Ryzom: Q and A with Gameforge!

After all of the testing the past few weeks, let's enjoy some reading this week. Below you can find a new Q&A, where we answer questions you posted on the boards about the creation of Ryzom, the game takeover, its evolution and its promotion. Enjoy the reading!
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I. Game creation

1. How did they come up with the idea for Ryzom?
You may find some bits of answer in this letter to the players from the Creative Director of Nevrax:

I was recently asked what made me want to develop an MMORPG, which is probably the toughest type of game there is to make. Really, the reason I wanted to work in this space has much to do with the future, not just of gaming, but of learning about who we are as individuals and as a society.
Gaming has become a central part of our entertainment. MMORPGs are the latest evolutionary step in the genre and already have millions of users across the planet (mostly in China and in Korea). But what is gaming really about? What is at stakes behind the current development of the video games industry? While the big players of our industry frenetically harvest the markets with the sole purpose of making piles of money for their shareholders, gaming is changing the foundations of our future societies.

All mammals learn by playing games, and role playing game in particular. Young lions learn to hunt and kill by playing, young antilopes learn to detect danger and run for their life by playing games too. The same kind of behaviour exists with any mammal, and the human animal is no exception. Still, depending on their level of intelligence, mammals have more or less elaborate games. These games are the basis of the mammal education in general.

While playing games, we are more receptive to the teachings they contain. This is our nature. I think that these considerations are important, and they are a part of my motivation and ambition to work on MMORPGs due to their implications and perspectives. Chances are that our particular type of game we like to play and build (MMORPGs) will play a great role in the shaping of our future societies. Just like the Internet already has begun to change our everyday private and professional lives, MMORPGs might develop a very deep presence in our lives.

Today's MMORPG early adopters saw the genre appear in their lifetimes. But within the next 10 years, kids will be familiar with the Net and the MMORPGs naturally, having grown up with it as a part of their lives. They will have a natural ability to use computers and will have no problem evolving in a virtual world. To them, the concept of having separate lives will be natural. Just like they are beginning to use private or public websites, our education systems and our working environments could largely benefit from using immersive online spaces.

Besides education and businesses, what we see as games today can also evolve towards alternative societies where we would enjoy other lives in parallel to our 'in-body' life. I am not saying that these alternative societies would be preferable to our real-life existence, though. I just think that they would give us the opportunity to enjoy more about ourselves and give even more interest to our 'in-body' existence.

That's pretty heady stuff, if you think about it. At some point, I think it is entirely possible that we could see the 2D web disappear in favour of a 3D, MMO-like web, complete with personal spaces. The multiverse, if you will.

As we work to push our events closer to the promise of a player-impactable story and world, and as we are also pushing forward the Ryzom Ring, I'd like to know what you think about all that.

2. How was Ryzom created? What software was used, how big was the team?

Nevrax founders were visionaries who wanted to create an original MMO with a poetical world that would make us all dream. They sought funds and recruited a team made of video game veterans, members from the "demo" scene and the cinema, among others.
Technically speaking, Ryzom was programmed in C++ under Windows (client) and Linux (servers), with 3DS Max and Photoshop mainly for the graphics and our own tools for the Level Design.
The team had various sizes depending on production needs and went up to a maximum of about 80 persons, without counting Customer Support.

II. Ryzom takeover and new team

3. How did you reorganize "Nevrax" after its takeover to make the game economically healthier?

The first steps were related to the cost structure. It started with setting up a new infrastructure for the servers and continued to trivial things like reducing the costs for internet at the office.

4. What resources did Gameforge bring to continue Ryzom, to keep the community and the game alive (financially and on the human side)?

In one word, money. Gameforge AG invested a lot into Ryzom to keep the game running and to continue producing it. There has been no noticeable change in the staff or the tools used. This is still true today as the game is not yet profitable.
To get new blood into the game, Gameforge AG also advertises Ryzom in their other online games and have sent emails to their playerbase a couple of time as these are ways to get "word of mouth" advertising for Ryzom.

III. Game evolution

5. What evolution of the game shall we expect? (more PvP, more RP, progresses in the storyline...)?

Mainly, what is currently ongoing or to be expected this year is a mix between a rework of the starting experience of the game, content additions such as new missions and new challenges, and fine-tuning of the game (range fight, 1H melee weapons). The release of the Kitins' Lair is still in the air but not to be expected in the short term (next 3-6 months). See Q.10 for more details.

6. Will we see in a few years a "Ryzom 2" with a new 3D engine enabling things impossible to do today? Such as flying, diving, jumping. Or how about a new planet or new playable races?

There are still nice things to add to Ryzom before talking about a Ryzom 2, don't you think?

7. Do you plan on adding Outposts, for instance in the Prime Roots?

We don't want to add too many Outposts in the game. Our aim is to avoid situations where every guild can own an Outpost as the goal is that OP battles keep going. As of today, we consider there are enough OPs but this doesn't mean we won't add some more in the future.

8. Will you add a civilisation Tag besides the faction Tag?

We don't have any finalised plans at the moment regarding PvP. We know how adding more possibilities and interactions can make PvPing more interesting. This is one big project that must be decided carefully though, and one we haven't rediscussed seriously since the takeover as we're already quite busy with the ongoing projects.

9. In the future, will there be vehicles that we can drive? Such as boats with cannons, catapults, ambulances that give a heal advantage on the battlefield through an area of effect for example?

A little help from the higher Powers would most likely help Homins to discover such things quickly. Now, is it in the interest of these Powers to see Homins working out such techniques... (why does Battlefield come to mind?)

10. Can you refute or explain the rumour about the Kitins' Lair saying that you have completely discarded what Nevrax did on the project?

Nothing has been abandoned or discarded, the Kitins' Lair is kept with care, waiting to be finished. At the moment its release isn't a priority though, as this project isn't coherent with our current objectives.

The Kitins' Lair was following Nevrax' development program, which Gameforge has decided not to keep integrally. As announced shortly after the takeover, the priority was to prepare patches to improve the first steps of new players.
The amount of fine-tuning that was yet to be done before releasing the Kitins' Lair is something that was also taken into consideration. Gameforge preferred to put it on hold in order to first focus on more critical (such as a small installer) and important (simplification of the new player experience) works as well as things we can release faster (casino).

This direction is still true today. While tuning the game and correcting bugs we stay focused on improving the game content by addressing lowest levels first and then higher levels. We continued working on range fight modifications as this is a change that will serve everyone and also started working on 1H melee weapons for the same reason.

In parallel and still in the same move, we finished the first series of missions on mainland (level 50) and are now working on missions that will follow players up to level 100. At the end of each line you will get a reward and a new page in your Encyclopedia. In the long term, we will bring in regularly new missions built on the same principle as the Encyclopedia so that you can continue gathering its pages.
On the other hand, the existing missions in game will stay as they are for the moment and the same goes for the rites as we cannot handle both projects in the same time. We prefer to bring new missions, which also has the advantage of leaving a more reliable code-base at the end.
Testing of these missions should start after the release of the ongoing patch and if results are positive, level 50 missions will be released in one of the next patches.

Lastly, while you can't see it, we've been reorganising ourselves to manage patch releases differently. The upcoming patch - currently on the ATS and released this month if all goes smoothly - is the last one with the old organisation. Next patches should follow quicker and situations where you see no new content for months shouldn't happen anymore. In return, these patches will be smaller but come more often.

11. What are your plans regarding the Ring; its translation to make it more accessible and important? What about the availability of a server hosting scenarios permanently?

We are finishing a couple of works launched during Nevrax time, which are scenario sharing (a system to send your r2 files to a friend) and scoring. We're also thinking about preparing the Ring so that it's ready to be localised.

Regarding further development, we prefer to finish our ongoing projects and to ensure satisfying income to Ryzom before adding more possibilities into the Ring, such as scenario hosting or more visibility to the launched adventures.

12. What is the future of NeL, the free engine of Nevrax? Under what kind of license will it be? Will updated builds remain available?

No change of rules here, the license stays the same (GNU GPL).

13. The fact that we are on a very small part of Atys (8%): do we have to forget about these words or should we continue dreaming? Here again, I want facts. Sure, we all agree, players, devs and so on, that we'd like things to be cool and big with lots of expansions etc...

We prefer to first fill in the existing areas with interesting, fun and challenging content and to see more Homins running around in there before opening new places. As you know already, the next new area would be the Kitins' Lair.

14. Will we see Jena or Ma-Duk, for example through an event, as it's been the case with the four leaders of Atys?

We can't really answer this question as it's like giving away the end of a movie. These two figures incarnate some of the biggest mysteries of Atys and so they will do everything to remain a mystery. Moreover, if you happen to see them, would you be sure they're truly who they claim to be...

IV. Communicating and promoting the game

15. Will you advertise (in a visible way) to promote the game on a larger scale?

15b. Will there be some Ryzom adverts outside of Gameforge's games websites (even on gameforge.de Ryzom isn't mentioned)?

The game is being promoted through our other games. Large marketing campaigns would cost more and might not be as profitable as too many players trying out the game don't stay afterwards. Before investing more there we want to have a more appealing game to actually keep the newcomers.

As a side note, Gameforge.de isn't a players website but is aimed at investors. We're not hiding Ryzom there; you will notice Gameforge France has its own section where Ryzom is mentioned (http://www.gameforge.de/beteiligungen/17,0,0,0,1.html).

16. Will there be sales of retail boxes again, prepaid cards, distribution through magazines... other than the web (this would avoid the downloading issues and would help paying subscriptions more easily)?

We don't plan on distributing retail boxes in countries such as Germany, France, UK or USA, but rather in countries where the market is smaller. However nothing has been settled yet.
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Marjo
Ryzom Community Liaison