Free Realms Developer Blog

In Free Realms, players are free to do or be anything: Fight like a ninja, cook a tasty meal, raise a pet, battle goblins, set out on epic quests or connect with friends through a safe, social networking site. www.FreeRealms.com

Author: FreeRealms

Ok, so in Free Realms we have lots of friendly dogs and cute cats that you can adopt and train (even some ghost pets too). And, while the canine and feline pet variations are pretty cool, we have been secretly working on several new breeds of exotic pets for you to have fun with.

Initially when the development team took on the task of designing new pets, the whole character team sat down together and we started throwing out ideas left and right. What would make for some crazy and unique pets? From alpacas and zebras, to turtles and porcupines, we had all kinds of zany suggestions.

Once we had our brainstorm session, we combined our ideas with what the community team had compiled from player requests. This gave us a good idea of whether we were on track or not. We did concept drawings of several of these and picked out what we thought the players would like the most.

So, the next game update will bring you some awesomely adorable companions to choose from:

Ponies!        Pegasi!               Unicorns!

For the more reptilian friendly, we will release two types of flying dragons and a cute triceratops.

When we started building these new pets, we wanted to make sure they were very different from what you can find in any pet store. As you can see they are very colorful, distinct and whimsical.

Each of these new pets has their own set of tricks and will show off their specialties with some fun shenanigans - dragons breathe fire and unicorns “tinkle” rainbows! We’ve had a blast making them and can’t wait for everyone to get their paws on the new Free Realms pets! ?

Hmmm...I still think a platypus would be cool...

Matt Case
Lead Character Artist
Free Realms
www.FreeRealms.com
 

Halloween is almost upon us, but the super spooky festivities have been going on all month in Free Realms!

The Spooktacular celebration grows each and every day, with plenty of pixies and humans parading around Sanctuary in costume, scaring townsfolk in return for sweet treats.

Be careful which sweet treats you eat, though! The candy in Sanctuary has been known to have some eerie effects...

The Free Realms' world design team has been dreaming up Halloween events for quite some time now. Most of us are convinced the haunting holiday should be celebrated year round, so needless to say, when asked who was willing to create a few tricks and treats, we all eagerly raised our hands.

Luckily for me, I'm the tallest one on the team, so naturally my hand was raised the highest. Luckily for the rest of you, the world design team had too many fantastic ideas to choose just one, so we decided in addition to traditional trick-or-treating, we'd let you all follow along on a spooky tale, only to be told during Halloween!

Players are introduced to Halloween Harry in Sanctuary, the confectioner who has a super-secret recipe to create sweet treats. He's been crafting gooey candy for longer than anyone can remember, so when some strange things start happening in Sanctuary, he's not too spooked.

Old man Greyli Dustywings on the other hand, is convinced ghosts are to blame for all the mischief. If only he had his spectral spectacles, he could show everyone that ghouls and ghosts are lurking around Sanctuary!

For those who aren't scared of a little ghoulish fun, keep an eye open for Pumpkin Prince sightings! Rumor has it he's been haunting Snowhill, Bristlewood, and Stillwater Crossing. Ghost Hunters in each of those areas could always use some help scaring the ghouls away.

If you'd rather dress up and devour candy, be sure to join the party in Sanctuary! Some of the townsfolk are passing out rare goodies. If you don't get the treat you want today, come back tomorrow and try again. Members and non-members alike are invited to trick-or-treat every day!

So whether you want to help Halloween Harry get to the bottom of things, or simply scare away ghosts from Sacred Grove, there's something for every type of player in Free Realms' Super Spooktacular update! So come join in on the fun. We'll keep a delicious raven cupcake waiting for you!

Julie Burness
Associate Game Designer
Free Realms
www.FreeRealms.com

Halloween has come to Free Realms and it’s

Super Spooktacular!

From ghosts, goblins and creepy cobwebs to candy corn costumes, Free Realms gears up for the biggest virtual Halloween event of the season.

We are celebrating Halloween in Free Realms, with weeks of spooky activities and festive live events. It’s our First Annual Super Spooktacular and you’re invited to try out loads of great quests, costumes and more.

What a great holiday for the Free Realms character art team!! Most of us love dressing up in costumes, so making a bunch of costumes for the game was a blast!

We started out by making sure we had all the classic monsters like a vampire, witch, Frankenstein, mummy and werewolf. We made sure to give them a bit of Free Realms flair and they ended up looking awesome!

Thinking back to when we were kids, we also thought it would be great to put in a bunch of what we called "supermarket" costumes. Basically, those one piece jumpsuit costumes that came with the plastic mask, that just made a sauna on your face. Those costumes were usually made in the likeness of your favorite Saturday morning cartoon characters, so we thought we would make them all the various characters around Free Realms.

I think my favorite costume would have to be the full body Chatdy outfit. It looks hilarious, and most importantly, players will have to do something special to find that suit!

                              

There are many other costumes and surprises in there for Halloween, so be sure to get out in the world and shop or do some quests for all the crazy costumes out there!

And for those of you who like to “party” we’re having a Halloween Dance Party and you’re invited. Boy, girl, ghoul or ghost, you need to be there for our biggest dance party yet! How many people we can get into the graveyard near the Bone Bog Cemetery? Be there and find out!

Wednesday October, 21st
4pm PDT – 6pm PDT (11pm – 1am UTC)
Blackspore, Teleport to Bone Bog Cemetery
Server 1

Wear your best costume and get ready to shake your bones across the cemetery floor. It’s going to be a crazy night of creepy moves and Halloween grooves.

I’ve got my costume…See you there!

Matt Case
Lead Character Artist
Free Realms

www.FreeRealms.com

Well, we’re just about in the final stretch here at Free Realms headquarters, polishing the final touches of the new Soccer Star job and arcade style mini game. It’s been both an insightful and genuinely fun experience contributing to the new game update. As is the case with creating any new game, soccer has gone through an iterative process that began to really take shape in the last couple months. The biggest challenge was creating accessible soccer gameplay using a mouse and keyboard! Typically this control mapping is found on an arcade or a console style controller which forced us to really focus on how to make Free Realms soccer just as intuitive and fun on a PC.

Thankfully we were able to identify a solid control scheme midway through the development process by gathering data from our in house Usability Lab testing. Watching the different groups of kids get hands on with the game gave us immediate feedback on how to make the soccer controls more user friendly. The A.I. (artificial intelligence) balance was achieved by viewing these play sessions as well.

Overall kids in the focus test groups had a blast playing as a Soccer Star once they got a grasp on the functionality, not to mention the punctuating particle effects really pushed the squash and stretch principals for a nice layer of novelty. This also has a suggestive nature to the Stephen Chow – Shaolin Soccer film; fans of that movie will be sure to get a kick out of Free Realms Soccer. I’ll never forget the nine to twelve age group who were yelling in sheer excitement every time they executed a goal or slide tackle! There was hardly a moment of silence throughout that particular session but, it was reassuring to see the fun factor was in fact present at that point in development.

As a designer coming over from the combat team, the soccer quest line was my first quest progression implementation for the over world. This presented many challenges as I had to learn how the flow and dependencies of the tools affected the many aspects of the core game. Whereas the framework in combat is very much self contained in a bubble or instance which doesn’t have an overlapping presence on Free Realms proper. This was one those sink or swim moments, but luckily my development teammates were always on hand to provide support during any moments of uncertainty.

I’m really looking forward to reading and seeing the reactions of players once soccer launches. I actually found myself getting a bit carried away while fixing a bug the other night. The game got so competitive and came down to the wire that I actually yelled at the opposing team “Ha! I Knocked you down and scored! What are you gonna about it, huh?” Enjoy…

Chris Molina
Game Designer
Free Realms
 

www.FreeRealms.com

Keeping in shape can be hard when a majority of your time is spent working or going to school. Forget a work out buddy. Get a whole team! Well, at least that's what I did! Playing soccer with the SOE soccer team has made it really easy for me to keep in shape because I feel like people are relying on me to be there. Not only has it prepared me physically, but it prepared me mentally for the creation of the Soccer Star job that will be introduced in the upcoming Free Realms game update, Goal Time!

I'm sure you've heard quite a bit about the new job and its arcade-like soccer game. It's been an interesting project for me as a designer because it's the first job that is related to a sport. Lots of pressure, but I think it has turned out quite well. We've really tried to take all the aspects of soccer that make you feel like a team come to life.

As you progress through the quest line, I hope you feel like you're improving and getting challenged by the higher tier teams. I tried to play off the rivalry between teams and how much competition can drive that. There's a bit of a story throughout the quest line and I could go on and on about the lore behind the job, but I'd rather not spoil it! Hopefully, you will be able to play through it and tell me what the story is!

Now, I know what you really can't wait for is the awesome gear that will be available. What kind of soccer player would you be without your cleats? Oh, and don't forget your shin guards! Safety is key.

Throughout the quest line, you'll receive two full outfits. These outfits include a bandana, jersey, shorts, cleats, and shin guards. You can also buy gear from the market place, and merchants just outside the soccer field! On top of that, you can spend tickets in the vault to get gear. There are some really neat designs on the outfits with plenty of color options! So sport your jersey with pride.

When I'm picking gear, I'm always worried about the stats. Sometimes, I have to pick gear that isn't really my style just so that I have the best gear. In Free Realms soccer, you won't have to choose looks over stats or vice versa! All your stats will be on accessories and shards, including some super cool kick animations! This means that you can pick whatever appearance you like best without having to give up any awesome stats.

I bet you want to know what kind of stats you'll be able to get! Well, there are five stats in soccer: kick power, footwork, speed, toughness, and tackle power. Most of them are self explanatory, but footwork and speed can be a little confusing, so I thought I'd give you a little heads up. Footwork is your speed when you have the ball, and speed is your speed without the ball.

One more thing! Don't forget to dodge and charge up your kicks. Dodging will let you avoid getting tackled. Charging up your kicks will not only allow you to kick that soccer ball into the goal, it will also let you do some fancy kick animations.

With all that cleared up, I think you're ready for the kick off! Hopefully, you'll have more stamina than me. I'm always asking, "When's halftime?"
 

Margaret Krohn, Game Designer, Free Realms

I have a love hate relationship with the sport of soccer. When I was a child around age six I begged my parents to let me play soccer in the local league. When I received my jersey and shin guards I was incredibly excited. My team's name was the Mavericks and our colors were dark blue and gold. My coach assigned me to play goalie and I had been practicing hard. I knew that practice would pay off, so while I was riding in the car to my very first soccer game I had no doubt that this was going to be a day of personal glory. Sadly, I was wrong.

It was the end of the last quarter. The score was 0-0. The end of the game and my oranges and juice box were just moments away. Down the field ran this kid on the other team, tripping over the ball and generally looking clumsy. I knew he was no match for my goalie skills. I deftly stopped the ball when he took his shot. My team had only one minute to return the ball to the other end of the field and score.

I held the ball in my hands. I dropped the ball to kick it. I kicked the ball as hard as I possibly could. And instead of flying down the field towards the other team's goal it flew backwards... Over my head... Directly into my team's goal, he goal that I was meant to protect. I was baffled! Bewildered! And sad beyond words. The score was now 1-0, them. I stood there in shock and embarrassment. I had just handed the game over the other team.

The next week at practice the coach taught me how to throw the ball down the field instead of kicking it. That wasn't quite as much fun, so I decided to sign up for tee-ball instead. This ended my love for playing soccer in real life and began my new love of playing soccer in video games!

I've always loved soccer video games, so I was super excited when we decided to add soccer in Free Realms. The soccer field outside of Snowhill has been part of the game since far before launch, taunting me with prospect of slide tackles and super kicks. Now, all the soccer fans out there won’t have to wait much longer, they can soon jump right in and start a match, when our next update, GOAL TIME goes live!

We've added an all new job, the Soccer Star, complete with 20 levels of progression. In the quest line you will defeat rival teams with your superior skills. You can earn new gear that makes you a better player as you level up. You can enhance your kick power, speed and various other stats.

Charging your shots is definitely what sets apart the pro's from the amateurs. When you shoot the ball, hold down the spacebar and watch your kick meter charge. When it's full, shoot the ball and watch your awesome super kicks overwhelm the opponent's goalie. Soccer also features 3 players vs. 3 players lobbies. Join up and challenge your friends to a game for bragging rights and leaderboards.

Soccer is a really fun addition to Free Realms and I think it all soccer lovers out there will have a great time reaching their GOOOALLLLL!!!!! of being a level 20 Soccer Star.

Luke Sigmund
Systems Design Lead
Free Realms

HELLO! Welcome to the first development blog update from the team working on Free Realms over here at Sony Online Entertainment’s San Diego studio. The purpose of this blog is to keep you informed of all the fun and cool things we are creating for Free Realms. Here you will get perspective on development from designers, artists, producers and many others behind the scenes at SOE. So, I guess we might as well just jump right into it…

There are a lot of minigames in Free Realms, but the two I've been most excited about since pre-launch are definitely Kart Racing and Demolition Derby. So, for me, the upcoming game update, Speedway Thunder (scheduled to go live this week), is something I've been looking forward to for well over a year.

This update adds the integral piece that I've been waiting for... Progression. The Kart Racer and Demo Derby Driver jobs will be able to level up through quest lines and their individual activities.

The quest lines are unique in that the races and derbies that are part of the line are hand tailored to be part of the story. You will race and demolish the karts of the characters you are interacting with. You will build rivalries and then smash your competition, if you have the skill.

To augment your racing and destruction skills we've added a variety of parts to customize your vehicles. All you need to do to get a boost is acquire the parts and install them in the garage. Not only will your karts get faster and turn better, but you can make them look even more awesome with decals and other sweet visual parts.

In addition to adding parts, a garage, and progression we've added two new tracks for racing. You will be able to speed through the Memorial Caverns and test out your new wheels on the beach in Seaside. The Seaside track is my favorite of all the tracks. The technique to get onto the secret shortcut will throw you for a loop, so watch out!

This barely scratches the surface of the new Racing and Demo Derby features, especially the kart customization. I'm really excited to race against other players with tricked out karts and see the new times set on the leaderboards. Maybe I'll even be able to win a race now that I can upgrade my engine.

Overall, I'm really proud of the update. A lot of designers, coders, artists and testers put a ton of hard work into taking Racing and Demo Derby to the next level, especially our team at Big Bang Entertainment in Phoenix. In fact, Jeremy at BBE has put in so much work play testing and tuning the new tracks that he beat my best time on the Seaside track one handed while not really paying attention to where his kart was going.

I hope all the Racers and Wreckers have as much fun leveling up, upgrading their karts and taking them to the road as I've had play testing the update. See you in game!  www.FreeRealms.com

Luke Sigmund
Systems Design Lead
Free Realms