Alganon Update Interview - Part 2

Jonric: Since you've indicated they're related to the gods, what are crusades? How will they function, and what will they add to the overall gameplay?

David Allen: Crusades are events revolving around deities and their "standings" with the world. They're common goals for the followers of deities to participate in, designed to enhance large-scale community play. Crusades will affect the entire world, and word of them will spread quickly and generate buzz among the players. This feature will also entice players to travel across the world to participate in big battles where the chaos is actually fun. This system has also changed very little since the original design.

the deities and creatures within the world are very reflective of its history. Players will actively interact with and learn about the Sprog, Skitters, Trelk, Frognars and many other races as they progress in the game

David Allen: Building the content for a MMOG is hands down the most time consuming piece. Given our Asheran Forest realm is larger than any single region in World of Warcraft - that I know of - it gives an idea of the scale of the world. Granted, we will not launch with all domains complete; on the contrary, we will release with an amount of content allowing a certain number of hours of gameplay, and after that, continue to open up additional domains and content as they are completed.

Our goal is to reach the "playable sweet spot", and to release with that. What that is right now, it's hard to say - we do have an idea, but I don't want to promise that specific domains X, Y and Z will be available at launch. It really won't matter if it's just X and Y; what matters is how fun the game is, and how replayable it is with the content we release.

I'm including a small piece of the satellite image of Asheran Forest for people to see. This will give the players an idea of the realm size (based on comparing screenshots) and the overall design of this domain's terrain.

Jonric: Would it be safe to assume that you intend to provide a variety of environments for players to see and explore?

David Allen: Our environments come in all flavors, and they are unique to Alganon, but we also want a bit more variety in the domains than other games have; a good example of this is Asheran Forest and the Sandshore region.

Relating to the overall design, we have chosen different color combinations, texture methods, and general design variances with our world. The look and feel of these additional areas will become apparent over the year as we release additional screenshots and videos. Even now, when you play Alganon, you know you're playing it... not any other game. It just feels different from the other MMOGs on the market.

Jonric: How significant will the story element be, how will it be delivered to the players, and what are you doing to make this part of Alganon stand out?

David Allen: There is a deep history behind not just the world and deities, but the Asheroth and Kujix, as well as many of the other factions in the world. You can get an idea of all this by reading the basic history overview on the Alganon website, but many players in the game will identify historical events and stories they can participate in. It's hard to say how much of the storyline will be integrated into the game at release; when we reach beta, we'll have a much better idea.

As for making the storyline aspect of Alganon stand out, I would say the deities and creatures within the world are very reflective of its history. Players will actively interact with and learn about the Sprog, Skitters, Trelk, Frognars and many other races as they progress in the game and explore new parts of the world. We'll find out in beta just how much this stands out since ultimately, the players will be the judges of how well we have done.

Jonric: Is there anything else you'd like to tell our readers at this time, or perhaps a question to ask them? Any parts of the game you'd like to talk about that weren't included in the questions?

David Allen: Our forums and polls via the website are great avenues to share ideas, opinion, and feedback based on what we have posted. We encourage players to visit our site since we are now making regular updates. We also plan on releasing the unannounced community-based system for Alganon in the next few months, allowing players to sign up for the beta and to create accounts that will carry over into launch.

I also want to mention that we have also built a custom LUA scripting system for Alganon that will allow players to create their own user interfaces and add-ons, and when we enter beta, those who actively want to develop new UIs will be able to do so, ensuring a good number of supportive add-ins are available upon release.

Thank you to those who have taken the time to read this interview. I hope all of you are excited about what we are putting together. We look forward to 2008 being a very active year for Alganon as we prepare the online gamer community for a quality new and fun MMOG.

With Alganon having been in a quiet period for over a year, we're certainly glad to see that 2008 will be much more active in terms of releasing information and building community. We're also pleased that we received the opportunity to present this extensive two-part interview to assist in doing so. We look forward to learning a lot more about Quest Online's intriguing project over the coming months, and we thank company principal David Allen for this update on its status.

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