Archive for December 2003

Atriarch Developer Q&A #5 Monday, December 15, 2003 - 1:09 AM [Filed by xith]

The ATV Atriarch Developer Question#5 is up! Lepidus: There is always a debate between those who want a skill based game and those who want a class based title. Which route have you chosen and can you explain character progression in Atriarch? In Atriarch, you will always be progressing. There is always a skill you will be improving. Even if you are just standing there living in the world, then it makes sense that you are improving at some skill, even if it is just an "age" or "living" type skill. In real life, we are the sum of everything we do. Even if you do absolutely nothing, you still gain some experience that will influence you later. That is our philosophy with Atriarch. Your character is the sum of everything you do. The only way to really reflect that is to have a skills-based game, and to make everything a skill... Lepidus: As with any game that has not yet secured a publisher, there is a worry that it will never see the light of day. What options do you have for Atriarch and how long until you have such plans finalized? Currently, Atriarch has an Asian publisher, and is still open to the possibility of a North American and European publisher relationship. Whether we go independent or with a large publisher, both have tradeoffs. I think the most important aspect for the Atriarch team is that we are dedicated to getting Atriarch out there. Since we are independent, it is taking us a bit longer, but we are still moving forward. That is one of the joys of being independent...

Dearly Departed DQ Monday, December 15, 2003 - 1:09 AM [Filed by xith]

Farewell to a good friend and Atriarch team member, David "DavidQuick" Kniseley, who passed away on Thursday. We will miss you very much. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family. David made immeasurable contributions to the Atriarch community and team. His good hearted nature helped foster a thriving and active community of spirited gamers. Not only did he spend a lot of time building up the Atriarch Vault, but he also found time to contribute artwork, ideas, and fiction. Recognizing his talent and dedication, we hired him to help with Atriarch's content management. Although a tedious job, he embraced the challenge with zest and determination. Amongst David's many creative talents, some of you may remember his infamous two-foot tall ceramic statues of the Atriarch Character Species. During the past years, many people have come to call David their friend. If you would like to post something about David, there is a memorial thread on the Atriarch Vault that you are welcome to join.

Atriarch Developer Q&A #4 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 1:09 AM [Filed by xith]

The ATV Atriarch Developer Question#4 is up! Lepidus: The world your developing for Atriarch is one of the most alluring aspects of the title. Can you explain how exactly you guys come up with all the crazy aspects of your game's lore? The alien and organic world of Atriarch was originally a human-based fort game. Basically, Arc and myself thought it would cool to have a game where you could build a fort and fight over it in a vast 3D online world. So, several years ago we embarked on our journey to build an MMOG. Very soon after that wanted to make it something more... a real world, like all of our favorite fantasy and sci-fi epics. You know, the types of worlds that you wish you could reach out and touch! Lepidus: World Fusion is taking a very unique approach to the development of an MMO. Can you explain what your doing different from regular a MMO development process? The first iteration of any feature is the absolute minimum (and when I say minimum, I really mean bare bones, not even any bone marrow). This allows us to get things in the world really quickly and at a basic level find out whether or not they will work out the way we think. Early on in the process we find out if a game feature is fun or stupid or even reasonably doable technically. This approach has saved our butts a few times on things we could have spent a lot of time working on, but realized early on it was the wrong direction.

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