Jul
16
Look before You Jump
It was with raised eyebrows that I met the news that Jumpgate was reinventing itself and going by the name of Jumpgate Evolution. I’m really not too sure what to think of for this title, but the premise of the title and its potential (…there’s that word again…) makes me kind of curious about it. So, I signed up for the beta and crossed my fingers…like most of us do in these cases.
For those not familiar with the title, Jumpgate Evolution is being developed by NetDevil and the game itself is an MMO based in space. I didn’t play the original Jumpgate, but my impression is that JGE is what would happen if Eve and Privateer had a baby. It’s action and skill based with mining, economics, ship combat etc.
Recently, an interview with producer Hermann Peterscheck made its way on the tubes and I just wanted to comment on some of the more notable entries. The first was what they want JGE to be:
To make the best space action MMO ever. We feel it will be right up there with Elite, Wing Commander, Privateer and X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. That?s an ambitious goal as those were all masterful classic games, but we have good reason to be optimistic. Jumpgate Evolution is primarily an action combat game although there are many aspects that are not combat related.
Whoa…ambitious to say the least, and already I know that what they are doing is setting expectations a tad too high for this title. Wing Commander, Privateer and XW vs TF were THE defining games of action flight sims. XW vs TF was, by far, my most memorable game back in the 1990′s next to Master of Orion II and my ears perk up when someone mentions them. My red flag alarm goes off when I hear a dev say, “yeah, our game will be in the league of XW vs TF and Wing Commander”…oh rly?! Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited that they think that JGE will be good and I’m glad that they have those titles in mind when they design their game, but I don’t think it’ll come close to those classics. Hey, this is one case where I will be more than happy to be wrong.
Now, when asked the inevitable question of “lessons learned” from Auto Assault:
In terms of thin slicing, Auto Assault taught us to avoid going into production too early. The bulk of most games can implemented with a small set of assets. Thus, it is much more effective to iterate on a small set of assets than on a large set. This seems completely intuitive but is not practiced as much as it perhaps should be. With Jumpgate Evolution we have spent a lot of time in a small area of space, focusing on one mission with a few assets. Each day we conduct play tests, write down a list of things to fix and fix them for the next play test. If you do this about 50 or 60 times you end up with something reasonably well polished. The idea is polish at the beginning, not the end? in fact, polish at the beginning, the middle and the end? never stop polishing.
…and booya, polishing gets mentioned yet again. Still looks like this is the word to say when it comes to press interviews when talking about MMO game development. No developer right now wants to be seen as the one who is not dedicated to a high quality product. The “polishing” term is almost starting to reach the status of “execu-speak”, but it’s not quite there yet. To get to that status, we have to have someone commit to polishing their game and then it coming out as a piece of buggy crap. Wait for it, because it’s coming.
The interview as a whole was well done, but it didn’t really give me a better sense of what the game will have in terms of features…or what will set it apart from the other MMOs besides being set in space. I’m definitely curious and I would love to see an action based space MMO that rivals Eve.
D out.
