by Jeff Woleslagle on Aug 24, 2010
It seems that
style="font-style: italic;">Neverwinter
is coming back to its online roots. Some of our readers might not know
that Neverwinter
Nights was originally one of
the first graphical MMOGs and ran on America Online from 1991 to 1997,
where players paid anywhere from $4 - $8 an hour to play. (And we
complain about $15 a month!) That
style="font-style: italic;">Neverwinter Nights
became the foundation for the bestselling BioWare series.
It’s been almost four years since
style="font-style: italic;">Neverwinter Nights 2
first graced our monitors, but yesterday the rumors proved
true: Cryptic Studios is indeed developing the next iteration
of the beloved
style="font-style: italic;">Neverwinter
series, succinctly titled
style="font-style: italic;">Neverwinter.
We had some questions: what Cryptic’s learned from its last
two launched titles, and the game’s alleged use of 4th
edition rules. To answer these questions and more like them, we
collared our favorite ex-comic book store clerk, classics scholar, and
trivia master, Cryptic Studios Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/88438">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 363px;"
alt="Neverwinter picture"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/88438">
Neverwinter will incorporate the five classes of the 4th ed. ruleset.
Ten
Ton Hammer: Will players be able to progress in the core
style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Neverwinter
style="font-weight: bold;"> story with player-created
content, or are these side quests? How extensive a story can players
create?
Jack
Emmert: They’re
side quests, but frankly, somebody can build their own campaign within
the Neverwinter setting. We’re really hoping that players can
create their own set of content that runs parallel to ours, that
interleaves with ours, however they want to do it… really
bring their imagination to life.
Ten
Ton Hammer: Also regarding Forge, will players be able to share the
campaigns and adventures they’ve created with not just other
players that they know or through a third-party upload / download site?
Will there be a system in place for rating these campaigns and easily
sharing campaigns?
Jack
Emmert: Ideally, we want
people sharing everything from layout, dungeons, to adventures,
campaigns, whatever. But nothing’s final yet. Our ideology
going into it is to make sure that if I’m a really good story
writer, I should be able to contribute that to the creation process,
whereas another guy might be really good at laying out levels. We want
to make sure it’s easy and accessible.
Ten
Ton Hammer: You’re targeting Q4 2011 as a release date. I
take it
style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Neverwinter
style="font-weight: bold;"> has been in development
for quite a while, though?
Jack
Emmert: Yes, even before our
acquisition by Atari we were working on user generated content tools in
an MMO environment – not that
style="font-style: italic;">Neverwinter
is an MMO. So when Atari acquired us, it seemed like a natural game to
pick up and run with.
Ten
Ton Hammer:
style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Neverwinter
style="font-weight: bold;"> isn’t an MMO,
but it will have multiplayer aspects?
Jack
Emmert: Certainly,
we’re calling it an Online Multiplayer Game – OMG
(laughter). It’s going to be tough to try and make people
understand that this is closer to a game like
style="font-style: italic;">Borderlands
than it is like
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online
or Star
Trek Online.
We’re just trying to focus on letting players get in and
focus on gaming with friends or play with a handful of people, and
we’re trying to get away from the standard cookie-cutter
approach most MMOs have.
Ten
Ton Hammer: As a co-op multiplayer game, are you planning to maintain a
lobby where players can find friends and pick-up groupmates or maybe a
dungeon master, or will players have to rely on third-party tools to
find games ready to start?
Jack
Emmert: We’ll be
doing everything we can to incentivize and help players meet others and
group up. Also, there are going to be NPCs (non-player
characters) that can form part of your group, so if you’re on
late at night or can’t find anyone else, you’ll
still be able to go out and do things.
Ten
Ton Hammer: You’re working with R.A. Salvatore, whose first
tie-in novel,
style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Guntlgrimm
style="font-weight: bold;">, is due out in early
October, and also a tabletop game from Wizards of the Coast.
Dealing with a licensor is nothing new to Cryptic Studios, but every IP
relationship is different. How’s it been dealing with WotC
and R.A.?
Jack
Emmert: Both Wizards of the
Coast and R.A. have been terrific and great partners creatively and
brainstorm with. We’ve been sharing ideas back and forth. So
if you have the
style="font-style: italic;">Neverwinter
roleplaying products you should learn a lot about the game, and vice
versa.
Yes, R.A.’s been writing a trilogy about the fate of
Neverwinter, and a lot of the events he’s writing about form
the core of the game of
style="font-style: italic;">Neverwinter.
It’s very fun to work with an author that I and many others
have read for years.
Ten
Ton Hammer: Do you have any plans for further reveals at any of the
shows coming up: PAX Prime, Austin GDC, New York Comic Con?
style="font-weight: bold;">
Jack
Emmert: Nothing in the near
future, but of course we’ll keep the community posted.
Our
thanks to Jack Emmert and the Cryptic Studios team for a quick glimpse
inside the newly announced co-op RPG Neverwinter, currently slated for
Q4 2011.
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