Scott Johnson and Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street again discuss development philosophy on their upcoming MMO project, Ghost, dedication to player-experience centric design, and more with two of the game’s engineers, Cam and James.
When it comes to the big ideas, Street says that starting without too many constraints at first was the approach. While what they’re building won’t rely on large-scale battles, using that concept led to a discussion around how they’ve worked at Fantastic Pixel Castle. He says sometimes, just asking is the right approach.
“Hey, if I want to have combat with 500 characters at once…what do we have to keep in mind?” is the example question he asks. Since it is a collaborative effort, there needs to also be a balance between the creative team’s ideas and the tech team’s capabilities. It creates a negotiation process.
Describing an MMO, engineering lead Cam says, “I don't know if you remember in Jurassic Park where they're explaining about how hard it is to have a park full of dinosaurs and they're like well we've got all the problems of a theme park and a zoo and Disneyland and like that's what an MMO is”. They cite Unreal Engine 5 as helpful in blending their solutions to the unique requirements of an MMO. Another advantage of the engine is that it helps them keep up with technology, since they are making Ghost with an eye on the long term.
What they are focused on is providing a seamless player experience, whether you are killing one goblin or progressing all the way up to a world boss. And maybe a huge battle.
They are building the environment around the experience, including the use of procedural generation to make the world more dynamic. The team brought up blue zones, those zones that are going to be procedurally generated. While everyone is sharing a world, some of the experiences will be different in those zones and part of the reason for that is to provide something new each time and increase replayability.
The team discusses a lot more of their philosophy in the full episode, touching on the potential use of AI and machine learning to support human talent, on balancing realism and wildness, on balancing out content, accessibility of blue zones, customization, and more challenges.
While any detailed reveals on Ghost are yet to come, we do get details and insight into how they’re approaching their game, and emphasis on how the depth of player experience and choice are primary in their approach.
