simu> ga
<Aurum_Vault> <Serafina> Considering the incestous nature of
the game industry, are you at all concerned about recruiters raiding your
company?
<Russ_Simu> heh
<David_SIMU> Um, yeah.
<David_SIMU> But if they are willing to pay me enough, I'll go!
<Suz_Simu> Nooooooo!
<Dave_SIMU> lol
<Eric_Simu> pulls at David.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> 'Hey, er.. I get your stock. :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> ask em if they need a theme song
<Suz_Simu> We'll staple your office door shut, David. ;)
<David_SIMU> It is a problem, but on the other hand people get laid
off all the time at these companies too. :)
<Russ_Simu> I really like that phrase..."incestuous nature of the game
industry". :)
<Suz_Simu> me too
<luxor_vault> <Fredian_Furryfoot> The music... will it be
mp3, midi, or what? Will it be always running, or just in certain places?
<David_SIMU> I want Jeff to look into DirectMusic. :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> Dmusic definately, but running all the time hopefully not
<Jeffg_SIMU> My perfect model for music would be you hear music when
musicians in the game are playing it
<Dave_SIMU> Atmospheric things tied to a particular location, maybe.
<Aurum_Vault> <Torinak> Will HJ support operating systems
other than Windows 9x?
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Windows 2000
<David_SIMU> Good question.
<David_SIMU> Right now that's the market.
* Valen_vault starts chanting LInux Linux Linux
<Dave_SIMU> Always with the option to turn off our music too, as cool
as it'll be. (Is listening to Bjork now)
<David_SIMU> No descision has been made on other OSs yet.
<Russ_Simu> Hard to justify a port for 5% of the market...
* Andy_Simu starts chanting Freebsd. Free bsd. Poor bsd.
<David_SIMU> Howabout BEos! :)
<Dave_SIMU> heh
<luxor_vault> playstation 2?
<Russ_Simu> Poor bsd...
<David_SIMU> PS2.... hmmm. :)
* Andy_Simu starts to chant PalmOS, and realizes what he just said with a
grimace.
<Aurum_Vault> Linux?
<David_SIMU> Linux will run the server. :)
<David_SIMU> ga
<Jeffg_SIMU> port HJ to gameboy yeah baby
<Dave_SIMU> Port it to Screenfridge.
<Russ_Simu> The problem is that Linux is a very small portion of the
market... most gamers with Linux are techno-geek enough to also have Win9x.
<Lockeworth> <Fredian_Furryfoot> What games, projects,
movies, or other things influenced you in your works?
<David_SIMU> What doesn't influence us?
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Checkers.
<David_SIMU> Mostly South Park, I think.
<Jeffg_SIMU> Starflight, best game in 16 colors I ever played
<David_SIMU> I got started with Scott Adams adventures.
<Eric_Simu> Bards Tale
<David_SIMU> Anyone remember those?
<Jeffg_SIMU> Pirate Adventure!
<Eric_Simu> Dungeon Master
<Suz_Simu> I was just going to say - everything, I think. :) In the
case of H&X, obviously we were influenced by the TV shows. :)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Zork
<Russ_Simu> In my case, about 40 different table-top RPG's... several
hundred computer games, and countless board and card games.
<Suz_Simu> Leather Goddesses of Phobos :>
<David_SIMU> The REAL Zork, not the new wizzy stuff.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Right. On the C64.
<David_SIMU> By the way...
<Eric_Simu> The original Adventure.
<Dave_SIMU> I never really played many non-computer RPGs... GemStone
III was the first one I got seriosuly into. :)
<Aurum_Vault> The text-based Zork games ruled. :)
<Dave_SIMU> But lots of books. Loooots of books.
<Russ_Simu> Funny thing, I -hated- text games, until I found
GemStone...
<Jeffg_SIMU> I spent $450 to expand my Ti994a to 48k and a half sided
dick drive just to play Zork
<Suz_Simu> hehehe, Jeff
<Russ_Simu> That's our boy... ;)
<luxor_vault> I got a questions, but it's mainly for Ratcliff, but
here goes: what do you think about the gforce256 and can the engine support
hardware t&l or tbuffer technology?
<David_SIMU> I can answer that Lux...
<David_SIMU> The basic problem with T&L engines in hardware is
that they are not fast enough to do 100% real-time lighting of arbitrary
complex enviroments...
<David_SIMU> THe reason you can do it in software is because you
cheat. You cheat like hell!
<David_SIMU> The T&L engines don't consider cheating, they try to
do everything accurately.
<David_SIMU> And won't settle for anything less.
<David_SIMU> So what you get is the ability to only do a few lights.
Even in hardware.
<David_SIMU> So the jury is out in how to make this work in a game
like this.
<David_SIMU> On the other hand, we really don't need it.
<Russ_Simu> But the numbers for the GEForce are -very- impressive... I
can just see the artists drooling over the huge new poly limits.
<David_SIMU> Faster fill rates and a way to stream vertex data faster
is what we really need. Also cards that really do what they claim. :)
<Aurum_Vault> <Fredian_Furryfoot> Do you guys at Simu have
any words for the 'axed' members of the Middle-Earth Development team? They
love it when fellow devs share their thoughts on the situation at Sierra and
all.
<Eric_Simu> We're going to mooch all their good ideas.
<David_SIMU> Yes, COME JOIN OUR TEAM.
<Eric_Simu> <grin>
<David_SIMU> We're hiring.
<Suz_Simu> David types faster than I do. :>
<Russ_Simu> I was very disappointed in Sierra. I was extremely curious
to see how some of the more "edgy" design decisions would work out. ;)
<David_SIMU> Contact Bruce...he'll take all the talent he can get. :)
<David_SIMU> ga
<Lockeworth> Mine ;) : The HJ Vault was mentioned as a 'quasi-focus
group'. Who all on the HJ Dev will/can/wants to (heh) devote some time to
reading/posting/'debating' with the fans?
<Russ_Simu> Hee! Me!
<Eric_Simu> I don't post yet, but I read it regularly.
<Russ_Simu> I gotta bad message-board jones. ;)
<Suz_Simu> No fair, Lockeworth. ;) (He already asked me that)
<Andy_Simu> I read there every couple days. I don't post because I
have nothing new to add.
<Jeffg_SIMU> I read me, even post when I have something goofy to say
* Jeffg_SIMU mumbles something about typo night
<Russ_Simu> Like the GvG system...
<Suz_Simu> I'll be back now that I'm official. Stayed away for awhile
because I figured you guys were all asking yourselves, "But who the heck is
SHE?!" Now you know. :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> GvG is essential!
<Russ_Simu> Not to mention unique...
<Dave_SIMU> I try to keep an eye on what's being discussed even when
there's not enough time to read everything in detail. Every once in a while
I go crazy though :)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> I've been away awhile, but I'll be move involved with
the boards again soon. :)
<Suz_Simu> I do admit to getting lost in all the PvP arguments though.
Whew
<luxor_vault> <Cluge> Are you coding in C or Java? Why one
over the other since you are (I would think) going to try and market this to
as many people as possible.
<David_SIMU> C++
<David_SIMU> Who cares what language it is in?
<luxor_vault> <Serafina> Can you have sex in HJ?
* Valen_vault coughs
<Dave_SIMU> heh
* Suz_Simu chokes.
<Russ_Simu> Hehe
<David_SIMU> Of course.
<Jeffg_SIMU> you'd need a really big monitor
<Dave_SIMU> rofl
<Jeffg_SIMU> else you might fall off
<Suz_Simu> Sorry - I just keep wondering who's going to do the motion
capture on that. :>
<Valen_vault> LOL
<David_SIMU> Um...
<David_SIMU> I've already got some volunteers.
<Dave_SIMU> And remember, we ARE hiring
* Suz_Simu stole that Joke from David. Sorry!
<David_SIMU> hehehe
<luxor_vault> <ADS> What's the word on multiple monitor
support?
<David_SIMU> Definite
<David_SIMU> Will be done.
<David_SIMU> Good news for G400 owners.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Double motherboards with two AGP slots each and the new
dual Matrox cards in each slot = 8 monitors?
<Dave_SIMU> Better make 'em LCD displays Mike, all that radiation adds
up :P
<luxor_vault> <A_Paladin> Can we expect so see any new
screenshots or movies soon? That kinda stuff really helps spawn more ideas
and creat more interest.
<David_SIMU> Frankly...
<David_SIMU> We slowed down on that because a lot of our innovations
were showing up in competitors announcements as if they had suddenly thought
of them.
<David_SIMU> It was causing us to re-evaluate our approach to all
this.
<Eric_Simu> Yeah, but they'll botch it :)
<David_SIMU> We're going to go cautiously for now.
<luxor_vault> <Fredian_Furryfoot> Will NPCs act like real
people - for example, will they curse and swear when they stub their toe
(hint hint), or wander around belching and punching people when drunk?
<David_SIMU> NPCs will be cool, but lets face it... why try and
recreate people when so many REAL people will be in the game.
<Eric_Simu> We plan to push the limits of what NPCs can and will do as
far as we can.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Real people don't act that way. ::hiccup::
<David_SIMU> I favor investing that development time in things that
matter, like game play.
<Valen_vault> or more gore
<Eric_Simu> lol
<David_SIMU> Yes, more gore.
<David_SIMU> ga
<Russ_Simu> But I can pretty much guarantee that we'll get at least
one GM (and likely many more) who's passion is good NPC's.
<Jeffg_SIMU> don't expect to see an NPC stub his toe and expect to
come away without needing a towel
<Dave_SIMU> Our NPCs will behave very realistically when you
disembowel them.
<luxor_vault> <Vil> will character's look different on a
modify your outfit scale....or will anyone wearing a specific type of armor
all look the same?
<David_SIMU> The plan is to make everything look as distinct as
possible. We've not worked out the technology on this part yet...
<David_SIMU> So I'll have to punt here and say we have high hopes, but
no promises yet on what exactly can be done given the limitations of
technology.
<luxor_vault> ...lets end up with a hard one: <Torinak> If
you could discuss any MMORPG-related issue with the dev team of any of the
current MMORPGs (without fears of idea-swiping), which team and which
issue(s) would you choose?
<David_SIMU> (blink)
<Dave_SIMU> hmmmm.
<David_SIMU> We encourage them to keep doing what they are doing. :)
* Aurum_Vault cues the jeopardy music
<David_SIMU> Go Team!
* Suz_Simu grins.
<Jeffg_SIMU> Interface ease of use with the Mankind team in France
<Dave_SIMU> lol
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> ::chuckle::
<David_SIMU> Especially those purely static worlds they keep creating.
More of that!
<David_SIMU> Or the marathon-click-fest interface designs.
<David_SIMU> We like when they do those too. Good job dudes!
<David_SIMU> I wouldn't change a thing!
<luxor_vault> One last question: what is the current time-frame for
beta and official release?
<David_SIMU> doh!
<David_SIMU> RSN
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> What's time?
<David_SIMU> You can't rush perfection.
<Dave_SIMU> When it's ready.
<David_SIMU> I anticipate you'll have something you can lay your hands
on late next year.
<David_SIMU> We'll call it HJ2000.
<David_SIMU> Wow, next year ain't far away.
<luxor_vault> Any closing comments?
<David_SIMU> I would like to thank everyone for their support and
all of the ideas on the vault! This has been tremendously helpful!
<David_SIMU> We've got a full two days of meetings on new technolgoies
for HJ starting tomorrow that I need to get some sleep for.
<David_SIMU> But I've had fun tonight. Thanks everyone. And remember,
the Vault is the place to be for this kind of stuff!
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Must... do... research...
<luxor_vault> Thanks everyone! We'll have the log of tonight's chat
up at www.hjvault.com soon. Be sure to read for all the latest news on HJ.
<David_SIMU> Thanks Lux
<luxor_vault> going unmoderated in 20 seconds...
<Suz_Simu> Indeed - it's been fun. We'll be looking for you all on
HJVault. :)
<Jonric_Vault> thanks to the simutronics team and also to all you fans
for attending.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Night all. :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> It was cool
<Eric_Simu> I'd like to say that the HJ Vault has proved to be a fresh
and envigorating experience. I think we've gotten a great deal from the
discussions there and look forward to seeing future discusions.
<Jeffg_SIMU> nighters
<David_SIMU> (bow) (wave)
<Valen_vault> G'nite and thanks!
<Fredian_Furryfoot> Grr
<Jonric_Vault> safe trip home everyone 8-)
<ADS> charge!!!
<Russ_Simu> G'nite folks, and see you on the boards. ;)
<Lockeworth> Cya!
<oblivion> thanks for coming, simu folks
<A_Paladin> I hope its not a random pick on beta... I think everyone
here today and people on boards all the time should be kept on a list.. any
way that could happen?
<Gannyx> thanks all
<GoodnightDevTeam> I HOPT SO
<Fredian_Furryfoot> I didn't get to get my 5th question off!
<Jastev> Yea!
<Leck> G'Bye
<Bill> Break his legs before he can get away! No, him first!!!
<GoodnightDevTeam> err
<Jastev> Put me on the list
<Torinak> Thanks for taking the time to participate, Simu folks!
<Kremlore> there
<Fredian_Furryfoot> SOMEONE FROM SIMU, QUICK! ANSWER A QUESTION!
<menaleth> Thank you:)
<A_Paladin> hehe
<Jastev> Get them!
<Serafina> woohoo
<Maksin> Later
<Suz_Simu> hehe, we'll have plenty of room for y'all to help with
beta, I'm sure :)
Hero's Journey Stratics - Elonka Dunin Interview
Originally published at Hero's Journey Stratics on July 1, 2000

Elonka Dunin
|
On the third day of Dragon*Con, Stephen "Lockeworth" Cairns and fellow
Stratics staff members there (Adam "DarkSoul" Koehn and Mathew "Corolan" Lang)
received the chance to speak with Elonka Dunin of Simutronics.
Lockeworth: Hello, Ms. Dunin, thank you for allowing this interview for
our readers. Can you tell us who you are and what your role at Simutronics
is.
Sure, My name is Elonka Dunin, and I'm the General Manager of Online
Community for Simutronics. In our games, I'm also known as Simu Nova or
Reline. I've been with Simutronics since 1990 and I've been involved in
pretty much every aspect of our games for the past ten years. I've done
coding, puzzle design, customer service, management, and doc-writing, along
with anything you need to do to get a company off the ground from an
apartment loft. And now I have a corner office in the building where we're
based in St. Charles, Missouri.
L: What exactly does the Community Manager position mean?
A little bit of everything. I have people that work for me that manage the
online communities in my major products. For example in our flagship product
GemStone III, we have over 50 GameMasters, and hosts and mentors ranging
from volunteers who help out on the game, to paid contractors to a couple of
full-time employees in our offices.
Total in all our games, there are several hundred people who help out with
the game. Over 300 of those are paid contractors, while the rest are
volunteers in one form or another or they're compensated with a free game
account.
L: Several people in the Hero's Journey community have mentioned
Simutronics business sense, so what reasons motivated you to do it?
It is a product we've always wanted to do. There are many interesting things
we can do with graphical multiplayer games. Of course, we're seeing many
graphical multiplayer games that are out there. And we look at the design
elements in them. Some of them are good design elements but there are other
elements where we slap our heads, and say, 'They should've known this and
they should've known that!'
These are things we've figured out years ago and I wish we could've helped
them with their own graphical games. So there are a lot of things we have
learned from our over ten years in the business that we'd like to
incorporate into our game design of Hero's Journey. And any product that we
do, we're going to stand behind and keep alive as long as possible. We're
not a company that puts out a game and if it doesn't do as well as we
thought then we just shut it down and go onto another game. For example,
Modus Operandi is one of our smaller games, but it's still here because
there are players who enjoy it. And as long as they want to keep playing it
and if I have any say in it, we're going to keep it alive.
L: I know about 'Hero's Journey' as a literary plotline where a Hero
faces challenges, and has to overcome them and things like that. Is that
where you got the name?
David has always been good about coming up with names and stories, but I'm
not sure where he came up with the name for Hero's Journey. I guess that it
just sounded good to him.
L: Were you part of the group that decided to give a graphical MUD /
MMORPG like Hero's Journey a chance?
Sort of. I've been involved in Simutronics for many years. David Whatley,
the CEO of Simutronics, and I got the company off the ground in an apartment
loft in St. Charles, Missouri. We also had other people involved, Tom and
Susan Zelinski who co-founded the company with David, and Tom Tayon, another
programmer.
David had always wanted to do a game called Hero's Journey, a graphical
multiplayer game. This was back eight years ago so the technology wasn't
there to do it. So I do take some credit in keeping the dream alive. Over
the years as we were working on new products, every time we were talking
about what we'd do next I'd always ask "What about Hero's Journey?" But that
is the extent in my involvement in the decision to give HJ a chance.
L: This is the question every newbie in the Hero's Journey has asked, and
that is: What is the status of Hero's Journey?
The status of Hero's Journey is we're looking for funding for the project.
To do the game right we would need a few million dollars of outside funding.
So far we have not found anyone that has made us an offer that we really
like. So we have built a demo for the game and a videotape which we are
circulating to potential investors. And that is about it for right now.
We're not involved in weekly work on it, but it is a game and major project
we want to do. But we don't have funding for it right now. And there are
other major projects we want to do.
For example, if someone came along and said "I want you to do a vampire
game, and here's funding and a contract," then that is where our resources
might be put instead.
L: So then are you talking with a publisher currently?
We're talking with several different entities, but there is not one in
particular. And even if there were, I wouldn't be able to say who it was
until we have something signed. Because by saying and publishing it, it
might nix the deal.
Lockeworth: I think my fellow Stratics staff members have a few
questions.
Corolan: Why are you choosing to go with a publisher, instead of
self-publishing?
Well, to do this game right, it will take a few million dollars of funding.
Currently Simutronics is a healthy company, and as a matter of fact we made
the Inc. 500 list, meaning that we're one of the fastest growing private
companies in the country. However, our annual revenue is about five million
dollars a year.
So we could not afford to self-fund this game in a reasonable amount of
time. If we do bits and pieces over several years, yes we probably could.
But the problem with that is we are trying to spec out, now, what the
typical consumer computer will be like two years from now. So if we designed
the game in two years, it matches what we think we will have. But if we take
six years, it is going to be very out of date.
For example, we did have a game called ArchMage. The game was designed and
built, with effects, artwork and everything. You could go in and play it for
alpha testing, but then we had a contractual problem with the company that
was funding it. There was a sub company that got acquired and projects got
moved around.
So then the game had to be put on the shelf for awhile. By the time we were
able to release it, the game was already old technology and it wouldn't have
been a viable product if we were to release it. No one ever got to play it.
It was very frustrating for the team and very demoralizing.
C: I have a hard time understanding that it takes a few million dollars
to publish a game. I can understand once you have gotten past actual
construction, development and artwork -- all the behind the things
development -- you would need the money to pay for the shipping, boxing,
creation of CDs, creating the manual, but could you explain where most of
that money goes?
Well a major portion of the cost goes to the salaries of the people working
on the project. To get a really good programmer to do this kind of a 3d
engine, you're talking about some major salaries -- somewhere in the area of
100,000 dollars a year -- while artists also require a lot of money. And you
could get less expensive and/or volunteers, but when you are talking about a
multiple person team putting their full time effort into this, payroll
becomes a sizable part of the budget.
C: So are you currently looking for 3d programmers?
We are always looking for 3d programmers, and as a matter of fact we're
always looking for 3d artists. On the web site, we have a So You Want To
Work For Simutronics page where we have a two dimensional picture of an orc
and ask interested artists to put it into 3d format and send it to us. In
that way we can tell if they can really do what they say they can do. As a
matter of fact, we're not even looking for someone that has worked on other
games, or has a college degree. We care whether or not someone can do it.
And frequently the self-taught folks are better than the people with
academic credentials.
DarkSoul: For Archmage and similar products that didn't quite reach the
shelf, have you looked into the possibility of making a little bit of quick
cash by releasing as-is on the web?
It is possible and we also have an old game called Orb Wars that was a very
popular product on GEnie. And we actually have people contact us asking us
if we're going to bring it back. Even though it was basically an ASCII game
where an @ sign moves across the screen. It was a very fun game and we could
do it.
But there is also the risk that if we re-release a title and it is not good,
then the image of Simutronics tends to decrease a little. Like with Hero's
Journey, everyone is really excited about Hero's Journey because Simutronics
has a reputation of doing good games. So if we released something that was
mediocre, then maybe there wouldn't be as much interest in Hero's Journey or
any future titles by us. But personally I'd like to release ArchMage and Orb
Wars, but it isn't my decision.
C: I understand it is hard to put a date on a possible release date, but
if Hero's Journey did not get shelved in the next product decision time, and
if it was the main product Simutronics had, what do you think would be a
release date?
Assuming someone gave us a lump sum of money, which is kind of a pie in the
sky wish, but making the assumption, the contract was signed, all of the
permissions, licensing and paperwork were completed. Then my best guess, and
this is just a guess, would be about two years after the contract is
signed... but that is just a ball park guess.
L: Since it will be at least two years until Hero's Journey is produced,
what suggestions would you have to the Hero's Journey community in regards
to helping out the game or burning out on the project?
That is a hard one as I know that many of the fans have a huge anticipation
for the project. If I could give any definite timeline for it, I would, but
there isn't anything until we get funding. I could beg patience from people,
but it is hard to be patient when you don't know when you'll get the next
update.
All I can do is provide the information: This is a project we want to do,
but we don't have full funding for it yet. It might be something we could
get out in two years, it may not show up in five years, or it may be
something that goes on the shelf and doesn't see the light of day as we get
involved in another major project.
So knowing that, it is up to the fans as to what they want to do or where
they want to spend their time. And I'll be as honest as possible as to where
the status of the project is
L: Then what would be the sign that Hero's Journey will or will not get
shelved?
Well, Simutronics is going to do a major product, but we're not sure what it
is going to be yet. It might be Hero's Journey or something else. So until
we decide our next major product, Hero's Journey is as likely as anything
else. If we make an announcement that we are definitely going to do another
major product, then Hero's Journey will be on the shelf for awhile.
Lockeworth: Since Simutronics is hiring, I am sure many people would want
to know who is on the Hero's Journey development/design team. Could you give
a few, or all of the names and positions of people working on Hero's
Journey?
I don't know for sure everyone who is on the project. But the executive
producer is Bruce Ferguson, and he is the main person in charge of Hero's
Journey. He is trying to find investors, putting together financials, or
whatever requests a potential investor has. He is the keeper of the demo
videotapes.
There are a few other people in the office who have done stuff on Hero's
Journey. David Whatley is involved in the design of the game along with
on-site GameMaster/Developers such as Michael Paddock, Jeff Gatlin, Dave
Dean, Steph Shaver, and Russ Whiteman. I'm not sure how much each has
contributed. We also have Eric Slick, the producer of DragonRealms, Suz
Dodd, producer of GemStone III, Melissa Callaway, online community manager
for GemStone III, Eric Latham, online community manager for DragonRealms,
our artist Tracy Butler, and even our customer service team.
Among our programmers, there's Andy Finkenstadt, who is a very wonderful,
technically literate guy, involved in all kinds of things, such as being our
Oracle database guru. Bryan Files programmed the interface on the demo for
Hero's Journey. Jim Miller is the network administrator. Dave Metzener is
our senior developer.
Everyone in the company has helped at one point or another.
Lockeworth: As Community Manager, you are familiar with how Simutronics
gathers feedback and keeps fans up to date. Can you list some of those ways?
Sure, we have a feedback department in our office where we get email and we
also have a billing department where they can call in if they have a problem
with their account. We get a few hundred phone calls per week to the Billing
Department and I think at peak we got 3500 emails per week to our feedback
department. We generally try to turn those around in 72 hours, though
usually we can turn them around in 24 hours.
We also have our message boards on our website, which gets over a million
hits a day. Keep in mind that's only the only the number of times that a
user actually clicks on something, so there are many more messages viewed.
Overall, our message boards get about 50,000 new messages per month, with
some topics getting over five hundred messages a day. So we have another
part of our staff, GameMasters and GameHosts, who deal with monitoring the
message boards to keep them running smoothly.
L: Will Hero's Journey feedback and news to the fans be set up similar?
Yes, we'll have all the same avenues. We'll have feedback, message boards,
and the billing will go through our billing department. Plus, along with all
of our games, we have fan websites, hundreds and hundreds. And we have
guidelines for them and artwork, plus we link back to hundreds of them.
L: Were you part of the group that developed the Mentor Society?
Melissa Callaway, she was one of our DragonRealms gamers/GameMasters,
developed the mentor society. And then I hired her full time and now she is
the full-time community manager for GemStone III.
L: All the current Simutronics games have the Mentor Society or something
similar, correct?
We have it in all four of our IFE games [IFE means Interactive Fiction
Engine]. So that is GemStone III, DragonRealms, Modus Operandi, and Hercules
and Xena: Alliance of Heroes. We also have GemStone III Platinum and
DragonRealms Platinum, but since those are much smaller communities, new
players get "naturally mentored" automatically, and so we don't need to have
a specific team assigned to do it.
L: Would you like to see a similar program in Hero's Journey?
I think we should absolutely see something like the Mentor Society in Hero's
Journey. . Some way to greet new players, have them establish a 1-on-1
relationship with some more knowledgeable players, and then have these
mentors show them around to get them acclimated very easily.
L: You play games, right?
Yes, I do play games. :)
L: What games have you played and are playing?
I play any game that is fun :). I was a huge player of GemStone III, and
when I'm off-duty I play an empath in DragonRealms. I play many many
single-player games. I'm the type of gamer that plays a game all the way
through to the end. I've played Myst and Riven all the way through. And just
recently, on my GameBoy, I've just completed my Pokedex (the Yellow Pikachu
game), although I don't have my Mew yet. I enjoy the Dr. Brain games and
Carmen Sandiego games. The Discovery Channel has an interesting CD-ROM game
called "Byzantine" that takes place in the Middle East and you have to go
through the museum and figure things out. Alexei Pajitnov, the creator of
Tetris, currently working at Microsoft, did a game called Pandora's Box. I
am looking forward to Myst III and a neat fact I learned here at Dragon*Con
is that Brad Dourif, an actor in the Lord of the Rings movie, will also be
in Myst III.
I play science fiction, fantasy, medieval fantasy, space trading games,
historical fantasy games, and bird-watching games. I really like all types
of games. But my favorite games would be educational games where you learn
something as you're playing and it's interesting.
L: Can you relate a few experiences from your current games?
I like puzzles, things that teach me about language and history. Basically
something that gives me a piece of knowledge that is useful in the real
world, not just the game world.
One series of games that I really enjoy is the Puzz-3D CD-ROM series, from
Wrebbit in Canada. It is like the puzzles in the store where you have
styrofoam pieces that you fit together and build a 3d castle or something.
But what these folks have done is make a computer game on this. Which is
very satisfying for when you're putting the puzzle pieces together because
they click, stay together, and don't start sagging like styrofoam puzzles
sometimes do -- you have to superglue them together. :)
For example in the Notre Dame Cathedral computer game puzzle you put the
pieces together and once you have the whole cathedral built then a whole
other game is opened up where you can help the hunchback and help rescue
Esmeralda, and there are also little history bits with video which tell
about the architecture, arches, Victor Hugo and literature. That is the type
of game I really like. So far there are four games in the series, one where
you build the Orient Express, a Victorian mansion, Notre Dame cathedral, and
a Bavarian Castle. And as soon as they come out with another one I'm going
to buy it on sight. :)
In GemStone III, we had to add treasure elements into the game (gems). I
researched every kind of gem. I got books from the library and bought books
on gems. I made sure gems in the game matched as close as possible to real
world gems. Valuable gems in the real world were valuable in-game, while
cheap gems in real life were cheap gems in the game. But I didn't publish a
list of these gems, I just gave them values that were similar to real life.
So as people got into the game and the treasure, they learned what amber was
worth in relation to an amethyst
L: Wow, I didn't realize that when I played GemStone III. Very cool.
That is the best type of educational game, one where you don't realize
you're learning while you're learning.
Corolan: At the office, what do you say most Simutronics employees are
playing right now -- when they aren't working? :)
In terms of computer games, there is a new game in beta, Diablo II (now
live) which people are crazy about. What we have found out is that different
people at Simutronics play different games. For example, when Dungeon Keeper
came out, and before when Command & Conquer came out we lost a week's
worth of productivity to each. While for me, I have never been into Command
& Conquer or Dungeon Keeper but when Riven came out no one saw me for 3
or 4 days.
I should also mention that the folks in the office are mad about all kinds
of games, not just computer games. For example, we'll often get together in
the conference room after hours and play tabletop games. We've got several
folks that are completely addicted to "Settlers of Catan" a tabletop game by
Mayfair Games. We've also played everything else from "Pictionary" to
"Skipbo" to "Scrabble".
C: As a company, how do you combat that problem where you lose a week's
worth of productivity from ten of your employees? From a project directing
point of view, that can be a big deal.
Yes, and in most companies that would be a problem, but what we have found
is when people are playing these networked games people tend to stay later
at work and build up bonds between employees.
When the interest in the game fades what we'll have is a bunch of people
that get very very focused on whatever project they are supposed to be
working on and they stay very very focused on it -- staying until 3 in the
morning or staying up all night to get the project done. So we'll still have
a deadline where a milestone needs to be completed, and we'll still meet the
deadlines. So on average, I think the productivity loss is justified
Lockeworth: What fun stuff have you done outside of games?
I love traveling. Most of my traveling was pre-Simutronics but I have been
all over the world, and had been to every continent, except Antarctica, so I
knew I was going to have to go there someday.
I enjoy going to fan conventions, although that is game-related. I also
enjoy dancing -- folk to country-western to goth -- and I like to play
classical music on the piano. There are many other hobbies I also enjoy
ranging from genealogy to sign language to researching subcultures.
Lockeworth: Wow, very cool. You said you thought would 'have' to go
there? So you've been to Antarctica, how did that happen?
I am a member of a group called the Planetary Society. It was founded by Dr.
Louis Friedman and Carl Sagan. The Society promotes space exploration,
public education about the space program, and raises funding for certain
space missions. Most recently they raised funding for the Mars microphone,
though of course that didn't do so well last year!
In 1998, Dr. Louis Friedman sent out an open invitation to all the members
of the Planetary Society, that he was going to Antarctica and he asked if
any other members wanted to join him on an educational expedition. So about
fifty of us said yes, and I paid the ticket. I flew from St. Louis to Miami
to Buenos Aires, Argentina to Tierra del Fuego where I boarded a ship called
the Akademik Sergei Vavilov. Then we went south down the Beagle Channel and
across the Drake Passage to Antarctica.
There I saw thousands and thousands of penguins, enough penguins to say 'Oh
look, another penguin.' But they are always pretty cute and fun to watch :).
I also saw seals, whales and icebergs, which were an amazing color of blue.
A very wonderful trip.
DarkSoul: Since we're here at Dragon*Con, What is the most interesting
thing you have seen?
That is a hard question because there is so much going on. When I go back to
my hotel at night and try to jot down notes on what I did that day, it's
hard because so many things are packed into my day. Something that will stay
in my mind is that Bill Mumy, the actor and musician, was here. It seems
like every track I went to -- the Lost in Space track, the Babylon 5 track,
and he is at the Walk of Fame (where stars sign autographs) over on the
merchandise floor -- he was there and involved in it. Aside from acting, he
also has a one man band where he performs and entertains the audience. He
probably has the longest line at the Walk of Fame but he was friendly and
personable to each fan.
I enjoyed seeing information on the Lord of the Rings movie, and the movies
that fans put together like the Fandom Menace where they documented the
release of the Phantom Menace, Trekkies which I saw for the first time, and
I like seeing the blooper reels. The costumes here are amazing. Some seem to
require two or three people to carry the parts of the costume, while I know
there are enough Imperial Stormtroopers to form a legion and one lady that I
saw walking by had probably six inches of a platform shoe with 12-inch spike
heels lifting her above that.
But being able to talk to everyone and feeling like I'm in an environment,
feeling like a fan and everyone has common interests that they can talk
about. That is what I enjoy most about Dragon*Con.
Corolan: At the virtual sales in MMORPGs panel, I touched upon this
briefly where Ultima Online Two will introduce the ability in the game
itself to sell items in the game for real world money. And you had a very
strong opinion that but it was only expressed in a few worlds, so can you
elaborate?
Wow, that is a really hot topic that is probably worth an entire new
interview on its own. And many of our customers have very strong opinions on
that both ways. So maybe in a follow-up interview we can cover that.
Lockeworth: Speaking of conventions, what was the Simutronics convention
like?
A couple weeks ago we had SimuCon 2000, one of our annual conventions. It
was the largest collection of online gamers meeting to just talk about
online games in the world. We had over 600 people. The actor Robert Trebor
(Salmoneus) from the Hercules & Xena TV shows came and signed
autographs. We talked about the games, announced new stuff upcoming, and
people came from GemStone III, DragonRealms, Hercules & Xena, and Modus
Operandi. We had games they could play at the convention, a hospitality
suite, and lots of parties. Also, we had another wedding. Two people who met
through our game GemStone III actually got married in real life at our
convention.
[Convention fact: This isn't the first time a marriage has occured.]
It was a fun, socializing event.
L: Do you think Hero's Journey will have its own convention?
My assumption is that Hero's Journey, as a Simutronics product, will
definitely have its own place at our SimuCon conventions in the future.
L: And will it get as wild as SimuCon and Dragon*Con?
I hope so! :).
Lockeworth: Hehe :) , thank you for taking this interview and thanks for
informing people on these issues which I know people have been asking about.
It has been my pleasure, and thank you for your time as well.
Hero's Journey Stratics - Dave Dean Interview
Originally published at Hero's Journey Stratics on August 30, 1999
First, I would like to thank Dave Dean for taking the time to answer our
questions about Hero’s Journey. Many of these questions were submitted by
players who are eager to learn as much as possible about this promising
MMORPG from Simutronics. Please keep in mind that as we are still in the
very early stages of game development, the information contained herein is
subject to change.
Welcome to the Tavern, Dave. Here let me get you a mug of Lotus ale while
you’re gathering your thoughts.
Stratics: Comfortable? Good. Tell us about your history with
Simutronics, and what your role will be on the Hero’s Journey Development
team.
Dave Dean: In July 1995 I was hired as an assistant GM in
DragonRealms, working with the magic system guru. Shortly after we opened
for beta on GEnie in February '96, it was pretty clear that he didn't really
have time to be a GM with all the other things going on in his life, so I
took over. The basic design and implementation of the magic system were not
mine, but since very few spells had been completed at that point I had the
opportunity to put my stamp on it fairly early on.
I was obsessed. I'd bring a laptop with me to work, and I'd put more effort
into DR than my "real" job. So in December '96 when I had the opportunity to
come work full-time as an Onsite GM at Simutronics, I went for it.
DragonRealms has been the main focus of my attention, up until the
development of CyberStrike 2. I implemented about a third of the
single-player missions and tweaked some of the others, put together many of
the mission briefings, and composed and recorded two of the four music
tracks.
With the recent staff reorganization, OSGMs received the title of "Product
Developer" and a new emphasis on development. I've backed out of
DragonRealms a bit in antipation of Hero's Journey, and meanwhile am working
with the other PDs on some special projects.
As for what my role on the HJ development team will be, at this stage I
don't know that myself. I would like to be involved in game design, and I
expect (and hope) I'll be up to my neck in implementation once we reach that
stage. I'd like to contribute some music and ambient background sound, if I
have the opportunity. But only time will tell.
Stratics: What do you believe should be the primary goal of a MMORPG,
and how might that goal be achieved in Hero’s Journey?
Dave Dean: I'm not sure one can say there's a single primary goal
that all MMORPG's share, unless it's something basic and obvious like "it
needs to be fun."
My interpretation of our business goal is that we want to be significantly
more successful than our competitors' current offerings. How we'll achieve
that is simply by having a better game -- more engrossing, more visually
attractive, more playable, and more actively supportive of social
interaction and roleplaying. All of our other goals flow from that.
Stratics: Relatively little has been revealed on trade skills in the
game. Can you confirm that a complex system of interesting and viable trade
skills will be available in Hero’s Journey?
Dave Dean: It's really too early to confirm anything specific about
gameplay. I'll have to admit that trade skills are not my personal interest,
but there has been much discussion of them in-house so far, in regards to
fun, advancement, and overall stability of the in-game economy.
Stratics: As GM Shalnhh, you were responsible for the magic system in
DragonRealms. What features and innovations would you like to see for the
magic system that will be used in Hero’s Journey?
Dave Dean: As soon as David Whatley confirmed that we'd be working on
Hero's Journey, I immediately started sketching out magic systems. Several
of them. There is a lot of unexplored territory there, a lot of possible
directions to go in, a lot of interesting things that can be done with magic
without straying too far from players' expectations or making the system too
weird to balance.
There's been much discussion about the balance of magic. The gap in
playability between high-level magic-using characters and non-magic-using
ones is an issue in many RPGs, and it's something I'd very much like to
address in this game. I think the solution is not to reduce the power of
magic, but to offset it with vulnerabilities and to make sure that the
non-magic-users have lots of new things to do as they advance.
I think it could be a lot of fun to take advantage of the graphical nature
of the game in a way that nobody has done before. A system of nodes and ley
lines, or magical energy fields such as is used in DragonRealms, could be
truly exciting if you can see it; magical items and living or undead beings
could have visible auras that convey information as well as just looking
really cool. It opens up all kinds of possibilities, such as creatures (or
possibly even player races) that see only in the magical spectrum, spells
and items that mask your aura, and so on.
Stratics: Who is your target audience? Will Hero’s Journey be
developed for the broadest player base possible, or will the game be
designed with the roleplaying community in mind? What specifically will
Hero’s Journey do to foster roleplaying and immersiveness?
Dave Dean: A major reason for going with a graphical environment
rather than a text-based one is to expand our player base. We intend to draw
in as wide player base as we can -- and recruit them into the roleplaying
community.
Everything from the animation system to the interface to gameplay elements
is being developed with two things in mind: roleplaying and strengthening
the sense of community. This has been GemStone's greatest strength, and we
hope to bring it into the graphical environment.
Stratics: As you know, PvP has been one of the most hotly debated
topics on the discussion boards. David Whatley has stated that he is looking
for an evolutionary step forward in developing a solution to the PvP
problem. What information can you give us on the solution being considered
for Hero’s Journey?
Dave Dean: We have the benefit of our own considerable experience
plus observations of our competitors' alternate methods to draw from. I
expect our solution will be more satisfactory than any so far. But like
government, I don't think there is any one "perfect" solution that will
completely satisfy everybody, just a zone of acceptable compromise between
freedom and security.
I don't want to get too specific, but one of the more promising
possibilities relies on the in-game, in-character justice system to
discourage antisocial violence without imposing artificial restrictions.
Stratics: Another frequently debated topic is the overland travel
feature allowing characters to move through the game world at an accelerated
pace. Do you have any additional information on how overland travel will be
handled in the game?
Dave Dean: I have nothing to contribute on that, sorry.
Stratics: One of the most important decisions made by a Development
team is the extent to which the game will focus on reality vs. practicality.
For example, in Ultima Online we saw a greater focus on reality (limited
communication, no PvP switch, etc.) whereas in EverQuest the focus was on
practicality (chat channels, PvP switch, etc.). Where do you believe Hero’s
Journey will stand on this continuum?
Dave Dean: Without intending any offense or disrespect to either
game, I think neither product truly reached those goals, if that's what they
were. For example, in UO you can chop down trees while on horseback and
sparrows will suicidally attack armored knights -- not terribly realistic.
In EQ, you can very easily lose your sense of direction, and it can get to
be so dark at night that you literally can't tell whether you're looking up
at the sky, down at the ground, or straight ahead -- not a friendly
combination for a new player trying to find their way around.
A good design should take both verisimilitude and practicality into account.
For example, a common treasure item in GemStone allows long-distance
communication via ESP. A good PvP solution can allow the freedom of choice
to attack, but ensure that there are consequences.
One way we've looked at this in-house is "level of abstraction." For
instance, using the overland travel map abstracts out the process of walking
around individual obstacles in the terrain. Finding an appropriate level of
abstraction is important, as players of Trespasser found out when they
fumbled around with the character's arm as opposed to just hitting a "use"
key as in most FPSs.
Stratics: What is your opinion on how character death should be
handled in Hero’s Journey? Do you prefer a “slap on the wrist” model like we
see in EverQuest, or a more serious model where death is relatively rare and
has severe consequences? Is permanent death being considered for the game?
Dave Dean: Oddly enough, I see death in MMORPGs mostly in terms of
the opportunity for social interaction. This is something missing from some
games, but in both GemStone III and DragonRealms, a character death quite
often means a party will come to the rescue, and require some teamwork
between defenders, healers and the person doing the resurrection. The dead
can simply abandon their body, but there's a penalty.
I definitely don't believe that every death should be permanent. I'm
personally questioning whether any permanent death at all is useful -- in
GemStone and DragonRealms both, you must make an offering to a god to ensure
that you can be resurrected, but people miscount or forget, and it gives
abusive players an opening to permanently destroy someone. On the other
hand, it does add an extra edge of fear and an incentive not to screw up!
Stratics: We understand that timelines are amorphous, especially this
early in the development process. With this caveat, can you tell us anything
about the general timeline that will be used for the focus groups, beta
testing, and game release? For example, are we looking at a 1-1.5 year total
timeline with beta testing starting in 1 year and focus groups starting in
the next couple of months?
Dave Dean: This is one I can't answer, and wouldn't want to guess at.
Stratics: How will quests, plot lines, world events, etc. be handled
in Hero’s Journey? Do you envision NPC-based quests (e.g., EverQuest),
GM-run quests (e.g., DragonRealms), etc.? Will these quests be unique or can
they potentially be repeated by different characters?
Dave Dean: I expect that, as in our current games, we'll have a
combination of GM-run and automated, one-shot events, ongoing storylines,
periodic events (annual goblin migration?), perhaps ticketed quests... a
variety of things.
Stratics: We’ve seen a sampling of the races that will be used in the
game through the screenshots and concept art that have been released
(Idorim, Dwarves, Grek, Birdmen, etc.). Can you give us any information on
additional races that are being considered for the game? For example, are
you open to the possibility of races that are not bipedal such as centaurs,
snakemen, etc.?
Dave Dean: We generally expect to start with somewhere around 10
player races. We have not written off non-humanoid characters as a
possibility, though they would require additional animation and artwork
resources beyond those common to all humanoids.
Stratics: What can you tell us about the possibilities for player
ownership (houses, boats, etc.)? It’s been hinted that Hero’s Journey will
surpass the competition by allowing players to not only own houses, but also
to own dungeons, hunting grounds, etc. Is this still being considered, and
beyond building towns will players have the ability to set up their own
governments, legal systems, etc.?
Dave Dean: I would say that player-owned hunting areas are a very
strong possibility, either at opening time or as a future addition. Mike in
particular has been talking of allowing players to hold executive, but not
legislative, office in governmental or military positions.
Stratics: One of the advantages of entering a maturing MMORPG market
is that you can learn from the mistakes of your predecessors. Are there any
lessons learned from games such as Ultima Online and EverQuest, and how will
Simutronics avoid making these same mistakes?
Dave Dean: Simutronics is not "entering" the MMORPG market -- we've
been in it for 12 years. I've personally grit my teeth while watching Origin
and Verant make some of the same mistakes we had already made and done our
best to correct. I particularly remember Richard Garriot's statement during
the UO beta, "I'm confident we'll have this PK problem licked..."
However, while I do feel we've always outdone them in terms of game systems,
social interaction and roleplay, we have some things to learn. This is our
first graphical RPG, which has some fundamental differences from the
text-based world. And there's definitely something to be said for the
commercial success of UO and EQ. I've found the games and the player
communities that sprung up around them worth some study. Particularly in the
interface area, and in nailing down the problem of social interaction in a
graphical game.
Stratics: What do you believe the character advancement system will
look like for Hero’s Journey (will it be skill-based, attribute-based,
class-based, etc.)? Two of the concept art releases indicate potential
classes in the game (Shadow Knight and Anti-Paladin). Does this mean you
have decided on a class-based system? What is your opinion on skill atrophy?
Dave Dean: It's not written in stone, but the idea that has been
bounced around the most is neither purely skill-based or purely class-based,
but a sort of hybrid multi-class skill-based system. Something that provides
some structure, but also allows for a lot of diversity and doesn't limit
players' options too much. Don't draw too many conclusions from the concept
art; it's there to help us focus on the direction the game should go
visually.
Out of context, skill atrophy is neither inherently good or bad. I believe
it can be part of a good advancement system, if the design and
implementation are good. Sounds like a cop-out answer, I know. One thing's
for sure, you can't add skill atrophy as an afterthought, as we found in
DragonRealms when we tried it on one specific skill for a short time.
Players don't react well when you take something away that they were used to
keeping.
Stratics: What steps (if any) do you plan to take to ensure that
players are unable to advance their characters through third-party macroing?
Will the game have its own system for supporting hotkeys/macros?
Dave Dean: I expect the client itself will be very secure, hopefully
to the point where no third-party software will be able to get behind the
wheel. I'm guessing that the client software will have a certain flexibility
in terms of configuring hotkeys and menu commands, with preventative
measures to avoid some of the abuses seen in other games.
Stratics: Will there be a contract system in-game (allowing work
agreements, loans, lease to own, condition-based rewards for quests/tasks,
etc.) accessible by the players?
Dave Dean: I'm not sure I understand the question... contracts
between players, or between a player and an NPC? Perhaps, though it's too
early to get into details like that at this point.
Stratics: What kind of communication system will exist in the game?
Will it be restricted to in-character mechanisms and limited in scope (e.g.,
no shouting to the whole zone)?
Dave Dean: I suspect it will be mostly restricted to IC mechanisms.
That doesn't exclude long-distance communication, we'll just make sure it
happens in an IC way.
Stratics: The mule problem has been discussed extensively on the
boards. Many have recognized the potential balancing problems associated
with trade mules (channeling wealth from a trade character to your main
character), bank mules (using a second character to store additional items),
city mules (using a second character to conduct your business in cities
where your main character is not welcome), merchant mules (having a second
character with maximum charisma buy/sell your main character’s items), etc.
Does Simutronics see this as a problem and if so what will be done to
address it?
Dave Dean: I expect very, very few people will go through the expense
and effort required to let them play two characters simultaneously -- they
would need two computers, two internet connections, two accounts and they'd
need to purchase two copies of the client software.
As for people who switch between characters, well... I personally am a bit
reactionary about that. I kind of long for the one character per account
limit like we had in GemStone in the pre-AOL days. But since there are an
infinite number of ways to play, I grudgingly admit that letting people have
multiple characters is worthwhile.
The advantage here is that we can design our game systems with the full
knowledge that people will swap money and items between their characters. We
need to recognize in advance that people who have a master craftsman
character capable of bringing in a significant income will have an advantage
when they equip a new character. So we need to make our game systems
twink-proof to neutralize that advantage somewhat. There are two main ways
to do that: rely more on the player's skills/stats than the item's, and
limit the advantage a player can gain from special items based on their
skills/stats.
Stratics: To what extent will Hero’s Journey be a "realistic" world
simulation? For example, will NPCs have their own lives and behave
intelligently, will players be able to affect the environment in meaningful
ways, and will there be a dynamic player/NPC economy?
Dave Dean: The emphasis will be on adventuring and heroics -- the
extraordinary lives of PCs, as opposed to the more ordinary and mundane
existences of most NPCs. And though things are dynamic, we have to make sure
they are stable -- we wouldn't want to allow players to burn down forests or
smash buildings or kill every shop owner in town. Murphy's law of MMORPGs is
"whatever players can do, they will do."
However, we'll do what we can to make sure there's some depth to the
background. Economics was never my strong suit so I'm not really prepared to
talk about that. But Mike has some very interesting ideas about NPC and
creature behavior, NPCs with their own agendas who react appropriately to
things going on round them.
Stratics: Will a complex and interesting combat system be used
allowing variation in combat styles and rewarding strategic/tactical
intelligence? For example, will such concepts as line-of-sight, terrain,
attack/defense strategies, battle fatigue, balance, multiple opponents,
effects of weapons on various armor types, targeting/wounding specific body
parts, etc. be incorporated into the Hero’s Journey combat system?
Dave Dean: I can't vouch for details, but it will certainly be
in-depth and interesting. When I hear David Whatley talking about combat in
HJ, I envision something along the lines of the DragonRealms combat system,
but much more intuitive because it's visual rather than text-based, and much
more smoothly flowing.
The greatest challenge faced by DR's combat system is conveying what is
going on in a way that's interesting, but can be grasped very quickly -- and
in return, allowing the user to control his actions in a specific way. HJ's
combat system should have many of DR combat's best features without the
"which one of these four trolls is the one that's lying stunned on its face,
so I can finish it off?" ambiguity.
Stratics: You’ve mentioned that it is unlikely Hero’s Journey will
have a tiered pricing structure like we saw with Platinum pricing in
DragonRealms. Is this still the case, and what can you tell us about the
possibility of other pricing options (e.g., charging for Quests, Festivals,
etc.) in the game?
Dave Dean: I'm not in any way a part of the decision process where it
comes to pricing, so I'm not the person to ask. The main reason for my
comment was that HJ is being designed from the ground up to accommodate a
certain amount of people per game instance, and there will most likely be no
demand for a separate "platinum" instance.
I would assume that ticketed events (supplementing a well-balanced diet of
ongoing storylines and random/periodic events) are still a possibility, as
they've been very successful in our current games. But I wouldn't guarantee
it, as our price structure has yet to be determined.
Stratics: Can you give us any information on how guilds and factions
may work in Hero’s Journey?
Dave Dean: We've talked briefly about the possibility of multiple
layers of player organizations, from simple groups not unlike UO guilds, to
something along the lines of a GemStone III style House, to major feudal
organizations. But nothing in specific has been planned at this point.
Stratics: What single feature of Hero’s Journey do you think will
most distinguish it from the competition (Ultima Online, EverQuest,
Asheron’s Call, etc.)?
Dave Dean: Since you're limiting me to a single feature, I'll say:
quality.
Stratics: Thanks again for taking the time to talk with us. Any
concluding remarks?
Dave Dean: Nope, I'm bad with concluding remarks.
We appreciate all of the information you’ve shared with us. This is going to
be an awesome game :)
GamePen - David Whatley Interview
Originally published at GamePen on June 16, 1999
NOTE: This interview has only been partially recovered
Do you know Simutronics?
If you're into online role-playing games, you should. Simutronics pioneered
the field over a decade ago – an epoch in computer gaming years – with
Gemstone, the first commercial online RPG. Before the words "massively
multiplayer" formed on an ad executive's lips for the first time, Gemstone
had already entered its third revision, and been joined by Modus Operandi, a
mystery-themed game, and another fantasy epic with an innovative skill-based
system called Dragonrealms. Joined last year by a "Hercules and Xena"
tie-in, Simutronics' games collectively pack in thousands of players a
night. So how come you've never heard of them?
For one thing, people don't visit Simutronics' worlds for the pretty
pictures. These RPGs are text-based, but don't be fooled into thinking
they're typical MUDs. Gemstone and Dragonrealms are built around
fully-realized world settings, with rich histories, an atmosphere thick
enough to cut with a knife, and continuous quests and special events run by
a dedicated staff of volunteer "gamemasters". Even so, the lack of visual
bells and whistles is enough to drive off gamers who dislike taxing their
imaginations, let alone navigate a game through typed commands instead of a
handy mouse or joystick; Simutronics' games have long catered to a niche
market, prospering through word-of-mouth but failing to break into the
mainstream.
Picture this: you run a company with a proven track record, producing
award-winning games, but the greater part of the industry still won't give
you the time of day. Now, a raftload of graphical RPGs make their debut into
the market, each offering flashy graphics and sound but adding little to the
field in terms of design or play value. To add insult to injury, almost
every single company pretends they invented the genre – and in the case of
Ultima Online's much-ballyhooed debut a few years back, even the bulk of the
gaming media, who should know better, swallow it hook, line and sinker. What
do you do?
You bring in the big guns, of course, and apply the time-tested principles
of text-based RPGs to a graphical environment. That's what Simutronics is
doing with their new product in development, Hero's Journey. In the wake of
an early demo which was shown to a select few at E3, Hero's Journey is
already drawing heavy industry buzz as a title to watch. But with Everquest
and Ultima Online grappling for market dominance, and Asheron's Call (and –
just possibly – Middle Earth) on the way, will the market have room for one
more titan? And will the Simutronics approach to graphical role-playing be
fresh and unique enough to capture gamers' hearts (and wallets)?
Nobody knows for sure, but we've got a taste of things to come. Simutronics
President and CEO David Whatley took some time to speak to GamePen about his
plans for Hero's Journey, and some features we can look forward to as
development continues.
What can you tell us about the setting of Hero's Journey, and the world
the game takes place in? How large will the world be, compared to existing
online RPGs?
Hero's Journey takes place in a classic epic-fantasy world with our own
unique twists. The background story is still being finalized, but we've
placed ourselves in a timeline where an older, ancient society had already
flourished and developed technologies equivalent to the renaissance era of
Earth. So, in addition to the traditional cadre of orcs, dragons and other
fantasy elements, you'll be unearthing strange ancient technologies of a
notable daVinci-like nature (like bizarre, steam-driven contraptions for
locomotion).
The size of the world is hard to compare to any other online game for one
specific reason: we do not have a size limit. The important thing to keep in
mind is that Hero's Journey is designed to mimic the way we present our
other online massively multiplayer FRP games. Namely, that we employ an army
of World Builders who continuously expand the world.
Hero's Journey uses a series of innovative technologies to provide this same
mechanism of constant expansion. Even as you explore the vast lands, our
World Builders are creating new dungeons, hunting grounds, quests and things
never even conceived during the original design. The tool sets we provide
our World Builders empower them with the ability to express their creativity
within the game engine.
It is also important to understand that the data that defines the
environment you are exploring is delivered "on demand", so there are no new
versions to buy just to get more land to explore. Even more importantly, the
amount of the game world that is on your hard disk is under your control.
Because we have an endlessly expanding universe model, it is important for
you to not give up your entire hard disk for a single game, and we're
building in an adjustable cache to put the control in the players' hands.
How much control will the player have over the in-game 'camera'? What
innovations will the Hero's Journey graphics engine bring to the table?
The camera of the game adopts a fairly traditional "isometric" view-point,
but is completely controllable in real-time. Our interface makes it very
simple to spin the camera, zoom in and out and change the angle of view
while the action is going on. All of our interface decisions are being
proven in our usability labs to make sure they are natural, comfortable and
intuitive.
Although we use a full 3D polygonal engine, the game is not first-person.
One of the reasons for this is that we intend to introduce a very high level
of detail in the scenes, and being able to see to the horizon dramatically
decreases this ability. But more significantly, we are introducing some
amazing innovations in the portrayal of combat which will require the
tactical viewpoint system we've adopted.
Source: GamePen - David Whatley Interview
Hero's Journey Vault - David Whatley Interview
Originally published at Hero's Journey Vault on June 4, 1999
Simutronics is best known for developing Multiplayer Dungeons (MUDs),
such as Gemstone III. Could you explain a little bit of the history behind
the creation of Gemstone III for our readers?
GemStone III is a text-based online massively multiplayer FRP that was
orignally created over 12 years ago. Of course then it was called GemStone
II (GemStone I was a prototype). The product debuted on Genie (a
commercial online service similar to Compuserve). About 8 years ago we
upgraded the engine considerably to create GemStone III and this product
remains, even today, our most popular product.
We’ve since created other products using the same engine. But the
fundamental philosophy of the engine has remained unchanged: empower a
huge online staff to constantly create and expand the play experience. Of
course this is a lot easier to do with a text-based game than with a
graphical one, but we now feel that the technology is available to make
this possible.
Gemstone III uses a different administration model than many online
games, with many of the gamemasters and world builders located off-site.
How do you feel this has contributed to the evolution of Gemstone III, and
how successful do you think it's been?
The off-site team is fundemental to our world-creation vision. Building
huge teams, which we recruit from our player population, gives us a
decided advantage. But realize that simply having off-site GameMasters is
not the whole picture because you must provide them with sophisticated
tools otherwise there presence is merely symbolic. Can a GameMaster
completely redesign the combat system in your favoriate game? If not, then
they don’t have anything close to what we consider powerful tools. Heck,
with the current cadre of online graphical games, the GMs are not even
empowered to even create a single new piece of terrain to explore! So,
their idea of GMs is relegated to customer service functions and perhaps
some limited roleplaying items.
Gemstone III has been around since 1989, correct? What do you think has
contributed to that longevity?
The GemStone III you would have seen in 1989 is a mere shadow of the depth
of game play the title provides today. And, by extension, I believe the
GemStone III of five years out will be just that vastly superior. The
reason is we empower our online World Builders to constantly enhance,
expand and enrich the world. When you deploy an army of over 150 towards
this end, you wind up with amazingly deep game systems, exciting quests
and the realization that no matter how much you play, you never have
explored it all.
MMORPGs have evolved a long way from the MUDs of just a few years ago,
and now Simutronics appears ready to enter the arena. When did you decide
to begin development of Hero's Journey, and what prompted that
decision?
Not to be too contrary, but I believe the current examples of MMORPGs are
a distinct de-evolution of the genre. In adding a graphical presentation
to to online FRPs, they have also so simplified the gaming experience that
it amazes me people accept what is being offered. But basicly this is a
subjective viewpoint that assumes you’ve experienced the depth of a game
such as GemStone III to even realize what is possible.
Hero’s Journey is not a recent development, but rather the culmination of
my entire professional life. For over 15 years I’ve been developing this
concept, awaiting the day when the end-user computer power and the
Internet infrastructure would be powerful enough to make this game
possible. I believe that we are on the cusp of that time, and with the
technical innovations we’ve developed we’ll be the first to realize the
whole concept of online graphical FRP.
What's the basic concept behind Hero's Journey?
Hero's Journey takes place in a classic epic-fantasy world with our own
unique twists. The background story is still very early, but we've placed
ourselves in a timeline where an older, ancient society had already
flourished and developed technologies equivalent to the renaissance era of
Earth. So, in addition to the traditional cadre of orcs, dragons and other
fantasy elements, you'll be unearthing strange ancient technologies of a
notable DaVinchiesqu nature (like bizarre steam-driven contraptions for
locomotion). Players take on the roles of budding Hero’s of this new and,
for the most part, uncharted lands. What ultimately happens, of course,
remains to be seen!
What sort of graphics engine do you plan on using? What sort of
features will it be capable of?
The camera of the game adopts a fairly traditional "isometric" view-point,
but is controllable in real-time. Our interface makes it very simple to
spin the camera, zoom in and out and change the angle of view while the
action is going on. It is all very natural, and like the rest of our
interface decisions, they are being proven in our usability labs to make
sure they are natural, comfortable and intuitive.
Although we use a full 3D polygonal engine, the game is not first-person.
One of the reasons for this is that we intend to introduce a very high
level of detail in the scenes and "looking to the horizon" dramatically
decreases this ability. But more significantly, we are introducing some
amazing innovations in the portrayal of combat that requires the tactical
viewpoint we've adopted.
But there is a lot to graphics beyond the poly-count. For example, what do
characters look like when they move on the screen? It amazes me what
players will accept in this regard too: Click on the screen and your
person turns 180 degrees in the blink of an eye and is suddenly moving at
a full clip to the destination where he instantly stops. Imagine the
G-forces!
How can you suspect disbelief enough to really roleplay when character
motion on the screen is so comical? Our goal is to really push the
envelope and make characters (human or not) move in natural and intuitive
ways. Combat will not just be two characters standing toe-to-toe, waving
swords until one runs out of hitpoints. Where is the drama in that? Ever
watch a good action sequence in a movie? That gives you an idea of what we
are arming for.
Do you plan to maintain a single virtual world or multiple server
sets?
At the usage level of you see in graphical FRPs there is little choice but
to subdivide into multiple servers. The basic problem is bandwidth on the
backbone which can easily blow out even gigabit speeds. This can be solved
but the solutions starts to become less and less economic.
So, like the current crop of online FRPs, Hero’s Journey will sub-divide
into mutliple servers though we do hope to host a lot more in an
individual instance of the game than is currently demonstrated by the
other guys. It is important to realize, however, that because we have this
dynamic content model, we have a much more sophisticated challenge in
replicating the world data as it is developed. To accomplish this we have
some very thorny technical issues to solve.
Describe the world you envision for Hero's Journey. How large do you
think this world will end up being?
The dynamic content model provides for endless expansion, which basically
precludes one from ever ending up with a maximum size. GemStone III, for
example, is orders of magnitude bigger now than when it was launched and
it will be larger still tomorrow and the day after.
Our approach is to draw a line in the sand and say how big the “world”
will be at launch. And to determine this we perform a lot of calculations
on the optimum population densities and other factors. It’ll be huge, I
can tell you that. But because we use a separate, abstract interface for
long distance travel you’ll be spared the mind-numbingly-boring chore of
navigating endlessly repetitive terrain. The critical thing to realize is
that you’ll never really ever see it all because new lands will constantly
be added, and old terrain will constantly evolve as the world is fleshed
out.
Another interesting twist is that we allow the player to adjust how much
of their hard disk they are willing to devote to game data. With an
ever-expanding world, we’d quickly end up taking up way more disk space
than is reasonable. It is better, then, to let the player decide this by
adjusting a cache size much like to they do with their web browsers.
What sort of interaction will players be able to have with the
environment? Will the world be mostly static, ala EverQuest, or more
dynamic, like Ultima Online?
Very dynamic, on an level similar to GemStone III and DragonRealms.
Basically every single piece of terra firma, every object, every single
thing you see is dynamic in nature. A town, for instance, could basically
burn to the ground with the buildings crumbling around you and leaving
smoldering ruins in the fire’s wake. To achieve this we have been careful
to construct rendering and map-defining technologies that require no
“pre-computed” knowledge of the structure of the world or its contents.
And we’ve innovated ways of streaming down the current state of the
terrain that lets it change easily on relatively low-bandwidth devices
such as current modems.
Game design decisions, rather than technical concerns limit the degree
that players can impact their world. For example, even if a town can burn
down it would be foolish to let such a capability be easily obtainable by
a player. But, for instance, an invading horde might burn it down if the
players cannot rally an effective defense.
One of the biggest problems that MMORPGs have faced is the problem of
providing players goals to achieve in the game, simply because of the
sheer number of players to manage. What are your thoughts on this
problem?
A big problem to be sure! We’ve faced this problem for years, but one of
the advantages that Hero’s Journey has is that the World Builders can
craft amazingly deep and interesting plots and quests. We are going to be
very careful to avoid the “FedEx” type of quest that many people may be
familiar with (go fetch that to get this). And, instead, focus on the
types of quests games like GemStone III are known for: rich and evolving
events that almost always present the player with obstacles and challenges
they’ve never encountered before.
And, like in our other products, the World Builders will also have the
duty of focusing on the particular needs of, say, a particular profession.
So the spell-slinging folks have begun to exhaust the coolness of their
craft, the World Builders will be working diligently to add new and
wonderful enhancements to their arsenal. This is the key; and it scales
well. So long as the tools are good it will not be difficult to grow our
staff to try and keep up with demand.
On a similar note, where do you personally stand in the eternal player
vs. player debate?
Of course we’ve dealt with this issue for years, and our FRPs enforce
heavy restrictions on this type of activity. The goal is to allow players
to resolve disputes, and even engage each other in combat, without the
whole thing spiraling out of control. Self-regulating systems do not
provide much relief from the problems because the penalties of real-life
are not imposed in the virtual world. In real-life a person cannot simply
“reroll” a new life to harass someone.
Instead a careful balance has to be obtained whereby the players are
encouraged, at every level, to work together towards a goal. And
opportunities to roleplay ‘bad’ are given careful boundaries and
restrictions to supplement the elements of ultimate risk missing in
virtual worlds. The final answer for Hero’s Journey is still under
development, and I expect we’ll have some new and interest approaches to
the problem.
One thing you can expect is that we will not make silly mistakes. For
example, creating an economic system which makes new players the most
profitable thing to hunt! Our long experience in online FRPs will server
us well here as the pitfalls that many online games are making today are
ones we’ve stepped in years ago! And know to avoid now.
Who will be responsible for designing the game, and eventually building
the world of Hero's Journey, and what prompted this decision? Do you think
this model will work?
We are using a unique approach to the design of Hero’s Journey.
Traditionally a game is designed by some people who run off into a closet
somewhere, come up with a lot of great ideas and then a few million
dollars later out pops a game. Is it good? Who knows? A complete
crap-shoot! If you have brilliant people, and some luck, you tend to make
more right choices than wrong choices.
I feel that is the wrong way to approach an online FRP. This is because we
are create not just a game, but a world where people are going to be
investing a great deal of their life exploring. I do not take this
responsibility lightly, and by no means believe I have all the right
answers. In point of fact, I don’t believe there are right answers… but
there are certainly better answers and lot of plain wrong answers.
So my approach is to drive an Open Design methodology. Working with the
Vault Network, we are going to be recruiting design teams from what will
be our future customer base. That is, online FRP players who want a strong
say in the kind of world they want to move to in the future. And our job
is to organize these people into effective task forces, focus groups and
brain-stormers to support this concept.
This is a pretty radical idea for the design of a game, and it goes far
beyond simple idea-flooding message boards. But I think it is very
appropriate for the this type of creation and I feel it something we are
obligated to do if we are to then ask people to adopt our world over
another. The end result, I feel, will be far superior because the design
ideas have been tested against a group of customers to gauge their
worthiness. The trick is in the techniques used to measure these things,
and we are planning to work in some carefully considered mechanisms to
make this possible.
At another level, we are also paying very close attention to the games
interface. This is an area where I feel all the current online FRPs have
come up short. For example, when people play online FRPs, they tend to be
interacting with your game for amazing numbers of hours for months or
years! Doesn’t it make sense to tune your interface such that it is not
only easy to learn, but literally comfortable to play? By this I mean,
shouldn’t the interface go out of its way to minimize such things as
hand-motion? Shouldn ’t simple tasks require simple physical effort to
accomplish?
This may not seem like a big deal, but when you multiply the effort needed
to accomplish a task over the zillions of times you do it, it does become
a big deal! Some of the current online FRPs seem intent on causing
carpal-tunnel syndrome with their needlessly complex double-clicking,
draging-n-dropping Olympic events. How did this happen?
We are subjecting our interface designs to detailed usability lab
analysis. Not only to lean how well they work, how easy they are to learn
but also how comfortable they are to use over long periods of time. Again,
this seems to me to be just another thing we have a responsibility to do
if we are to offer Hero’s Journey as the best place for people to play.
When do you project beta-testing to begin, and when do you think the
game could potentially ship?
We’re still to early in the process to say. However you can expect a
standard development schedule. (smile)
By the time Hero's Journey ships, there will be at least five, and
probably more, prominent MMORPGs on the market. How do you see this
affecting the game, and what do you think will make HJ stand out?
Our approach, at all levels, gives us a significant advantage. Regardless
of what other games emerge, it will be hard for anyone to replicate our
innovations and certainly our depth of experience. But even if they do, so
what? Competition is good for the consumer and for the producers of these
titles. The more quality titles out there, the better it is for everyone.
The point is, we won’t stand still and we intend to lead the way on game
design and interface innovation.
Thanks for your time, David. Is there anything else you feel like
adding before we're done?
Another prime-directive for us to find ways for players to roleplay in a
graphical environment. We need to all be realistic on this point:
graphical games have a long way to go in order to even get close to what
is possible in a text based online FRP. But with Hero’s Journey we feel we
have studied the issue carefully enough to make some significant headway
on this problem.
We are bringing new ideas to the table to help players create uniquely
visual identities within the world. I believe that this is where
traditional graphical online FRPs have failed. Everyone knows that you can
get a lot of visual variety from Ultima Online, for instance, by mixing
and matching clothing. But what does it look like? A garish, Technicolor
nightmare! Ever seen actual renaissance clothing? Outside of royalty, you
don't see a lot of multihued inks. Although their solution is one possible
answer to the problem, it creates an artificial and (in my opinion)
somewhat absurd look to the world. Hero's Journey will allow people to
dress more realistically while still expressing individuality and
uniqueness in the world. To a certain extent, players will even be able to
customize their character’s animations and change this based on the mood
they are roleplaying at the time. Other aspects of the character’s visual
presentation in the world will be governed by a melding of both the
player's preferences and the skills of the character. For example, the
difference between the clumsy attack of a young swordmaster-wanabe vs.
Xenaesque back-flips and roll to an amazing kill.
Expressing emotion in a graphical game is difficult. Existing titles have
either ignored the issue (a safe way to go) or allow for text-based
emoting (like the word *SMILE* popping up in a chat window). Our goal is
to provide methods for expressing emotion more visually and naturally in
the world. Much like a stage actor, we'll exaggerate subtle things to make
them visible at the camera distance. In the end, our goal is to provide
mechanisms that seem to fit well and make a game system that encourages
and rewards role-playing much like the unique ways we do in our existing
online FRPs.
There is, of course, much more to be said about Hero’s Journey. I’m
excited with the opportunities the Vault Network has given us to reach out
to the online FRP players. This project is a huge challenge, but one we
are very excited about.
Source: Hero's Journey Vault - David Whatley Interview
RPG Tales - David Whatley Interview
Originally published at RPG Tales on June 3, 1999
CaliGirl: Can you first tell us a little about yourself?
David Whatley: My name is David Whatley. I am the President &
CEO of Simutronics Corporation and one of the original founders.
CaliGirl: What are the current major projects at Simutronics?
David Whatley: We are currently well underway on our Hero's
Journey project. This is clearly the most ambitious project we've ever
undertaken and our goal is to create nothing less than the Magnum Opus
of massively multiplayer online Fantasy Roleplaying Games. As you might
expect from a company that only does online games, all of our existing
titles still represent major projects as we never really stop ongoing
development. For example, GemStone III and DragonRealms each have a team
over 150 World Builders (game designers, programmers, etc.) each!
CaliGirl: Has your company decided to focus on a specific field?
Will they be looking into Strategy, Simulations, Puzzle and related
games? or will it mainly keep focused on RPG games?
David Whatley: At our core, we are create Fantasy Roleplaying
adventures and all of our work is massively multiplayer. This is all we
have done, and remember our company is right around 12 years old now. We
do have teams working on other genres, including more mass-market
titles. But it is safe to say that we a big fans of high-fantasy epic
adventures, and this will always represent our defining product line.
CaliGirl: What do you feel sets your online RPG games from other
RPG Games?
David Whatley: Online provides a social context for what you are
doing. A classic RPG game (that is not online) goes to great lengths to
get you involved in some sort of story line, but the success of this
effort can really vary. Online you make your own stories; in fact they
evolve as a natural course of human interaction and socialization. Our
jobs are simply to encourage and focus this natural phenomenon and keep
things always fresh, exciting and interesting. In there lies the
strength of our company and our product line.
CaliGirl: What challenges do you see lying in the future for
Simutronics?
David Whatley: Hero's Journey represents the culmination of my
entire professional life. To create the definitive statement in epic
fantasy, I am pushing for the most sophisticated and innovative Internet
environment building techniques that have ever been attempted.
Basically, we are going to take the extremely powerful and enabling
tools we have always given our online World Building staff and apply
this to a graphical game system. Up until now the technology to do this
has not been there, but I feel as though it is now possible to really
realize this goal. This is, without a doubt, the greatest and most
exciting challenge we have taken on.
CaliGirl: Did you see any cool games around the E3? Do you have
any favorites yet?
David Whatley: Our office is drooling over Team Fortress 2. Those
guys really understand their medium. I should also say much of the
product line from Activision, such as Battle Zone 2, Quake III and so on
are very hot. It is surprising how many titles were the same ones I saw
last year. Or maybe its not so surprising!
CaliGirl: Do you feel the development of games may change from
the recent shooting in the Colorado High School?
David Whatley: Games are primitive simulations of life's
challenges. To the degree they can train someone to be a "good shot"
(which is debatable unless guns have mouse ports), they can also teach
valuable survival skills like "a moving target is harder to hit." (one
that any Quake death-matcher uses as his mantra). As horrible as the
school shootings are (or any shooting for that matter), I cannot
possibly see how this relates to games. However, I remain astonished at
how a parent can become so disassociated with their own child as to not
know they are hoarding a frightening arsenal. Parents should know what
their kids are doing. They should get involved, even in things that do
not interest them. Love is stronger than hate, but it is a lot harder to
cultivate. The important thing is to find real solutions, not seek out
simpleton answers to complex problems. That serves only to obscure the
real issues and delay solving the problem.
CaliGirl: Is there any other information you would like to add to
this interview?
David Whatley: Hero's Journey showed so well at E3 that it amazed
us. We had scheduled many showings of the product, but by the second day
we had all available time slots filled. By the third day the word had
gotten out and we had people doubling up and then tripling up to see
this thing. The room we had was full, and every minute of every day was
filled with demos. We were turning people away and scheduling follow-up
visits after E3. I'm very proud of our team, the accomplishment they
have made on our technology demo and just how well the product was
received at this early stage. This gives me confidence that we have a
superior concept and that by-and-large everyone wants someone to build
one of these things who really "gets it."
TheOneRing - Preview
Originally published at
TheOneRing
on February 2, 2000
From personal experience I know what kind of game Simutronics is capable
of creating. I played Dragonrealms, one of their most successful games
for a number of years. The game continually expanded in both world size,
and quality of game play. This is exactly what the aim seems to be for
Hero’s Journey. From what I’ve read on this game they fully aim to
develop a game which can continually expand in every way. The game will
have no maximum size, and each day will be added upon by the army of
Game Masters. Unlike other games these Game Masters will be able to
really work with the game, both creating new terrain and working with
the players to develop new and better things. Once again I refer to
Dragonrealms, where the world began at a very modest size. However over
time new cities and areas were opened up, and the game expanded into a
giant world to role-play in.
Here’s a quote from an interview on the Hero’s Journey vault Interview,
"Basically every single piece of terra firma, every object, every single
thing you see is dynamic in nature. A town, for instance, could
basically burn to the ground with the buildings crumbling around you and
leaving smoldering ruins in the fire’s wake. For example, even if a town
can burn down it would be foolish to let such a capability be easily
obtainable by a player. But, for instance, an invading horde might burn
it down if the players cannot rally an effective defense."
That right there is one of the best qualities a game can have. If
enemies and creatures are given the ability to destroy cities, and
engage in warfare with the players that can actually change the world,
it can create scenario’s that can bring the populations together.
Defending your home town, along with your fellow adventurers, from
creatures gives a better sense of community, and role playing, rather
then just walking into hunting areas when you feel like it to get some
experience. Invasions, creatures attacking cities, is a regular
occurrence in Dragonrealms, and can cause some important plot changes in
the world. For a few weeks there was even wars against a great enemy,
which brought every race and guild together to project the cities,
something which otherwise never happens.
Here’s another quote from the same interview, talking about the approach
to designing the game, "My approach is to drive an Open Design
methodology. Working with the Vault Network, we are going to be
recruiting design teams from what will be our future customer base. That
is, online FRP players who want a strong say in the kind of world they
want to move to in the future."
Hero’s Journey will also be using the gamers as a resource in creating
this game, a great idea. The gamers know what kind of game they want,
and by effectively working with them to understand what will make a
great game, HJ may very come up with ideas that surpass the other major
online multiplayer games, who take a different route in design.
One last point to make Is the experience that Simutronics has. This
company has been around for over ten years, and knows what works and
what doesn’t in multi player games. Simutronics seems confident that
when they do release Hero’s Journey that it will stand above the other
online games which have already been released, and I look forward to
seeing what kind of product they turn out.
CGO - First Look E3 Preview
Originally published at CGO on May 15, 1999
On-line role-playing games are certainly the rage these days. Actually,
Simutronics has been doing them for years with their cult hits Gemstone
and DragonRealms. These text-based rpgs have a dedicated following of
hard-core gamers. Hero's Journey is the next logical step for the
on-line development house. The setting is classic fantasy—orcs, goblins,
dragons and the like. They are attempting to take the strong community
aspects of their previous ventures and tossing high resolution graphics
into the mix.
While the game is roughly a year from release, the demo we were shown
was more than impressive. We were shown several spell effects, combat
sequences, and monster types (the hovering dragon was especially cool).
The view is similar to that found in Ultima On-line, but the visuals are
crisper and the 3D terrain and rotating cameras look fabulous.
The interface has been given special attention. Simutronics is quick to
point out that the hard-core on-line role player will spend hours upon
hours adventuring in one sitting. The interface has been designed to
limit the amount of mouse clicking and shifting needed to perform simple
tasks. As lead designer Derek Sanderson puts it, "We want to limit the
fatigue factor that these games can cause." This is done through gesture
clicking. This is a similar method to that of Myth: The Fallen Lords
from Bungie Software. Once players get the commands memorized, they can
simply move the mouse in a certain direction to perform tasks without
having to continually click through the game's interface.
The game is skill based and not class based. Simutronics doesn't want to
typecast a character into a certain role that they cannot break out of
later. Player killing is an issue that they are still working on; they
want to allow it but they are considering several deterrents to prevent
the killing from getting out of hand. One idea is a "tax" of sorts that
is placed upon player killers—depending on the number of kills that are
carried out.
Focus groups are already being formed and Simutronics will soon announce
plans for player-oriented focus groups so gamers can get a taste of
Hero's Journey and help shape the world.
The game is mere 3-4 months into the development process but you can
already see the potential that lies within the design and the approach
that Simutronics is taking. The price model has yet to be decided upon
but the game is so far from release that there is plenty of time to
worry about such things.
RPG Vault - First Look E3 Preview
Originally published at RPG Vault on May 15, 1999
Although we saw a lot of great-looking RPG titles at the show, in this
case the old saying about saving the best for last could very well be
true. Simutronics Corporation is best known for producing text-based
MUDs such as the popular Gemstone III, DragonRealms, and Hercules and
Xena. Now, Simutronics is ready to take the graphical MMORPG market head
on the industry with Hero's Journey, a title that could very well
revolutionize the genre in a number of ways. The Vault Network was
fortunate enough to sit down with Simutronics President and CEO David
Whatley and Hero's Journey Lead Designer Derek Sanderson to get a first
look at the game.
On the surface, Hero's Journey looks pretty much like many other MMORPGs
on the market or in development, with a jazzy 3D engine that lets the
player zoom in, and rotate to view the world from any imaginable camera
angle (although no first-person view is currently planned). However,
like so many other parts of Hero's Journey, it's what's beneath the
surface that makes the difference.
Because the world of Hero's Journey is designed to be extremely dynamic,
with every segment of the world able to be completely modified on the
fly, the challenge was to design a state-of-the-art 3D engine that would
stream the world down to the user on the fly. Perhaps the best way to
describe the technology behind the engine (and we won't pretend to
understand all the dynamics that go on behind the scenes) is to compare
it to a web browser. Like a browser, Hero's Journey can cache a
user-configurable amount of world data, so that the game can potentially
take up as much or as little data on the hard drive as possible. Also,
portions of the world, when they stream in to the user, will come across
as low-quality versions, and progressively increase in quality as the
player hangs around a particular location, much like the progressive
JPEG image format.
In the early demonstration we were shown, the player walked around an
early prototype for a city (complete with chickens, horses, and a few
NPCs), a few wilderness areas, and a dungeon. For a game so early in
development, it looked very sharp, and the 3D engine appeared quite
flexible. When a player entered a house, the roof would fade away and
the camera would slowly zoom in to give you a better view of the
interior. At one point at the end of the demo, the player approached a
massive dragon (with a wingspan larger than the screen), charmed the
beast, mounted it, and took off into the wild blue yonder.
A lot of work has been done to design an extremely efficient
user-interface that minimizes the amount of mouse movement that is
needed to select an option. Simply by clicking on an object, a circular
menu pops up displaying all the possible actions that can be performed.
For example, clicking on a monster would allow you to fight him, cast a
spell, talk to him, or examine him. Clicking on a friendly NPC or other
player brings up different options, including the option of joining him
as a party. Sometimes, an option will have suboptions, which will pop up
in a menu of it's own.
As a user becomes more advanced in the game, he'll slowly start learning
"gestures", or quick series of mouse movements that can be accomplished
without even opening any of the menus. The nice thing about this entire
system is that the interface is always near the mouse cursor, and there
is no need to move the mouse all over the screen clicking icons.
Sanderson was quick to point out that the entire game can also be played
completely from the keyboard.
The party system itself has many refinements that players will be glad
to hear about. After joining up with another person, your character will
automatically follow the party leader as he walks throughout the world.
At any time, you can take control of your character and wander off,
fight monsters, or do whatever you feel like doing. If you get far
enough away from the party leader, a small arrow will pop up indicating
which direction the leader is in. As you get further and further away,
the arrow slowly starts fading, until it vanishes altogether.
The travel system currently planned for Hero's Journey is also different
from other recent MMORPGs. Instead of having to walk from city A to city
B, through countless miles of roads with repetitive terrain, the player
is presented with a larger topographical map of the realm (constantly
expanding as new terrain is added) and can click on points of interest
to travel there. Although travel isn't instantaneous, the player is free
to talk to his companions along the way instead of constantly clicking
the mouse to move to the next screen. If the player so desires, he can
also choose to travel to any other point on the map, whether it is
marked as significant or not.
What we didn't get a good look at yet were some of the finer points of
the interface, such as inventory, combat, statistics, or skills. These
systems are all still being fleshed out, and more details should become
available in the coming months.
Another important way that Hero's Journey differs from other MMORPG
titles is the way it will be built. Gemstone III, one of Simutronics
earlier titles, employed a small army of volunteer GMs, which were
granted access to the tools used to build and modify the game world.
Eventually, many of the more dedicated and talented GMs even started
working part-time on Gemstone III, and Simutronics set apart a
percentage of the profits from the game to distribute among the GMs, to
encourage them to continue to grow the world, keep the interest of their
users, and attract a new audience to the game.
This same model will be applied to the world of Hero's Journey. Although
some of the GMs from Gemstone III will undoubtedly migrate to Hero's
Journey, many other people will be selected during the alpha and beta
tests, and on through the final, to help maintain and constantly expand
the world of Hero's Journey, and be rewarded for their efforts. These
GMs will be in charge of building much of the world of Hero's Journey,
from the terrain (cities, wilderness, dungeons, etc) to quests, items,
and even some of the underlying scripts that goven how the game is
played. GMs can also specialize in different things. Some may be more
interested in creating unique magical arifacts, while others would
concentrate on constructing new continents or cities.
Throughout the development process, Simutronics plans to solicit user
feedback from the Hero's Journey Vault (due to launch in the next two
weeks), where the developers will be interacting with MMORPG players to
gather their opinions and ideas and incorporate them into the design as
the game evolves. Eventually, gamers will be able to register on the HJ
Vault to become part of special focus groups for Simutronics, and give
valuable feedback to Simutronics on certain design decisions.
Although no firm date has been decided for shipping yet, the team
tentatively hopes to begin beta testing early next year, and ship by the
end of the summer. Whether they'll make this ambitious schedule remains
to be seen.
In short, Hero's Journey looks like a very promising addition to the
numerous MMORPGs in development, and it looks like it brings a lot of
new ideas to the table that haven't been tried on this scale before. You
can be assured that the Vault Network will be watching this title very
closely over the next year, and be sure to check out the HJ Vault when
it opens to help make your voice heard to the developers.
Hero's Journey Stratics - SimuCon 2000
Originally published at Hero's Journey Stratics on June 21, 2000
Brought to you by Mashin.
As soon as I arrived at the 'Con I started my search for any HJ related
devs/news. I had the worst luck for a couple days and couldn't grab a
hold of any developer. Luckily, on the 17th during the costume ball and
party, a couple important people showed up that I could talk to. One of
those Big Names was David Whatley.
Each Simutronics employee (as opposed to a game GM) wears a rainbow
"necklace" to help track them down by answer-hungry Con people. Well I
spotted one of them who went down to the bar and when I finally got a
chance to talk to them, (I was thinking it might be Bruce or Russ or
such). I was surprised to see I had tracked down the CEO of Simutronics,
David Whatley. Looking back, I'm kind of glad I managed to only turn a
couple shades white and not completely pale.
Taking him aside, I struck up a brief conversation about Simutronics and
how the company runs. Then I brought up Hero's Journey.
From what I can gather, if Simutronics didn't have a publisher or didn't
have talks going on back stage, they would be more than happy to talk
about the game. So I take this as a good sign until I hear differently.
I also ran into Dave Dean later on, but I knew he couldn't really answer
much more than the Big Man could so I let him be.
I won't be as nice next Con }:-).