Interview with Niklas Weidel of Arcane Development - by parasite-x

I Recently had the chance to talk to Niklas Weidel the lead producer of Arcane Development about the upcoming online RPG, Archaean. So sit back and enjoy.

Q: Please introduce yourself(s). What do you do for Arcane Development?
A: My job in Arcane is to make everything tick. I try to give everyone their tasks, follow up on them and keep everyone happy. The team itself is pretty selfgoing, so I have a really easy job. It is also my task to keep track of the vision behind Archaean, and make sure the final product is what we set out to make when we started.

Q: You state that this game will introduce a new genre of games labeled, MOW (Massive Online World). Could you summarize the concept to the people who are unfamiliar with the game?
A: The game will not limitize the players, or inhabitants more like, but instead offer the possibilities of a true world. You are not forced to do anything, and you are not told not to do anything. We are trying to build up a world, and not a gameworld - it takes a very special viewpoint, and there are major differences.
The concept of MOW, Massive Online World, is exactly what it sounds like. And the difference from MMORPG's is that it's not really a game - it's a fantasy world simulator.

Q: What do you see happening to the MOW community in the future?
A: Well, as soon as Arch hits the public, I believe most game producers will convert their current mmorpg productions into MOW's. Most likely, some even before Archaean hits public since we have such a long development span.
MOW is the future of online entertainment - MMORPG was just the first trembling step.

Q:How do you guys feel about the communities response to your project?
A: Overwhelmed, completely. We have had such enormous responses we feel warm and cuddly all over. One interesting note is that, as all games get, the flamers and doubters that enter our messageboards are in 9 times out of 10 converted after a few posts into really strong fans. This is as far as I know quite unique. Archaean has a special note that strikes a chord in every gamer that dreams about something else than the infinite loop of look-alike games. It may be the fact that we are pursuing a dream and vision, and not a fat checkbook, or might be the mix of our design, texts and overall feeling. I don't know, but it's there.

Q: Do you have a key idea about game design that makes Archaean stand out from the other online games on the market?
A: When it comes to key ideas that makes Archaean stand out, we have zillions of them. Some are released, some are not. Some are our fans inventing on our boards, and we incorporate them in the design, some we think of ourselves. I believe that anyone who takes his time and really delve down into the FAQ and most importantly the messageboards will find plenty of really important issues that other developers haven't thought of, or most likely, don't dare to try.

Q:How do/did you take precautions against hackers and people that just want to cheat?
A:Our precautions against hackers and cheaters are not public. We will develop certain datatransfer-techniques and also several ingame systems that makes it quite impossible. One thing that makes a difference is the extremely low influence the actual client has on the world - the servers are what makes things happen, and much more so than in other games since Archaean runs on higher connections (minimum ISDN).
We are very much aware of the topic, and will try our best to make it impossible at all costs.

Q:Have you prepared for the buying/selling of items on Archaean put for sale on eBay? Do you think this is a good thing? Will you prevent it? If so how?
A:There really isn't any good way of preventing eBay transactions. Out of a marketing perspective I suppose eBay is actually a good thing, but out of our design views it is ofcourse quite sad. But, as said, there really is nothing one can do to prevent people from doing this. I'm not sure there should be, either.


Q: Does Arcane Development plan on creating more games in the future? Do you plan on developing games on a console system?
A: Once Archaean gets finished in a few years from now, I think that's when the real work starts. We will have our hands full. I don't think we will develop any new games for quite some time, we will be working on Archaean until doomsday unless the public leaves and the project doesn't work financially. We will continue to expand the world, if need be (which I doubt, since the original world is HUGE and more or less unexplored), and make the world live and breathe. Future will tell - Archaean is what we are about right now, and we have no other plans.

Q: What are some of your favorite games of all-time? Was there a game that inspired you to create Archaean?
A: Personally, Daggerfall. Love it. I just hope Bethesda can repeat it.

Q: What is the Role-Play system like? Will Role-Playing be enforced? How will it be handled?
A: There is no sensible way of enforcing role-playing. On the other hand, we will support role-playing as much as we possibly can. And since the actual game mechanics work around the player himself, role-playing will be much more on-hands than in other games. I believe most players will find themselves submerged into their characters, even without knowing it themselves, due to the class-less system that really makes it possible to become whatever you wish.
Role-playing is what we are about, and powergamers will probably convert into role-playing after a brief initiating period - simply because it will be more fruitful than powering.

Q:Can you explain the game engine you are using to create Archaean? What kind of features does it include? What's it called?
A: It's not much at this stage, just mechanics and serverside designs. The engine will be named Auche - for reasons not known to the public just yet. :)
The features will be more focused on creating the virtual world truthfully rather than creating new cool effects.

Q: How many people make up Arcane development and are all of them currently working on "Archaean"?
A: At this point, about 11. And yes, Arcane Development is ALL about Archaean. It's our dream.

Q:Currently player-killing is a large issue on most of the online role-play games. What have you done in this department to prevent certain things from happening (high level characters killing low level, etc.)?
A: First of all, there are no levels. A newbie CAN in theory kill a master swordsman in battle - just drop a rock on his head at the right time when he's not wearing a helmet. :)
Realism - REAL realism. That is the difference that will completely wipe out PK'ing. A PK'er will simply not survive. In order to have any chance in battle you will need to train up your character quite a bit - by then you won't like to endanger it too easily. Our combat system prevents this effectively, and giving space for the imaginative and creative combatants of war instead. Ofcourse, assassins is a vital line of work. But PK'ing will go in the grave, for these issues, and many others that have been discussed on our boards. And everyone is firmly comfortable that PK'ing is not a problem anymore inside our designs.

Q: Can you explain the character creation system?
A: No, sorry. It's not completed yet.

Finally, I would like to encourage everyone to take the step inside Archaean - check us out and give us a few minutes of your reading time. You will never be the same person again. :)

Links:
Official Archaean Website