Darkspore Brings Customization to an Action RPG
This article originally appeared on ZAM on Feb. 8, 2011.
Editor-in-Chief Darryl "Togikagi" Gangloff sat down with Darkspore Executive Producer Mike Perry to find out how Spore's Creature Creator inspired Maxis to bring a new level of detail to an action game.
What do you get when you combine Diablo and Spore? You get Darkspore, the upcoming action RPG from Maxis and Electronic Arts. If you've ever played Maxis' Spore, then you understand the allure of using the game's Creature Creator to bring your designs to life. The development team was inspired to bring a similar level of customization to the action RPG genre, which led to the creation of Darkspore's Hero Editor.
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable interview with Executive Producer Mike Perry to learn more about the customization options players will have at their disposal in Darkspore. Keep reading after the jump for all the details, and check back with ZAM next week for more in-depth Darkspore coverage!
To start things off, I recommend you watch the Hero Editor developer's diary video that Maxis recently released. It provides a good look at the customization options that players have at their disposal in Darkspore.
As you can see from the video, there's quite a bit of variety in the game. In Darkspore, players can collect 25 core heroes, and each one has three different variants. The abilities and appearance of these heroes are based around five different genesis types: Bio, Plasma, Necro, Cyber and Quantum. If you fight an NPC of the same type, they'll do twice the amount of damage. “You're encouraged to switch between characters and have multiple squads,” Perry said.
According to Perry, players will have hundreds of thousands of dynamically generated loot items to collect, which can be used to customize the appearance, stats and abilities of their characters. These items will be earned through two methods: regular loot drops and Darkspore's unique chain game mechanic. Here's how Perry explains the chain system:
"After you defeat the boss, you're given a choice: keep the loot awarded at the end of the level or forfeit it and go to another level. The next level in the chain is going to be harder than the one before it. The more chains you compete, the better loot you're going to get. There's a risk vs. reward."
Just to be clear, you'll always keep the regular loot drops you obtain through the campaign. However, you run the risk of losing all of your “end of level rewards” if you keep pushing through the chain of levels and are ultimately defeated.
This risk vs. reward in Darkspore is all about earning epic items to upgrade your heroes. In addition to placing parts in specific character slots, such as the hands and feet, players can strip parts of their stats and turn them into customizable detail items. "It's completely free-form where you want to place them,” Perry said, noting that you can have up to six different types of detail items on each hero. He also emphasized that you can change the colors of the skin coat and pattern coat for each character.
With all of these different features available in Darkspore, how much customization is actually appropriate for an action RPG? Here's Perry's response: "With Darkspore, we want to make sure players understand the characters they're getting. They have a backstory. They fall into types and classes. Sentinels are tanks, Tempests are like mages, and Ravagers are fast melee guys like rogues. When you unlock the characters, they have a predefined look. We want to make sure players see the types and classes at a glance. This is important for multiplayer when you go into a PvP match. You'll look at a guy and know he's a Plasma Sentinel."
Perry's comments highlight a noteworthy distinction between the character creators in Spore and Darkspore. Spore allows players to design creatures from the ground up. Darkspore, on the other hand, lets users customize predefined characters to make sure they're recognizable by other players.
Can this amount of customization be overwhelming to gamers? Perry admitted the team was worried about that issue in the beginning and mentioned that they have seen two widely different groups of players during the testing process: players who collect a large amount of characters and then grind for loot, and players who focus on leveling up the characters they enjoy the most. “The game balance is accommodating to both styles of play,” Perry said.
In addition to the Darkspore's single-player and co-op campaigns, MMO fans may be most interested to hear about Darkspore's PvP arena-based combat system. Although PvP is separate from the game's story mode, players will use the same heroes they've earned in the campaign to bring to the 1v1 or 2v2 battlefield.
According to Perry, Darkspore will use EA's matchmaking system to pair up opponents in PvP. “It's based on how many games you've won, how fast you've won them, the hero level of your characters, and so on,” he said.
Perry also hinted that there might be room to introduce more characters to Darkspore in the future. “We've built an infrastructure that allows us to do that. It's a community that we really want to support. It's definitely the kind of game that we can continue to add to,” he said.
Darkspore is scheduled to launch for PC on March 29. Stay tuned to ZAM for more coverage leading up to the game's release.
Editor-in-Chief Darryl "Togikagi" Gangloff sat down with Darkspore Executive Producer Mike Perry to find out how Spore's Creature Creator inspired Maxis to bring a new level of detail to an action game.
What do you get when you combine Diablo and Spore? You get Darkspore, the upcoming action RPG from Maxis and Electronic Arts. If you've ever played Maxis' Spore, then you understand the allure of using the game's Creature Creator to bring your designs to life. The development team was inspired to bring a similar level of customization to the action RPG genre, which led to the creation of Darkspore's Hero Editor.
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable interview with Executive Producer Mike Perry to learn more about the customization options players will have at their disposal in Darkspore. Keep reading after the jump for all the details, and check back with ZAM next week for more in-depth Darkspore coverage!
To start things off, I recommend you watch the Hero Editor developer's diary video that Maxis recently released. It provides a good look at the customization options that players have at their disposal in Darkspore.
As you can see from the video, there's quite a bit of variety in the game. In Darkspore, players can collect 25 core heroes, and each one has three different variants. The abilities and appearance of these heroes are based around five different genesis types: Bio, Plasma, Necro, Cyber and Quantum. If you fight an NPC of the same type, they'll do twice the amount of damage. “You're encouraged to switch between characters and have multiple squads,” Perry said.
According to Perry, players will have hundreds of thousands of dynamically generated loot items to collect, which can be used to customize the appearance, stats and abilities of their characters. These items will be earned through two methods: regular loot drops and Darkspore's unique chain game mechanic. Here's how Perry explains the chain system:
"After you defeat the boss, you're given a choice: keep the loot awarded at the end of the level or forfeit it and go to another level. The next level in the chain is going to be harder than the one before it. The more chains you compete, the better loot you're going to get. There's a risk vs. reward."
Just to be clear, you'll always keep the regular loot drops you obtain through the campaign. However, you run the risk of losing all of your “end of level rewards” if you keep pushing through the chain of levels and are ultimately defeated.
This risk vs. reward in Darkspore is all about earning epic items to upgrade your heroes. In addition to placing parts in specific character slots, such as the hands and feet, players can strip parts of their stats and turn them into customizable detail items. "It's completely free-form where you want to place them,” Perry said, noting that you can have up to six different types of detail items on each hero. He also emphasized that you can change the colors of the skin coat and pattern coat for each character.
With all of these different features available in Darkspore, how much customization is actually appropriate for an action RPG? Here's Perry's response: "With Darkspore, we want to make sure players understand the characters they're getting. They have a backstory. They fall into types and classes. Sentinels are tanks, Tempests are like mages, and Ravagers are fast melee guys like rogues. When you unlock the characters, they have a predefined look. We want to make sure players see the types and classes at a glance. This is important for multiplayer when you go into a PvP match. You'll look at a guy and know he's a Plasma Sentinel."
Perry's comments highlight a noteworthy distinction between the character creators in Spore and Darkspore. Spore allows players to design creatures from the ground up. Darkspore, on the other hand, lets users customize predefined characters to make sure they're recognizable by other players.
Can this amount of customization be overwhelming to gamers? Perry admitted the team was worried about that issue in the beginning and mentioned that they have seen two widely different groups of players during the testing process: players who collect a large amount of characters and then grind for loot, and players who focus on leveling up the characters they enjoy the most. “The game balance is accommodating to both styles of play,” Perry said.
In addition to the Darkspore's single-player and co-op campaigns, MMO fans may be most interested to hear about Darkspore's PvP arena-based combat system. Although PvP is separate from the game's story mode, players will use the same heroes they've earned in the campaign to bring to the 1v1 or 2v2 battlefield.
According to Perry, Darkspore will use EA's matchmaking system to pair up opponents in PvP. “It's based on how many games you've won, how fast you've won them, the hero level of your characters, and so on,” he said.
Perry also hinted that there might be room to introduce more characters to Darkspore in the future. “We've built an infrastructure that allows us to do that. It's a community that we really want to support. It's definitely the kind of game that we can continue to add to,” he said.
Darkspore is scheduled to launch for PC on March 29. Stay tuned to ZAM for more coverage leading up to the game's release.