Untold Legends: The Warrior's Code Wrap Report

Areas for Improvement

A conscious decision we made early on was to keep the basic combat mechanic close to what people were already used to while adding depth in other areas. We gave players tools to allow them to fight combat more efficiently if they desired to take advantage of it, but they weren't required to do so to succeed. I really wish we had done more of this. Due to the focused nature of the project, we picked the ones that we thought would be most effective, and really hashed those out. It would have been nice to further explore other ideas.

I really hope people take advantage of the multiplayer features in the game. They are quite fun and rewading. The story should also immerse the player quite a bit into the game.

While I have mentioned the various advantages of doing handcrafted dungeons, the fact of the matter is they take much longer to build than the ones we had in Brotherhood of the Blade. We didn't discover how much longer until well into the project. If we had known this ahead of time, we might have made a handcrafted / random combination. What we got in the end looks fantastic though.

Lessons Learned

As I stated above, while handcrafted dungeons look better, have more depth and allow for more quest control, they take a while to build. If and when this decision is made again, we will assign more artists to the task up front. I think the feel of these levels really makes it worth it though.

One of the things I have learned from other projects that continued with The Warrior's Code is to get your core gameplay systems up and running as fast as possible. This allows you to test what are the meat and potatoes of the game, and to make sure that they are fun. If they aren't, you can spend more time tweaking them if you get them early. If you wait until the end of the development cycle and then make those discoveries, you could be in trouble.

Lastly, and this is well know, feature creep is bad. Instead, what you need to do is list all of the features you want and prioritize them. Then, you can eliminate the ones that don't seem to fit or you don't have time to implement. Once this is done, you again prioritize the ones that are off the list and decide which ones you will add first based on how they fit with the core design if you have the time. This allows you to add things strategically if needed instead of just having random ideas thrown in.

Audience Response

Overall, we are very happy with the response from the consumers. They seem very happy with what we have done to improve on the action RPG genre. They know the games they are looking for and don't want / expect them to change too dramatically, which was what we were designing for. The core gameplay is fun and they respect that.

Overall, the media response has been positive, with a few exceptions. I'm not sure what those exceptions were expecting, but it seems that they were looking for something entirely new. That wasn't our goal or our view of what the actual consumer wants. Some people really enjoy the zen state of fast combat that does not require a complex combo system. They can build combinations based on their skills / spells while still hacking and slashing away. That was our goal.

Personal Thoughts

I really hope people take advantage of the multiplayer features in the game. They are quite fun and rewarding. The story should also immerse the player quite a bit into the game. We spent a fair amount of time telling the stories in various ways and I really think it pays off.

I guess I should just suggest talking to other players and trying the game for yourself. If you are a fan of action RPGs, you won't be disappointed.

Rob Hill

Producer, Untold Legends: The Warrior's Code

Sony Online Entertainment

[Wrap Reports are intended to complement reviews by providing a post-release viewpoint that often isn't seen, the developer's. Since introducing this format in November of 2003, it has been our pleasure to publish quite a few, primarily within the RPG and online world categories, with selected action and strategy games also represented. A complete list of the previous ones may be found on the next page. - Ed.]