Mage Knight: Apocalypse Interview

PC gamers are certainly not at a loss of point and click action RPGs. From the early days of Diablo, to later releases such as Balder's Gate and even the recently released Dungeon Siege II: Broken World, it seems as if these games are slowly overtaking first-person shooters as PC enthusiasts' token gaming genre. Not to say that these games are not a good time, but nine times out of ten these are released as mere reskinned and rehashed experiences, re-boxed, shrink wrapped, and sold under a new name to an unwitting public.

Few are the point and click action RPGs for the PC that actually attempt to try something different, and fewer still are those that succeed. That is why when Namco Bandai first announced the development of Mage Knight: Apocalypse, an upcoming PC action RPG based on the popular collectible miniature game from WizKids Games, we gave the title a sideways, questionable glance. Licensed properties have never been known as a wellspring for gaming innovation. However, when the game was unveiled at E3 2005, it actually looked solid, but since that time little news has been released regarding the game or its development.

To that end, we tracked down Dave Georgeson, one of the game's senior producers who, along with fellow senior producer Chris Wren, has worked on the creative vision and production of Mage Knight: Apocalypse.

Hi Dave. I wanted to ask, before coming on board with Mage Knight, what other titles had you worked on? And how has working on this project differed from your previous work?

Most of my previous titles are FPS squad action games like Tribes 2, PlanetSide and a few others. I got my feet wet in the industry a loooong time ago doing design work on the original AD&D "gold box" games with SSI, and I've done some other RPG stuff from time to time.

Very cool. So looking to Mage Knight, the game itself features five playable characters. How different these characters, and do these characters change over the course of the game based on choices made by the player?

They're extremely different from one another. They not only each have three different unique skill trees each, but they also use widely different varieties of weapons, armor and items. In other words, every character is a radically different play experience from the others.

And why were these five characters chosen from the Mage Knight universe?

Two reasons: First, we wanted to pull characters from five different diverse backgrounds in the Land so we had great reasons to visit so many different places during our adventures. Secondly, we wanted those five widely varied play experiences, depending on which character you chose to play. Those two reasons combined to make our choices easy for us -- Draconum, Dwarf, Human (amazon), Vampire and Elf. There are a lot of other races in the Land, but those five piqued our interest the most.

Are some of the characters designed to be used by players of varied skill levels? Will a novice player have an easier time with one character over another, for example?

A novice player? What is that exactly nowadays? How long has it been since you talked to someone that had never played a computer game before?

But if they're truly a beginner, they might consider playing a melee character to start with (like the amazon or dwarf). Really, all the characters have a huge amount of skills they can grow into and the learning curve is intentionally set up so that anyone can get into this game easily.

What sorts of options will we see as far as character customization?

To start with, there are facial options, skin and hair color…that sort of thing. Once you're in the game and adventuring, you'll either loot or buy all kinds of equipment that can change the way you look and customize your abilities. Additionally, you'll be learning scores of skills that further define your character AND your characteristics (like strength, agility, etc.) grow based on what you do within the game. There's literally no way to make a carbon copy of someone else's character. By the time you're halfway through the single player campaign, even one time, your character should be so unique you won't be able to find a clone, even on-line.

So items can be found or dropped by enemies, as well as bought in a town. Are there multiple towns in the game?

There are five towns in the game (and one or two other places you can buy things also.)

One thing that action RPGs usually feature is a vast amount of items that can be collected, from the mundane to the exceedingly rare. Will we see a large number of different items in the game? Are there any unique items in the game?

Oh yeah. Tons of items. Thousands. Literally. And even our unique items have several different unique variations. There's plenty to explore on that front.

Do you have a favorite item, and if so what is it?

Not yet, I don't. I quite like Captain Durin's gatling gun (you'll meet Captain Durin at Silverholt), but I haven't found it as loot yet…and I don't often cheat to get stuff like that. So I'll have to experience delayed gratification when I finally get it.

Does encumbrance figure into how much can be carried at a given time, or it purely a matter of fitting what you can within a sub-screen of limited size, similar to what we saw with games like Dungeon Siege or Diablo?

Neither, really. We don't use encumbrance, and we also don't do the "Tetris"-style inventory system either. Your backpack (and the town stash bin) just have a bunch of slots in them. You can carry as many unique items as you have slots. Items of the same name stack, so that you can carry (for example), 25 Weak Healing Potions in the same slot. It's friendly and easy to use.

Can you describe how the skill tree system works? Will we be able to "buy" skills on the tree, or is it based purely on advancing skills depending on what are being used most often?

The skills unlock automatically as you progress through the game, but that's only at Rank One. To rank the skills farther than that, you actually have to *use* them. The more you use them, the more you rank them up.

Most skills unlock based on your attribute levels, and attributes rank up based on the actions you perform in the game. So…swing that sword a lot and you'll get stronger. Get stronger, and you'll find more Martial skills unlocking for your character. If you cast spells a lot instead, you'll find your INT and WIS getting larger…which will unlock even more spell skills. So you see…you get more of whatever you do the most.

The game scales in difficulty as the character goes up in level, correct? If so, what is the incentive to get more powerful if the monsters will always be strong enough to soak up everything you can dish out. Where is the sense of accomplishment if you can't occasionally bowl over a group of bad guys and puff out your chest?

You will definitely feel like you've advanced. You'll be dishing out huge amounts of damage with advanced skills, you'll have better items and equipment (with special powers of their own), and the monsters will change as you progress also.

The game has dynamic scaling in it, but that doesn't mean that "all encounters are the same". That's not true by any means.

Additionally, having dynamic scaling in the game also allows us to do something rather fun: You can take your single-player character into multiplayer, play for as long as you'd like, and THEN come back to your single-player save and use that character still…even with the extra experience and items you gained on-line. Do you see how that's an advantage? Most games require different characters between single- and multiplayer games. Mage Knight: Apocalypse doesn't.

As an action RPG, to which genre does Mage Knight favor? Is it mostly focused on combat or questing, or is it a mixture of the two? To put it a different way, is the focus of the game action or plot?

The focus of Mage Knight: Apocalypse is action. After all, this is an action RPG. However, that being said, we've put a LOT of effort into the storyline, the pace and drama of the action and the cutscenes and dialog you experience within the game. Those move the action along and keep you from getting into a rut of action after action, while also involving your character in the story much more than you might be used to from other games in this genre.

It's definitely an action RPG…but one where you'll enjoy the story, and you'll hopefully have more fun because of that.

Speaking of questing, what is your favorite side quest in the game?

Talk to Dalia in Silverholt and help her out with the Gnarled Woods. You may find it interesting what occurs when you go on that mission.

How are quests given out? How much does conversation with NPCs figure into Mage Knight?

Conversation is huge in Mage Knight: Apocalypse. You can talk to tons of people in the game, and most of them are quite gabby. Of course, it's easy to skip the stuff you don't need (by just concentrating on the NPCs with golden exclamation points over their heads for the critical stuff), but lots of folks have info that will flesh out the storyline and give you perspectives on the Land and its peoples.

Switching gears a bit, it seems as if action RPGs have become exceedingly common, given the popularity of games like Dungeon Siege. Does this game differ significantly in any way from other action RPGs, and if so - how? What will set it apart?

"Exceedingly common"? Really? Okay. Does Mage Knight: Apocalypse differ from the others? You bet. Our story is deeper, our camera is a free-camera (like in MMOs) so that you're not stuck in a top-down perspective, you eventually run a party of you, plus four sidekick characters that join your quest as you adventure, the world is rich and new to computer gamers, and we even have crafting in the game (forging and potion making). It's really quite different than other games that get lumped into the "action RPG" genre along with Mage Knight: Apocalypse.

Interesting. But does Mage Knight stick with the established gameplay convention of pointing and clicking found in other action RPGs? Has anything new been introduced, such as combos for instance?

We *like* pointing and clicking. But sure, we have three different movement methods in the game (you pick which one you use, or you can use all three simultaneously), we allow you to click-and-hold to stream attacks at a monster (instead of having to click, click, click all the time), and we've borrowed a few tricks from MMOs by allowing you to fire skills directly from the 1-8 number keys. It's pretty streamlined.

Earlier you mentioned "sidekick characters" that will join you in the game. Does Mage Knight allow you to invest in hirelings? Sometimes it helps to have an extra sword to watch your back.

You don't have to invest. As you progress through Mage Knight: Apocalypse, you will encounter other "Oathsworn" that will join your cause, swelling your ranks until eventually, you are running a party of five heroes (you, plus four NPCs).

How does magic work in Mage Knight? Specifically how is its use different depending on the character being used?

The Draconum and vampire characters both use Mana to cast spells, but the Elf uses Faith (gained by granting peace to the souls of the fallen on the battlefield). The Dwarf has an overheat gauge (which increases when he uses black powder weapons) and the Amazon has an energy gauge that she uses to switch between the different Bear, Eagle, and Jaguar stances and skills. Each character is quite different from the others, and there's lots to experience as you try each one.

What sorts of opponents can we expected to see in Mage Knight? Were each of these taken from the Mage Knight license, or were some created specially for the game?

We have more than 120 unique monsters in Mage Knight: Apocalypse. We'll be getting a rogue's gallery up on our website soon, but it's not there quite yet. Look for it in a couple of weeks.

If you know Mage Knight, then you'll be familiar with the Shyft, Draconum, Atlanteans, Orcs, Amazons, Necropolis, and the hordes of others that we've pulled from that universe. We even have some completely new stuff that you've probably never seen.

How robust is the multiplayer interface and experience? Is it simply an additional feature, or is it a full-fledged system with rankings and so forth?

The multiplayer is a cooperative experience. You, plus four of your good friends, can start your own server and play the entire game from beginning to end, if you so desire. Kind of like having your own MMO on a private server…and you don't have to pay a monthly fee for it.

We concentrated on creating a cooperative experience so that players because a competitive multiplayer experience doesn't really fit the mood or the intent of what we wanted to provide in this game.

What, in your mind, has been the most challenging obstacle to overcome during the development of Mage Knight?

The time zone differences. The dev team is in Taiwan, and we're in California. But we figured it out and things have been going smoothly for a long time now.

Finally, thanks for speaking will us today regarding the game. Is there anything you would like to add?

There sure is. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is "just another in a string of action RPGs". Take a minute to look at the AVIs when they're available, and check out the demo when it's released later on. This is not another Diablo clone. Mage Knight: Apocalypse has something new to offer.

Aug 10, 2006 - 5:55 am | 0 comments
Jason Dobson