Strategy Wrap Report - Time of Defiance

Technology With any online game, the most important thing is that it is actually ONLINE and playable. You can have the best game known to man, but if your underlying technology is unstable and players spend more time crashing than playing, then no one will be happy.

Nicely Crafted's core technology goal was a scalable server-client architecture that could deliver a rich experience without being hampered by lag... but doesn't rely on a broadband connection. Clever solutions were needed to complicated problems, as it was felt that the historical 'academic' solutions to some of the problems were not that useful. When Toby first stated he wanted to make an MMORTS where each player could be controlling hundreds of ships in combat with hundreds of other players... in real-time... and across a modem, he was told by a lot of people that it was impossible. Needless to say, the impossible was cracked, and now we're working on delivering miracles too...

Recently, the particle system was given an overhaul, which added a huge visual improvement to the game

Development Timeline We started Time of Defiance in late 2001, and had it online with all the fundamental game play three months later for closed alpha testing. Time of Defiance, before it went live, had an 18-month test program running alongside development. This meant that any early problems where dealt with in a live situation, and any core gameplay issues were resolved very early on in the development period.

Time of Defiance was released into UK retail stores in November 2003 and in North America in September 2004. However, games like Time of Defiance never master. They are a constant evolving process; every time a new player comes along, we get new ideas and suggestions, and with a new, enhanced client released every two months, it has changed a great deal since its first release - driven by the players themselves... game development as it should be...

Changes and Enhancements When it comes to Time of Defiance, we must remember it's an evolving product, not a finished one. The version released in 2002 was 'finished' in a certain sense, but has changed dramatically since then. :) The core gameplay has remained the same, but new units have been added, and new interface elements have improved various areas.

Because the original release was online-only, an original design aim was to provide a small download - 10 mb. Since we've been releasing a boxed version though, that limit has slipped by the wayside, and we've been able to take advantage of larger textures and improved material lighting. Recently, the particle system was given an overhaul, which added a huge visual improvement to the game, and we've got more improvements planned for the interface and new units. However, the client is still only 16 mb, making it very easy for anyone with any kind of an internet connection to download and play.

Major Challenges Ensuring that the technology was well designed, well tested and online all the time was one of the major challenges. Time of Defiance servers are 100% reliable because we have developed a rock solid test program and equipment bed. We did get struck by lighting twice in one day, which gave us a few problems, but the servers themselves stayed up, although our power and communication lines had a few issues. The lessons learnt here are that lightning can strike in the same place twice, and back-up lines and power are not going to help you...

The next challenge was to put together the right team; Nicely Crafted had three employees for its first year, and has now grown to nine. We have a lot to do, so many hats are worn by our staff on a daily basis, though with a smaller team, we can just get on with it. Getting the right people behind an idea is a considerable challenge in the current climate; we have been very lucky in the team that we have built here.

Being a new studio is perhaps the biggest challenge of all. It is not a good time to be an independent development studio, but we have managed to survive so far. Nicely Crafted will emerge as a considerable development force in the MMO arena; our challenge is to get there... come back next year to find out how we overcame this one...

Best Decisions Test the technology first. We spent a year building our tech before working on the game. We built a test bed game called Funky Tank. It was great fun, very retro and was never released, but what it did tell us was that our tech was better then we had ever expected, and was performing at the very high end of our most optimistic predictions. This process allowed us to build Time of Defiance and get it online in three months for initial gameplay testing. We were very pleased with this.

We made a very early decision that Time of Defiance would be built for digital distribution, and we would make every effort to keep the download to a minimal. When it first went up for download, it was 3 mb in size; it is now 16, mostly due to new unit additions, menu, graphical and audio enhancements. This decision has worked out well for us over the long run as it provides us with direct revenue escaping the advance on royalty / royalty model (very important as an independent developer) and we will continue to provide a download version.

The decision to make a CD version was a good one too. We still live in a tangible age, so some people like to see, touch and hold what they are buying. Making the CD version allowed us to greatly enhance the graphics, audio and some other bits here and there. Getting both versions of Time of Defiance into the North American market is key to our future plans.