by Karen Hertzberg on Feb 07, 2008
Space Jockeys Take Note
How many of you remember the golden age of space gaming? When the Wing
Commander series still amazed reviewers and Descent was a wholly
joystick-based game? Or who can forget the epic dogfights that players
of X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter would engage in over the gaming networks?
Many of you probably lost some amount of time playing one of these
award-winning games, yet the current gaming climate seems to hold no
love for the desk-bound space jockey. Thankfully, this will be changing
in the very near future with the release of Jumpgate Evolution. Not
only are the developers at NetDevil putting together a solid space
combat simulator, they're also integrating those mechanics into a
massively multiplayer game. Cody "Micajah" Bye recently tracked down
Jumpgate Evolution producer Hermann Peterscheck to discuss some general
questions regarding JGE.
Hermann: Anyone that has worked on MMOs for the last
5-10 years knows
that the "rules" for making a successful MMO have changed drastically.
If you have been on a project that ended up not doing very well, you
know these lessons even better. I believe that a game that was
successful in 1997-2001 would likely fail in today's market just as a
car built in 1997 would unlikely compete with ones built in 2008. A lot
of the things we are doing are a result of living though those changes
and learning those lessons. The justification is in the result. One of
the worst things that can happen to an MMO is that they feel "empty."
It's the kiss of death. The way you make your game full is by
attracting lots of players to it. So, the goal is to design a game that
appeals broadly in a general sense. Then, you have to make deep
experiences which tend to appeal more narrowly.