The story behind the original Jumpgate
To this blogger, the cult of celebrity which has risen up in the rest of the gaming community has never really seemed to touch the MMO sphere with quite the same fervor. Sure, we've got a handful of highly-regarded sage figures, whose names alone are often used to sell products, but those are really the exception, and many fans of MMOs casually move from game to game with no concept of the history that underpins every new release. While a lot of it is really extemporaneous to the experience, it can sometimes illuminate design decisions that would otherwise seem alien.
It's with this in mind that Kieron Gillen recently reposted an old interview with NetDevil design director Ryan Seabury to shed some light on the company's past projects in light of the of the impending release of Jumpgate Evolution. Some of the things talked about are the trials of developing with a small team, the lessons learned in terms of making a game accessible, and what Jumpgate did well that (hopefully) will translate directly to Jumpgate Evolution.
