 | Veraxon Entertainment is a small softco that will bring to us a new MMObile for iOS and (further) Android. The game looks very interesting, so we sat down with the devs to know more about World of Midgard. |
There are many different factors which make 3D mmorpg game much more difficult to be made for mobile devices, so I will list just 2 of the trickiest ones.
- 3D processing power of mobile devices is increasing but it's way below desktop PC which makes it much difficult to do models, terrain, and animations for mobile devices. In mmorpg games there is no pre-set number of characters that appear in a scene, and it creates a challenge for a developer. At the same time, that characters, mobs, NPCs, dungeons, and zones are compared to those on PC/Mac, which means that a developer must squeeze all processing power they have in purpose not only to deliver the quality people expect, but also keep the game frame per second fast.
- mobile internet connection is slower than average broadband connection. We want players to be able to play in group, fight bosses together, mingle in town, and essentially, do all what people do while playing PC/Mac on regular 3G connection. We must squeeze all up to date information (tens times each second) about surrounding environment, which includes but is not limited to such factors as: other players current gear configuration, current buffs/debufs, abilities/spell which are in use, animation, and much more. On top of that, 3G connection performance varies with current load on wireless network provider so our protocol must prioritize importance of events. For example, information that a friend changed their helmet to hat is less important than showing that file aoe spell was cast and that player is standing it.
MMORPGITALIA: Graphics look stunning. Could you talk about that?
As I mentioned above, making 3D graphics in mmorpg mobile game is one of most difficult task there is. For start, we are using Unity 3D engine which is a great help and allows minimizing required computation to bar minimum. I do not want to bore a reader with details of that engine technology, but I can say that probably we would not be able to make that game without it.
While engine does what it can, the main thing is the way the models are created.
We make our models trying to avoid toll on the processing power. Our excellent 2D artists work on super detailed textures to minimize number of triangle. Have you ever seen a painting which is in 2D, which makes an impression of having 3D details. Well, this is the way we try to work on it. For example, when you see our Troll torso with its detailed bumpy skin looking 3D, the most of the effect is done with 2D painting on the troll mob. We try to use this particular technique whenever it looks good. This allowed us to reach quality visuals with low load on the mobile hardware.
MMORPGITALIA: Factions in WoM. What will be the differences between them?
Well, this is the long story which is best described in 30-page Lore Book.
The Lore book is the story of Schism, Swarm, Survival & Conquest, as well as of the Treaty of the Fallen Oak. This is the story about heroes of World of Midgard past and the battles they fought. In nutshell, faction consists of 3 races and each faction fights for their believes. Alliance consists of following races: Humans, Elf, and Dwarf. Fury consists of BoodDrak (vampire descent), Orc, and Dark Elf
In impossible to detail faction more before you read story about:
* orc chieftain Ofren the Bold
* elder dwarf Gorst
* Blood drakes Craxis&Necatus
* wood elf leader Glastor
* dark elf equivocator Helston,
* human hero Astrell (and his brothers Elghinn & Gregor)
* Qassim the dark leader of Serapat mages
* wind mage Mahida
* Florizel and her spiritual control of the Water
When you read the book you will also discover a story the lies behind:
* Dark Swarm conquest
* the Treaty of the Fallen Oak.
* Midgard After the Treaty
* A New Age of Midgard
MMORPGITALIA: PvP options in the game
For start there will be 2 types of servers PvE and PvP. On PvP will be open PvP between factions.
On both servers there will be:
5x5 Battlegrounds (capture the flash, first to kill 10 etc)
Arena (1x1 at game launch and later 2x2,3x3)
Duel system
MMORPGITALIA: How big will be the game's world at launch?
3 big zones for each faction (3rd is common for both), 2 towns, and up to 8 dungeons.
We plan to add more zones every 2 months until already planned 20 zones.
Game’s world is big. On our youtube channel there is a video with map concept, check it out.
On top of world zone we plan to do what we call "islands" with each island being independent themes zone (or more than 1 zones). We plan to go really crazy with "islands". Island is not necessary instant per se (same may be) but rather it's a concept of unique world (island could be underground world, underwater world, city in the cloud etc)
We put much effort to make full 3D mmorpg "real" dungeon with boss fights.
By "real" we mean that we will try to give epic dungeon boss fight like those you would expect on desktop computer.
We also have expert dungeons which are hard and can be called 5-man raid. In other words we will try to introduce raiding to mobile devices for those who like this type of experience. However it will not be forced, so more casual players can enjoy the game too.
For casual player we have solo, 3-man, and regular 5-man dungeons.
