|
Fallen Age Interview
| Interview
With: Daniel
"Savant" Manachi |
| Conducted
By: Hilario
'NightHawk' Coimbra |
| Date
Posted: Wednesday,
July 18, 2001 |
First of all, could you please tell us how
long you have been working on Fallen Age and what is your role in it?
I'm Daniel "Savant" Manachi - and I'm the Producer of Fallen
Age and all our Online Games here at Netamin. Being a small company, I
pretty much do everything. Heh. Don't laugh, it's true. :) I do our
promotions, handle most of the PR, I make the budgets, make the schedules,
design our t-shirts, design our boxes, and just about anything else you
can think of minus actually programming or modeling the game itself. :)
Can you tell the readers what kind of game
Fallen Age is and what is so innovative about it? Also, what types of
genres are mixed into this game?
Fallen Age is innovative not because it does one thing so unique, but
because it brings together so many genre's together into one great game.
First, it's not just Fantasy or just Science Fiction, but a Sci-Fi Fantasy
game, where you have a mixture of both genres. Second, it's not just an
RPG, and not just a TBS or RTS, but all those three combined -- Not only
do you play an avatar and level up, find equipment, do quests, and kill
monsters... but you also manage an entire colony with its own army and
economy.
How do all of these mix in together? What I
mean by this is: How does a player go from adventuring with his/her
character to running their city? What is the transition?
The views are a little different and at times it may feel like you're
playing two different games, but in truth, you eventually realize how
great the two go together. Not only because of the interaction between the
two, but because it keeps the game fresh and exciting for so long. The
transition is pretty seamless: The player finds a "Colony Tower"
and clicks on it to be transported to his colony.
Do players have the option of just adventuring
or just running their colony or must they do both?
Yes and No. A player can technically only play the RPG, but it's in his
best interest to use colony (he won't be able to access a bank or
warehouse (to store items) without first building them in his colony). A
player also gains access to his colony at level 30, so playing the RPG for
at least that long is a must -- but again, the advantages to playing both
is greater than just one or the other.
While in adventure mode, can players walk into
their own city? Could they walk into other players cities?
No... As we saw in other games with housing (Ultima Online) it really
clutters up the landscape with housing sprawl to allow for this. So while
we'd love to do it, we had to take into consideration that instead of just
a single house, players were now getting entire colonies (dozens of
houses, factories, stores, etc.) to manage. They are separate.
Could you explain what Nations are and the way
they fit into the game.
Nations are Guilds. They not only offer some really cool features in
the RPG aspect of the game (such as a warehouse for the guild, or guild
wars, or a huge capture the flag system), but also in Colony mode, where
Nations are teamed together to try and take over the server.
How does the traveling system work in Fallen
Age? Do you have to walk real distances to parts of the world or are you
'magically' transported there by the server?
Both. You run most places, but there are recall spells that bring you
back to your home town. We're also adding in special compasses you'll be
able to set to certain places that can transfer you as well.
Could you explain what Guardians are and their
role in the game and the servers? How often will a server be administered
by one of these Guardians?
Guardians are our GameMasters. They will handle all the in-game support
and help run quests and what have you.
Now to a more technical point of view. What
are the requirements for Fallen Age?
Minimum Requirements
Pentium Celeron 433
64M Ram
170MB hard drive space
3D card
33600 modem
Recommended Requirements
Pentium II 400
128M Ram
300MB hard drive space
3D card (16M)
56K modem
Servers can hold up to 1500. How reliable are
these servers? Are they undergoing rigorous testing during the beta?
Our servers, thus far, have been incredibly stable. We haven't crashed
a single time (isn't that unbelievable?) We have had no lag, and have been
quite impressed and pleased with how it's going so far.
Fallen Age was only unveiled to the world a
couple weeks prior to the beta. Why did you hold out for so long?
Because we were just as tired of waiting through 3 years of hype for a
game to come out as much as the players were. We're in this for them, and
thus, really wanted to make sure they didn't have a terribly long wait
from the time they heard about the game from when they could actually play
it.
What are your hopes for this game? Fallen Age
is clearly a breathtakingly whole new aspect towards gaming. How do you
think it will fair against other Online rivals? Do you hope to set a new
path for gaming?
I hope Fallen Age will do well. It offers many things nobody else does
-- Such as, we're the only game sticking to a quality 2D RPG feel, while
at the same time, being the first Massive Multiplayer Turn Based
Simulation and Real Time Strategy game. I think it's this combination of
old and new, along with our dedication the players that will keep us going
strong.
Do I hope to set a new path for gaming? Heh, I don't quite know how to
answer that. I just like making games. :)
Can you tell us when you are shooting to
release Fallen Age?
Before the end of this year!
Do you have any other comments you would like
to share with the world?
Hi Mom. :)
I would like to deeply
thank Daniel Manachi for his time and wish the best of luck to Fallen
Age.
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