Questions by Garrett Fuller, Industry Relations

Answers by Jason Stone, Game Designer, Age of Conan



Over the past few weeks, it's become readily apparent that Age
of Conan

came into the MMOG market swinging with both fists (and maybe a bloody
sword as well). Continuing on our post-launch interviews with the Age
of Conan
team, Ten Ton Hammer's Garrett Fuller caught up with
game
designer Jason Stone to hear what his initial emotions were with the
Age of Conan release and whether we'll see him
working with the future
AoC expansions. Enjoy this behind the scenes look at a member of the Age
of Conan
development crew!




Ten Ton Hammer: Jason,
although you are in California you make up a
strong part of the Funcom team. Do you ever feel disconnected?
 




Jason Stone:
Sure, I mean working on your own on a nine hour time
difference is tough. I would much rather be able to work face to face
with the team on a regular basis but we do our best to maximize what I
can do from here. It has been fantastic that Funcom had the flexibility
to do this and allow me to continue to work on the project. We have
made some real improvements communication wise internally as well for
handling the launch issues and it’s been working out great.
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Jason was heavily
involved in creating the combat system in Age of Conan.



Ten Ton Hammer: How has
the Age of Conan launch been for you? What have
you been doing these last few days?




Jason:
I’ve been stressed out, starting to relax a little bit
now but I haven’t really completely settled down yet. I am
thrilled with our success but always thinking about the next thing to
do. I have been spending a lot of time working with our Community Team
and looking for different issues we can address to improve the game. I
guess you could say I am “fighting fires” as most
of us are now just trying to keep things under control and make it the
best experience we can.



Ten Ton Hammer: Everyone
is very excited about Conan’s combat
system; we know you played a major role in it. Tell us a little about
where your ideas came from?




Jason: Our
ideas originated from action games. We took what we could
from the combat systems in those games and incorporated them into what
would function in an MMO. Then we iterated on it over and over and
tried to make it better. In addition we sat down and tried to come up
with a “toolbox” of all the different types of
things we could offer classes and how to work those into the system.



Ten Ton Hammer: What
vacation plans do you have now that Age of Conan
is launched?




Jason: I got
the chance to go to the Rincon Beaches over Ventura for
Memorial Day Weekend but I did have the laptop still, beer+beach makes
for a relaxing time. I think next I just want to get my dirt bike back
together and get out and ride it’s been collecting a lot of
dust.


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Age of Conan has sold
phenomenally well in its first few weeks.

Ten Ton Hammer: Since
you are not in the Oslo office was it as hectic for you leading up to launch?

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Jason: I
think it’s been hectic for everyone, an MMO launch
is one of the most chaotic things you can go through, you never know
what will happen even with the best of planning so it’s a bit
like riding a bull.



Ten Ton Hammer: What has
your favorite part of working on Conan been?




Jason: As
much as I love the project I have to say the team. Especially
those I worked with in the combat strike team and Gaute. It’s
really nice to work with people where you feel like your opinions and
ideas are valued and that you can work together truly in sync to get
things into the game.



Ten Ton Hammer: The
launch has gone smoothly, what has your experience
been with the fan response?




Jason: When
working in Customer Service for Everquest I said
“my job is not to make people happy, it’s to piss
the least number of people off” and the same is sort of true
when it comes to fan response of an MMO launch. Sometimes you would
think that an MMO is built like a jenga tower and you never know when
changing one thing is going to affect something else completely random.
I think that there are some definite issues, but I know the team is
working on things as fast as they can and the game gets even more
solid, but overall people are enjoying it and that is really rewarding
after all this time.



Ten Ton Hammer: What
would you like to say to fans and players in this
early stage of the game’s life?



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There are definitely
plans to release an expansion for AoC.

Jason: Find
friends, chop heads off, enjoy the game and don’t
get bogged down in the bugs or issues. We will update/fix/tweak/and add
to the game as fast as we can. Oh and if it seems too good to be true
it probably is, regarding some of the fixes that people are claiming
their class got nerfed, when in fact it was just a bug letting them far
exceed their potential balance wise.



Ten Ton Hammer: Has
Funcom been plotting the expansions? What role will
you play?




Jason: The
world of Hyboria is just so huge there is no way we could
NOT plan for an expansion. The details of course are not released yet.
I am unsure as of yet if I will split time between expansion and live
or focus on one or another.



Ten Ton Hammer: Is there
anything you wanted to say to the readers that
you have not gotten a chance to say in all these years of development?




Jason: This
is probably the hardest question to answer because I have
said a lot. Hmm, I want to say Thank you, not just from me but from the
entire team. Thanks for being our fans and playing our game it means a
great deal to us to see you enjoying yourselves.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Age of Conan: Unchained Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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