rodolfo-rosini
Latest
Storybricks video reveals UI, gameplay, zombified NPC
Back in January, Namaste Entertainment released its second video dev diary for Storybricks. Prior to that, company representatives drip-fed information to the press and convention-goers relative to the new title's story-based sandbox and its unique approach to both NPC and quest design. Today we get to actually see the game in action courtesy of the newest video dev diary. Storybricks CEO Rodolfo Rosini walks us through eight minutes of gameplay, complete with a look at the UI, a small story instance, and some of the options available for customizing NPC action and motivation. Storybricks looks to break the traditional kill-10-rats MMO quest paradigm. The video clip shows us how with multiple NPC actions, behaviors, and customizable flavor text (not to mention a zombie ability, which Rosini describes as "very important."). He also says the footage is "pre-pre-alpha," but it's pretty exciting nonetheless. See for yourself after the break. [Thanks to John for the tip!]
Massively Exclusive: Storybricks team talks art, animation, and non-combat design
Namaste Entertainment is working away on Storybricks, and the company has just released a new exclusive video dev diary featuring CEO Rodolfo Rosini, art manager Oliver Bermejo, and a glimpse of the game's art style and animations. Rosini talks at length about the inspiration behind the art; one of the chief influences is a book called The Illusion of Life by early Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Rosini also name-checks Generation X geek icons like Dragon's Lair and The Secret of Nimh as well as more recent properties like the Fable series, and he says that the Storybricks team aims to convey emotion in a similar manner to these epics. "We want to capture some of the Disney magic without necessarily making a game for kids," Rosini explains. Rosini also talks a bit about the game design philosophy behind Storybricks. In current MMOs, he says, NPCs have two states: They either serve as quest dispensers or as targets. Namaste is aiming for a new type of gameplay that isn't built exclusively around combat. "Don't get me wrong -- murder works fairly well. There are 12 million murderers in World of Warcraft," Rosini says. "I've been one of them for many years, and I think it's a great game. But there has to be something different." Enjoy the full dev diary after the break.
