Interview with Dan Antonescu

Realms of Torment is the new MMORPG taking its place in a Medieval world filled of magic and battles. Two Romanian companies are developing the game for the US based firm Limitless Horizons Entertainment LLC and is supposed to be released in late 2003.

I was curious to find out more about this game, so I asked Mr. Dan Antonescu, Lead Game-Designer, a few questions about his game and the idea behind it.

Warcry: If we first start with the title of the game: Realms of Torment - how much does the game live up to the title? What does the title say about the game?

Dan: The core of the game design is realm vs. realm or guild vs. guild warfare. It's a PvP based game so based on these two things we figured the name was fitting.

Warcry: What kind of feeling do you want the players to experience from playing the game?

Dan: That they are stepping into a true dark medieval world. We chose to step away from the typical cartoonist style visuals you see in most fantasy based MMORPGs on the market and opted to create a more realistic looking world in terms of colour palette and textures.
As for the gameplay side, we want users to experience some unique styles of gameplay that the typical MMORPG fails to deliver such as a unique bloodline and progression system and true accountability where your actions in the game world have a strong effect on your character as well as taking part in some kick ass PvP battles. ;)

Warcry: The game has some unique features, like being able to marry and have children. How do you make children (In the game)? What role will children have in the game? How will the players interact with their children?

Dan: Children can come about through marriage (Male/female choose to have children) or by adopting a child or through divine intervention where a player's deity would give the player a child.

Warcry: Players who want to advance in a skill needs to learn it from a master. That makes me think of the egg-chicken question: who was the first: the student or the master? Who taught the first master to be a master when there were no masters?

Dan: I'm going to leave that question to the lore team ;)
The game lore will not be revealed until the game goes gold. There's a reason for this, one being that we want the players to be able to solve the different mysteries that spring up as bits of lore get revealed over time. They will also be able to shape how the world evolves in this way.

Warcry: The game seems to be very complex and also tries to be very realistic. All of those things are of course good things, but how long will it take Newbies to learn the basics?

Dan: I don't think the game will be anymore complex to learn for new players than any other on MMORPG on the market currently is. We will make sure to include steps that will help the new players along and teach them the basics after entering the game world.

Warcry: RoT seems to almost force the players to be very social and organized with each other. Will there be a place for lonely wolves?

Dan: We are trying to make it viable for a player to run alone if he so chooses and not be part of any type of organization. If we succeed in that, remains to be seen.

Warcry: MMORPGs are known to be addictive games. What do you think will be the most addictive thing about RoT?

Dan: I think the constant rivalries and battles that spring up between guild houses and empires will allow the world to be dynamic enough so that players will constantly have something new to look forward to or goals to work towards. Combined with some PvE elements such as dungeon crawling and questing, players should have a decent amount of things to get addicted to.

Editors note: RoT has indeed some very interesting features, the children legacy being one of them. I believe that by having the ability to leave a "legacy" in any online game can be very attractive to many players. I wouldn't mind having a "game-kid" named Claudius III, reminding some of the people I punished in the game of me!

Related link:

http://www.realmsoftorment.net