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A look at Champions Online's newest programmer
Meet Ben Foxworthy, the newest programmer working on Champions Online. He's apparently responsible for all sorts of gameplay elements including missions, contacts, NPC spawning and world interaction. With so much content to program, Ben must be an incredibly busy guy -- or so you'd think. All joking aside, we have a deep appreciation for programmers here at Massively, since many of us are math-inept when it comes to anything beyond basic addition and subtraction required for our table-top gaming jaunts.It seems like Ben landed at Cryptic rather early on in his career, having only graduated from the University of California last year. We'd say he's a lucky man, but then we found out he bought a thousand glowsticks on eBay once. Everyone knows that's almost five times more bad luck than breaking a mirror across the back of a black cat that's crossing your path. At the very least Ben's wearing a pretty awesome Champions Online shirt that we claim in the event of his untimely glowstick-related demise.
Welcome to S-zzz-nake Gulch
Cryptic has revealed a third area within the Champions Online world and it's a pretty dang interestin' one ta boot. Snake Gulch wouldn't be any different from other water-deprived, western-theme amustment parks if it weren't for the fact that it's populated entirely by robots. Snake Gulch is full of robot cowboys, it's true.Oh and it's also right next to a maximum security supervillain prison, too. We're sure that has nothing to do with the fact that nobody lives in -- or near, so far as we can tell -- Snake Gulch, though. At least nobody but robots. (Just so we're clear: robots are people too) The preview is given entirely in the first person by Belle Steele and after listening to the audio clip provided by Cryptic we're pretty sure she's a robot, too. While you looking at the preview don't forget to check out the very cool concept art or you'll miss out on a sweet robot-horse.
Cryptic appoints former SOE exec as new CEO
We all know that Cryptic Studios is working on another MMORPG aside from Champions Online. So it stands to reason that they're going to beef up the company roster in the coming years. More MMOs mean more people to make, manage and market them. It looks like John Needham -- former senior president of business development and operations at Sony Online Entertainment -- is one of the first additions being made at Cryptic in its transformation into a self-publishing developer.Expect to see a whole new side to Cryptic as it slowly transforms itself into a bigger company. Needham will probably be one of the few public additions to the company, but you can be sure new artists, programmers, writers, etc are putting butts into seats as the company prepares to work on it's next MMO project.
Ask Cryptic: Iconic costume pieces in Champions Online
It's not surprising that there continues to be a lot of questions regarding customization and variety within Champions Online in each week's Ask Cryptic. Anyone who has played City of Heroes is bound to wonder the same things about Cryptic's newest MMO. This week there aren't any groundbreaking revelations about game mechanics, but a lot of little interesting answers. The one answer we find most interesting pertains to costume options related to important characters such as Defender or Jusiticiar. Forum poster Belstaffar asked, "Will heroes like Defender and Ironclad have unique one of a kind costumes, or can I make a fan boy hero that looks similar?" Which we fond to have a fairly surprising answer. The lead character artists Absinthe tells us that while iconic piece of their costume -- such as Defender's helmet -- won't be wearable, certain other costume pieces will be available to players.This makes us wonder if we'll see supergroups that all dress similarly to specific characters within the game, acting as a sort of "Defender Force" in roleplay terms. We certainly hope so, because nothing say cool like coordinated costumes.
Ankylosaur, a supervillain for hire
What happens when a down and out of luck thug is accidentally shipped a set of super-advanced prototype armor? Well Ankylosaur happens, actually. Although it took Paul Bressler a very long time to even learn how to properly say "Ankylosaur" he's still a terrible force to be reckoned with when operating the suit. A criminal for hire who moonlights as his own boss from time to time, Paul is the type of delinquent who grew up learning to hate authority figures. As such, we suspect that when players are confronted with this supervillain in-game they'll want to remember this piece of information.We're really loving the fact that there's a lot of supertech-powered characters being revealed on the Champions Online website. There's bound to be plenty of variety as time goes on, but we're just happy to know that the technology types are definitely in there -- it's quite satisfying. Now we just want to see Justiciar and Akylosaur butt heads in a trailer!
The twisting tale of Champions Online's Dennis Adams
This week we get to meet an ex-Star Trek Online team member who made the move to Cryptic Studios last February, becoming Champions Online's associate producer. Who is this man? It's Dennis Adams and we have to say he seems like a very cool-headed cat.With a mind for art, Dennis got his start as an animation production supervisor for Walt Disney Studios. He spent five years there before getting a gig on The Simpsons Movie. Dennis finally made his dream-breakthrough into the videogame industry with Perpetual Entertainment, the then-developer of Star Trek Online. Of course, we all know how that unfortunate ship sailed. Not all was lost, however, as Dennis found a home at Cryptic Studios and is working diligently to bring all of our super-powered dreams to life. When asked to give his advice for anyone wanting to break into the industry his response was, "Love the craft -- you owe it to the gaming community." We always appreciate an impassioned videogame developer. So hats off to you, Dennis.
Rethinking archetypes in Champions Online
When it comes to the subject of game design evolution the lead designer for Champions Online Randy "Arkayne" Mosiondz has some very interesting things to say. He recently posted his thoughts in the newest developer blog over on the Champions Online official website and the results are quite compelling. His write-up starts out as a general discussion on the topic of initial game design and how -- even why -- it always progresses into something different along the march to completion. After a bit of pontificating on that subject, Arkane moves onto how this all ties into Champions Online, which in turn dovetails into the subject of archetypes in Cryptic's game.It all ends up with the revelation that archetypes in Champions Online won't be playing the role they were originally intended for. The reason for the somewhat rug-tugging change comes from the community reaction to how archetypes were originally planned to function. A good developer always communicates with their players, so this is nothing new to Cryptic Studios.
2008 Yearbook: Microsoft Game Studios
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/xbox/2008_Yearbook_Microsoft_Game_Studios'; After a solid year for the Xbox 360 in 2007 many thought the system could never showcase the same amount of quality exclusives in a single year.In the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios Yearbook, we've compiled a list of this year's graduating class with a detailed account of each title's current status and the stories surrounding them.From heartbreaking cancellations, surprise feature announcements and expected sequels, the 2008 MGS Yearbook is filled with fun facts and information on your soon-to-be favorite titles. Also included in the yearbook are special joke awards given to each title that releases in 2008 that poke fun at the details most commonly argued about in the comments.From Ninja Gaiden II to Alan Wake, the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios Yearbook will have something for everyone.Ladies and gentlemen allow us to introduce the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios graduating class ...
Meet a Champions Online environment artist
In this week's edition of Champions Online's "Meet The Team" we have an environment artist who goes by the name of Andrew Jansen. Now Andrew seems like a nice enough guy, but we're not at all opposed to taking down names and finding any party responsible for possible "layer cake tiles" in Champions Online. Oh wait, that's right we nearly forgot that we've already been promised a complete lack of them. So rest easy Andrew, the pitchforks are safely locked away in storage.The work of a environment artist sounds both intriguing and challenging as they have to design for story, fun and gameplay in everything they create. In other words an environment has to fit within the story while being both fun to play in and functional -- oh and lets not forget that it has to look great. If you're curious what kind of mind is helping to create these canonical, entertaining and functional environments we urge you to check out the rest of the interview over at the official site.
Cryptic reveals more about Champions Online costumes
Cryptic has been dropping details on their newest outing in the superhero genre, and the future is looking brighter all the time. In yet another Ask Cryptic segment, three of the fine designers for Champions Online (Arkayne, BraiNEateR, and Continuum) have revealed some more information about their game by answering questions from the community.There's some interesting news on what raids will be in the game, how statistics will work, and how the Champions universe will fit into the MMO realm. The big news, though, is the costume creator. In a vast improvement from the already robust CoX creator, Champions Online will allow for up to 4 colors per costume piece. Not only that, but players will be able to assign materials, textures, and bump-mapping to each individual piece. Want some rivets on a metal trenchcoat with canvas texturing? You got it! In addition to this, costumes now have far more asymmetrical options, allowing you to make a character who has, say, a huge left arm and a tiny weakling right arm.This news just pumps us up more for Champions Online, because when you hand that kind of power to the community, beautiful things are made. And some hilarious things too.
The origin of Justiciar
It's time for a new superhero spotlight in the Champions Online universe. This time we get to learn about Justiciar, the Canadian cybernetic crime-fighter who leads the Toronto-based super team, StarForce. We always love a good technology-based super hero (and with the box office success of Iron Man there are probably some recent converts) so it's really nice to see the artwork for Justiciar look turn out so well.Don't miss out on the one-page origin comic, either. It may be short but there's a certain amount of coolness to the presentation. We really would love to see our own characters in Champions Online presented in such a way after creating them, but something like that would probably take quite a bit of development time. Oh well, we're sure there's going to be plenty of super-heroics in our futures to come!
ION 08: Focusing on the community manager
One of the strengths of MMOs are their communities. The stronger a community around an MMO is the more likely that game is to last into the foreseeable future. "Successfully Managing a Community Emergency" was a panel at ION 08 full of the people in charge of the communities we all take part in. Fittingly enough all of these men and women have their own friendships based on their shared experiences as well, which makes for a kind of interesting mirror effect. It was like watching the same group of people who post on these forums talk about them -- except with a bit more maturity than you'd expect. Though don't get me wrong, there was a lot of goofing about as they tackled different forum emergencies.The panel consisted of Katie Postma (Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment/Stargate Worlds), Victor Wachter (Cryptic Studios/Champions Online), Alan Crosby (Sony Online Entertainment), Meghan Rodberg (Turbine/Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online) and was moderated by Craig Dalrymple (Sony Online Entertainment/EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Free Realms).%Gallery-22796%
Meet Michael McCarry, a Champions Online programmer
This week's installment of Cryptic's ongoing "Meet the Team" is all about Michael McCarry and his role as a programmer on the team. He spends most of his work time on the powers and advancement system in Champions Online. It's worth noting that Michael is also one of the only two Canadians currently on the team -- a fact that he's quite proud of. We have to mention that his gaze makes us wonder if he's got some kind of evil plot for those of us planning on eventually leveling up our heroes.Michael cites Champions Online's combat system as the feature he's personally most excited about. What's interesting about that is his current game obsession happens to be Age of Conan. While it probably doesn't mean much for the game he's working on, it does go to show that people at Cryptic are paying attention to similar games -- if only because they look pretty fun in their own right.
A Champions Online QnA special broadcast
Get your decoder rings out kids. It's time for a super-special secret broadcast for this recent Champions Online Q&A, brought to you by Ovaltine! Well no that's not true. Actually, this particular decoding article is brought to you by the guys over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun and it isn't trying to sell you more Ovaltine. What the article is trying to do is explain some of the answers in the recently published community Q&A all about Champions Online.Most of the commentary covers the powers customization answers and rightfully so, as they're a bit daunting for people that haven't experienced a point-based table top RPG before. So if you're not experienced with the pen and paper version of Champions or un-familiar with pen and paper RPGs completely, then we highly recommend reading it. As they saying goes: There's gold in them there hills, or possibly some kind of super gamma-exposed uranium that could give you laser nostrils able to cut through anything at the smallest of sneezes.
Cryptic has something to ask you
You probably already know that Cryptic Studios plans on coming to Gencon Indy and PAX this year. What you may not know is that Cryptic would like you all to tell them what you want to see. What team members do you want to meet? What panels do you want them to attend and discuss? All of your questions can be asked in the discussion thread.Our personal suggestion is definitely related to PAX, where we'd love to see Jack Emmert, Randy Mosiondz and John Layman. Last year at PAX there was a very interesting "Future of MMOs" panel that we would love to see get some Cryptic input. Although truthfully we just want to find a bunch of you guys and chat about all things superheroes, MMOs and pen and paper RPGs. Oh and of course if we could get some crazy demoing of Champions Online, that'd be super awesome too. It's probably asking a bit too much, but it's nice to dream isn't it?
Crusty Old Hero tells it like it was
'Whoosh. There goes another one. Up, up and away. Enjoy your shiny new jet pack while it lasts, kid. Wish I'd had one at level 5, back at the start of City of Heroes.'But I didn't. Nobody did. In my day we had to run. You wanted to stay out of trouble, you kept to the white line down the middle of the road. You wanted to fly fast, you had to wait till level 14. You wanted a real challenge, you went swimming with the Hydra. They was worth something back then.'And let me tell you another thing...'
CoX: The right to farm?
City of Heroes Issue 9, Breakthrough, might also have been titled the Agricultural Revolution. Sure, we'd had power leveling before, and plenty of it. But until the Invention System came along we didn't really have full-on farming as such. Some players reared healthy stocks of Hatched Krakens down in the sewers or tilled the soil for Freaks on the Dreck map, but back then we knew little of the ways of the farmer.Then came Issue 9 with its Rare Drops and later Issue 11 with its Even Rarer ZomgPurple Drops. The more level 50 enemies you defeat, the more likely you are to grab one of the purples; and that's on top of the guaranteed XP, Prestige or Inf that rolls in. Now, of course, farming is ubiquitous.
Ask Cryptic: What kind of options will Champions have?
The newest edition of Ask Cryptic, on the official Champions Online site, delves into the customization options we'll have in the upcoming superhero MMO. Arkayne and Sporkfire combine powers to answer questions asked by fans in the forums. Probably most interesting is the clarification that archetypes only provide a 'framework' for a character's powers; they don't restrict them. That is, a "Brick"-type character (the party's tank) will get bonuses when using defensive powers. By the same token, though, they can still use energy projection or martial arts-type powers. They just won't be as effective with the Brick as when used by a Martial Artist.Other questions delve into the role of min/maxing in Champions, using advantages and limitations. They also discuss the options we'll have to make inhuman characters in the character creator, and what kind of website features the game will ship with. That last sounds very promising, as they're looking at everything from social networking elements to character pages to see what will best fit the game.
Meet another content creator for Champions Online
It's that time of the week again, where we get to meet another team member working on Champions Online. This week the spotlight shines on Nellie Hughes, content designer -- which if you're keeping track, means she works with that wily Mr. Zeke Sparkes. Which gives us even more reason to believe that she's got a very cool job.All of the Champions Online-related and otherwise questions put to Nellie are quite entertaining, especially when talking about her Weird Al Yankovic performance during her elementary school years. That's simply the kind of thing that takes a lot of courage to pull off. We'd say it's similar to the kind of courage it takes when creating MMOs for rabid comic book fans.
New Champions Online screens blast away
Wrist-mounted machine guns are incredibly useful when you're inside warehouses of undisclosed location. However, we're of the opinion that fully-automatic guns mounted on your wrists would be incredibly useful -- if not extremely fun -- in just about any situation. Well, all right, maybe not in a room full of kittens; unless they were lolkittens.The picture you see above is just one of three new Champions Online screenshots and features the much-fantasized machine-gun-on-wrist. Check out the rest in our gallery, featuring all the other in-game shots released thus far.%Gallery-17946%
