Darkfall Interview
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Darkfall is a "next generation" massively multiplayer online role-playing game currently under development by a Norwegian company called Razorwax. We were able to track down Claus Grovdal, the Producer and Lead Designer of the game, to ask him an even twenty questions about several different aspects of the game. Here's what he had to say:Q: First of all, how about an introduction?
A: My name is Claus Grovdal, I am the Producer and Lead Designer of Darkfall, the MMORPG currently in development by Razorwax.
Q: How would you summarize Darkfall?
A: Darkfall is a next generation massively multiplayer online game, with all the features you would expect to see in a next generation MMORPG. In addition, Darkfall is highly geared towards player-run clans fighting other player-run clans for territories/kingdoms and resources.
Q: What motivated you to make Darkfall?
A: The fact that online roleplaying games are extremely fun to play. Everyone on the team love online roleplaying games. We decided that if we are going to spend 3 years making a game, we might aswell make something we really want to play ourselves. I dont think I would be happy spending 3 years, 70+ hours a week, working on say a Pinball game that I had no plans on playing when it was done.
Q: What is the feel of the world like? Is it a darker world?
A: We are aiming for a rather dark world, yes. It is a bit early to say exactly how dark it will be, as we are still in the concept stages when it comes to the ingame character/monster models, and we havent built much of the actual retail world yet. We are in the process of redesigning the races/character concept sketches, and we will make them a lot tougher and meaner looking than they are today.
Q: With PvP being an important aspect of the game, will players be able choose not to partake in it? ie. Craftsmen? And will those positions be fun?
A: It is true that PvP is an important aspect of Darkfall. However, we have more useful tradeskills than any existing game out there, at least designed on paper, so we are pretty confident that most players will find something in Darkfall they love. If you dont like the idea about fighting other players for territories and resources with your clan, you can volunteer to be the clan blacksmith, and supply your fighting friends with armor and weapons. You can be a farmer, growing food and spell reagents in your fields, and selling them to your clanmates. You dont have to fight other players to have fun in Darkfall. As a matter of fact, if we can get the world as big as we hope, you can sail your boat out to a remote island, build a house, and stay there hunting in the local forest or the nearby dungeons for weeks without seeing another player.
Q: What are the very unique aspects of Darkfall that separate it from other MMORPGs?
A: The fact that everything in the game is player controlled and player-run. Clans own territories and resources such as gold mines, iron mines, ports, etc. Your clan may ally with other clans, go to war with other clans, or hire other clans to fight for you, and so on. All the gameplay you could possibly want, and at the same time without sacrificing anything on the technology. Our 3D engine will be just as good as those 3D engines first person shooter fans are used to. We will be releasing new screenshots in a few weeks, showing some of the neat features of our game engine, such as dynamically created clouds (real clouds, not just a scrolling texture), real time dynamic lighting, smooth landscape, vegetation that moves in the wind (moving grass/trees, etc), and some other features that we are really excited about, but dont want to talk about just yet.
Q: How many servers do you plan on having for the game?
A: We have no idea at this point. It depends on how good our server code is, and obviously how many players we have.
