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City of Heroes Wrap Report
Lead Designer Jack Emmert furnishes an insightful insider analysis of Cryptic's project and how it came to fruition.
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Areas for Improvement Our zones in the city are absolutely gorgeous. The art team did a fantastic job in bringing Paragon City to life! Each zone also possesses its own storyline and villain groups. I wish, however, that we could have differentiated each zone with more "mini" events. For instance, have occasional gang wars between rival factions. Or prison breakouts from the prison. Or a giant robot attack. In other words, I'd love for the gameplay to be as unique as the look. As time passes, our free expansions are adding lots of new content into pre-existing zones. I'm sure by the end of the first year, we will have reached that goal.
I also wish that we could have added some out of combat activities at launch. This has probably been the number one complaint that players and reviewers have had about our game - it's just combat. I've always wanted to ask "well isn't that what most first player games are all about?" But, of course, MMPs traditionally have other activities, such as trade skills, to whittle away the time. Again, this is something that we are addressing in our free expansions every couple of months.
I'm excited that other people are enjoying the game as much as we enjoyed making it. And this is just the beginning.Lessons Learned
Another big thing I've learned is that game design must always incorporate everyone's opinions and thoughts before designing a power, zone or villain. In other words, designers shouldn't hide in their ivory towers and just pass down their grand plan. Instead, designers must elicit opinions and ideas from all team members. Their skill set incorporates lots of shortcuts and general know-how that a designer, no matter how experienced, might not have. Even the wackiest idea should be considered, if only because it's possible that one person might say, "Well, we could do it this way..."
Lastly, never, never, never take anything personally. The public and the press alike will criticize the product, regardless of its success. And usually, their comments are dead right. That's what makes it difficult for developers to deal with; the truth is hard to take. What has happened in the past is that some developers take an almost hostile or distant attitude with their fans. The important thing to remember is that a game is a product, and that any criticism of that doesn't actually mean criticism leveled at the people making the game. After all, the public and press don't mean it personally, because they don't know the developers personally. Besides, criticism - even the harshest - can help the product if the developer is willing to keep an open ear.
Looking Ahead The challenge to City of Heroes is twofold in the first year; expand content outside of Paragon City and expand gameplay outside of combat. We're already addressing the first goal with zones such as the Shadow Shard, which takes heroes to another dimension. And we're starting to address the second goal with systems such as badges, which reward not just combat ability but also exploration. The NCsoft support to City of Heroes is such that Cryptic Studios will continue to add significant amounts of new content in each free expansion. Every few months, the game will grow. No doubt fans will hardly recognize the game after the first year!
Personal Thoughts
Jack Emmert Creative Director and Lead Designer Cryptic Studios
[Since introducing them in November of 2003 to offer post-release viewpoints from the respective teams, it has been our pleasure to publish Wrap Reports on a number of other titles. Lists of the previous ones on both RPG Vault and Action Vault may be found on the next page. - Ed.]
12:00 am PDT August 30, 2004