RuneScape 3 - Design Director Interview
27Gillen talks to design director Mark Ogilvie about updating a classic and forging the narrative.
We caught up with Jagex design director Mark Ogilvie to learn more about the direction the popular free-to-play MMORPG is taking next.
"From a narrative perspective we've got a kind of a three-year plan of where we want the game world to be in three years time. Or at least in terms of story beats throughout those three years, different big things that would be happening during that time, but that has to be ultimately flexible. Because we don't know which way the players are going to go. So there's no point in us having a huge road map, because the players could be reacting to the content we're adding in a way we're not expecting..."
Ogilvie also discussed how the constant updating allows for testing of ideas that might not otherwise make it into the game, not from the desing team, but other parts of the company and the players as well.
"This weekly release schedule allows us to be kind of experimental with the kind of stuff that we do. Sometimes we'll put stuff out there and we're really not sure how it's going to work and we're not sure how the players are going to take to it. Sometimes it doesn't work and we're like "you know what? we won't try that again". Sometimes it works far better than we expected it to."
www.gamereactor.tv
Join us @ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Gamereactor