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Stargate Worlds' minigames make casual hardcore
Cheyenne Mountain is trying something a little different in Stargate Worlds. Sure, there will be the regular routine of killing, looting, selling -- repeat. But the game design will also incorporate minigames not unlike the casual games you'd find on Yahoo! or AOL's web portals.Cheyenne casual game designer Steve Williams has written up a longish developer blog about this unlikely marriage, in which he describes one of the minigames -- a hacking game. Okay, so that's not the most original casual game to slip into a more complex hardcore game -- most of us have played the Shock games. SGW's hack game sounds a bit different, though; it both confuses and helps the user with scrambled visuals and sonic cues as he or she searches for a hidden red wire to access.More interesting than the specifics about the hack game, though, is the inside look at the process by which Williams and others develop "Hack" and other games like it. Williams also ponders in writing about how the presence of such games affects the traditional MMO experience. "What does it mean," he asks, "when you get uber loot from clipping a wire in less than 12 seconds?"
Metaplace designers seek users' advice for badge system
The developers of Metaplace are pinging the public in search of feedback and good ideas with regards to the platform's planned "badge" system. The system resembles achievements on XBox Live; users and creators of virtual worlds may accomplish certain objectives such as becoming the first Metaplace world to reach 100 simultaneous users, and a unique badge graphic representing the achievement may then be shown to other players and builders in the community.Areae is dealing with some difficult design decisions. For example: should badges have point values, so whomever has the most points is the most awesome of them all? Should users be able to give badges to one another? How should badges be displayed?Rather than tackle these questions alone, Areae is offering to everyone the chance to fill out a survey. It's not just multiple choice; participants can explain the reasoning behind their choices. If you've got two cents to share, by all means, go share them!
Help with panel suggestions for SOE Fan Faire
Over at the EQ developer blog, your help is needed. EverQuest senior producer Clint Worley has made a post asking for suggestions on panels for SOE's Fan Faire, to be held in August. He mentions that things like spells and content are normally covered, but he is hoping that some of the people attending will have interesting ideas for other panels to throw in the hat.Even if you're not planning on attending, it's worth sharing any cool suggestions that you might have, as the news from these events is usually covered by your favorite sites anyway. Visit the dev blog to add your ideas to the growing list.
AoC dev blog update looks at the polishing process
The latest entry in Age of Conan lead designer Ole Herbjornsen's 1UP Blog discusses, in quite some detail, the process of optimizing and polishing the game using the "tools of the trade". His emphasis is on the fact that this cleaning up is done on both the code and data, not just one or the other, and often both at once.Along the way to arriving at this point, Herbjornsen lists off a number of scary sounding developer tools, like "showmeshid" and "occluder monsters". The reassuring explanation of the especially frightening occluder monsters is that they are flat rectangles with a very low polygon count, that can be spawned in the game world, and are used to test (among other things) how a system's frame rate is affected when they block out certain parts of a picture. Check out the blog for more of Herbjornsen's interesting developer antics.
New Age of Conan trailer drops Thursday
Ten Ton Hammer is reporting this morning that Funcom and Eidos have announced that a new Age of Conan trailer will appear on Gamespot.com Thursday. According to the announcement on the AoC official forums, the video will launch at 1700 California time ( -8 GMT). Since I'm bad with that whole international time thing, the TTH guys have done my work for me... apparently "1700 California time" translates to roughly 12pm EST. If it's as bloody as the above pic - wow! We'll let you know when the ball drops so you can make a beeline for Gamespot.
New bits about WAR's Trophy System
All right, when we first heard about trophies in Warhammer Online, we'll admit to being filled with an abundance of child-like glee. There's a reason that we're willing to admit it though and it's because trophies are one of the coolest things about the upcoming massively game. The idea that when you kill a truly impressive enemy, you not only get loot (in the case of PvE) but a trophy to wear -- as a badge of honor -- is something to get a little excited about.EA Mythic's Justin Webb has a great writeup over on the Warhammer Online website concerning the Trophy system. You can think of the it as another layer of visual customization for your characters in Warhammer Online. It's a system that exists alongside initial character creation, armor diversity and being able to dye armors. With a system like this there's a lot to cover, so feel free to check out the good n' gritty bits on trophies after the break.
New Age of Conan developer blog on MMORPG
MMORPG.com just launched a new developer blog for Age of Conan. Writing about the ins and outs of this mature hack-n-slash is Jason Stone (aka "Athelan"), one of the game's designers. In his first entry (posted yesterday), Jason introduces himself by explaining his roll in AoC and what his gaming background is. His goals for the blog are to "highlight the goings on in the Age of Conan community, respond to community questions and feedback, give you sneak peeks into my own Beta experiences..." For now Jason will be the only contributor, but he hopes that other members of the development team will chime in from time to time.Almost all of these dev blog's are worth the time to read because they really give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the game's design and progress. Us old timer's never had anything like this back in the day, so it's a real treat to get what amounts to first hand information straight from the "horse's mouth" - so to speak.
