![]() ![]() Which is why, in game design you have to offer a variety of expressive means, not just actions, but a way to create a place and an identity. At some point in this process you find out that people have common interests but maybe a different way of expressing. Ultimately, this environment forces you to form your own opinion, confront it, and share it with others. We like to argue, we like to contest, and we like to defend our own opinions. You see a lot of people walking and people are more in direct contact, so we share and exchange ideas, but also, we like to fight over ideas. For instance, when you walk down the streets of Paris, you don't see a lot of cars. " Definitely, Europe has a large mixture of people and cultures like America however, the space we share is much smaller, so we have a lot more direct contact with people. I asked David if he thought that Europe influenced the societal blending element in their game design. In interviews, American designers seemed to talk more about the mechanical and technological aspects of the games while Europeans talked more about organics and sociology. Also, players can recruit tribes of creatures to their cause to fight.ĭavid's talk about the heavy socialization aspects in Ryzom's design reminded me a lot of the heavy social elements of the games of Peter Molyneux. Tribes look reminiscent of Predator and insect creatures look like the spider creatures from Star-Ship troopers. The resources and weapons possess the organic look of the resources and the characters look almost like they could be out of Dune. Since the resources are dynamic and seasonal, explorers will play a vital role in finding resources and establishing caravans, but once they establish a caravan, they will need fighters to protect the convoy. While characters can solo, players will notice incentives for forming guilds. So, players may notice unique interactions between the creatures such as marking of territories and offspring interactions. In designing the AI, the Nevrax team wanted to create creatures that exhibited sociology. I was lucky enough to meet David Cohen-Corval, CEO of Nevrax and lead designer of Ryzom, who discussed the dynamic AI and some of the other elements of the design. Certain creatures will migrate in patterns and they will change patterns over time in response to players' actions. There are no static spawn points instead the modular action system creates creatures at random causing them to burrow up from the ground. The engine supports large skirmishes so that epic battles will ensue moreover, dynamic elements in the AI allow for creatures to ambush players in the wild. ![]() In keeping with the ‘size does matter' philosophy of the design, the mass combat system differentiates the world from other titles. ![]() Don't worry, a portal system and mount capability will allow players to traverse the large distances. Servers will create shard universes and each shard extends 100 square kilometers. Unlike some other developers in the genre, the Nevrax team decided to create one large persistent world. Thus, each shard will move across different destiny paths along the main storyline. These decisions will permanently affect the shard (server) universe they live in. As players discover the truth about the past, the shard, or server, inhabitants will make some important decisions. The world's main story arc includes a 200 year back-story that the players will have to discover by investigating the plant based world. The game is Ryzom, a science-fiction fantasy online game influenced by modern media such as Star-Ship Troopers and French futurists like Moebius. Moreover, Nevrax created and GNU public licensed an engine specifically for this title called NeL ( to fit the need of persistent world development. distribution and Europe based Jolt online gaming for E.U. A recent falling out with former partner publisher Wanadoo, lead to relationships with veteran US MMORPG marketing and backend IT firm Themus Group for U.S. The graphics are stylized and colorful, the game play smooth and interesting and the interface is well designed and intuitive. The 55 member developer raised 10 million in funding to put together a phenomenal AAA title. Never heard of Nevrax? Neither had I before I received my personal invitation to preview the Paris, France based company's new MMORPG at the Game Developer's Conference. ![]()
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