 | Vampires. Spacetime Studios will bring to us a new dimension of his MMObile personal vision. After Pocket and Star Legends, now everything will be darker... We sat down in the shadows with Cinco Barnes, Chief Visionary Officer of Spacetime Studios. |
Cinco Barnes: Dark Legends tells the story of an alternate world where Vampires are known to exist, and are systematically hunted-down for extinction by the forces of Humanity. Players assume the roles of Vampire Warriors – sworn to defend the Crown of Blood and preserve the Vampire society. Players fight back against the Human uprising to maintain the Vampires’ dominance!
Dark Legends takes place within the borders of the fictional city of “Carvina”. This ancient city is home to the ‘Blood Queen,’ an ancient matriarch of Vampire Culture, and is considered to be the ‘capital’ of the Vampire Nation. At this point in the story, the Queen has vanished – the Vampire Lords are in chaos – and the entirety of humanity is on the war-path.
MMORPGITALIA: Why did you choose to make a vampire game, and especially with a darker and more serious feeling?
Cinco Barnes: Most of us have been fans of the Horror genre (games, books, films) for many years. We’ve always felt that it would be a lot of fun to create a game that revolved around ‘being a Vampire’ in a ‘world of Vampires.’ The idea of playing as a ‘vampire’ is very appealing to us because Vampires possess incredible power, ridiculous speed, and (most importantly) immortality!
We also wanted to take a departure from our previous titles. These games (medieval fantasy Pocket Legends and science-fiction Star Legends) exhibit a very cute and cuddly style. It’s a style that we find very appealing – but we wanted to go someplace brand new. A place that is serious and threatening, where shadows and darkness permeate every corner of the world… where monsters dare to tread!
MMORPGITALIA: What kind of characters (classes, races) could we play in Dark Legends?
Cinco Barnes: Both Pocket and Star Legends employed a ‘Class’ system – allowing players to choose a specific character type with a fixed array of skills and equipment that they can use. In Dark Legends, we added a ‘Power Tree’ system – which allows players to choose skills individually, and beyond the restrictions imposed by previous Legends titles.
When you start your character in “Dark Legends,” you choose either a Male or Female Vampire as your base. As you advance, you get to ‘Rank-Up’ Powers in the Powers Tree to customize your character.
We have both ‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ abilities in Dark Legends. The Active Powers can be installed on the players’ main display and either fired instantly (with a single tap) or over-charged (by tapping and holding the Power button) for more devastation. The Vampires’ Passive Powers are ‘always on’ (i.e. they are not mapped to the main display) but can be used in combination with Active Powers to dramatically improve defensive and offensive aspects of your character.
MMORPGITALIA: Gameplay and combat: Similarities and differences between Dark Legends and the other two MMOs.
Cinco Barnes: We’ve included all of the great things we love from our previous Legends games… and we’ve made lots of major improvements to game features throughout the product! Loot items now appear as physical items that ‘pop’ out of treasure chests and exploding monsters. You can now interact with special items (bookcases, altars, chests, glyphs, etc.) with your ‘Action’ button (which intelligently doubles as your main ‘attack’ button). Camera controls have been dramatically improved to give you unprecedented visibility of the game world…
But the big changes are all in the combat system! Dark Legends combat employs a mechanism through which all Powers and all Weapons can be ‘charged-up!’ Charging your weapon or your Power takes a period of time… which amounts to a pretty big risk in combat. But when you successfully release a ‘charged’ Power or Weapon strike, the results are awesome! To add more risk and cool game-play, Players use their ‘blood’ (a ‘health pool’) to charge their Powers. Run out of blood and you’re out of luck!
And then there’s the “Feed” mechanic. As you slash your way through the world of “Dark Legends,” avenging the death of your Vampire Master, a ‘Feed Meter’ at the top of your screen starts to pulse. When you have killed enough enemies, this meter becomes the powerful “Feed” ability – which allows you to instantaneously latch onto an enemy and drain them of their blood! Your avatar consumes the blood, replenishing his / her ‘blood’ pool, and thus you’re ready to fire off more charged Powers!
MMORPGITALIA: How will be the game's world? Will there be some social hubs plus instances or something different?
Cinco Barnes: At launch, Dark Legends will have ten (10) different adventure areas based around the Vampire City of Carvina. There will be one (1) major social ‘hub’ that players can reach by going to downtown Carvina.
A major focus of this hub is the “Club Sanctuary”, where Vampires meet and greet, pick up a few blood packs from the bartender, and pick up the latest gossip. Walk out of the Club and head down Thirteenth Street and you’ll find “Sergio’s” clothier – packed to the rafters with insane, sexy, brutal, gothic, Vampire outfits! A little further down the street and you’ll come across the mortuary… for updates to your hairstyle and to freshen the makeup on your (dead but lovely) face.
Players can also walk down into the Carvina subway system and go immediately to the adventure area of their choice. Lastly, at the very end of Thirteenth Street is the entrance to the “Peaceful Meadows” asylum – abandoned for years – now the setting for vicious player-versus-player combat!
MMORPGITALIA: Character's progression in Dark Legends.
Cinco Barnes: Dark Legends has a unique story-driven progression. All story beats and combat encounters are displayed on a Campaign Map. As you work through the story, uncovering the mysteries of Carvina, you unlock more stories and missions!
MMORPGITALIA: Do you plan to release Facebook or PC version of the game in a future?
Cinco Barnes: The power of the Spacetime Engine allows us to release our games on all mobile platforms, for all phones, all tablets, and for the ‘native client’ feature of the Google Chrome browser. We are not presently planning to release a Facebook client for the ‘Legends’ series of games.
MMORPGITALIA: What's the state of the game and the release date?
Cinco Barnes: Dark Legends benefitted greatly from our experience creating two previous mobile MMO games. The game has been in a playable state for months and is extremely fun to play! We do not have an official release date for the game at this time. However, when the game does release, we’re confident that it will be the most powerful game experience in the Legends franchise.
MMORPGITALIA: The item shop will look like the ones of Pocket Legends and Star Legends
Cinco Barnes: The Dark Legends item shop looks very different when compared to the ‘store’ in Pocket and Star Legends. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that “Dark Legends” has a huge number of ‘vanity’ clothing items. Since Vampires are magically powerful and don’t need bulky metal armor to defend themselves they can dress in the coolest, skimpiest, funniest, most ironic outfits they desire… and still be killing-machines!
Navigation of the shop in “Dark Legends” is much more intuitive and free-flowing than previous games. We really feel that people will enjoy the experience much more!
MMORPGITALIA: Do you think that mobile gaming will gradually replace handheld consoles one day?
Cinco Barnes: Yes, absolutely!
