Tomes of Mephistopheles Interview
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FBF: Can you briefly explain the concept of the game, for people who might not have read anything about the game so far?
Clay: Tomes of Mephistopheles (ToM for short) is in essence a first person version of an old school RPG dungeon crawler with randomly generated dungeons, and potential for vast world sizes built upon various elements. ToM takes the typical dungeon crawler further by using collision based combat (if you swing your sword or cast a spell and it hits something, it actually hits it, no turn based combat or clunky targeting systems). Not only that, but ToM also allows for destruction of the dungeon with bombs or spells, and even allows AI to destroy walls to get to you. ToM is one of those games that allows the player to play both offline single player or take that same character or world online and share it with others. You can play co-op or compete against other players in PvP combat, or simply team up to manipulate the world and build upon it. You can even run a dedicated server if you want your world to be online, but you don't want to be online to keep it running.
Alex: To condense it even further, I would say imagine a marriage of Diablo and Hexen in the world of Terraria.
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FBF: You've opted to go for the playable alpha model, is this something you think will fit well within the genre?
Clay: Pretty much any AAA RPG I've ever played has shipped with bugs, and gets constant updating. With people playing the alpha, we should hear about bugs and requested features immediately. This works out well for everyone. Players don't have to wait to play the game in it's current state, we get bug testers, and the community gets to have major input on the direction of development.
Alex: Alpha funding is the only option we have if we want to get the game done in the timely manner. Steel Storm (our previous game) was done part-time. We worked on it for more than 3 years, on our free from day job time. If people buy the game now, it's a win-win situation. We can remain working full-time as game developers and gamers will get the game in approximately 2 years. If they wait for more content, that content could take years. It's up to the community, if they want to see this game developed quickly.
