Questions
by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
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Answers
by Joe Bostic, Studio Creative Director and Co-Founder of Petroglyph
As the massively multiplayer online gaming marketplace proves time and
time again that this style of game can make money, more and more
development studios are jumping into the fray. Recently, Petroglyph
Studios (the creators of Star Wars: Empire at War) announced that they
had taken the plunge into the market and were teaming with True Games
to bring the game to the public. Ten Ton Hammer’s Cody
“Micajah” Bye took a moment to chat with the
studio’s creative director and co-founder, Joe Bostic, to
find out more about this up-and-coming MMOG studio!
Ten Ton Hammer:
To start, the announcement that Petroglyph Studios is making a MMO is
fairly big news, especially since that game has a very good chance of
being in the real time strategy genre. Is it safe to assume that
you’re making is an MMORTS, or is it too soon to tell?
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the game we’re making does cater to thousands of simultaneous
players, it is not a typical MMO. Our
focus is on the action of gameplay, sharing challenges with friends,
and working together to achieve a combined goal. We
like staying away from the MMO moniker because it is very strongly
associated with World of Warcraft, and dozens of other games like
it. The game we’re focused on with True
Games Interactive is a real-time, action-based game that will stand
apart from the large crowd of similar titles all competing for the same
players.
Ten Ton Hammer: Why did
you opt to make a micro-transaction based game rather than follow the
subscription based model?
people, a forced subscription equates to not even giving the game a
chance, whether because they don’t have the means to pay a
monthly fee, or they have a personal dislike for such a
thing. It also means that you have to decide
whether you’re going to play the game enough to warrant that
fee every month. With a free-to-play micro-transaction
system, you pay only what you want to pay, which is much friendlier to
a lot of people out there.
Ten Ton Hammer: Over the
years, Petroglyph Studios has really shown that they can make quality
real time strategy games. How do you plan on taking that experience and
transferring it into the massively multiplayer gaming space?
a pedigree that includes many different types of games including MMOs,
so we aren’t exactly strangers to the genre. As to
how the RTS experience transfers, we are quite adept at quickly
iterating on new concepts. ;) We like to have playable
versions of games up as soon as possible so that the process of balance
can begin. With both Empire at War and Universe at War,
getting multiplayer up and running first was a huge priority, and that
directly translates to MMOs. If you’ve played UAW,
you can imagine what a balancing job that was – the MMO will
be much tougher, but I think that our experience will show through.
Ten Ton Hammer: For the
most part, it seems like your studio is in the early stages of the
creation of your massively multiplayer game. What is your team focusing
on at the moment, and how will this affect future gamers?
we’re discussing the storyline of the game, how it will be
delivered to the player, and we’re also working on a
prototype that we hope to release very early in development to online
gamers to get some initial feedback on and draw some
conclusions. More than any other title in our past,
we are doing quite a bit of research in order to ensure this game
resonates with our core audience and we’re involving them in
the game development process to ensure that.
Ten Ton Hammer: When
finding a partner for your future MMOG, why did you decide to go with
True Games? What drew you to that particular company?
a lot of experience behind them when it comes to the Free-to-Play MMO
market, and they were very passionate about bringing our new MMO idea
to the world-wide marketplace. They are a great bunch of
people to work with.
Ten Ton Hammer: Massively
multiplayer online games are incredibly difficult to develop,
especially when it comes to play balance and mechanics. How are you
hoping to jump this hurdle? Is this even more difficult for creating an
MMORTS?
mechanics really depend on the scope of your title. With our
game, we are focusing on one core element and everything will revolve
around it – this simplifies a lot of the process and makes it
a bit easier to handle. That’s not to say that it
won’t be a monumental task, but every game has its own unique
set of hoops to jump through.
Ten Ton Hammer: From a
development standpoint, what do you feel is the most difficult part of
working with massively multiplayer games? What’s the most
exciting?
difficult part will be making sure that everyone has a fun and balanced
game experience, and that those who choose to pay have no direct
advantage over those that don’t. The most exciting
part of working with a game like this is seeing it all come to life and
observe people play what will hopefully be a brand new game experience
– I am already looking forward to the beta! *smiles*
Ten Ton Hammer: When can
players expect to see more information about your upcoming MMOG?
say more, but True Games will likely release more information when they
decide the time is right.
Ten Ton Hammer: Finally
is there anything else you can tell Ten Ton Hammer readers and
Petroglyph fans?
direction for Petroglyph and for our fans – we hope that it
will be a fun-filled experience for everyone, and I look forward to
talking in more detail about the game soon!
