D.W. Bradley offers a glimpse into the world of Dungeon Lords

By Michael Lafferty

“Each player’s character will ultimately be a unique hero of their own creation”

The name of D.W. Bradley has been attached to some of the more sterling medieval/fantasy games in recent history –Wizardry: Heart of the Maelstrom, Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge and Wizardry: Crusaders of the Dark Savant.

When you see that name pop up in conjunction with a new title, one tends to sit up and take very strong notice.

Dungeon Lords, from Heuristic Park and DreamCatcher, is a new breed of fantasy RPG. The title combines elements of role-playing with the fighter-action genre set against a three-dimensional backdrop and immersive storyline with enough twists and turns to keep players plunging ahead to see what is in store.

According to the official Web site:

“Dungeon Lords is loaded with quests, personal missions, extensive skills and special abilities for customizing your own character hero from a variety of races and multiple class specializations, as you journey through an enchanted land of ancient castles, dark forests, and dungeon lairs braving an army of diabolical foes in real time action packed combat to uncover the secrets lying hidden within the depths of an evolving storyline. Dungeon Lords can be played either single-player stand alone, or in multi-player group sessions.”

Features include:

• Non-stop game action and exploration in full 3rd person 3D, including outdoor wilderness, swamps, forests, mountains, arctic lands, towns, villages, castles, dungeons, temples, caves, and forbidden ruins.

• Nail-biting 3D combat action featuring an arsenal of attack and defense combo moves with real time player control of all combat tactics, including a vast selection of weaponry, magic spells and powerful artifacts.

• Loads of personal quests and missions, featuring a world full of NPC characters to interact and bargain with, some who may become your ally, others who may be your enemy.

• Create your own character hero, choosing from a variety of races and multiple class specializations, featuring detailed character hero development that includes a host of personal attributes, skills, and special abilities.

• Extensive Inventory that features common, rare, and unique items.

·          Full support for both Single-Player stand-alone and Multi-Player group game sessions.

D.W. Bradley took time from his work with Heuristic Park to talk with GameZone about this highly anticipated title.

Question: Dungeon Lords is said to combine RPG elements with FPS. Are we to understand that you derive the RPG from the setting and character customization and interaction with the world, but that this is built on a FPS model? Or have you managed to twist that even further beyond that simple summation of the game style?

D.W. Bradley: Dungeon Lords is a full-fledged RPG that is combined with a unique blend of real-time Fighting Game combat and FPS style controls. The idea is to keep all the depth of an RPG but feature combat that is all action-packed – the key difference between Dungeon Lords and other RPGs is that our combat is all live, every instant of gameplay employing a combination of the real-time reflexes and strategic decisions of the player with the skills and abilities they have developed and acquired for their character hero throughout the game. The nice thing about working on RPGs for so long, is that it allows me to do this without sacrificing any depth to the underlying RPG elements, such as the fully detailed customized personal character hero development system that covers a wide range of stats, skills, and class specializations, a powerful inventory system that features hundreds of various weapons and armors, and a revolutionary new magic system.

Q: What is this control system like? Does the game use hotkeys, mouse/keyboard movement, free looks camera controls, or have you altered the interface more than what we are used to?

D.W. Bradley: Players use WASD keys (and a few other special keys) to control all movement of their character, and use the mouse for turning/looking around (full-screen full-freedom 3D with camera zoom and position controls) as well as all real-time combat, including specific melee attacks (jabs, thrusts, chops, slashes, etc.), blocking, casting magic spells, and so forth. Players can continually chain moves, attacks, blocks and dodges together, as in a fighting game, and directly control all actions of their hero at all times. Advanced hero classes and skill development dynamically evolve the combat abilities of the hero and further add to the player’s repertoire of actions throughout the game. Dungeon Lords also eliminates virtually all on-screen interface components during gameplay, so that the player’s full-screen view of the world and action is always pure and pristine – it totally immerses you into the game world – no distracting “point & click” elements to ruin the action and experience of being there. The only continual monitor that remains on-screen at all times is the hero’s health and experience bar in the upper corner. All other interface components such as inventory, magic, and character stats are all instantly accessible to the player at any time via user configurable hotkeys.

Q: Explain a little about the combat system in terms of skills. Is this a hit first, hit often, throw in some attacks and hope the dice roll favors you and you win, or is it more involved than that? How will tactics work into the combat? Will players have defensive capabilities to evade, or are enemy attacks guided in that they don't miss (and ranged will bend to hit you)?

D.W. Bradley: Combat is first and foremost about what the player actually does at each instant of gameplay - the timing of all attacks (whether melee, ranged, or magical), and all movement, blocks and dodges, etc. are all critically important to whether you’re toasting the monsters or getting your butt kicked. However, the abilities, skills, powers, stats, equipment, magical buffs and debuffs, etc. of the player’s hero all directly affect how the player’s hero can perform and respond. A faster hero can attack and move faster; a more heavily armored character will be better protected against enemy strikes; a character highly skilled in weaponry will strike opponents more effectively, more frequently and deal more damage, etc. Everything is in real-time. For example, a player may choose to equip armor on their hero rated above the hero’s current stats (your hero can still wear it), but their movement and fighting ability will be hampered both visibly and otherwise - your character would become immediately less responsive and generally slower to react, etc. – the gameplay and combat would instantly “feel” different to you in contrast to when your character is wearing and wielding equipment that they possess the current skills to use effectively. Since the player is in continual control of their hero at all times, tactics are likewise a constant factor at every instant, both at the level of engaging face to face with each enemy, as well as formulating a broader strategy to fight a battle that is unfolding against multiple enemies with potentially different powers and attack capabilities. And yes, in case the above isn’t clear enough, you both can and should evade and block enemy strikes, ranged missile fire and magic spell attacks, or otherwise your character won’t survive for very long.   

Q: What, to you, are the most essential elements of any combat system, and how have you realized that in Dungeon Lords?

D.W. Bradley: Dungeon Lords is a game that focuses on having the player’s actions determine what happens in combat in concert with the development and skill specializations of their customized character hero at all times – and while Dungeon Lords combat is influenced heavily by character stats and equipment, it is ultimately the player who actually swings the mace or blocks a counter-attack. The design of Dungeon Lords has drawn heavily on real-time fighting games, including attack combos, special moves, jumps, rolls, blocks, etc., and married these with the depth and detail of a true RPG, that is, customized personal character hero development in an on-going saga of unfolding storylines, quests, and adventures in a fantasy universe. In Dungeon Lords, we’ve aspired to create an epic that raises the RPG experience to a new level of visual and visceral immersion.

Q: Is this game a somewhat linear dungeon crawl, or will the players have several paths they can take to the end-goal?

D.W. Bradley: The tale in Dungeon Lords weaves two separate storylines that crisscross throughout the game and are ultimately connected, and is further interlaced with numerous optional side-mission quests that players may or may not discover or choose to pursue. Beyond the first town, players are free to choose which direction in the world they go, which quests they wish to undertake, and so forth, and although certain storyline events occur that give impetus and direction to the player’s ultimate goals, each player is otherwise free to explore the realm in a non-linear fashion. Dungeon Lords automatically balances and adjusts enemy encounters in relation to the level and strength of the hero’s party (whether playing in single player mode with or without recruited allies, as well as in multiplayer mode).

Q: Tell us a little about character customization. Will it be possible to build a character template so that your character is almost totally unique?

D.W. Bradley: Very much so! Each player’s character will ultimately be a unique hero of their own creation. In addition to the eight basic playable Races (some which include both male and female), there are dozens of specialized character classes, and hundreds and hundreds of inventory and equipment items, weapons and armors, which combine to yield distinctive individual hero visual appearance as well as determine specific hero capabilities. With over 50 skills, 6 primary attributes, and four schools of magic (each type of magic works differently, more than 100 magic spells all together), there are so many facets to character creation and development that virtually no two characters will ever be exactly alike.

Q: What races will be available in this game and how does the story line encompass their presence?

D.W. Bradley: Playable races include: Human (male and female), Elf (male and female), Dwarf, and Demigoth sub-humans, including Urgoth (a furry beastial character), Wylvan (a wolf-ish character), and Thrall (a small and sneaky hairy dude). At a fundamental level, choice of character race denotes certain tendencies and predispositions for how that character best evolves, i.e. an Urgoth is generally well suited to evolve into a big tough aggressive fighter, whereas an Elf evolves more easily focusing on other aspects. Can an Elf become a tough and aggressive fighter? The answer is yes, but it takes more patience to cultivate toughness for an Elf than for the Urgoth. Beyond this aspect, all the races in the game occupy the game world, and many of these races do not get along with each other – as the player enters domains and encounters the various races, the available opportunities and their hero’s ability to negotiate and deal with the local inhabitants is influenced by the player’s choice of race.

Q: Does the quest system in the game evolve or build from quests accomplished? (as in, will one quest lead to another and then another) Will there be different quest sets for single and multiplayer? Will the quests in cooperative mode take into account the multiple players and bump up the difficulty accordingly?

D.W. Bradley: The quests in Dungeon Lords are varied, and primarily fall into two categories: quests that need to be completed to progress along an aspect of one of the game’s principle storylines, and personal quests that provide opportunity for unique development advancement and special rewards such as rare and hard to acquire items, magic spells, etc.  Game storyline quests are necessary to all, whereas the personal quests are optional and the opportunity to engage in these quests can be dependent upon the hero’s race, gender, in-game decisions, class specializations, and other factors.  The game world, and potential opportunities therein, are generally the same regardless of whether played in single player mode or multiplayer mode. There are a very few optional special places that require more than one character to reach. The game does balance difficulty depending upon party composition, both for single player and for multiplayer (single players can still recruit allies to build up the party if they choose, although not a requirement).

Q: Will there be any other multiplayer game modes outside of cooperative? Will the game have online support, or will multiplayer be more of a peer-to-peer system?

D.W. Bradley: While Dungeon Lords is designed to be played either single-player or multiplayer cooperative, it will offer a special Player vs. Player mode – playing in this mode will still be within the same game universe, so it will be up to each group of players to determine what objectives, goals and rewards they are competing for.  Dungeon Lords will be playable via LAN as well as Internet, and we plan to offer multiplayer lobby connection through GameSpy.

Q: What elements do you think will set Dungeon Lords apart from other RPGs on the market, and what is your target market for this game?

D.W. Bradley: The key factor is that Dungeon Lords is immensely fun and exciting to play, the interface and controls are very easy and intuitive, it’s a fully loaded RPG with all the story, adventure, quests, puzzles and depth that an avid RPG fan craves, and best of all, it’s a live real-time immersive RPG experience in wide-eyed beautiful blazing 3D that you can play by yourself or with friends.

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