June 28, 2007

Pick up a quest and explore the world of Dungeon Runners with NCsoft’s Stephen Nichols
By Michael Lafferty

“We've carefully designed the game to provide a good challenge for solo players and groups alike”

When you really look at the game, it is a rather simple concept. You enter a dungeon, battle mobs, accomplish quests, turn in the mission, get another and start again.

Dungeon Runners, from NCsoft, is meant for the casual player who wants to get into a game quickly and enjoy the experience. Lush tones and a bright color scheme makes for an entertaining piece of eye candy. But that’s not all.

Other features include:

• Dungeon Runners is free to download and play – but purchasing membership status will unleash a range of benefits designed to enhance your Dungeon Runners experience on every level. Membership status costs US $4.99 per month.

• Classes and Powers – Mix and match from the ever-growing list of skills and powers to create your own custom class. Learn powerful magic and deadly weapon skills. Customize your characters to destroy hordes of monsters and reverse the tide in immense battles. Progress in power as you gain levels and acquire new treasures.

• Limitless Re-Playability and Random Dungeons – Undertake hundreds of missions leading you into randomly generated dungeons that can be completed quickly, per play session. Greater dungeons provide a deeper experience for those who want to go on longer runs or multi-part quests.

Stephen Nichols, NCsoft’s producer/programmer for Dungeon Runners, chatted with GameZone about this title.

Dungeon Runners was built to be a casual gaming experience, or so it seems, but that – when you come from a long line of MMOs, must be a challenge. What elements do you consider make for a more casual gaming experience? 

Stephen: The number one thing, in my opinion, that makes most MMOs a non-casual experience is the dreaded wait times! Most MMOs are riddled with wait times... you wait to find a group, you wait to heal up, you wait to fly to your destinations. Heck, you sometimes even wait to wait! That's how Dungeon Runners is different. There are no wait times! The entire game is playable solo or with a group -- it scales automatically to give you an appropriate challenge based on your situation. There's also no travel times! You can easily teleport to dungeons and areas that you have been to before... and you can easily and instantly teleport to any group member. We do everything in our power to get you in the action as soon as possible and keep you there as long as you want.

The fallout from having very low wait times is that you can play Dungeon Runners for 15 minutes or 5 hours. You never feel compelled to spend a minimum amount of time in the game to make progress. It's really a game that you can play over lunch or for an hour before bedtime. That's a casual game!

On a related note, how much of a learning curve is there? What is the level cap?

Stephen: If you've played other dungeon crawlers before then the learning curve should be 20 minutes or less. We also provide easy tutorial areas and comprehensive in-game help to ease the learning curve. To be honest, anyone that can click their mouse should be able to play this game with little issue. The level cap is currently set to 100. That's 100 levels of magnificent dungeon-running, monster-smashing, loot-grabbing action!

Is there an overriding story arc that plays through the game? 

Stephen: There is no overriding story arc in Dungeon Runners. Indeed, Dungeon Runners isn't about story at all. It's about completing quests, killing monsters and finding loot. There are lots of quests to do, monsters to kill and items to find... and we keep adding more and more each month. Beyond these core mechanics, there are entertaining stories developed within quests. So, if you're looking for stories to entertain you, the quests are where it's at!

What benefit is there to teaming up to run the dungeons (to play off the game’s title)? 

Stephen: We've carefully designed the game to provide a good challenge for solo players and groups alike. That being said, there are some perks to being in a group. For one, the game gets harder when you're in a group... and the loot drops are better! You also have better survivability because the danger is spread among all group mates. Finally, it's just more fun for many to be in a group. There's nothing quite like taking on hordes of monsters with your friends!

There was once an NCsoft game (MMO) that was discarded during development. It is rumored that the engine is resurfacing in Dungeon Runners. What else might have been transposed from that other game? 

Stephen: I wonder if you're thinking about Exarch, an old NCsoft MMO that was canceled some years ago. Yes, it's true, Dungeon Runners is loosely based on the technology used to create Exarch. We used it as a starting point. However, we've stripped most of the systems down and reworked them to provide a technically superior experience for Dungeon Runners. That being said, there are still some bits of Exarch content that still survive in Dungeon Runners. For example, our snow forest areas are based on old Exarch assets... as are some weapons, monsters and avatars. Beyond the shared art assets, we have no resemblance to that old NCsoft game... may it rest in peace.

Do you think graphics can carry a game or – considering the influx of so many Asian MMOs that are basically all the same – do you think that content needs to be deep and varied? 

Stephen: I certainly don't think that graphics alone can carry a game... but it certainly doesn't hurt a game to be pretty. When all is said and done, games are about the gameplay! If your game isn't fun then it just won't do well. That leaves a lot of latitude for game developers though, because a fun game doesn't have to have deep and varied content. Clearly, having a variety of fun activities to explore in an MMO will give a game longer legs... but I wouldn't put varied content above having fun content. Our design philosophy for Dungeon Runners is to focus on one aspect of gameplay at a time and make sure it's fun! We will keep on adding new features to the game, but never at the expense of the almighty fun factor!

What was the goal when you created Dungeon Runners and how do you think you realized those goals in terms of gameplay? 

Stephen: Did you know that the current team working on Dungeon Runners has only been working on the game since early 2006? The original third-party developers were bought out by a competitor and jumped ship on the game. I was hired to build a team to finish the game and bring it to market. So, it's hard for me to give you a definitive description about the goal with Dungeon Runners was first on the drawing board.

When the new team was put together, we decided to take Dungeon Runners in a different direction than was originally planned. We wanted to make a game that was light-hearted, easy to play and appealing to players that lack enough free time to enjoy other MMOs. Our biggest departure from the original vision was making Dungeon Runners a tongue-in-cheek experience instead of another serious RPG. We literally threw out the entire game design and reworked it to appeal to players that are just sick of games that take themselves too seriously. I believe we achieved that goal wonderfully! :)

We took the game in a different gameplay direction as well. The original Dungeon Runners had strict ideas of character class and attribute restrictions on item use. It also suffered from some seriously boring magic items... both in name and use. Our goal was to create a game that appeals to casual players that are sick of MMOs that require the same time investment as a second job would. As such, having strict class limitations and equipment restrictions are a barrier to entry and enjoyment for many. So, we tossed all such notions out the window. Anyone can learn any skill and can use any item without class or attribute restrictions. This allows our players to enjoy the game on their terms, not the preconceived definitions of fun that a game designer may have. I believe we've achieved these goals as well. I mean where else will you find "mage" characters wielding a two-handed pizza cutter while firing fireballs at hordes of monsters?!

What are your favorite aspects of the game?

Stephen: I've been in the game industry for 16 years now... and this is the first game I've worked on that I'm actually addicted to playing. I love everything about it... the loot, combat, quests, skills, monsters and humor are all very entertaining to me. However, what really keeps me coming back for more is the hectic massive combat. I just love fighting 30 monsters in a single encounter. I can do that all day long...

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