Is there life
after SG-1?

An Austin Games Conference
Interview with Joe Ybarra

By Nicole "Awenyddion" Hamlett

CME's Joe Ybarra

You may not immediately recognize the name Joe Ybarra. However, Joe clearly sits at the veterans table when it comes to game development.  A major contributor of the gaming industry, Joe is credited with games such as M.U.L.E, Age of Empires II, URU: Ages Beyond Myst and The Matrix Online. Now he is the driver behind the wheel of Stargate Worlds, a Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment game.

Sitting at a table as developers and gamers alike milled about, I was able to talk to this pioneer of gaming about the future of Stargate Worlds as we find that not only is SG-1 is in its last season, but also that CME has announced that it will be using Epic's Unreal 3 engine in the development of this intriguing new license.

Although the game is still in early development, there is already quite a bit to talk about. Hearing about the announcement that MGM will no longer be producing new episodes of SG-1 after this season, I wanted to know how it was going to affect the game. After all, the pull of this game is that you will interact in the Stargate Universe, sometimes melding live events with episodic content.

So, is there life after SG-1?

"The rights that we have are for both Atlantis and for SG-1, and Atlantis is going to go forward. So with that being said, our intimacy with the TV series is for both shows.  When we started this project last July, it wasn't clear that season 10 was even going to happen. So we had to from the very beginning design the product so that it could carry on regardless of what happened to the TV series. With that said, it really hasn't impacted what we're doing with the game at all. To further that, the people that are creating SG-1 have been alluding that there is going to be more "stuff".

"What we had originally designed in our product is that we had solid representation of Atlantis in the game, realizing that it wasn't until we would implement the expansion pack that you would get the whole 9 yards.  We really wanted to focus around SG-1 and the storylines that we build are spanning the entire 10 seasons of the show. So there is just this huge amount of material there that we can work with. As well there are some things that we are doing to extend the saga."

Franchising in General – How does Joe feel about licensed games?

"I like working with properties that lend themselves to the treatments that we want to build and Stargate is a perfectly good example of that because Stargate in the MMO space is a perfect fit.  But I think that you need to make sure that the properties you work on fit into the MMO build. Beyond that, I think that what it does for the customer is that it gives them an easy entrée into the MMO world."

You don't think that some of these licenses play themselves out before they get to the game? Let's take the DC Property for instance.

"I think that a lot of it has to do with how you do the treatments. What is it about the game play that the player going to focus on?  The logical thing to do is to focus on the superheroes themselves and focus on what they care capable of doing. There are other ways that you can take a property and change it enough so that you can although you still get the heroic atmosphere and superpower, you don't have to be the star of the show."

What is the focus of Stargate Worlds? Are the teams smaller for challenge or are you taking this game into a more intimate game setting where you build a better community?

"What we do is provide players with a vehicle to play the game. I think that the players stay because they want to stay with their friends. So our job is to make it easy for you to make friends and stay friends and easy for you to do things as friends. So the next question is scale. Are we talking about 4, 50, 500 friends? That's the most interesting thing about the MMO atmosphere, because, unlike other social structures that are built outside of the electronic environment , we have tools and the whole atmosphere of the net that really gives us the capability of aggregating people in groupings that are different than what you've ever seen before in history. That's partly one of our challenges is taking the atmosphere of Stargate and trying to say "Ok using this as the theme - How do we work with the theme to encourage the kind of group activity set?""

"Groups will be made up of 4 players. You may think that this is small but think of how the military works. You have a squad, you bring two squads together and you get a platoon, two platoons equal a company etc.  It goes onward and upward in those units."

"So many developers are focusing on pretty graphics to sell the game. What sets Stargate Worlds apart from this? What is the focus of this game?"

"One of the things that we've invested a lot of time , a lot of discussion and a lot of effort in trying to figure out what Dan Elggren our Producer calls the "X" of the game. What is actually the focus of our game? What is it all about?" At this point, Joe decided that it was easier to explain if he drew it for me. [Ed. note: The folks at CME were kind enough to put together this graphic for us based on Joe's drawing.]

"The idea about this whole game design revolves around modeling the modern combat system. So this is all about the SG-1 team, the P-90's, the explosives, the Zat guns and all that good stuff. What we're really doing with this is trying to design a combat system that is really different than what you see in the typical MMO. We're completely getting away from that, aside from PVE. And of course the PVP environment takes care of itself because there are real humans driving that. But we know that in all of these games, the majority of what players do is fight. So we need to make sure that our game is really robust in the combat system. 

"However, surrounding that, that core, is the concept of exploration. Exploration is about a lot of different things. It's about the idea of going to the different worlds. It's about exploring the storyline of which we're trying to tell.  It's about understanding how the crafting, economy and guild system works. How squads operate. We really focused in on that as being the exploration element of the game play.   This exploration is about player growth and since we're Stargate it's REALLY about exploring. When you step through the gate, we want players to feel that sense of WOW! What's on the other side of that gate?

"However, around all of this, our biggest theme is that the game needs to be re-playable many times.  One of the things that we feel as a team that is sort of a hindrance in many respects to the way that the MMO space works, is that players play to level cap. If you have a journey to level cap that consumes if not hundreds but thousands of hours, the users will not necessarily get to see the entire game.

"We want to propel players through the leveling process so that they are driven by the exploration system and the combat system so that when they get to the end they say "Wow! I want to do that again." And when they do it again, they want it to be a different experience. That's what replayability is.

"Replayability is also feeding back into the exploration. The second time that I go through; maybe instead of being a scientist, maybe I'll be an archeologist. Or maybe I'll be a heavy weapons specialist instead of a commander. 

"And then of course last but not least, what the engineering and the design team are doing is building the game to be extensible.  What that means is when we do live team, we can sprinkle content in anywhere along the progression curve. So the idea is that maybe the second time that you play through it, maybe five months after launch, we will have inserted new content for the leveling process from 10 – 20 or 20 – 30 or in some other part of the leveling process.  So when you go through that next time, you will see new and different content."

What about that 1 to 20 level grind? Companies are designing for end game. So the earlier levels are nothing but hours of grinding pain. What do you plan to do to make that different?

"I think that it should be more even. Because we have a really interesting opportunity here to tell stories that are REALLY different. For example if you play a Goa'uld, your experience is going to be different than if you play an Asgaard or even if you play an SG-1 team member. We want players to be personified by their characters. We also want them to say "Gee wouldn't it be interesting if I got to play this other type."

How does the Unreal 3 engine play into all of this?

"They've married Epic's engine with Big World's engine to create a tool set that allows them to not only create those spectacular graphics, but also ensure that the game has a robust flow in game play.  So far, all of the developers on the project are really happy with the results. "

I'm afraid that I couldn't catch the excitement and the engaging conversation in it's entirety with Joe.  You definitely haven't lived until you can sit down one on one and listen to his passion about this project and just absorb his knowledge.  After the recorder went off, we spent a good half hour talking more about what Stargate Worlds was about. I'm sorry, but if I gave you details, I'd have to hunt you all down. It's top secret. But that doesn't mean that you can't find out more about this exciting game! You can follow the development and join the Stargate Worlds community at http://www.stargateworlds.com

In the meantime, dream of trips beyond the stars and adventures that only this fantastic team can bring you!

Thanks to Joe Ybarra and the CME team for their time! As always, Ten Ton Hammer is your continuing source for Stargate Worlds news, screenshots, and interviews!