Huxley Evolved Q&A with “KJ” Kang

Questions by Brian Perry Jr.
Answers by "KJ" Kang, Producer of Huxley

Onrpg: What Aspects of Huxley Make This the first Real MMOFPS?
There might be a misconception that Huxley is a simple combination of MMORPG and FPS games. However, we did not start this project simply to see what would happen if we mixed the two genres. The persistent world features of Huxley are byproducts of our effort to create a new breed of FPS game for today's online gaming environment. While the end result may appear similar, our approach will certainly make Huxley more innovative and exciting game to play than many other FPS and MMO games available today.

Huxley is a big, complete game, with small- to large-scale FPS battles, single-player missions, quests with lots of tasks to complete, and many of the features expected in today's MMO market. But with Huxley's combat being based on twitch-action FPS play, that is where a lot of the development focus has been. It's crucial for us to ensure the gameplay is unique to Huxley, yet still fun and accessible to FPS players in general.

Onrpg: How In-depth is the customization in Huxley? Can you give us some examples?
You can really make your character unique in Huxley. You can choose gender (male or female), species (Spapien or Alternative) and even subspecies (each species has two subspecies). For appearance, every part of a player character’s face can be customized to look the way you want it to. You can even alter the shape of nose, including height, length, etc. You can express thousands of personality by customizing your character’s face. In addition, there are several armor combinations that you can use for.

Onrpg: Will there be in-game voice chat for Huxley? How will the VOIP work in Huxley, and why would we want to choose your system over teamspeak or ventrilo?
We will support VOIP cross-platform for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions. Voice communications will be free and open for squad members, but only squad leaders will be able to communicate with other squad leaders while in battle. In other words, the squad leader becomes the communication hub.

Onrpg: What are the pros and cons of PvP vs. PvE?
In first-person shooter games, PvE and PvP are quite different. In our PvE, cooperation is important and provides a different kind of suspense from PvP's competitive play. The combination of these two game play styles makes Huxley much more complete and exciting, and players will have to participate in each to completely unlock the game’s story, develop their characters and get a fulfilling game play experience.

Onrpg: Can you elaborate more on how cross-platform will work in Huxley?
Huxley is a cross-platform game and can be played on both PC and Xbox 360 versions. The cross-platform gaming will have shared content, but gaming from the console will come from a completely different standpoint that goes beyond merely connecting to the other platform (simple interactivity, interaction, etc.). The Huxley world will be experienced through different aspects, stories and quests on both platforms.

The two versions will focus on different aspects of the back-story. The PC version is about finding out what happened to Dr. Huxley, who's recently disappeared. The 360 version is about a terrorist group called the Hybrid Liberation Organization, and it takes place 50 years after the events of the PC version.

All of the traditional FPS controls will be there for Huxley - we are making a game where the primary means of combat is twitch-FPS, so we are not reinventing the wheel here. The keyboard and mouse, as controllers, are optimized for FPS, and the control pad of the Xbox 360 is no match for the strengths of WASD and mouse. So we are designing content and game play to maximize depth and fun for players on both platforms, according to the unique characteristics of each machine, rather than tone down the strengths of the game on each platform or forcing compensation.

Onrpg: Will Huxley have regular content updates after it launches? What kind of updates can we expect?
Of course! One of the great things about MMO games that you don’t find in typical single-player games is that we can offer content updates after commercial launch. Expect to see regular content updates from Webzen, which will include new maps, missions, weapons, armor, monsters, and extensions of the game’s story line.

Onrpg: There has been a lull in news of Huxley U.S. When can U.S. players look forward to a beta before Huxley is released?
Huxley started beta testing in Korea in September, and we will have the second stage of testing in December. As the game is being developed in Korea, it is best for us to test for bugs, core systems and initial game play from local players. However, we are in the process of some small group testing in the U.S., and so far the response from North American players has been great. We plan to launch Huxley in North America next year (2008), and will make more announcements about closed and open beta testing and launch plans for the U.S. in the near future.