DC Universe Online Interview with Creative Director
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DC Universe Online, the first project out of Sony Online's Austin studio, explores the various worlds of DC Comics' superheroes and villains. A massively-multiplayer experience, DC Universe Online brings high-energy action to the forefront with a combat system designed to deliver a fast-paced action experience with the extraordinary powers of your personally created heroes and villains at your disposal. Battle with or against their favorite DC Super Heroes and Villains including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Joker. We recently had the chance to chat with Jens Andersen, the Creative Director on DC Universe Online for Sony Online Entertainment-Austin, now let him give us more details about DCUO.
CES 09: Developer Walkthrough MMOsite: I am glad that we have this opportunity to do an interview with you. To start, can you make a brief introduction to yourself and your team? MMOsite: Could you give us a brief introduction about the gameworld of DC Universe Online in your own words? MMOsite: How would you describe the artistic style of DC Universe Online? And the background?
MMOsite: Frankly speaking, this game reminds me of City of Heroes and City of Villains. What impacts have these past comic book games had on the development of DC Universe Online? MMOsite: Where does the development for DC Universe Online stand now? Can you reveal us some info on the dates for commercial launch?
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MMOsite: What major challenges did you encounter while developing DC Universe Online? Any difficulties now? MMOsite: Come back to the game itself. Will there be any faction classification? And how will the combat look like in DC Universe Online? MMOsite: Can we choose some super heroes such as superman and Batman as my avatar? Or they are only NPCs? MMOsite: What kind of player economy can we expect to see in DC Universe Online?
Jens Andersen: There were several. First, as a steward of an amazingly popular IP we have to make sure we get it right. The choices we make on what stories to tell, where to tell them and who to tell them with are critical to our success. To that end we work very closely with several movers and shakers from the world of DC Comics like Jim Lee & Geoff Johns. Second, the physics portion of our game. We made a commitment to this feature as a key element in delivering the super hero fantasy. So we made sure to get all of our technical ducks in a row so we could deliver it on the city wide scale. Third, I would say the action combat. Trying to make all this stuff work in a server authenticated environment with all the considerations for potential lag due to connection speed was hard to tackle and still keep it feeling responsive. Not to mention we had to make sure we could maintain balance as the game progressed. It's easy to tackle the problem in a single player experience or in a short multiplayer session with less persistence. But our game has to live and breathe for months and years not minutes and hours. These were all tough challenges and the team handled them beautifully.
Jens Andersen: Players will choose to be a hero or villain. Once they are in the game they can band together with like minded players and form leagues, legions or societies to try and save or rule the world. Our combat is very responsive and is more skill based in its tactics. In our game when someone throws a car at you we don't want you to hide, we want you to catch it and throw it back.
Jens Andersen: You can't play as Superman or Batman because they already exist in the DC Universe. Plus, you can't have a game with thousands of Superman characters running around for obvious reasons. However, you will be able to create your own character in their likeness. So, for example, if you want to be a ninja character who uses gadgets, you'll have something similar to Batman that you'll be able to make your own. And players shouldn't worry about not being as powerful as these characters. If we're truly making you Batman like or Superman like then you can assume you will be their equal, not their inferior. However, I still don't recommend just punching Superman in the face.
Jens Andersen: We will be talking about that at a later time. Look forward to some cool information in the future on how we're handling our economy.
MMOsite: What major challenges did you encounter while developing DC Universe Online? Any difficulties now?
Jens Andersen: There were several. First, as a steward of an amazingly popular IP we have to make sure we get it right. The choices we make on what stories to tell, where to tell them and who to tell them with are critical to our success. To that end we work very closely with several movers and shakers from the world of DC Comics like Jim Lee & Geoff Johns. Second, the physics portion of our game. We made a commitment to this feature as a key element in delivering the super hero fantasy. So we made sure to get all of our technical ducks in a row so we could deliver it on the city wide scale. Third, I would say the action combat. Trying to make all this stuff work in a server authenticated environment with all the considerations for potential lag due to connection speed was hard to tackle and still keep it feeling responsive. Not to mention we had to make sure we could maintain balance as the game progressed. It's easy to tackle the problem in a single player experience or in a short multiplayer session with less persistence. But our game has to live and breathe for months and years not minutes and hours. These were all tough challenges and the team handled them beautifully.
MMOsite: Come back to the game itself. Will there be any faction classification? And how will the combat look like in DC Universe Online?
Jens Andersen: Players will choose to be a hero or villain. Once they are in the game they can band together with like minded players and form leagues, legions or societies to try and save or rule the world. Our combat is very responsive and is more skill based in its tactics. In our game when someone throws a car at you we don't want you to hide, we want you to catch it and throw it back.
MMOsite: Can we choose some super heroes such as superman and Batman as my avatar? Or they are only NPCs?
Jens Andersen: You can't play as Superman or Batman because they already exist in the DC Universe. Plus, you can't have a game with thousands of Superman characters running around for obvious reasons. However, you will be able to create your own character in their likeness. So, for example, if you want to be a ninja character who uses gadgets, you'll have something similar to Batman that you'll be able to make your own. And players shouldn't worry about not being as powerful as these characters. If we're truly making you Batman like or Superman like then you can assume you will be their equal, not their inferior. However, I still don't recommend just punching Superman in the face.
MMOsite: What kind of player economy can we expect to see in DC Universe Online?
Jens Andersen: We will be talking about that at a later time. Look forward to some cool information in the future on how we're handling our economy.
