In the midst of all waves of beta testing for upcoming MMORPG ‘Craft of Gods’, Critical Gamer got to ask some questions. We spoke to both the publisher (Kalicanthus) and the developer (Cyberdemon).
CG: There’s a big MMOG market going on. What are the biggest challenges when it came to winning over the players?
Kalicanthus: I think it was to be believable to the players. We are pretty new to the global market and surely we are smaller than others and [the players don't know if we're] as skilled as others, so I could understand users asking themselves: the game seems fantastic but is it true what I’ll find in the game?
[In] our opinion a good MMO is the sum of various elements that joined together to create the right atmosphere to live.
So if also there are specific elements that in our opinion really make CoG different from the others (like mounting, classless, PVP and PVE together on the same server, talents and so on), what is immediately different from the others is the deep atmosphere. Players like to stay in Craft of Gods’ world because they like to play, and this is a thing we are really proud of.
I’d like to unveil a secret: sometimes during a break I like to enter the game and find a special spot where to sit my character and look the panorama around: it is a way to live the game.
CG: You’ve been looking for distributors, how’s that going?
Kalicanthus:To be honest we had most of the difficulties [here]. The MMORPG market is still little seen by distributors, they think that the PC game market is dead and they don’t believe a lot in subscription based MMOGs. We really believe in long term partnership with distributors but it seems they prefer fast, easy and no effort operations.
Anyway we have already closed some deals with distributors and we are sure we will complete all the countries we want to cover.
**Update: nearly a week after the interview, the company announced that Ivana Soddu Consulting had negotiated a distribution deal for them with Software Discount 99 for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. **
CG: What feedback did the testers give you? What did they like, what needed changing?
Kalicanthus: The thing most of the players like is the atmosphere, we are proud of it because our goal was to put players in an environment able to conquer their senses. Surely some of them complain about the graphics, mostly because they’re not used anymore to a realistic graphic, but this a starting obstacle.
Perhaps the thing on which we have to work more is the interface.
CG: A lot of new content was unveiled for the open beta. What was new?
Kalicanthus: We have changed a lot since the Closed Beta. We have completely renewed all the skills, we changed the interface quite completely, we added battlegrounds (and we are working also on a dedicated low levels fight zone), [and] we added the starting location to help players in their first steps in Craft of Gods’ world.
Cyberdemon: [We changed] a lot of things to be honest. We pay a lot of attention to our players’ feedback so after the closed Beta we collected all the opinions and suggestions to do improvements and changes. For instance we changed all the spells and abilities; we have added a starting location for new players, we modified animations and textures, we changed the interface.
CG: There are a lot of stories in CoG, one more epic than the other. Which is your own personal favourite?
Kalicanthus: Surely the 12 pillars background, it is something epic and challenging at the same time.
CG: The 12 pillars of power play a big role in the CoG storyline. What kind of a role will they play in the actual MMORPG, what will the players be able to do with them?
Cyberdemon: The 12 pillars belong to the end game features. If a guild conquers them (all of them) its Guildmaster becomes a DemiGod gaining new powers.
CG: Since it’s a battle of good versus evil (roughly said), is there an end? Is there a moment in the game where either good or evil wins?
Cyberdemon: Yes but it is a temporary victory. When a Guild conquers the 12 Pillars, the side the Guild belongs to has so many advatanges that we can speak of a victory but it’s not an end, it’s a start for the other side.
Don’t forget the third side, it will not be ready at the launch but it’s already planned to come in the game very soon.
CG: There have been two betas till now. How many waves are still coming, and when do you estimate that the game will actually be released?
Kalicanthus: The plan is to issue 5 waves increasing level cap by 10 each wave.
We have made a promise to our players: not releasing the game if it is not ready to play so we stll have not an official release date because it depends on the feedback made by users. Our idea is for second quarter 2010 but we will announce a date after the second or the third wave.
Cyberdemon: We like to do things step by step, we have an idea about release date but we cannot announce it if we don’t have a feedback from the Beta events. For us doing a Beta-event is not a marketing action but really a testing and a feedback from users possibility, so until we see satisfied users we cannot announce the release date. But it’s matter of a few months.
CG: Is CoG the only game Kalicanthus is currently publishing, or are more coming up?
Kalicanthus: At the moment we have other games we are already publishing like Berserk Online or Pentacore, we have planned some other new games like Da Vinci’s Art of War and Wrestling Game from our browser games lineup but most importantly we will publish two new MMORPGs: Earth 2 planned for the last quarter 2010, developed by Cyberdemon too and another secret project we are working on.
CG: What does the player have to do to become a DemiGod?
Cyberdemon: He must be the Guildmaster able to conquer all the 12 pillars
CG: What kind of awesome powers does the player get when reaching DemiGod status?
Cyberdemon: We don’t want to unveil completely the DemiGod powers. What we can say so far is that he gains destructive mass spells (really destructive) and the possibility to craft legendary items.
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