dev-speak

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  • WildStar's Adventures skew toward the unusual

    by 
    Justin Olivetti
    Justin Olivetti
    02.19.2014

    Did you read Eliot's first-hand tour of WildStar's Adventure content and find yourself wanting to know more? Carbine Studios posted an excellent follow-up today giving players the full scoop on this unique group content. Adventures aren't to be confused with WildStar's dungeons and Shiphand missions, a point the studio wants to make clear. Instead of being a linear challenge, Adventures are simulated scenarios that offer a "choose your own adventure" tour through an open zone, throwing in options for specific paths and even a MOBA-like battle. These also have demphasized traditional combat (although it's still present) and created "unusual" encounters instead. There will be six Adventures at launch that will come in both normal and veteran modes, with the first one opening up at level 15. Carbine said that there will be a wide variety of loot for Adventure seekers, including housing items, recipes, and gear. Veteran-mode Adventures are also presented as a good method of gearing up for raids.

  • New SWTOR dev blog sorta talks about Galactic Starfighter

    by 
    Jef Reahard
    Jef Reahard
    10.18.2013

    There's a new Star Wars: The Old Republic dev diary in town, and as you may have guessed, it's all about the recently announced Galactic Starfighter expansion. Lead designer Michael Backus is the blog author, and he pens the first of what is surely to be many paragraphs "delving into the background and development of Galactic Starfighter and its place within the SWTOR experience." This particular entry doesn't contain much in the way of gameplay info, unfortunately, but Backus says that more details will be forthcoming in the future.

  • The Soapbox: Translating Elder Scrolls Online dev speak

    by 
    Jef Reahard
    Jef Reahard
    05.15.2012

    Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Language is a pretty fascinating thing, and studying a second one is something I've long intended to do. Aside from entertaining thoughts of learning Korean to play ArcheAge, though (seriously, I looked into it), I haven't gotten around to much beyond college-level Deutsch. But as I watched last week's interview with The Elder Scrolls Online creative director Paul Sage, I realized that I already have some pretty good second-language skills. I'm fluent in both English and MMO dev-speak, so as a public service, I'm going to translate some of what Sage said into the former.

  • Elder Scrolls creative director: We want to make a good game first

    by 
    Jef Reahard
    Jef Reahard
    05.08.2012

    The recently announced Elder Scrolls MMO has a lot to live up to. If the initial fan reaction is any indication, it's not doing as well as you might expect in the court of public opinion. Creative director Paul Sage recently stepped in front of the camera to talk at length about the project, and some of what he has to say probably isn't going to sit well with fans who are concerned that ZeniMax is making a generic themepark MMO out of the much-loved single-player sandbox series. "We have to make our own game," he tells Game Informer. "We want to make a good game first. Not a good MMO, not a good Elder Scrolls game, we want to make a good game first, a great experience for the player."