Earthrise Interview
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Eurogamer: Sci-fi MMOs don't seem to do too well. Star Wars Galaxies struggles and Tabula Rasa sank; only EVE Online has made a really significant contribution. What's going wrong?
Atanas Atanasov: There's lots of ground for improvement in the sci-fi genre. It isn't the IP, but game production problems. I don't want to comment on specific titles, but it's important for fans to see a game stick to its original promises - the game they wanted to play.
Eurogamer: And what are your promises?
Atanas Atanasov: We're not going to release Earthrise before all the promised gameplay features are included. We're designing a skill-based game, we will have crafting in a much more advanced form than other games, and we'll have PVP action. Once those gameplay features are in place we will release the title. We don't want to skip any of those things because we've promised them to our fans. And that's the first thing we're planning to do differently.
The second thing is that the game design and concept is a bit different. For example, the skill-based system and the crafting are not very popular at the moment, and they offer a different approach for an MMO. Then there's the post-apocalyptic setting itself with some sci-fi themes, which is also very unique in the genre; most of the sci-fi MMOs so far have been space-based, with spaceships and planets. The action of Earthrise is based on the planet Earth after the apocalypse.
Eurogamer: A bit like Fallout 3?
Atanas Atanasov: Yeah. Fallout but with more technology, and, I would say, more creatures which are not just humanoid mutants.
