Pocket Kingdom Developer Chat
November 4th, 2004
Rosethorn: I'd like to thank everyone for attending this dev chat on the upcoming N-Gage title, Pocket Kingdom. If you have any questions you want to ask, please send it to one of our Question Takers, QT_Gearbox and QT_Malygris. Do not send anything directly to any of the developers, it will not be answered. Without further ado, we will proceed with introductions:PK_Foe: Hi everybody, I'm Scott Foe- producer of the first game that lets you PWN from your Phone!
PK_Hedges: hi i'm jeff hedges, i am the test mangler
PK_Winnegar: Hi all, I'm Tim Winnegar, and I'm the lead developer
Deathspawner: How long on average should a full battery last if you are playing the game online, compared to offline? Would it use more battery power since it's also connecting to a remote server?
PK_Hedges: hmm battery life does not seem significantly reduced by use of GPRS.... i am sure it is, but not much in our testing
PK_Hedges: Bluetooth takes a lot more power i guess
PK_Hedges: but this game is not bluetooth enabled
PK_Hedges: i get what... a day or two with the game running full time before i need a charge btw
Deathspawner: Seeing as how this is a wireless MMO, will there likely be more or less lag than playing an MMO on your computer?
PK_Foe: As far as lag goes... there are two points to make...
PK_Foe: 1) Yes, there is more latency in the mobile environment than there is on PC
PK_Foe: and 2) You won't notice the latency the way you do on PC. Pocket Kingdom was designed from the ground up for the mobile environment.
PK_Foe: What that means is that the experience was made to be smooth and fun from the N-Gage.
PK_Foe: It's not like other MMOs on the PC where if latency is high, you start to see your characters slow down... in Pocket Kingdom, you will have the same great performance online and off - only online, you'll be in there with 1000s of other people
PK_Foe: So when you crush somebody, you'll know there's a real, living, breathing person out there, somewhere in the world, saying nasty things about you
Rosethorn: Q: Any idea when thew0rld battlecry contest winners will be announced?
PK_Foe: Later this week... and no, ulgress, you will not be one of the winners.
Azhrarn: He's 4-boxing, I know it
Firemyst: question: How do you balance out the online play so that those getting online later aren't completely dominated by stronger players?
PK_Winnegar: We set up the environment with different servers that reflect skill levels, so that someone won't get pwnd too bad when they get online for the first time
PK_Foe: Again, unlike other MMOs where you stay on the same server forever, in Pocket Kingdom, a game that revolve mainly around beating the crud out of other people, as your skill increases you change servers
PK_Foe: There are different player "skill ratings" in Pocket Kingdom: Noob, Gosu, etc.
PK_Foe: As you change skill ratings, you change servers.
deathreaper666: are there teams online, like, is this game clan ready?
PK_Hedges: the game is more player vs, player, vs player. you can have a clan, but only one person can 0wn the w0rld.
PK_Hedges: people can meet up in a chosne game arena, and use the Arena Friends list to keep track of each other
QD_Toorima: Will there be any updates in the future?
PK_Foe: We like to keep our options open :)
deathreaper666: Q2: How do you get to "0wn the W0rld", is it similar to all arena games, where you win your way up to the top?
PK_Hedges: well, it's definitely not similar to 'all arena games'
PK_Hedges: sure you do win your way up, and there will be ways to track all-time players from in the game, and in supplemetal web pages
PK_Hedges: the idea is to battle your way through the game - online and offline, building up, and gaining more skills
PK_Hedges: players will vie to get to the top spot and pwn teh w0rld
Steve Palley: are you guys planning to keep the no-online-play learning barrier in place once the game is released? (QT Note: Right now, you need to complete a few maps before you can play online)
PK_Foe: Yep... that's the plan Steve. We want the player to rough up a few NPCs, get a feel for the game before they dive into online play!
PK_Foe: When one of your Units (Characters) gets "owned," it is gone forever... and we know there will be smurfers... players that camp newbie areas... just waiting for players, so we figured it was better to have a few training areas before giving the player the option to go online.
PK_Hedges: it helps with learning the game to start offline. don't want to get owned right from the start, do ya
PK_Hedges: it helps with learning the game to start offline. don't want to get owned right from the start, do ya
kaiserdeath: can we like change the jobs of d characters like form swordsman to samurai?
PK_Winnegar: Only if you go to sword master first, but those emblems are a pain to create ;)
Rene: can people enjoy the entire game without having to go online?
PK_Hedges: totally
PK_Hedges: even after a whole day at work, i found myself laying in bed playing the game offline trying to get more l00t, and build up my parties
PK_Hedges: then in the morning taking the parties online for the Arena Rally sessions we've had
PK_Hedges: the game is winnable offline and online. - but its online where the fun is with other players, and chat and so on
theoddone: How long did it take to make the game?
PK_Foe: The game has been in development for over a year now... the idea has been kicking around for over two years. It's been suh-weet bringing Pocket Kingdom into the world!
deathreaper666: what are these emblems? Are they a type of power up?
PK_Hedges: emblems are rank ups for your characters. some emblems are special and only work on one character type, others can have different effects depending on the character they are applied to
PK_Hedges: there is a whole progression for characters, and each level up requires a harder to make emblem composed or more and more rare elements, ores, and so on
PK_Foe: So "emblem" plus "character" could equal brand new, ass-spankin' character
PK_Hedges: you have some element of chance in creating the emblems, and these can become valuable items that you can sell online in the Auction server
PK_Hedges: so fer instance
PK_Hedges: you have a lycanthorpe. you work him out beating down a few newbs, and then try out say... a Jackel emblem. once created apply the emblem to the Lycanthorpe, and *pow* you've got a fat Imp
Gearbox: While checking news articles, previews, and the like I've noticed a lot of comments about the fact that the battles are not directly under player control. What was the reasoning behind this, and how has it influenced the rest of the game design?
PK_Winnegar: each action in the game is autonomous, in that you can start a battle with someone, even if they're doing something else at the time
PK_Winnegar: you can play your battle out, lag free, then quit at any time.... then the other player will get the battle when he's done with whatever he's been doing
PK_Winnegar: sit down, go online, kick some butt.... not a huge time investment
PK_Hedges: right - makes the game fun if you just have 5 min to play, or a few hours
QT_Gearbox: (or if you're taking questions in a chat :P )
deathreaper666: does the game ever end, or can you just keep going, and making your empire invincible?
PK_Foe: There is an end to the offline story... I won't ruin for you here... but you can keep on playing, even after the story ends.
PK_Foe: No Pocket Kingdom will be invincible, because there will always be somebody online in the N-Gage Arena that can whoop your tail.
PK_Foe: And online, people will always be playing to own the world!
PK_Hedges: it will take a long time to get all the emblems, weaps, armors, and such. some elements are damn rare
SubZero: Will there be special combinations of emblems and characters that create "super" characters that are hidden?
PK_Hedges: there are super-units, and they will be hard as hell to find the compenents to create the emblems to get to some of them.
PK_Hedges: they are hidden in that you have to mess around with the combinations until you find what emblem works on what character (at what level)
PK_Foe: Keep a close eye on Gearbox... he's been a hell of a lot faster in filling out the pk.warcry.com Unit Guide than I ever dreamed he would be
theoddone: question: I heard that the release date is 5th November, is this the right release date?
PK_Foe: Pocket Kingdom will be coming very soon... but not that soon.
PK_Foe: Keep a close eye on the official website- www.pocket-kingdom.com !
PK_Foe: Also, there's going to be a killer PK-related interview going up on arena.n-gage.com next week. (Tuesday, I think.)
deathreaper666: what game would you comepare this to on any console?
PK_Foe: Heroes of Might and Magic, Advance Wars, Military Madness are all, in a way, ancestors of Pocket Kingdom
PK_Foe: But we wanted to do something original too, and I think we've succeeded!
PK_Foe: When you play against 1000s of people from the bus, you'll think it's pretty friggin' awesome!
SubZero: When players complete the single player game are they awarded with anything they can use in the online game?
PK_Foe: You'll have to wait and find out ;)
deathreaper666: is GPRS heavily used? will it use alot of KB? Are there things such as content download with accessories?
PK_Foe: PK was designed from the ground up with mobile in mind... PK has been designed to take it way easy on your data plan.
PK_Foe: As far as the content download goes, like I said earlier, we like to keep our options open...
ulgress: Oh I can not wait for all of you noobs to step into the servers so I can # the lot of you.
Rosethorn: Yes, Ulgress, down boy
Rosethorn: I want to thank Foe, Hedges and Winnegar for joining us and answering all your questions. I also want to thank all our attendees for coming. We will have a chat log up on the website shortly. And now - talk smack!
*** ulgress (Ulgress@damn-noobs.invading.thew0rld.com) has quit IRC [Killed (Azhrarn (PWND))]
