New World: Forged in Aeternum – Why Some Features Are Hard

Those of you who are curious about the nuts and bolts of video game development might be interested in the latest Forged in Aeternum episode where three senior developers behind Amazon’s MMORPG New World discuss how deceptively tricky it can be to implement certain seemingly simple features, and why they can’t follow in Shia LaBeouf’s footsteps and “just do it.”

In terms of particulars, the video touches on New World’s relatively compact server size, the slow trickle of new weapon types, and the team’s long-term priorities.

Check it out:

In episode 11 of Forged in Aeternum we discuss why some features in New World are so freakin’ hard. Host Scot Lane (Game Director) is joined by Scott Geiser (Senior Gameplay Engineer) and Dave Verfaillie (Creative Director) to discuss why some features and implementations take a lot more time and effort than you think.

Scot has fun asking Scott and Dave, “Why don’t you just…” and listening as they walk through the technical hurdles, why 30K on servers isn’t the magic number it seems to be, scaling issues, and why it’s all so complicated.

COMMUNITY QUESTION: What one feature would you like us to add to New World?*

*No promises.