Wizard101 Interview - Part 2

Aug 11, 2008

In the time now called the Days Before, mighty creatures ruled the land. Known as Titans, they included fierce Fire Dragons, imposing Ice Giants and grand Storm Lords. Each was the origin of a potent school of magic. Pyromancy is associated not only with searing flame, but also with raw, consuming emotion. Accordingly its practitioners are invariably avid, even ardent in their commitment. In contrast, the students of thaumaturgy embrace the powers that come from bitter, numbing cold. They value perseverance and steady progressions, and are consistently recognized for their exceptional patience and fortitude, although these qualities occasionally make them inflexible. Diviners are deeply concerned with creativity. They are driven by an insatiable inner desire to explore, investigate and discover, and are always seeking new, better ways to build and invent. Occasionally, they can lose themselves within their own thoughts.

In Wizard101, Professor Merle Ambrose, Headmaster of the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, is looking for apprentices who demonstrate an affinity for the arcane arts to help investigate recent strange occurrences in the vicinity. Should you choose to answer his call, you'll have the option to specialize in seven types, those outlined above as well as Life, Death, Myth and Balance. Currently in open beta and targeted to launch later this year, the bright, cheerful massively multiplayer title from KingsIsle Entertainment is primarily designed for a sometimes overlooked audience the team refers to as "tweens". It features turn-based combat using a variation on collectible cards, an assortment of mini-games, and a protected environment employing a menu-driven chat system. Following on our recent visit to the studio, we were able to arrange the chance to interview the project leader, Todd Coleman.

Includes six exclusive screenshots of the Moo Shu world

Jonric: How would you describe the overall nature or style of the combat system you've created for players to experience in Wizard101?

Todd Coleman: I almost hate to use the word "combat" because it implies a level of violence that isn't really present in the Wizard101 universe. There are various levels of destructive action occurring, of course - the Meteor Strike spell certainly looks devastating, and the Centaur does fire a massive arrow at you - but it's at a cartoon-like level, not realistic and never bloody. And for every cool, powerful spell, there's a whimsical equivalent, like the Leprechaun who throws gold at you, or the Humongofrog that pukes all over everything in sight.

dueling monsters is... the primary focus, granted, but a lot of the advancement is also based on exploration, solving puzzles, and connecting the dots of the thousands of dialogue sequences that make up the overall system.

Again, remember, everything is done through dueling. Players take their spots in a dueling circle and throw spells at each other by selecting spell cards from their decks, and if you lose, you are just "exhausted" and sent back to Ravenwood College to heal. Combat is turn-based, so it's not a game of who has the better reflexes... or worse, who has the better internet connection.

Jonric: How significant is PvP? Is participation ever required? Will you support ladders, tournaments or other types of events?

Todd Coleman: I'd say 99 percent of the Wizard101 experience is co-operative play. I suppose I should say that much of the total content, actually. Dueling can be a pretty large component, but only if you choose. My point is that Wizard City and all the other worlds are entirely co-operative. The one and only exception is the player arena. So, if you don't want to participate in dueling against other players, simply don't go there.

Currently, you just jump in and fight. We're working on a more detailed system now. Our goal - to be realized very soon after launch - is to have ladders, player- and administrator-created tournaments, prizes, titles... the whole nine yards.

Oddly enough, PvP in our game doesn't have the stigma normally associated with it... even very casual players jump into the arena and enjoy it. I think that has a lot to do with the fact our foundation is a collectible card game. It's hard to imagine one like this that *wouldn't* allow you to take on other players. It's simply the way they're played.

Jonric: Since most of the play will be against computer-controlled opponents, what can we anticipate from the AI controlling how they fight?

Todd Coleman: Every one of our worlds is filled with enemy combatants... they have decks, just like the players, but theirs also include natural attacks that function like spells, but are typically much faster.

We use a "brute force" AI approach. Each monster will look at every card in its hand, and play it against every possible opponent, then calculate the state of his team vs. the player team at the end of the round to see, in absolute terms, what the best choice is. Then, it selects from this list based on a bunch of personality factors, like his intelligence, selfishness (good play for me, bad for my team), courage (hurts me some, hurts you more), etc.

Normally, this kind of approach would be a killer to your server processors, but in our case, since combat is slow and strategic, and the number of participants is limited, it's actually an extremely efficient way to make our AI very intelligent.

Jonric: Will there be very much for players to do outside of dueling the monsters? For instance, will the game have any form of crafting?

Todd Coleman: The game is very narrative, and dueling monsters is just one of the key activities you follow in order to complete the quests. It's the primary focus, granted, but a lot of the advancement is also based on exploration, solving puzzles, and connecting the dots of the thousands of dialogue sequences that make up the overall system.

That said, we are limited in some ways. Trading is restricted to treasure cards, for instance, to protect our younger players and to minimize cheating. So, we've put off crafting until after launch, when we have time to do a full auction system allowing players to buy and sell items in a way that's more safe and secure.

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

Jonric: Have you designed the game to have lots of different items? Given the magical theme, will there be many weapons or armors? Is there an upgrade system?

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.

Jonric: What approach did you take to building vs. licensing technology, and what most influenced the related decisions?

Todd Coleman: Wizard101 uses Gamebryo as our rendering engine - modified, of course, to deal with the challenges inherent to rendering a virtual world. Beyond that, the core technology platform was created in-house, jointly by our engineering team including the folks on this project, Tom Hall's guys (working on the aforementioned secret project), and the core technology group in our Dallas office. A lot of times the idea of "core technology" can be pretty daunting to a start-up, but if you take the time to do it right, and architect and manage it directly, the payoff in the long run can be huge.

he found the core game mechanic innovating, and appreciated the high level of polish. More than anything else, he was delighted to find something new and different in the virtual world space.

Jonric: What are the notable features on your server side? How have you addressed the questions related to target capacity?

Todd Coleman: Well, our terminology is a little different, because we don't break our player population up into discrete servers... or rather, we kind of do, but it's entirely arbitrary since individuals can move among the realms at will. Basically, we built the architect to scale in real time, with areas replicating or removing themselves as players travel around - one of the benefits of avoiding a seamless world, I suppose. Instead we have soft and hard limits to the number of players the areas were built to expect, and triggers that kick in at each level. Once a soft cap is reached, the servers attempt to load balance new incoming people, and at the hard cap, they force it to happen.

Almost all of our population limits are design limitations, not technical ones. For example, we only want 50 people on Firecat Alley, because based on monster population and geographic density, that's all it was designed to handle. Technically speaking, it could handle hundreds, even thousands I guess, but everyone would be tripping all over each other, and monsters would be impossible to find.

Jonric: Given that community is critical for any massively multiplayer game, what are your key goals in this area? What kinds of support are you providing?

Todd Coleman: This is a tough question; really, we could fill out an entire interview just based around the idea of community in a kid-safe game. You have two completely conflicting goals - fostering social connections, and yet keeping everyone at arm's length from each other to keep them all safe and happy.

For beta, we've tackled this with brute force. We completely moderate our forums, and in addition, we provide players (and parents) with a strong set of tools to adjust the degree of communication among them to the level they feel comfortable with.

For release, we'll have to keep watching to see how things progress. We hope that, over time, we'll find a great middle ground that everyone will be happy with.

Jonric: Although you've noted a couple already, what are some major elements you're planning to add or expand after launch?

Todd Coleman: We have a post-launch plan that includes a strong mix of content (new areas, monsters, spells, items, etc.), and new systems. I already mentioned the first one coming down the pipe; we're working on a really expansive player vs. player tournament system to augment the in-game arena. This will serve as a great end game for us, as well as giving players an additional advancement track that they can pursue, if they so choose.

Other major elements that we're looking at include crafting, with an auction system, as I mentioned before, a heavily expanded pet feature, and off-campus housing, where each player can get a wizard's tower or castle in the sky.

Jonric: Do you have any final comments you'd like to leave with our readers? Since many see themselves as hardcore, why should they consider trying Wizard101?

Todd Coleman: You know, a few weeks back, a friend of mine called - an old-school Shadowbane player, about as hardcore as you can get - to give me his thoughts about beta. I put him in specifically because I wanted to get some feedback from outside of our target market; I wasn't sure that he would like it, but I figured it was worth a shot.

The first thing he said to me was "Todd, the most impressive thing about Wizard is that you change the core combat system. This is nothing like EverQuest, World of Warcraft or Shadowbane." A jaded MMOG veteran, he went on to explain how tired he is of repeating the same experience, describing it as "a bunch of players standing on a beach, smacking a giant crab with pointy sticks."

Even though he isn't a huge fan of the wizard school genre, he found the core game mechanic innovating, and appreciated the high level of polish. More than anything else, he was delighted to find something new and different in the virtual world space.

We've long held the opinion that new and different will enlarge the massively multiplayer segment's potential audience without excluding the possibility of appealing to grognards. Consequently, it's always interesting to learn about titles that seek to expand the boundaries. We thank Todd Coleman for telling us about his team's intriguing attempt to do so, and we'll certainly continue to track KingsIsle's initial project, which is in open beta as of last week.