Darkfall is a “next generation” massively multiplayer online role-playing game currently under development by a Norwegian company called Razorwax. We were able to track down Claus Grovdal, the Producer and Lead Designer of the game, to ask him an even twenty questions about several different aspects of the game. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: First of all, how about an introduction?
A: My name is Claus Grovdal, I am the Producer and Lead Designer of Darkfall, the MMORPG currently in development by Razorwax.
Q: How would you summarize Darkfall?
A: Darkfall is a next generation massively multiplayer online game, with all the features you would expect to see in a next generation MMORPG. In addition, Darkfall is highly geared towards player-run clans fighting other player-run clans for territories/kingdoms and resources.
Q: What motivated you to make Darkfall?
A: The fact that online roleplaying games are extremely fun to play. Everyone on the team love online roleplaying games. We decided that if we are going to spend 3 years making a game, we might aswell make something we really want to play ourselves. I dont think I would be happy spending 3 years, 70+ hours a week, working on say a Pinball game that I had no plans on playing when it was done.
Q: What is the feel of the world like? Is it a darker world?
A: We are aiming for a rather dark world, yes. It is a bit early to say exactly how dark it will be, as we are still in the concept stages when it comes to the ingame character/monster models, and we havent built much of the actual retail world yet. We are in the process of redesigning the races/character concept sketches, and we will make them a lot tougher and meaner looking than they are today.
Q: With PvP being an important aspect of the game, will players be able choose not to partake in it? ie. Craftsmen? And will those positions be fun?
A: It is true that PvP is an important aspect of Darkfall. However, we have more useful tradeskills than any existing game out there, at least designed on paper, so we are pretty confident that most players will find something in Darkfall they love. If you dont like the idea about fighting other players for territories and resources with your clan, you can volunteer to be the clan blacksmith, and supply your fighting friends with armor and weapons. You can be a farmer, growing food and spell reagents in your fields, and selling them to your clanmates. You dont have to fight other players to have fun in Darkfall. As a matter of fact, if we can get the world as big as we hope, you can sail your boat out to a remote island, build a house, and stay there hunting in the local forest or the nearby dungeons for weeks without seeing another player.
Q: What are the very unique aspects of Darkfall that separate it from other MMORPGs?
A: The fact that everything in the game is player controlled and player-run. Clans own territories and resources such as gold mines, iron mines, ports, etc. Your clan may ally with other clans, go to war with other clans, or hire other clans to fight for you, and so on. All the gameplay you could possibly want, and at the same time without sacrificing anything on the technology. Our 3D engine will be just as good as those 3D engines first person shooter fans are used to. We will be releasing new screenshots in a few weeks, showing some of the neat features of our game engine, such as dynamically created clouds (real clouds, not just a scrolling texture), real time dynamic lighting, smooth landscape, vegetation that moves in the wind (moving grass/trees, etc), and some other features that we are really excited about, but dont want to talk about just yet.
Q: How many servers do you plan on having for the game?
A: We have no idea at this point. It depends on how good our server code is, and obviously how many players we have.
Q: How customizable will our character avatars be? (ie face, size, etc)
A: This varies slightly from race to race, but hairstyles, facial features etc. will be pretty customizable. We have a list of priorities for Darkfall, with spell/skill PvP/tradeskill balance being priority 1, and stuff like player customization being… let’s say priority 7.
Q: In your FAQ, you say you will have neat features when it comes to races to make up for only having 6 races. Can you say anything about those features at this point in development?
A: No we cant say anything about this just yet. But if it goes in the game, it will be neat 😉
Q: Wow! You guys said you will have 500 spells and 500 skills at release, will all the different skills/spells be unique from each other or will some be needed to perform other skills?
A: They are all unique, ranging from skills that have a huge impact, such as Hide, that make you hard to spot, to lesser skills such as Combat Tactics that just add some bonuses to your attack and defense skills. We also have skill requirements, that work in the same manner as typical skilltrees. Meaning that to learn say Combat Tactics, you need a minimum Axe skill of 80, and a minimum wisdom of say 40. I cant say for sure how each specific requirement will be, as this is obviously something we will have to test for game balance.
Q: How do you plan to minimize the chances of someone becoming a “God” character since you can train in every skill? Or will you support that?
A: This is yet to be decided/playtested.
Q: Since the Alfar live underground, will you be able to make your own house out of the side of a cave?
A: Digging caves and dungeons is in the design document, but we are unsure if it will go into the game or not at this stage. It is an insane implementation job. Its easy for me as a designer to write a few pages about this, and tell the programmers to (add this to the game please). Actually adding it and getting it right and working as a game feature is not an easy task at all 🙂
Q: Will you be supporting air/water transportation?
A: Yes.
Q: How customizable will the UI be?
A: Very. We have plans to support player-made UI skins, so you can redesign the interface as you please, and have your friends download it and use it.
Q: Will underwater areas be a whole lot of nothingin terms of monsters and exploration? Or will it be an entirely different world down there with different monsters to attack and new areas to discover?
A: Underwater areas will have their own set of monsters and areas to discover.
Q: How many players will the gameworld support?
A: We have no idea at this point, and guessing is sort of pointless. But hey, Ill guess anyway. We are aiming at 10.000 on each server cluster, hoping for 20.000 and dreaming about 30.000 players at once.
Q: How intelligent are you trying to make the NPCs?
A: If one of our forest goblins can beat Gary Kasparov at chess, we have succeeded 😉
Q: Any update on when you think pre-alpha will start up?
A: Very very soon.
Q: How many testers are you looking to add to pre-alpha?
A: Very very few.
Q: Anything else you would like to add?
A: If you haven’t already, come join our developer boards, and give us feedback and input on the game. We are listening to all ideas, and this is a great opportunity to come help form a next generation online roleplaying game.
In conclusion, I’d like to issue a sincere thank you to Claus and the rest of the developers at Razorwax for making this interview possible.
