City of Heroes: Ask a Dev

City of Heroes "Ask a Dev": Melissa Bianco Answers Your Questions

KittyMan33: While exploring Port Oakes I've notice a bridge being built that leads off into the ocean and I got curious so I looked at a map of the Isles and saw a island with a rocket drawn on it now this island was too small to be Warburg so I wondered if this bridge was going to lead to it. also seeing some previous questions, a Malta themed zone would be awesome (If there is and I'm missing it, just ignore this part.) and as a last question for those of use who would like to work on the CoH/CoV team what options would there be for us and how could we earn the right?

War Witch: Sometimes we put in 'reveals' that tease a player as to what is coming in the future. So, for instance, an issue before Faultline came, I started hinting at it. Newspaper holders were standing around yelling about it. There was construction around the entrance. We also did this for the Arena. You'd see a construction site where a building used to be and then, we'd swap it out with the finished product when the new feature went live. (Or we'd just plunk a building down on top of that building you used to log out on and forget construction sites completely.) Sometimes, we'll plan on something, have some extra time to build some assets for it, and not use it because we go in a different direction. Maybe we'll use it at a later date, maybe we won't.

Or maybe it's just an easter egg or a red herring.

As for working on the CoH/CoV team, this one's a no-brainer. Apply!!

Cryptic hires talent, even talent in the rough. However, just loving to play games is not enough.

Admittedly, I was the luckiest of the lucky. I came in with NO design experience back when Cryptic was a very small start-up company. It was through sheer need that I got a crack at design. My first job was working in the editor placing beacons. Place, move, paste. Place, move, paste. Hours and hours a day. It wasn't glamorous. Not even an iddy biddy bit. BUT, guess who got REALLY good at using the in-game editor? Me.

Through opportunity and massively hard work, I moved on to bigger and better assignments. I happened to have a knack with certain things that no one could have predicted. Playing a lot of MMOs helped, of course, but when it came down to me actually designing something, (initially) my perspective was way off. I designed as a player, not as a designer. You may ask, but isn't that the same thing? No. Not even close.

If I implemented every feature I ever wanted as a player I'd:

a) never have to use my computer because it would do the work for me;
b) make my game spit out hundred dollar bills; and
c) my game would be so completely unbalanced that there would be virtually NO RISK in the game - only reward

[And after I'd finished the entire game in less than a week, I'd never play it again.]

What I have learned is that the game developer community is not as large as I would have thought. So you're competing with a lot of other people just as excited to get into the industry as you are. If you have skills (in some fashion or other) outside of the industry, it can't hurt you.

For example, writing experience, art degree, film industry - all these things in one way or another give you a foundation of knowledge to pull from when you form concepts and ideas. It also gives you something unique to draw on. Jack Emmert, our Creative Director, has a masterful knowledge of Latin and Greek and History. Do you think City of Heroes or Villains has ANY of that kind of feel to it? Someplace? Anywhere?