Matt Frior is the partner in an interview with the guys at Ferrago. The topic is, of course, Dark Age of Camelot and the astonishing fact that it is released on time *g*:
First off, quite remarkably, DAoC is on schedule for your release date. I'm sure every other developer would love to know how on earth you managed this? Whips? Programmers and Artists chained to their desks, or what?
We use more enlightened methods, such as threats of bodily harm, extortion, and occasionally resorting to "culling of the herd". Seriously, though, we have a lot of experience making online games, and this has helped us throughout the project's life. We already had a head start on the graphical engine for the game (modified from the one that we used in our FPS, Spellbinder: the Nexus Conflict). Our server technology also was
pre-developed for lots of other games from Magestorm up to and including Spellbinder. With all these pieces in place, we had a big head start on the project even before we started.
Given the fact that you're on schedule, what would you say to answer concerns of the players out there who have been burnt by those recently released Massively Multiplayer Online Games that were, shall we say, "Released in a not entirely ready format"?
We plan on continually adding more content to Dark Age of Camelot as the game matures. This means that we are launching with a stable base, and enough content to make a viable, fun game. With this stable base we can continue to add more features (quests, models, monsters, sounds, animations, etc.) without too much worry about other stability bugs. |
DAoC: Interview with Matt Frior
