Twelve Sky 2 - Why Make a TwelveSky 2?
In this new developer journal provided to us by MYAN Interactive, the European Publishers of the game, Sang Chan Lee from Gigasoft answer the question "Why Make a TwelveSky 2 sos oon after releasing TwelveSky 1?"
Hello! My name is Sang Chan Lee, and I'm the Head of Marketing and Project Operations for Gigassoft Co., Ltd, the development studio behind such games as "TwelveSky 2" and a few other unannounced projects. Gigassoft was founded in December of 2002 with the purpose to make compelling Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play Games. Our first project, "TwelveSky [1]", went into Alpha testing in late 2003. Following its success, we began working on a sequel, "TwelveSky 2", which entered into its live phase in South Korea in March of 2008. With the game still relatively new, it'll be released in Europe, China, and Japan almost simultaneously. That's quite a feat for any online game company!
Riding on the back of "TwelveSky [1]"'s success, we are now one of the biggest independent game studios in South Korea. Our strength lies with our ability to do every bit of game production ourselves – from 3D animation, programming, all the way to sound effects and music scores. That's quite rare over here! In addition, we even have in-house resources to manage our own Live Operations in Korea such as Customer Service. All these in-house capabilities have allowed us to be much closer to our valued players and understand their needs better. This is the winning formula behind the success of "Twelvesky 2" in regions where the game has been released.
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In order to make a successful online game, it requires many elements on top of mere programming. One of which is the understanding of what your [potential] users want, and the ability to analyze the right data to confirm those ideas. My job entails that I monitor the markets and investigate the needs and wants of users, sometimes this includes studying other games and trying to apply them to "TwelveSky 2". You know… there aren't many games which have the number "2" in their name. The reason for being is that if the game has a "2", it's considered a sequel and thusly people will compare it to the first. History dictates that some will say that the original is better (whether or not it is true) and the sequel rarely meets the expectation. Keeping this in mind, we designed "TwelveSky 2" to surpass the expectations of our fans. It is a completely different game and not just an expansion.
The main reason for making a sequel was quite simple. "TwelveSky [1]" was still popular, and was very much loved, but it was first designed in 2003. The technology behind it is over five years old! As we added more content, we ran into numerous structural issues and eventually were limited in what we can improve. The engine could no longer support what we wanted. In addition, newer games were coming out with beautiful graphics and our game was losing its visual appeal. We finally decided to start from scratch and resolve those issues for good! And thus, "TwelveSky 2" was born! This colossal endeavor is also our gift to our prized members who've been great fans and supporters since the very beginning.
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Looking back, there are four main elements which we've focused on while designing "TwelveSky 2". The first of which is Player versus Player combat. We decided that players shouldn't need to wait until they're at the "end game" to have fun, so we mainstreamed it and made it much easier for new characters to participate and make a difference. In addition, we added a plethora of battle variations to keep those who've been around for a while challenged. Second of all, in order to keep a balance between the four in-game factions, we've added an alliance system. These alliances can be created and enforced by player-elected Generals. This second pillar includes the tweaking of innate bonuses given to each faction which were sometimes deemed unfair in "TwelveSky 1". Thirdly, we revamped our proprietary game engine GXD to turn the graphics up several notches. And last but not the least, we added several economic and political systems to help promote and expand the social aspects of the game and community building.
Well I hope that I was able to provide both our anxious community members and intrigued guests with a glimpse into the origins of "TwelveSky 2". We hope to see you very soon in our Closed Beta phases which are set to take place starting from February 23rd! But until then, keep on the lookout for more behind-the-scenes Developer Journals for "TwelveSky 2 Europe", published by MAYN Interactive. For more information, feel free to check out our website at www.12sky2.com.
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