Wizard101 Interview - Part 2

Jonric: How about non-adversarial NPCs in Wizard101? Are there many, and what kinds of functions do they carry out?

Todd Coleman: Every world is filled with friendly NPCs... trainers, quest-givers, shopkeepers, you name it. As I said, Wizard101 is largely narrative, and leads you along from one chapter to the next. They are the primary narrators of our game; they fill out the details of the backstory and give context to the tasks you have to perform to advance.

The grouping function is completely casual. Players simply jump into the combat, and all share equally in the rewards. If two monsters are defeated, even by the other players, you get credit for the wins

Todd Coleman: Yeah, we have thousands of items in the game. Most are wizard-themed, although some are more specific to particular worlds; for example, the ninja outfit can only be found on Moo Shu, our feudal proto-Japan filled with Ninja Pigs and Samoorai Cows. There aren't armor or weapons per se... well, there are a few, but the samoorai armor and katana are purely ceremonial. You have to remember: we're outfitting wizards, here, not warriors.

Items can't be upgraded, but they can be dyed different colors. We took a page out of the Puzzle Pirates book on that one, with the cost going up for the more popular "prestige" colors. Even our pets work this way; a black and red dragon costs a lot more than a brown and yellow one.

We also have items that act as aces up your sleeve; certain pets and amulets will shuffle bonus cards into your deck, giving you the ability to cast a spell that you don't have in your spellbook.

Jonric: Since you'll have a cash shop, how will items sold there differ from the ones we can obtain through play?

Todd Coleman: We intend to offer a pretty big array of items in our catalogue, but we have to be careful that we don't undermine the balance of the game, shortcut the advancement curve too much, or make it unfair to other players. We haven't announced specific details yet, but those should be coming soon.

Jonric: While you already told us there are several schools of magic we can specialize in, what more is there in this element of the game?

Todd Coleman: I mentioned previously that there are seven different schools of magical spells in the game (Ice, Storm, Fire, Myth, life, Death, Balance). Each gives players a starter deck, if you will - a collection of offensive and defensive spells. More can be learned by completing quests, leveling your character or seeking out hidden trainers scattered across the various worlds.

We also offer treasure cards that can be found through adventuring or won playing mini-games. They are like AD&D scrolls; you don't know the spell, but can use it one time before the card is burned.

We do have a mana system, and it's pretty straightforward. To cast a spell during a duel, the player must have an amount equal to its rank. This quantity is expended whether or not the spell works or fizzles and misses the target.

You can play mini-games to fill your mana pool back up. They also give you a variety of rewards based on how well you score, including things like gold, treasure cards, and items.

Jonric: When your character is defeated in a duel, are any penalties incurred such as losing items or experience points?

Todd Coleman: Nah. Wizard101 is too casual; we don't believe in death penalties. Defeated players are taken back to an area of safety where they regain health over a period of a few minute... or they can chase down sufficient health and mana wisps, then get back to adventuring. Other than that, you don't lose anything when you lose.

Jonric: To expand on your earlier comments about the quests and the main narrative, will there be optional ones as well? And will you have any related to events?

Todd Coleman: Everything is quest-driven. You can't really advance in the PvE game without following the overarching narrative line. We also have a number of optional side tasks; these vary from solo gauntlets to team-based dungeons... they can include puzzles - or not - and vary in difficulty from easy to very difficult.

We're still working on our post-launch event plan. We have some experience here; Shadowbane was actually very strong on them - we had a team, completely separate from customer support, with over a dozen people running them nightly across all servers. In doing that, we learned a lot about what works, and more importantly, what scales once you dump a real user population into your game service.

Jonric: What type of grouping system did you choose to implement, and is the gameplay more oriented to parties or soloing?

Todd Coleman: The grouping function is completely casual. Players simply jump into the combat, and all share equally in the rewards. If two monsters are defeated, even by the other players, you get credit for the wins in terms of quest completion. The basic idea is that there isn't a problem so long as everybody wins.

Both. We put in the casual grouping mechanism to allow people to play together, but we also scale the difficulty of the encounters to allow for soloing. We don't have a complex guild structure, so we don't have any particular need to force people into parties.