Explosions and Legos

Discussing Upcoming MMOs With the Developers from NetDevil

Just before GDC, NetDevil made a declaration that surprised almost everyone in the game media, except for a number of the editors at Ten Ton Hammer. The massive toy brand, Lego, approached NetDevil with a proposition: To make a MMO universe based around their amazing assortment of multi-colored building blocks.

“They [Lego] actually approached us first,” said Scott Brown, president of NetDevil. “After a worldwide search for a development team, they decided that NetDevil was the company they wanted to work with. It’s a really great thing for us.”

“It’s exciting,” said Chris Sherland, lead man for NetDevil’s upcoming FPS, Warmonger. “It’s hard to hear the things that were being said about Auto Assault, but getting a chance to make a Lego-based MMO is just a reassertion on the kind of company we are.”

In general, the gaming press was quite harsh on NetDevil’s second MMO title, Auto Assault. When our Jeff “Ethec” Woleslagle reviewed the game, he found very little wrong with the title except for the complexity of the initial gameplay and the difficulty in staying close to your groupmates.

“People just never gave the game a chance,” said John “Boomjack” Hoskin, who played the game with his son. “If they had, they would’ve found that the game was a lot of fun and very different from stereotypical MMORPGs.”

Let’s Build Something (With Legos)

So with the Lego brand and a trove of experience from the work they did with Auto Assault, NetDevil is ready to set the record straight concerning their passion for game development and the quality of the work they create. “We’re extremely excited to be working with the Lego product brand,” Brown said. “There’s just so much we can do with the title...anything is possible.”

When Nicole Hamlett, Ten Ton Hammer’s industry relations specialist, asked how NetDevil’s relationship with Lego was going, Brown leaned back and smiled. “We’re learning a lot about our development process through the Lego guys,” he said. “While gaming has been around for a good number of years, toy-makers have been around for a long, long time. We’re learning techniques from them that we had just never considered.

“For example,” he continued, “whenever we get an idea, Lego (the company) urges us to perform a focus test with a number of children and their mothers to see just how viable our idea is.”

He chuckled. “Eight year olds can be really harsh.”

After discussing his relationship with Lego, Brown wanted to let us know that they weren’t making a game strictly for young children. “We are making a game for kids of all ages,” he said. Personally, I know I’m still a kid at heart and youth-oriented games like Lego Star Wars are extremely popular with me and other older gamers.

Even with this big MMO title, NetDevil’s roots are in games with explosions and action. They haven’t forgotten this fact, which is evident in their most recent project, Warmonger.