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|Developer Diary #1
Veröffentlicht von: Gryphus am 22. 2003 um 00:21 Uhr
Bill Trost hat mit Game Spy zusammen begonnen ein Entwicklertagebuch zu schreiben, den ersten Teil kann man hier lesen: Part #1 oder hier als Kommentar
Part #1
Veröffentlicht von: Gryphus am 22. 2003 - 00:23 Uhr
EverQuest II: Developer Diary #1
Bill Trost, creative director for EverQuest II, begins our new developer diary series talking about what's sure to be one of the most highly anticipated sequels of 2004.
By Bill Trost | Nov. 21, 2003
Back in early 1999, not many people could have predicted the revolution that would be sparked by the release of EverQuest. The game's overwhelming success opened the floodgates in an industry now consumed with re-creating that game's success, with new massively multiplayer games seemingly in development around every corner.
Six EQ expansion packs later, Sony Online Entertainment finally has a true sequel squarely in its sights, and we cornered Creative Director Bill Trost for our new series of developer diaries on EverQuest II. In this first installment, Trost discusses some of the company's earliest goals for the sequel.
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So they say to me, "Bill, write a dev diary for GameSpy." Huh? Why me? That sounds a lot like the "game developer as rock star" kinda junk that I enjoy mocking. When I have ten successful games under my belt, then come talk to me!
I'm not a big fan of the spotlight. I prefer to remain low-key and behind the scenes so I can just concentrate on making cool games. That doesn't really reflect the reality of this industry very well, though. EverQuest II is a really big deal and there are lots of folks who are excited and would like to know more about it, how it is being developed, and how it came to pass. I also feel that I owe everyone who has ever played EverQuest or is interested in playing EverQuest II a debt of gratitude that I can never truly repay, and this is a great forum to once again say thanks for playing and supporting EverQuest. So here I am. And the truth is, EverQuest II is so dang exciting and easy to talk about that once I get rolling it's hard to shut me up.
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So quickly with the introduction: I am Bill Trost, creative director for EverQuest II. I have been with EverQuest since just about the beginning of the project, over seven years ago. I was lead designer of the original release, as well as the Ruins of Kunark and Scars of Velious expansions.
It was during development of Kunark that we first started talking about EverQuest II. Why do an EverQuest II? The best answer I can give to that is, "Why not?" The thought process was, "If EQ is a success we can make another one!" And I don't think it went much beyond that at that early stage. I started thinking and writing about where we wanted to take the game and Norrath. We had a series of brainstorming sessions involving everyone working on EverQuest at that time, including our testing department and customer service personnel. This was helpful in identifying the mistakes we had made up to that point that we knew we didn't want to repeat, things like not focusing enough effort on design tools, excessive downtime, an intimidating initial impression, and so forth.
Once Kunark shipped and plans for Velious were underway, we brought a few more EverQuest designers on board and we started working full time on the initial core designs for EverQuest II. As it became more and more evident that EverQuest was going to last much longer than we had ever dreamed and continue to be expanded for the foreseeable future, we began to feel more confident that we could experiment and push the boundaries of the gameplay of EverQuest II rather than just make it "like EverQuest but with new graphics." At its core, it is still a game about being a hero and killing monsters, solving quests, and getting treasure. We wanted to focus on bringing additional tactical depth and a more personal feeling to the gameplay.
We also wanted to be more welcoming to newcomers than is historically the norm with role-playing games. More and more people are getting online every day. We want to introduce them not only to EverQuest II, but to role-playing in general because it's a fantastic hobby. But that desire is always balanced by the necessity to deliver a deep and challenging game that can hold an experienced player's interest for years to come. We also wanted to focus on the small details so that the Norrath of the future would look and feel more alive than ever.
Very early on, the plan was for EverQuest II and the game that would eventually become Star Wars Galaxies to use the same graphics engine. Once both game designs were a little more solidified it became apparent that one engine could not meet the needs of both games, so a new engine for EverQuest II was started from scratch and more engineers became devoted solely to EverQuest II.
It was also pretty clear early on that the art production methods used on EverQuest were not going to translate well to EverQuest II because of the radical progress of 3D rendering hardware and the cutting-edge graphics engine our programmers were making to take advantage of it. We were going to need a lot more artists with a lot of very specialized skills. Luckily for us, we have found no shortage of extremely talented artists itching to work on EverQuest II. They have taken the world to the edge of realism. It is a scary but wonderful place to be.
When I set the goal that players should to be able to recognize their friends by face alone, I really didn't think we were going be able to deliver to the extent that we are. We still have some polish to do, but already our programmers and artists have far exceeded any expectation for the visual appearance of player-characters in this game. They're literally jaw-dropping! While the character creation is a simple process in EverQuest II, I suspect most players will spend the vast majority of their first play session just exploring our character customization options. And that is just the beginning. I cannot begin to tell you how cool it is to see a flail dangling from a chain and realistically swinging around as your character attacks. And the detail our artists have put into the armor sets is just plain unreal. Our thought has always been that the player-characters are the most important models in the game, and it shows.
One thing we knew from the outset was that we wanted to blow up Luclin. We wanted a setting that rocked the status quo of Norrath, and disasters (both natural and unnatural) are one surefire way to do that. Initially, our plans were to have EverQuest II take place only a generation or so after the events of EverQuest and for the devastation to not be as great. Once we got rolling, we realized we needed more wiggle room between us and EQLive and wanted more destruction. We shifted gears and pushed it out to 500 years after EverQuest. This change really freed up our content designers to wreak havoc with Norrath and the characters there. Our storyline became much more dramatic and interesting, and the potential was there for us to bring back much more of the exploration gameplay that was such a great part of early EverQuest. This is not your great, great, great, great, great, great, grandpappy's Norrath. While some things will be familiar, it is a whole new world to explore.
So, fast forward a few years (totally discounting all the blood, sweat, tears, and cursing), and we now have an incredible world populated with more and more cool creatures and treasure every day. The people on our team are running around the shattered Norrath, solving quests, and working together to defeat dangerous encounters. However, we still have a lot of work to do. We are committed to delivering the highest quality gameplay experience and we are taking our time to get things right.
One lesson that we learned well from EverQuest is that the development of these types of games never really stops. There is always something that can be a little bit cooler or a new story to be told, or a designer will figure out some new way to use the tools we have at our disposal to make a nifty new type of encounter happen in the game. That is the second greatest strength of online games. The first is, of course, the players. It is the time and energy that they will put into EverQuest II that will make it more than a game -- they make it a community. All we can do is try to deliver the best game we possibly can.
Thanks for checking out the inaugural EverQuest II developer diary. In future installments we'll give you a chance to hear from other EverQuest II team members to give you even more perspectives on the process of making our game. Thanks for reading and supporting EverQuest II. I look forward to seeing you all in Norrath.
Quelle: http://gamespy.com/
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