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

Ten Ton Hammer: Since Star Trek and Champions are so far along, is Atari really just keeping their hands-off at this point? Are they just being more supportive in helping you get these two products out the door?

Could we see another D&D game in the near future?

Jack: I think they have made it very clear that whatever support we need to make the best games we can, we’ll get. That goes for resources, that goes for man power…whatever we need. Atari has, under no circumstances, made it clear that they don’t want to come in and take over. They’re buying us because we make MMOs. They’re not buying us so they can prove that they can make MMOs.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will Champions Online still be published by 2K Games?

Jack: I can’t really comment one way or another on that at this point.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will this deal affect the release timeline for Champions Online?

Jack: We’re still targeting the same period of time – spring of 2009 – and everything is going extremely well. I’m very, very happy with the progress we’ve made so far.

I can also tell you that we’re doing things a little bit differently in Champions than what we did in CoH and CoV. One thing that we did, that I think is pretty cool, is that essentially the game is going to be done by the end of the year. Then what we’re going to do from January to the first quarter of next year is put in features, polish and suggestions that players have made in the beta. We’re completely focusing on trying to improve the game as much as we can based on the feedback of the actual players.

And we’ve always had it scheduled out like that. It’s not like we’re grinding like mad to get all the content done. We want to have everything done by the end of the year then make that content even better. Add to it. Whatever we’re missing, we want to try and get in because whatever the fans think we’re missing we want to try and put it in.

We had a meeting with Bill Roper, the executive producer, Chris Lena, the producer, and  Randy Mosiondz, the lead designer, and we all made a list of every single comment in the beta boards. These were the observations that people had made; then we ranked how important they were based on the number of people that said it and the persuasiveness of the argument. Then we asked ourselves how we could address their concern and started scheduling out our resources to address their issue.

I think the fans will be thrilled to know how much we’re trying to make sure that we’re making the best super hero MMO that we can.

Ten Ton Hammer: So these aren’t ground-breaking changes, it’s just throwing in a tweak here or an addition there?

Jack: We’re doing that, but we’re also trying to add some new technology into the game. Sometimes a person might ask for a feature, but we’re already putting something like that into Star Trek Online. Those sort of additions are really easy to put in because we’re using the same code base and so we can enhance Champions much quicker than you might otherwise think.

Ten Ton Hammer: Speaking of speed, how long have you been working on Champions Online? What’s the official time now, because I heard that Champions Online may be one of the fastest MMOs ever to be developed by a company.

Jack: It could be! We started in August of 2007 and we’re planning to release in Spring 2009. It has been a very quick development cycle.

Ten Ton Hammer: Might we see Cryptic undertaking MMOGs for some of the larger IPs that Atari owns? Maybe a D&D: Forgotten Realms, Dragon Ball Z, The Witcher or Alone in the Dark MMO or something like that?

There's nothing that Jack Emmert loves more than a good comic book.

Jack: Anything is possible! Nothing is set in stone, but those are definitely possibilities. Being part of Atari, it would be a matter of sitting down and strategically choosing what the best use of resources and technology are. But nothing is off the table.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there anything that you’re personally excited about in the Atari IP line-up?

Jack: Oh yeah. Atari has – as you already mentioned – the D&D brand, which is one of my true loves. First on that list would be comic books, but second would be hobby games, among which D&D is one of. Obviously that would be absolutely phenomenal.

Number three would be giant monsters, but I’m not sure how that fits in.

Ten Ton Hammer: Atari has released a couple Godzilla games…

Jack: They did two Godzilla fighting games, in fact. I have them both.

Ten Ton Hammer: Godzilla MMO! You can make your own Mothra!

Jack: Believe me, if I could, I would.

Let me tell you, I’m a real aficionado. I can tell you exactly what type of game needs to be made, but nobody ever does it. The Godzilla fighting game is really cool, but I think a better direction would be Crush, Crumble, Chomp, which was a great game that I played on my Commodore 64 way back when.

But...I digress.

Really, I’m just tickled pink. I’m going to go buy a Prowler.

Ten Ton Hammer: A Prowler?

Jack: Yup, I just called the dealer today. It’s not a super-expensive car, but I’ve always loved ‘em. It’s the closest thing to a super hero car that I could get. They stopped making them in 2002.

Ten Ton Hammer: Color?

Jack: It’s candy apple red. Today’s an awesome day!

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there anything else you’d like to tell Ten Ton Hammer readers and Cryptic fans? Champions fans? STO fans?

Jack: Go to our websites and register. The most important thing for everyone out there reading this article is to know that we listen. We listen and we respond. If you have any questions and concerns, go on our forums and post them. We will do our best to let everyone know what is going on, not just about our acquisition but about our games too.