There
are many stages in a game’s life cycle, from initial
idea to final release the process can often take years. Sadly, many
games never make it to that final stage or, in the most tragic cases,
are shut down far too early leaving their few passionate fans feeling a
real sense of loss.
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style="font-style: italic;"> style="font-style: italic;">Mythos Concept Art
Typically, once a game is on its deathbed, with life support pulled,
the sheet draped over and lights shut off, there is very little hope
for a resurrection.
style="font-style: italic;">Mythos,
a highly anticipated game originally in development by now defunct
Seattle based Flagship Studios, is one of the rare exceptions. When
Flagship Studios dissolved over money issues in August of 2008, Mythos
was the main casualty. Its departure from the MMOG scene during a
promising beta left many fans upset and with few prospects of ever
seeing this title come to light.
Luckily for those fans South Korean developer Redbana has come to the
rescue and performed the gaming equivalent of CPR on the nearly doomed
game. We set down with Redbana Global Manager, Eric Liu, for a
Q&A about the past, present and future of
style="font-style: italic;">Mythos.
Ten
Ton Hammer - When Mythos development was suspended it was a huge
disappointment to many fans. Conversely when it was announced that
development had resumed there was a lot of excitement generated. What
effect, if any, does this level of fan investment have on the creative
team behind the game?
Eric
Liu - It’s rare
that a development team gets to take on a project that comes included
with a strong fan base, so we take our new found fans’
expectations very seriously. Our creative team works to strike a
balance between the elements of the game that excited fans when Mythos
was in closed beta, and new elements that we feel will make Mythos a
great, fully realized free to play MMO.
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Mythos.
Ten
Ton Hammer - The announcement of the continued development stated that
Mythos would be restructured to be more suited as online game; can you
expand on that at all?
Eric
- As you may know, Mythos originally started out as a test-bed for the
multiplayer aspect of Hellgate: London, so it didn’t have a
strong technical foundation for gameplay elements like character
customization, microtransaction support, or storyline. In this regard
we’re not restructuring as much as we are adding new features
and incorporating them into the original game fluidly to make it more
fun for players.
Ten
Ton Hammer - The "resurrected" video shows two very different graphic
styles, one that is a top down traditional combat view that is
reminiscent of other games in this vein and the other is a highly
stylized world that appears to take place out of combat. Have these two
always co-existed or is this a new wrinkle in the game?
Eric
- Actually, the two camera viewpoints have always existed in the game
but were never really featured. It exists so that players familiar with
either viewpoint (isometric or 3rd-person) can quickly feel right at
home with the layout.
Ten
Ton Hammer - How much of the original Flagship Studio content will be
left in the game?
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Eric
- Pretty much all of the original content remains, we’re just
working to add new features and stress test it to develop Mythos into a
complete experience. At the same time, additional content will provide
players with plenty of new experiences that they have never witnessed
before. We’re very confident that the features
we’re adding to Mythos will help it stand out from other
games in the same vein, and that fans will receive an experience unlike
any they’ve had before.
Ten
Ton Hammer - How is player interaction envisioned in the game?
Eric
- There are a number of ways to interact with other players in-game.
You can gather a party and go questing together for that ultimate
randomly-generated loot drop, or fight through the different and vast
zones of the game. In addition to the extensive PvE content,
PvP will be a large focus moving forward. We are currently
investigating how to completely revamp the PvP system by adding
different modes and challenges.
Ten
Ton Hammer - What role will grouping having in the game, will it be
optional or necessary?
Eric
- Grouping will let players take on adventures with friends or online
acquaintances. It’s not necessary, but venturing with
compatriots not only adds a layer of fun to the game, the support of
allies will help you overcome challenges in the game such as boss
fights or potential team-based PvP challenges. The more players in your
group, the better the loot drops are. Of course, this also means the
monsters are nastier, too!
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Ten
Ton Hammer - Many MMOG players enjoy soloing; will they be able to solo
in Mythos?
Eric
- Players will definitely be
able to solo in Mythos. Since dungeon crawling is instance-based,
players can simply enter a dungeon alone and tackle it by themselves.
This makes progressing through the quests simpler, but it will also be
a great deal lonelier than adventuring with another person or four.
Ten
Ton Hammer - You recently introduced the races of the game, with
classes soon to follow; will there be any class/race restrictions in
Mythos?
Eric
- For now, every class will
be open to all the races. In the future with additional patches, this
may change. Keep your eyes peeled because we have some great
class/race-related announcements coming very soon.
Ten
Ton Hammer - What are you as a team most excited about with Mythos?
Eric
- To see it live and running!
Right now everyone is working really hard to get to the beta stage, we
simply can’t wait to get people into this game and see what
previous fans think of the additions we’ve made. One of the
most important things that we at Redbana US will be doing is gathering
the community feedback and modifying the game to best fit the play
experiences of our fans before commercializing.
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Ten
Ton Hammer - Is there anything else you’d like to tell us
about Mythos?
Eric - I only want to add that fans should check out www.mythos.com to
register for a chance to get into the closed beta and get the latest
Mythos news, which we’ll be adding on a regular basis
throughout development!
We would like to thank Eric for his time in answering our questions and
we hope to see more great things from
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in the future. As always, keep checking in with Ten Ton Hammer for all
the latest information about
style="font-style: italic;">Mythos.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Mythos Game Page.
