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Savage 2 Interview June 28, 2006 John JCal Callaham |
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Summary: JCal sits down with S2 games and discusses Savage 2, their sequel to the first person/real time strategy multiplayer game.
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 2 ) |
FiringSquad: First, what lessons did S2 Games learn in the making of Savage?
Marc DeForest: Savage 1 was our first title and our first attempt at creating games. We were all pretty much rookies, so if I were list everything we learned this answer would be 10 pages. I’ll point out a few important things though. We learned that deadlines are important and we must work hard to achieve them but NOTHING should get in the way of achieving the level of quality and polish we have set forth to achieve.. We learned a lot about project management in both asset delivery and programming. We learned to balance “cool factors” with “fun factors” as they are not always the same.
To sum it up I would say we learned a lot about what is necessary to create an awesome game. We also learned many things not to do when developing software and I think that will be obvious when comparisons are made between Savage 2 and the Prequel.
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FiringSquad: When the time came to begin development of the sequel what were the team's main goals?
Marc DeForest: Our main goal was to capitalize on the success of Savage 1 while making a game that would be easier to understand and pick up while offering the same intense gameplay experience as the original. One of the biggest ways to create a game that was easier to play was including a tutorial and taking the level of polish and interface development up about 10 notches.
Our secondary goal was to continue to provide out of the box, innovative thinking when it came to making games. We feel there are so many more combinations of play styles that can make for better gaming experiences that are just ignored because executives at large publishers fear the unknown.
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FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the playable sides for Savage 2 and how they compare to the sides in the original game?
Marc DeForest: The playable sides are still Human versus Beast with the addition of a hidden race that can be accessed by both sides called the Hellbourne. The Hellbourne are very powerful specialty units that are purchased with Souls that are collected from killing an enemy player.
Units on each side are more specialized than in the prequel and have special abilities they can perform. This adds a lot of depth and strategy to the unit combinations a team chooses whereas the original was simply bigger units with more hitpoints and more damage.
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FiringSquad: What sort of improvements have been made to make the FPS and RTS gameplay work better together?
Marc DeForest: We didn’t feel many improvements were necessary to make the combination of gameplays work better. However, we did add additional RTS elements to the game and drastically cleaned up the RTS interface and controls. One of the beast units has the ability to summon pets and use an RTS view to command them. Also, Officers, which are essentially FPS Action units have a hybrid view where they can zoom out to an RTS top down view and command the units around them.
We made changes to the commander to become more tactically oriented and allow him / her to cast spell onto the battlefield and be more involved late game.
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FiringSquad: What are the development team's favorite units and weapons to use in the game at the moment?
Marc DeForest: Our favorite units are the Summoner, a beast unit that summons pets; the Behemoth, a massive tree wielding siege unit; and Malphas, a powerhouse Hellbourne unit.
| Savage 2 Interview (con't) | Page:: ( 2 / 2 ) |
Marc DeForest: While other RTS elements were added to the game, we have limited the commander’s ability to ruin a match for their entire team. With the addition of the builder units, in the event a team has a lousy commander, action players can take it upon themselves to pool gold and build the necessary structures to gain access to better weaponry, items, and units.
We’ve also added team experience. Now your team, as well as your character, level up. An addition to leveling up, for both individual players and the team, is the ability to increase base factors of health, regeneration, armor, damage, and mana. Each level 3 percentage points are granted to allot to any of the above mentioned factors. In example, a level 5 character could have a 15% increase in health (5 levels, 3 points each level all put into health bonus) as well as 15% more damage (the commander could have used all 15 percentage points for damage bonus).
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One big complaint about Savage 1 was the learning curve (which we hope to solve through better interface and tutorials). Along with the large learning curve was the frustration of getting owned while you were trying to pick up the basics. Now, not only did we add a tutorial and a much more intuitive and informative interface, but we also have allowed server admins to set their servers experience level. Each account (all players play through a single account) has persistent experience, meaning all the experience they have earned in all their matches played is tallied to their overall account experience. While this doesn’t give any player an advantage over another, it allows other players and servers to see their experience level. We can then have groups of servers for lower level, medium level, higher level, and expert level players. This will allow everyone to compete against players with similar game experience and skill.
I could go on and on with this question but I’ll discuss one more gameplay addition and call it quits :) Items play a role in all matches, items like health packs, mana packs, damage boosters, etc… Additionally to items that can be purchased in the loadout screen are item drops. Higher level NPCs and players have a chance of dropping a slightly more powerful and rare item. Now keep in mind, player skill is the most important aspect to doing well in Savage 2. Therefore, no single item (or level) will give any player an overly distinct advantage over another. So, while these items won’t guarantee you victory over your opponent they could offer just that slight difference to edge you forward in a skirmish. With the addition of persistent items you can now save up to 5 of these items in your players vault. When you enter a server to join a match you may then pull 2 of these items to bring with you. When you exit a match you may then save items retrieved during the match.
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FiringSquad: How will the game's matchmaking and multiplayer server features work?
Marc DeForest: Each player (account) in Savage 2 retains persistent stats from game to game. In each match a player earns experience and that experience from match to match is pooled into overall account experience. This experience is used to tally a “level” associated with that account and give us some sort of understanding of that player’s ability and play experience. This is a key feature in breaking matches up into levels. This means there will be servers set up for level 1-10, 11-25, 26-40, and 41+ Higher level players can join lower level matches but a handicap will be applied to their stats allowing newer players the chance to learn the ropes without getting annihilated by seasoned players.
The master server / match list will be very familiar to FPS gamers and will have the standard filter tools to find a match that suits them perfectly.
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FiringSquad: What are some of the cooler graphical features in the game?
Marc DeForest: Savage 2 is developed on our proprietary K2 Engine. The engine allows for dynamic self shadowing, point lighting, complex pixel shaders and many other features that are found on today’s most advanced engines.
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FiringSquad: Will there be any mod support for Savage 2 like there was for the original?
Marc DeForest: We will allow modding with full release of the SDK. However, we will not allow small minor changes to the Savage 2 gameplay. We expect mods to be full conversions of the original game. We have a few unique ways to motivate our community into making mods, including big contests and income opportunities.
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FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the progress towards the game's beta test?
Marc DeForest: We have about 95% of the games art assets completed and we’re feverishly working to complete a few programming challenges and we expect to hit our date of July 31 for initiation of the beta phase of development.
FiringSquad: Is everything still on track for the game to be released this fall?
Marc DeForest: We are currently shooting for a Nov 15 launch date and have confidence that we will hit it. However, we will not sacrifice quality and polish to hit that date.
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FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Savage 2?
Marc DeForest: Savage 1 was a game that is LOVED by its current fan base. It was very unique in its gameplay and offered players something new, different and exciting. However, the execution was not perfect. It was our first go ‘round at game development. We have identified any shortcomings Savage 1 may have had, we have identified a lot of additional gameplay features that would make a sequel more exciting, and we’ve dedicated ourselves to putting out one of the greatest games of 2006 and beyond. If you want to play something that is fun, looks great, and offers endless replayability, you must give Savage 2 a try. If you tried Savage 1 and weren’t 100% sold, you must try Savage 2, while it is based upon the same core concept of Savage 1, it picks up MANY of the fallen pieces. If you played Savage 1 and loved Savage 1, Savage 2 will be all of Savage 1 plus a whole lot more.
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