MMORPG: Congrats on the Open Beta Test for DarkBlood, tell us about the journey to get to this point?
Philip Yun: The journey was amazing, and we really enjoyed working with our licensor GameHi and developer JCR Soft to bring this hit fighting game to North America and Europe this summer. Along the way, we built a close relationship with our fan base and their excitement has been incredibly encouraging. Just look at our Facebook wall. It's teeming with fantastic gameplay videos our fans created showing off all the fun they had during closed beta. We polled them and found out they love EVO, so we celebrated the end of closed beta by hosting an EVO BarBrawl to watch the fighting championships with them in San Francisco. Knowing how much our fans like gameplay videos, we're even kicking off open beta launch with a Dark Blood Streamathon, featuring RipperX of MMORPG, Pico Mause of Curse, and Kyt Dotson of GameOgre.
MMORPG: What are some of the lessons you learned in closed Beta? Have you been able to apply them to the game?
Philip Yun: One of the reasons you do a closed beta test is to find the bugs. Our fans were really clamoring to get into the game, so to surprise and delight them we decided to do a quiet short-run closed beta test just with community. We made a game of it called "Beta Bug Bashers" which rewarded them for reporting what they found and they helped us make the game much better as a result.
MMORPG: Tell us how players can get involved, how easy is it to log in and play DarkBlood?
Philip Yun: Players can PLAY DARKBLOOD FOR FREE right now at http://www.playdarkblood.com, all they need to do is set up an account and download the game. It's extremely easy and straightforward to install. Dark Blood even runs on many old PCs.
MMORPG: Do you have a plan for launch of the game? What steps are left for your team?
Philip Yun: We have an aggressive content plan. Just one week from now, on Thursday, July 26, we'll be revealing Act II content with a level cap raise, the grand opening of the store with highly valued premium items, and superfun in-game events hosted by our lively GameMasters including a Race To The Top and Fight Nights that were so popular during closed beta. We're also going to be working with our fans to build out the Dark Blood Broadcasters Network.
MMORPG: Tell us about how the classes break out into the higher classes, how do you help players make their choices?
Philip Yun: There are four classes each with two subclasses that can be selected at Level 20: Warrior/Breaker, Warrior/Berserker, Knight/Paladin, Knight/Crusader, Hunter/Trickster, Hunter/Shooter, Mage/Magician, Mage/Sorcerer. There are many ways players can decide which class best suits them. They can study our extensive Dark Blood Combat Training Videos Library on YouTube, and in-game, they can watch skill preview videos with their trainer. We also just released these helpful Dark Blood Skill Guides which will be featured all this week and next on Facebook and Twitter.
MMORPG: What are your plans for DarkBlood Online going into the second half of the year?
Philip Yun: Through the rest of the summer and into holidays, we'll continue to roll out Acts, and engage our fans to see where they'll take the game experience. We're also going to be bringing the Dark Blood story to PAX Prime and LOGIN, so stay tuned. Exciting times ahead!
