Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows Interview
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GB: How long has Seven Sorrows been in development? Have you recently reached any major milestones or ran into any unforeseen obstacles?
Josh: Seven Sorrows has been in development for a little over a year. We recently hit our (first playable) milestone, which is intended to present forgive the phrase a vertical slice of gameplay. It isn't polished, but it gives a rough idea of what the game will be like.
Also, we're recording a lot of the voice over lines now. Every bit of dialogue in the game has V.O. (well, except for one mute character), and I'm very happy with the quality and maturity of the actors so far.
GB: With your RPG background and John Romero's action background, what exactly should we expect from Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows? What are your primary goals for evolving the Gauntlet franchise?
Josh: Players should expect a more well-developed Gauntlet. We're trying to keep the core elements of the franchise intact: four-player co-op, easy controls, the classic characters, generators, Death, etc., but we want to give these things more depth.
The action is the heart of the gameplay. People can play it like a masher at low levels, but the fighting system is fairly involved compared to other Gauntlet titles. We have maneuvers that are typically not found in RPGs: trips, block-breaking, grabbing and throwing, counterattacking, juggling, and so on.
To support the action and provide long-term goals for players, we have a light RPG system in the game. Players can buy new combos for their characters and find increasingly powerful equipment to augment their fighting.
Most people play Gauntlet for the action, which is what the heart of the game has always been. For people who want a great story out of their games, we have a separate story mode. It's for one or two players and fully fleshes out the game world and the characters living in it. The player(s) alternate between the three pairs of characters (warrior and valkyrie, wizard and elf, lancer and tragedian) as they go through the story arc. Because the story mode is separated completely from the full-action (advance) mode, the story is quite deep. In terms of scope, it's more on par with a full RPG than an action game.
For multiplayer, we're working a number of new systems to make co-op play more enjoyable. The most obvious feature is our Junction Skill system. It allows the players to create geometric patterns in the environment that unlock magical effects between them. Juggling enemies also allows great opportunities for teammates to intercept targets mid-air with missile weapons. Another cool feature is a quick-chat system. If online players don't have a headset, they can use their shoulder buttons and analog stick to give quick commands in their character's voice. Multiplayer also gives team and individual challenges to characters. If you've played Paper Mario or Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, you probably are familiar with this type of gameplay element. At the beginning of a level, each character gets a challenge (e.g.: Don't use block!). Also, the team gets a challenge (Blue Elf is It! Don't let him fall below 50% health!). If players succeed at their challenges, they get keys. Keys allow characters to open special chests. Special chests always have better equipment drops than standard chests.
One of the coolest features we're adding is something called Perfection Matches. We're very excited about it. Perfection Matches are only available for characters of 45th level and higher. It's an online mode of play in which one player attempts to complete every map in (the best) way possible. (The best) being criteria defined by us, involving statistics ranging from map completion time and amount of damage done to amount of damage taken. Our central server calculates the character's score and stores his or her overall Perfection Rating for that level range. The challenge is staggering, because the generators on the level and the bosses scale in difficulty as though four characters were in the game. Just for completing a Perfection Match, the character receives a permanent (merit badge) next to their name. The top ten for each level bracket have their names displayed on our scoreboard on login, with the ultra-high score character listed as (The Perfect) for that type. So, when a player logs in with their valkyrie, they will see a scrolling scoreboard with (The Perfect Valkyrie) featured at the top.
GB: What engine is being used for Seven Sorrows, and how does its feature list compare to the Snowblind engine used for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath?
Josh: We are using a highly modified version of RenderWare. Our re-written renderer is beautiful. Seven Sorrows supports up to four players on Xbox and PS2. Online, up to four players can play in the same game with one or two people on a single box. Our camera views in Seven Sorrows are usually much lower and again, forgive the term, cinematic than cameras in DA and Norrath. When the player is running through the plague town of Penrhos, we don't want them looking at a dirt road. We want them to see the sun rising in the sky behind windmills on the moor.
GB: How much of a factor will equipment have in the game? Will magical weapons and armor have random prefixes and suffixes and/or can we expect to see powerful "unique" items?
Josh: Equipment plays a large role in the game. Characters use five types of equipment: armor (whole suits, not piecemeal), shields, weapons, rings, and amulets. We narrowed the type list down to five because we didn't want the player to spend a large amount of time in their inventory. We want them to focus on the action instead of trying to choose between eight different pauldrons and three types of vambraces. We use a full base item + suffix/prefix system for our random item generation. Color coding of the name instantly tells the player how rare the item is for their level range of drop.
Treasure normally drops from chests, not enemies. To prevent jerks from, well, being jerky, any time one character opens a chest, every character is assured a single drop. The only exceptions to this are special chests, which are only opened with challenge keys. Those chests, players have to race for.
The only truly unique items in the game are held by the title-holders of Perfection Match brackets. If a character is at the top of such a bracket, he or she not only receives a special temporary title in front of his or her name (Hero/Heroine, Champion, Master/Mistress, Perfect), but also becomes the temporary custodian of a useable trophy: a Perfection Item. Perfection Items are always weapons or shields and always have unique, extraordinary models and effects. They cannot be damaged, dropped, or traded, but the moment a character loses his or her title, the Perfection Item goes with them.
It's our little way of saying, (You, sir/madam, are the baddest of the bad. for now.)
GB: Tell us a bit about how inventory management will work in Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Will players be required to drop items to trade them, or will there be some sort of a trade window? Additionally, how will buying/selling items at a vendor work?
Josh: We've put a lot of thought into our inventory management because we've seen a lot of games like this be quickly ruined by bad interfaces. Our quick inventory system allows all four players to browse their inventory at the same time and still see what's going on in the game. If a player wants to, he or she can do a (give), which simply gives an item freely to another player. We also have a full barter screen where players can do secure trades of up to eight items at a time. The quick-chat system allows players without headsets to tell other players what equipment they are looking for.
Buying at vendors in story mode occurs at city hubs. It's not much different from any other action RPG. In advance mode, all of the characters can (virtually) access the stores in the hubs at the end of every stage. We don't want inventory management to be a chore.
GB: How many different weapons will be available for players to specialize in? What advantage will there be to be specialized in a weapon vs. using it as one of your "learned" styles?
Josh: There are six total weapon types with many different weapons under each type: Great Cleave, Great Pierce, Cleave, Pierce, Magic, and Unarmed. Each type covers a set of moves the character can do with any weapon of that type. Each character starts out being fairly skilled in their main weapon style and can expand the moves of two other types. For example, the warrior starts out with a lot of moves in the Great Cleave style. Players can finish out that tree or build up the Great Pierce and Cleave trees. On the other end of the spectrum, the wizard starts out with many Magic attacks. He can build up the Pierce and Cleave trees.
Specializing in a character's primary style allows the player to unlock every move in their set. Branching out into other styles gives the player increased flexibility because different styles are better for different situations. A simple right or left press on the DPad instantly switches styles, giving the player the opportunity to build long combos.
GB: How many different spells and/or skills will be available in Seven Sorrows, and how will these be broken down into the six different classes? Any particular favorites you can tell us about? Additionally, what sort of team-oriented "junction" skills can we expect to see?
Josh: Initially, every character type had a huge set of spells/special abilities. However, we quickly discovered that this made our control scheme very, very complicated. Complication is kind of (anti-Gauntlet), so we went in the opposite direction. Every character class has a unique class skill that functions much like a super attack. For the valkyrie, it is Flock, which calls down ravens on her enemies. For the warrior, it is Retribution, a defensive ability that allows players to mete out damage on attackers as they strike him. Really, the diversity between characters comes in what weapon skills/combos they learn and what equipment they find.
Currently, we have twelve Junction Skills in the game. They are very easy to execute, but demand teamwork to use well. Players who set down too many seals or seals in bad locations can make a junction pattern ineffective. The effects are all area effect and range from healing zones to circles of hail that rain down on enemies. One of the more complex patterns is a four-seal junction called Annihilate. It summons a column of floating discs that fly through enemies when they enter the circles around them.
GB: Will there be a quest system in the game, perhaps even with class-specific quests for each of the game's six characters? If so, are all of these quests part of the main storyline or will players be able to accept any side quests to earn extra experience or treasure?
Josh: We tried to approach Seven Sorrows as an action game, primarily. In advance mode, players can choose to do areas in whatever order they want, but within areas, the maps flow very linearly. We wanted to spend as much time as possible on high quality core content. Overall, quests are more directly related to tasks at hand. However, we often have side arenas that are more challenging than the core arenas. These areas often give more treasure as rewards for completion.
In the story mode of the game, the characters always have goals and motivation wherever they go. The big quests of the game involve the characters undoing the seven sorrows of a powerful, deranged emperor. Most of the subsequent little quests are incidental to reaching that goal. We didn't want the player to feel like they were (doing quests) as much as just playing through the logical flow of the story and area. If it ever feels like a chore, we've failed.
GB: Can you tell us how the two new character classes will complement the four existing characters? What specific skills or abilities did you feel were missing from the classic Gauntlet classes?
Josh: The lancer and tragedian are the two new characters, and they both hail from an African-inspired land alternately called Ajanaku Orile and Indlopha.
The lancer is an aristocratic cavalier whose beloved mounts fabled (Great Ones) were slaughtered by the empire. He is very proud and well-educated, and quickly wears on the nerves of the characters. In the story, he often serves as a foil to the other (heroes). His primarily weapon style is Great Pierce: long two-handed thrusting weapons. His attacks are very graceful and acrobatic, often using a weapon for vaulting or spinning overhead in a dangerous pattern.
The tragedian is the strangest character in the game. Though she is from the same culture as the lancer, she shares little in common with him. The tragedian was part of a terrorist group that operated against the empire. After she was captured, she was tortured for years. Her face and mouth are so mutilated that she cannot speak, and she wears her tragedy mask at all times. She uses a prostitute's form of sign language, called Harlot's Tongue, to communicate with some of the other characters in the game. Her combat style is (Unarmed). It's a bit of a misnomer, because she uses weapons like punch daggers, cesti, claws, etc. while performing her lightning-fast attacks.
There weren't really existing skills or abilities that we thought the old Gauntlet characters needed. It was more a matter of adding depth to what was traditionally there. If a player wants to, he or she can mash away with the attacks, super attacks, and (peashooter) missile weapon. But for those who want to take the game beyond the basics, there's a lot to unlock and master.
GB: What should we expect from the game's AI? Will some of the tougher adversaries in the game exhibit teamwork of their own or even use specific strategies against the players?
Josh: Our Monster Men are operating under the maxim that a large number of distinctly different, simple behaviors can be recombined endlessly to make every arena a new and exciting challenge. It's not so much about making the enemies think as making the players think. This isn't a stealth game or a tactical shooter. Once you're in the arena, it's go-time. So we want to make sure that the actions of the enemies in the arenas vary highly to keep the player on his or her toes.
That said, some of the human enemies will display organization and teamwork, especially with leaders. The leaders allow human enemies to tactically position themselves around characters, preventing the player from dealing with them easily. When the leaders die, the teamwork falls apart.
GB: Tell us a bit about the adversaries we'll be facing. will we be going up against "boss" enemies? Due to the removal of potions, how will players regain health or mana during a difficult battle with just one major foe (if "boss" enemies exist)?
Josh: There are a lot of different enemy types in the game. They range from the mundane imperial footmen to the grotesque (biped hosts) of Ghost Tree Swamp (ooOOoOoOoOoh!). Human enemies have their pros and cons. They are usually more intelligent and difficult than monstrous enemies, but they are easily grabbed and thrown into spikes on the wall, spinning blades in a lumber mill, over convenient nearby cliffs, etc.
There are number of bosses and minibosses in the game. The team has divided the enemies into (posse) bosses and (solo) bosses. Posse bosses are the proverbial G-Unit of Seven Sorrows: backing up their 50 Cent when the bullets, er. arrows start flying. Players can kill the posses to regain health during the battle. Solo bosses will generously dispense ley energy when they hit certain health breakpoints during the battle. All things considered, they are very reasonable fellows considering their destructive nature.
GB: Can you give us some details on how the online component will be set up? How will players search for an appropriate game to join and will there be any sort of deterrent to keep cheaters at bay?
Josh: The online component is set up through GameSpy (PS2) and Xbox Live (duh). Players can sort according to level range, maps, and, of course, the presence of their Buddies/Friends â„¢ © ®. Seven Sorrows has a peer-to-peer set-up online and is linked to central servers. Online characters are kept online and the central server tracks item drops. Also, because of the way loot is given out, standard treasure can never be stolen. The special chests are intentionally limited, so competition for those is encouraged. We're really designing this to be a co-op game, not a screw-over-your-friends-and-be-a-huge-jackass game.
Thanks Josh!
