From the From Paint to Polygons, Miniature to Virtual, Mage Knight Apocalypse Comes to the PC

by Louis Bedigian

“There are no levels in this game and you don't gain experience points by killing monsters.  Instead, you raise your stats through the act of killing monsters.”

Sometimes the tiniest things can make a difference.  Take this warrior, for example.

He’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.  Yet the war he wages is large enough to keep a group of players intrigued for many sleepless nights.

Soon these miniatures will take their battles to the PC in Mage Knight Apocalypse.  Based in the Mage Knight universe, Mage Knight Apocalypse will dare you to face the evil forces of Chaos.  You’ll think you stand a chance until you become aware of the beast that’s leading the evil army: the Apocalypse Dragon.  Armed with not one, not two, but five different heads, this dragon might be the most deadly creature these warriors have ever faced.

“This is a party-based game, and what we've implemented is unique combo attacks,” said Tim Johns, Associate Producer of Mage Knight Apocalypse.  “All the combo attacks are your ultimate attacks among your party members.  They do take coordination to pull off, however, the results are better than the standard attacks that the characters perform by themselves.”

Launching in the spring of 2006, Mage Knight Apocalypse is looking sharp in its early form.  Tim tells us what has been implemented and what will be implemented by the game’s completion.

Mage Knight Apocalypse: what’s it all about?  Why is it cool?

Tim Johns: As you know, Mage Knight Apocalypse is set in the Mage Knight universe.  Mage Knight is a table-top strategy game where you play with collectible miniatures representing an army duking it out.  What we've done is we've translated the base game into an action/RPG.  It's a party-based RPG.  If you're playing by yourself, you'll have AI-controlled party members.  You can set the strategy for party members, like how aggressive they'll be.

Each of our characters plays in a different way.  The Vampire is a combination of an assassin and a necromancer.  She'll be able to raise the dead.

The Dwarf Marksman is a specialist of guns, pistols, and explosives.  The way that he plays is that he has an overheat gauge.  As he does his attacks, his weapons generate heat.  So what you need to do is, as he attacks more and more, he generates more and more heat.  When is bar is full, you have to wait a little bit for him to cool down.

However, if he goes into water, his cool down rate will be much faster.  It's [essentially] a heat thing.  If he goes out into the desert, he's going to generate more heat.

We're going to have five unique classes.  I've told you about just two of them.

Anything you can tell us about the other characters that we'll see in the final version?

TJ: The other three characters are a Dakota Mage that specializes in spells casting.  He's a very flashy character.  He has a unique combat system so that you can transform into dragons, giving him certain abilities that he doesn't normally have in his humanoid form.  He's like a lizard-man kind of guy.

One of our other characters is an Amazon Huntress.  She specializes in melee attacks and that sort of thing.

We also have a Health Guardian.  He's like a holy warrior.  But he also has a paladin, and he also can use bows and perform ranged attacks like this.   

Looks more like Mage Knight Obliterated to me. 
 

Character building: how does it work in this game?

TJ: The way you build up character is using a system we call the AC/DC system.  It stands for Adaptive Character Development Construct.  Essentially, it’s a practice makes perfect system where you build up your character strength stat by working out.  By swinging your sword, your character naturally becomes stronger.  By casting spells, your character naturally becomes smarter and increases their mana power (MP).

There are no levels in this game and you don't gain experience points by killing monsters.  Instead, you raise your stats through the act of killing monsters.  So whatever you do, however you like to play your character, your character is going to get better at it.  Your character customizes itself to your style of play.

How does the story work for these characters?  How do you advance a story in a multiplayer environment?

TJ: Let's say your friend progresses faster than you do.  He becomes ultra, he becomes uber.  You're still new.  What happens is that you can still join a game together.  The mission itself will scale its difficulty dynamically to an average of your characters' stats.  [That way] the newbie players can feel like they're contributing to the uber-players.  The newbie will progress but will still be back at more of a beginner's level.

Engulfed in flames, or powering up for an attack?

Mage Knight Apocalypse's roots lie in table-top strategy.  You can't play a table-top strategy game alone...

TJ: The game is set around a single-player experience.  However, we will be supporting multiplayer where your friends can jump in as the other characters (the AI-controlled characters) and help you progress through the storyline.  We also support multiplayer PvP with teams of up to 16 players each.  We're creating specific content for PvP like Arena and things like that. 

Sounds great.  Anything else you'd like to share?

TJ: Mage Knight Apocalypse is being developed by a studio called IS Games, [who is] based in Taiwan.  However, the Namco team has a lot of influences.

The game is coming out in the spring of 2006.  What [was shown at E3] was just two and a half months of development.  We've already implemented multiplayer.  We're really happy about that.

Awesome.  Thanks for your time.