Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

It's important to note that the developers have a playable version of Stargate Worlds running inside their building

Of course, Balentine followed up the announcement of the release date with the common words of the MMOG industry vets. “Y’know, nothing in this industry is set in stone, and of course the date is still a moving target,” he said. “I do stand by what I said, and we feel good about the date. We think that we can ship the product around that time frame and it’s going to be a fun, polished product.”

However, according to Balentine the months of November and December ’07 will be fairly quiet on the Stargate Worlds front. They won't go completely quiet like they did in the summer of '07, but they won't have a whole lot of things to say. As a final note, Balentine also added that they will be making two big announcements in January 2008. What those announcements will be is anybody’s guess.

Along with the information he dealt to us about the game in general, Kevin also distributed a few pieces of concept artwork and screenshots to our Ten Ton Hammer editorial staff. According to Kevin, the screenshots and concept artwork that he doled out to Ten Ton Hammer really expresses the variety of terrain, buildings and environments you'll get to interact with in the game. In particular, Balentine wanted to discuss the Goa'uld female concept art. "This is the first time we've released non-human pieces of artwork," Balentine said. "We've done the Opcore, and now there's this piece."

Goa'uld characters will wear extremely gaudy items to social events and combat scenarios.

Going into more detail, Balentine wanted to give some reasoning behind the outfit the Goa'uld female was wearing. "It's a little bit different than what you see the Goa'uld wearing in the TV series," he said. "In Season Nine there's an episode named "Stronghold" where Bhaal is talking to Te'alc and he basically explains to him that the whole god thing just isn't working out (the Goa'uld originally tried to conquer worlds with their technology and by impersonating gods). He continued by saying that they may need to rethink the whole idea because it just isn't working out the way it did originally. The Goa'uld in our game have taken that and run with it. They aren't trying to be gods anymore, but they still retain their vanity. We think of them as Paris runway models with an immense ego and an extreme lust for power."

"You can see from the outfit she's wearing that the wings out the back are purely decorative," Balentine continued. "This would actually be what she would wear to a dinner party or if she was going into combat. They want to look good no matter what they're doing, and they can actually do it with their technology. The energy fields they generate cover them completely, so they don't have to sacrifice protection to look good." With this particular character drawing, Balentine told us that this would represent a higher level Goa'uld character. "They've always gotta be sexy no matter what they're doing. They've just gotta look good no matter what."

This Goa'uld building is still under construction; it may actually change in the game world.

Taking a look at the exclusive images that the CME staff sent over, the locations are from the Goa'uld starting location and are some typical buildings that you'd see in that area. "I wanted to show everyone that this is indeed a living world," Balentine said. "As you can see, one of the buildings is under construction; it's not just a static world. These buildings can be changed and reshaped and characters aren't just living in a motionless state. "

"The slave hovel is a nice little addition to show because it's obvious that this isn't where the Goa'uld live," he continued. "This is where their slaves exist."

Next we moved on to the other images in Balentine's selection. "The military huts are pretty self explanatory. There are some artifacts that once again show some of the living examples of our world, these specifically the Goa'uld tools that are used. One of the important things to remember about all our concept art is that it is very transferable to the actual game world that we're creating. If you look at the Tollana concept art and screenshots, you'll see that things are very similar from one piece of art to the corresponding screenshot. When I give the concept art, this is the sort of stuff that you're going to see in the actual game barring big changes. These things may happen, but we're trying to put up art that you'll see in the game. I'm not giving you concept art that just exists out in ether."

This Goa'uld slave hovel depicts the sort of treatment Goa'uld characters give other races.

From that point, we moved on to the next piece of concept art. "Here we have the tower concept to go along with our Goa'uld screenshot. I've also included some wall concept selections. The military hangars and weapon ranges go along with our military huts that we saw earlier. Next we have a vendor shop where some people are perusing some wares and then across the way you'll see maybe some different animals for sale. We're going to have some more screenshots and artwork pretty soon."

With that, we wrapped up our conversation with Kevin by asking him what he believes will be the part of Stargate Worlds that fans of the series will really fall in love with and appreciate. “I think the players will really jump at the opportunity to travel to environments that weren’t necessarily accessible from the television show standpoint,” Balentine said. “With the variety of worlds that exist in the Stargate universe, we finally have the ability to travel to all these worlds without fearing budget constraints or any of the limitations that are placed on TV shows. Working in this medium (the video game), players will be able to explore any setting that the developers dream up without worrying. It will be very cool.”

Thanks again to Kevin Balentine for taking the time to chat with us about the game, and check back in with Ten Ton Hammer for your latest Stargate Worlds updates!

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