At the Online
Game Developer’s Conference (OGDC),
Joe Ybarra, vice president of product development at
href="http://www.cheyenneme.com/">Cheyenne Mountain
Entertainment, sat down with Darren “The
General”
Lee and I to discuss the finer points of what he foresees will be some
of the more intriguing elements in
href="http://www.stargateworlds.com/">Stargate Worlds
(SGW). Due to the
large amount of information that Joe was willing to dispense on our
eager ears, we split the article into two parts. As the title suggests,
this is the second interview.
You can read the first interview, which focuses on
puzzle-solving, by clicking
here. It’s a great read, and I
hope you check it out.
During the second part of the interview, the topic of our
conversation diverted away from puzzle solving and focused on
exploration instead. While I was mainly aiming at geographic
exploration, Joe wanted to include other aspects of exploration as
well, so we obliged. Here is the final part of our OGDC Stargate Worlds
Interview with Joe Ybarra. Enjoy!
Geographic Exploration
alt="OGDC 2007 - Stargate Worlds"
src="http://media.tentonhammer.com/tth/gallery/albums/album282/DSC_0011.thumb.jpg"
name="photo_j" border="0" height="95" width="150">
Joe Ybarra discussing geographic exploration.
The most fascinating aspect about the geographic exploration
in Stargate Worlds
is the fact that much of the travel is non-linear,
meaning that you can step through a Stargate on a world covered in ice
or snow and emerge in a volcanic, lava-filled crater. In all truth, you
really don’t know where you’re going to head next,
unless you have memorized the coordinates to that particular world.
“One of the atmospheres that we’re trying
to give to the player is the concept of always needing more gate
addresses,” Joe said. “Because until they get a new
address, they really don’t know where to go next. When those
new coordinates fall into their hands, they’re like,
‘Oh wow! I have a new place to go!’ They jump
through the gate and they’re in an entirely new
world.”
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name="photo_j" border="0" height="106" width="150">
As you're wandering the universe, you may encounter
some of these female Jaffa warriors.
Stargate Worlds,
like other games, also has the built-in need
for exploration as the characters look for the best resources
available. Often, the areas that have the best alien ruins
aren’t drawn out on a map, thus the players are encouraged to
go explore the playing field and see what they can find.
Another exploration aspect is integrated into the storyline
and the puzzles as well. Since the developers do have an instant
teleportation system available to them, they can send players all over
the galaxy to solve quests and puzzles. “With the gate, we
can make players go through a whole range of different locations to
finish a quest,” Joe said. “While the player is
completing that quest, he could see a new world he’s really
interested in and come back later for a closer look.”
One of my biggest concerns, coming into this part of the
interview, was whether higher level players could share addresses with
lower level players and perhaps give them an unfair advantage over
there peers. It would also take away the thrill of learning new
addresses through exploration and achievement. Joe said that the higher
players couldn’t “give” the addresses to
the new players, but there was still the problem of dialing in the gate
to wherever the lower level player needed to go.
“We’re not exactly sure how to deal with
this, as of yet,” Joe said. “I mean, a player could
power level from 0-50 with a high level character, but they
wouldn’t see anything. We want our players to experience the
game world and find every little nook and cranny in the game while
still keeping the pace of the game relatively high.”
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Stargate Worlds Game Page.
