Friday-update!
Behind the Scenes #5 - Beta progress
- Nov 17, 2006
This week we take a look at how beta feedback shapes and improves the gameplay experience and development process.
In this weeks update we wanted to go through some ot the process of change that goes hand in hand with the beta schedule. As you all know we are now in closed Beta internally, and we thought it would be interesting for people to hear about what we are working on and what is changing as we move through the beta process!
This time we take a look at how feedback has affected the work on the games opening on the Island of Tortage.
As you all know Beta is a time of finalization and changes, and as we see it the changes are for the better as it’s based on feedback from people actually playing the game. Like everywhere else in life change is unavoidable as no amount of planning, design documents or ceremonial sacrifices to the gods of game development will prevent your prized creation being subject to some alterations.
As a developer you always know that it’s coming, even if you don’t admit it, and doing changes is almost like one of those ‘unspoken truths’ of development that designers like to pretend won’t happen to them but is inevitable. (The devs don’t really fear change; it’s actually a good process, as ideas on paper might not always translate as well into real life. It sounds so much more impressive though when you picture it as some kind of mysterious evil entity that stalks the halls of our offices looking for some unwary dev to pounce on!)
Luckily in actual fact it isn’t such an evil entity and the changes brought on aren’t all about removing things, but more about reacting to the feedback we get and tweaking or improving the experience the player will have in the game.
So what have we been looking at with this beta feedback in hand? Today we wanted to take a look at how the beta feedback has affected the way we integrate the single player elements into the game and tying this into the greater journey players take into the big wide world of the multiplayer Hyboria.
Allowing players to establish themselves and learn the game in a solo campaign has always been the plan for the first twenty levels, and we always had a mind for how we would weave the multiplayer world into that experience. It still is, very much so, but after learning more about how this experience ties into the core MMO experience we have ended up in a direction that we believe will make for a more engaging experience for the player.
The chance to tell a great story, the players ‘destiny quest’ has always been the focus for this section of the game and we have been delighted with how testers have reacted to being able to experience such a story driven mechanic in an MMO environment, but we also want to ensure the blend between the single-player elements and MMO experience was as seamless as possible, and wasn’t an abrupt interruption of the play experience. The question was how to achieve that!
We always wanted players to want see more fellow players earlier in the experience. That we expected and planned for, we had laid out some communal areas where players would meet each other at certain points of the experience. The original thought though was for these to be more social areas and not really do have any real co-op gameplay elements.
It was soon apparent though from testing that this could be improved upon. While players were greatly enjoying the solo elements they also itched to tie up with other players through more than just drunken brawling and social interaction.
So we were faced with a slight dilemma, we certainly didn’t want to dilute the solo elements and the story of the players Destiny quests, but we also wanted to find a way to allow players to experience a more true MMO experience a little earlier.
In doing that though we also had to be sure though to not force the players into co-op game play, as we also didn’t want to water down the appeal of the ‘personal’ journey to level twenty!
So what to do with the Tortage island section suddenly became a new kind of challenge! How to get the best of both worlds? After locking the design team away in meetings for a while (the Game Director will neither confirm or deny the use of any potentially dangerous motivational tools!) they came up with a solution that we feel is ingenious and ‘fitting’.
So what was the solution? Now when players get to Tortage during the day, you will see other players around, and you will be able to group with them if you want and do areas and dungeons on a small team level. This is optional though, it was very important for us that even in adding co-op gameplay to this area the entire experience remains soloable!
Then as night creeps forth you will be sent off on the next legs of your personal quest in a pure single player environment again. The night time sequences are triggered by visiting a bed in an Inn , which we felt was a good, and natural, mechanic to use as people would be familiar with it from many single player RPGs. These sections allow the story to continue and the ‘destiny’ quests to play out for each individual player.
The solution has allowed us to keep the first few levels intact exactly as we originally planned as the players quest to seek access to the town at the centre of life in Tortage, but after we get there we have added more co-op gameplay elements than we originally envisioned to give players the option of seeking help with certain stages of the single-player experience should they want to.
So the daytime sections allow you to level up either alone, or in a small team, in order to progress to the next main section of your destiny quest. While at night you are always completely on your own, in and around the environs of Tortage.
We felt that this evolution of the original intention means that players get a better, more flexible and more social experience during the solo campaign (should they wish) and as we are now getting ever closer to the final iterations we think we have found the right way to integrate the different styles of gameplay. Getting that blend of both worlds is something we have really been striving for, and hopefully all of our players will agree on our choice once they can get their hands into the final product!
These changes have allowed us to improve the gameplay experience based on real input from real people, people who love MMO games. With Age of Conan we have set out to provide some unique MMO game experiences, of which the single player start is one. So with this new approach think it offers the best options for the players and has been reshaped to become something better and more involving then what we originally designed, and at the end of the day that is what matters most.
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