Gods: Lands of Infinity Wrap Report

The game is based more on the story of unearthly affairs and strong motivation from the beginning. It is an opposite to the kind of games in which you don't know anything about your character - about his (or her) past - when you just travel, lost and not knowing what to do. We prefer a strong story that holds you from the beginning to the end.

we can promise that the story and quests in the sequel will be better and more complex than in Lands of Infinity, so you, the fans, have much to look forward to.

The game is rather linear, but gives you three basic ways to play. You can spend hours trading and earning lots of money to afford better equipment, or you can focus on killing monsters and leveling your characters and completing side quests, or you can just follow the main story line. The most important features of the game we wanted to focus on are the catchy story, the party-based RPG, turn-based combat, and an easy, player-friendly interface.

Technology

Martin Sabo-Balog: We developed our own 3D engine called Spirith 3D for this purpose. We designed it for this game since we knew what we needed. The key advantage of this is that we can improve our engine and add new features in the ways we want. For example, we have designed lot of different locations in Gods, one of which is a land of snow. We invested lots of time to create the effects of real crystals and ice especially for this location.

Development Timeline

Martin Sabo-Balog: We started this project five years ago, but that includes development of Spirith 3D engine. We wanted to release Gods in 2004, but there were reasons why project was delayed. The main reason is that before Gods, we developed real-time strategy, and didn't have lot of experience with RPG titles. To develop a game like Gods takes an enormous effort; there are millions thing to solve, you have to test thousands of situations, play the game in various ways... all of that affected the development time.

Changes and Enhancements

Stefan Pavelka: We planned more locations, characters and items plus a more detailed storyline. At the beginning, there were hundreds of ideas and plans. We had to cancel lot of them because of the development schedule. But all of the ideas were retained and are ready for Gods sequels. ;)

And, if you have a beta and test the game, the testers always come up with lot of new ideas, some of which you can add into the project. But at some time and point, you have to say "STOP" and finish the game because you could add new ideas and improvements for months and years...

Major Challenges

Martin Sabo-Balog: 1. The schedule, new ideas, and everything I have explained previously. You can have many ideas and features, but you have to choose which you cancel, and which you an develop. You have to foresee what features will be good enough (or obsolete) in 12 to 20 months.

2. To find the best possible people. We are real computer game players at Cypron. We play games all the time, and we love what we do. This is not a job for us - this is our life. And it is hard to find people who think this way and are skilled in the arts or in programming. The Cypron team is quite small - the Gods game team is only about 10 people - and we are like family where everyone knows each other. We live in a small but beautiful country in Central Europe. Our whole country's population is only about five million. That's why it is hard to find people.

3. Publishers and distributors. After you invest lot of time and money in developing your game, you have to find the best publisher available who will make the best effort to promote and sell it.

Best Decisions

Stefan Pavelka: When we reorganized our team and solved internal problems in our studio. Now, we can fully concentrate on game development. :)

Key Strengths

Christopher Curdes: Without question, the foremost would have to be the Gods storyline, which Martin did a superlative job of creating... I mean, let's face it - what makes a good to great RPG if it isn't (to a large extent) the storyline itself? I might add that the same would prove to be a key point to the success of any sequel to the original game.

Second would have to be, without question, Pavel Krychtalek's excellent and compelling compositions that make up the Gods: Lands of Infinity soundtrack. Need I say more?

And third, I would have to say our innovative use of the graphics engine to produce such true to life environments with flowing grass, sparkling ice crystals, etc., all of which Martin touched upon earlier.

Areas for Improvement

Stefan Pavelka: We believe that we have both the knowledge and the ability to make a much greater game, but the biggest problem is that there are too few of us; 10 people just can't build a pyramid. The better the graphics, game possibilities, technology, etc. - the more time you need to make it. That is a common problem in the making of games nowadays. But as we begin our preparation for the sequel to Gods, we are working on producing better ambient sounds, larger locations, more detailed models and textures... and we can promise that the story and quests in the sequel will be better and more complex than in Lands of Infinity, so you, the fans, have much to look forward to.