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Pantheon dev roundtable promises a public Vision
You know how the other day we reported on how Pantheon's maiden podcast was teasing an upcoming developer roundtable? Well, that roundtable has arrived indeed, and you can listen to the full hour-and-a-half discussion with the team after the break. One of the topics was over the team's "foundational principles," which players say they were promised over a year ago. Brad McQuaid apologized for not having posted those tenets yet and said that they would be forthcoming on the website before too long. "The Vision of Pantheon as a whole has not changed," he assured listeners.
LotRO's Devs of the Roundtable sally forth on Update 5's instance cluster
What's better than one developer sharing the thought process behind a major update to a game? Six. Cut out the middleman and go right to "six," we say. Ergo, it's lightning development caught in a bottle to see a half-dozen Lord of the Rings Online designers and worldbuilders gather together to talk about the instance cluster of the upcoming Update 5. Update 5's five instances -- including an epic raid confrontation with Saruman -- presented unique challenges and exciting opportunities for the team. Worldbuilder Dan Ouellette says that Turbine didn't want to limit itself to merely Orthanc: "After looking at all our ideas we knew we didn't want to have them all in the tower, because that would be a very boring cluster. It's a very small space and in general... just really long." Instead, the team branched out to focus on the surroundings, inner workings, and underneath of Orthanc for the five instances. The different types of instances -- three-, six-, and 12-person -- allowed the team to try out different tricks as well. "It's an exciting and difficult demand when working on a three-man," Content Designer Bob Hess says. "The types of challenges you present to people have to be a little more outside-the-box." It's a smörgåsbord of delectable information, so if you're craving good group content in LotRO, you'll definitely want to scoop this up.
Ubisoft's Wii U roundtable, now on video
Remember the second developer roundtable that Nintendo held during E3 2011? The one that featured Killer Freaks From Outer Space? First and foremost, it's rude to refer to Nintendo head Satoru Iwata and Ubisoft head Yves Guillemot as killer freaks, not to mention accuse them of being from other outer space. Oh, right, yes, the game. That one. Anyway, the full HD video of that roundtable discussion has been uploaded by Ubisoft, showing the entirety of what we saw, previewed, and broke out in its original presentation. Interested in watching foreign men struggling with the English language in front of dozens of journalists? Or in live gameplay of Ghost Recon Online and Killer Freaks? Here's your chance!
Killer Freaks from Outer Space preview: The freaks come out at night
Ubisoft's Killer Freaks from Outer Space represents a proof of concept for FPS controls on the Wii U. It also represents a showpiece for the system's new HD capabilities, and its ability to combine vastly different gameplay experiences into the same game. In addition to those two important technological roles, Killer Freaks presents the answer to the unasked what-if scenario "What if Red Steel and Raving Rabbids were the same game?"%Gallery-125907%
Alganon developer roundtable answers player questions
Coming up on its first full month of being live, Alganon has had a bit of a rocky start thus far. Whatever one's opinions on the game might be, however, the amount of enthusiasm the development team has for their game is admirable, and any issues it has certainly can't be attributed to a lack of caring. The most recent communication has been the release of a new developer roundtable, with several questions from the game's community answered directly by the developers. One of the largest highlights in the discussion is the question of gear prerequisites. Rather than focusing exclusively on level-restricted items, Alganon also has equipment limited by the game's study system instead of experience. There's also talk of multiple instance sizes within the same map, with each "version" re-tuned for the differing number of players in the encounter. Or, if you prefer non-sequiturs, there's a reference to The Lonely Island in a discussion of the game's current and upcoming transport options. The full set of questions and answers can be found on the official site, and includes further discussion on instance unlocking and the upcoming in-game event "The Dawning." If you're interested in the game on any level, it's worth taking a look.
Alganon devs field questions on the studies system, crafting, and high level content
We now know that Alganon is set to release in October of this year, which is pretty darn soon. Chances are you still have some questions about the game, seeing as we really only started noticing it a few months ago. Recently the game's developers Quest Online gave members of the community a chance to send in some queries for a Developer Roundtable. The results of that Q&A session are now in, with the team tackling four questions: How does the studies system help casuals from being left behind in progression and/or power? (link) Will we be able to use SMS to do things like queuing up studies while not in-game (same link, further down page) What plans are in place to keep players in the higher levels entertained while they wait for new content to be released? (link) Is crafting actually going to be useful or is the primary source of new gear going to be new drops like most MMOs? (link) Some quick takeaways from the answers given: the studies system can significantly lessen the gap between hardcore and casual players under some circumstances, SMS functionality isn't in place now but may be later, and high-end crafted gear is intended to be as powerful as raid gear. The devs are already collecting questions for the next roundtable, so if you've got any burning questions ahead Alganon's launch at the end of next month, head over to the thread and hit them with your best shot.
