Monthly Archives: July 2013

Stone Wardens – A Unique Take on Tower Defense

By Jordan Hall(ApocaRUFF), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

I was recently invited to play with the developers of Stone Wardens, a new project from the guys at Burst Online Entertainment. The goal is to create a fun and unique Tower Defense game with a twist of action RPG added in. It will have the best of both genres – numerous towers to place and action combat with player progression in the form of levels and loot. So far only a demo with basic multiplayer has been created and the game is already a blast to play. The project is relying on a Kickstarter campaign for funding with a hefty goal of $225,000.

 

Concept

 

The Team

Burst Online Entertainment is made up of industry veterans who have worked on some amazing projects. David Bowman, the Creative Director, has worked on several of my all-time favorite MMOs – such as Horizons: Empires of Istaria (or Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted, as it is known nowadays) and Asheron’s Call. Others members of the team have worked on titles such as Wizard 101, Guild Wars, and Tabula Rasa. Combined, Burst has over 60 years of game development experience. It’s safe to say you’re in safe hands with these guys.

 

Team

 

The choice of Kickstarter over traditional investor funding was made because Burst wanted to have a closer, unhindered connection with their players. With Kickstarter funding, the players can play a much bigger hand in what content gets into the game. You won’t have to worry about Stone Wardens being a micro-transaction pay-to-win game, either. The plan is to go with a buy-to-play (with a possibility of free-to-play, from what I’ve read) payment method that will offer DLCs for added content. What does this all mean? That Burst won’t have to cater to everyone in the hopes of pleasing investors, which means a more rich and enjoyable experience for those that want to play a challenging Tower Defense game.

 

 

The Game

The basic premise of the game is that of Tower Defense. You make strategies and build towers, choosing from a wide variety, in key locations to protect your “Portal.” For every enemy that gets to your portal, your portal loses points. The goal, of course, is to make sure as few enemies get through as possible. At the end of each match, a massive and powerful cyclops appears and in most cases, not stopping him will mean defeat.

 

Now, towers (or “Ancestral Guardians,” Guardians for short) are not your only method to defeat enemies. Each Warden (such as the Ninja or Mage Wardens that are available in the demo version) has its own set of unique abilities, as well as a basic attack, to use on enemies. Some of these cause damage, while others are more utility. Freezes, teleports, and speed buffs are some of the planned utility abilities. For me, this is exciting because, while I do enjoy some of the powerful damaging abilities, I enjoy that I can do something like plan ahead and freeze the cyclops in a nest of Guardians and watch as his health melts away while he is left helpless. This sort of stuff will add many more dimensions to the gameplay.

 

Cyclops

 

Burst plans to add in a lot of content to keep their players occupied, with regular updates and DLC for years after the initial release. The biggest source of entertainment and incentive to play will come from personal and character progression. You will want to play to develop your Warden with epic loot that will not only improve its stats, but also make it look cool in the process. Stats mentioned include not only the typical universal movement speed, attack speed, critical chance, etc… But stats that will be unique to certain types of Wardens and their abilities.

 

I mentioned personal progression. Not only will you want to develop your character, but you will also want to push yourself to the limit as well. With the ability to “Boost” a map into higher difficulties, you will provide yourself with a steady stream of challenges. And this won’t just be the standard, “Easy, normal, hard, and hell” difficulties. When I spoke to the devs, they mentioned that difficulty levels ranging in the hundreds are what they are aiming for. This, combined with leaderboards and the possibility of PVP MOBA-style game modes are really going to give you a run for your money.

 

Screenshot2

 

It can be argued that the most important things in a game are the story, setting, and the graphics. Stone Wardens has a wonderfully original story to give what the players are doing meaning. The chibi, colorful art-style brings the world to life, too. Immediately after I started playing the demo, my mind was flooded with nostalgia from back in the day. Uniqueness like this in a game is something that is dying, and I’m glad that, thanks to platforms like Kickstarter, it can still exist.

 

Screenshot3

 

Personally, I think the originality of the game really shines through with the Guardians. With eleven “general” Guardians, and one “unique” per Warden planned, you will have a large variety to choose from. Just from the Guardians available in the demo, I got a sense that each had its own story behind it. And the fact that you bring them to “life” by having your familiar give them “spirit”, which is harvested from wells spread out around the map and from fallen enemies, makes them even more interesting. I instantly fell in love with them and the concept behind them.

 

Towers

 

There’s no doubt that the stars of the show are the Wardens themselves, though. I already mentioned a good deal about them, but there’s a bit more left to talk about. Initially, there are a planned nine Warden classes. They include Mage, Elementalist, Wizard, Gatekeeper, Ninja, Stonesmith, Vesta, and Tinkerer. From what I was told, even more are planned for future content releases. With each class having its own unique strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and even Guardians, it’s not hard to believe that strategy and practice will be important.

 

Screenshot4

 

The last thing I want to mention before finishing up this article are the controls. The game, in its current demo (and I want to stress demo) state, offers your traditional point-and-click movement and attacking. It was mentioned that other methods of control may be experimented with later on in development, but this choice was made for multiple reasons. One of which was the cross-platform support that Stone Wardens will have, and this includes mobile devices with touch screens. The great thing about this cross-platform support is that it is all tied into the same back-end, and I can play with my friends on my smartphone while they are on their PC or Mac using a client or even their browsers. This is a feature that I am so happy to start seeing and I think it will help make this a fantastic gaming experience.

 

 

Conclusion

Burst Online Entertainment has done an incredible job so far with their demo of Stone Wardens. There is so much potential here and I keep getting more and more impressed. Be it from the seasoned industry veterans behind its development, or the uniqueness of the game and its art style. My only real worry was whether or not it would be one of those games that require constant micro-transactions to enjoy, and that was put to rest right away. This seems like a Kickstarter project definitely worth backing and I will be pledging here in a few days. If you’re in need of a fun, cross-platform Tower Defense or Action RPG game like I am, I suggest you to back the game as well.

Wargaming Preps for World Cyber Games

World of Tanks

 

Wargaming, the award-winning videogame developer and publisher, today announced that World of Tanks will be featured at the World Cyber Games 2013, an international competitive eSports event that gathers the best cyber athletes from all over the world.

“Tank squads have improved on their skills since last year, and we expect harsh competition at WCG 2013,” said Global eSports Director at Wargaming Jonghyuk Baak. “Following the launch of the Wargaming.net League, World of Tanks has come a long way in professional gaming, and we’ll continue to evolve both the competitive and spectator elements of the game, providing viewers with a quality experience, introducing new eSports features and supporting pro-teams.”

 

World of Tanks

 

Having debuted at the World Cyber Games festival the previous year, World of Tanks continues to gather momentum in competitive gaming. This year the game will be featured at national preliminary events in North America, Europe and CIS, as well as continued presence in Asia. The winning teams from online qualifying rounds will be awarded travel to the national finals where they will compete for the opportunity to represent their countries at the 2013 WCG Grand Finals, taking place November 28th through December 1st in Kunshan, China.

Guild Wars 2 Makes Big Changes in 2013

By Shannon Doyle, OnRPG Resident Tyrian

As promised Colin Johanson wrote an extensive look at what the rest of 2013 holds for Guild Wars 2, spoilers free. It touches on every aspect of the MMO from PvP to Crafting and is bound to change plans for a lot of players. If you’re looking for a bullet point of the novel sized entry scroll down to the end of the page for the TL;DR version.

 

Crafting

There are a lot of big changes coming to crafting later this year. At some point crafting skills will go up to level 500 using new materials which are themselves crafted, using materials that are lower down. And, much like the charged quartz which was just introduced there will be a limit of one per day to aid in creating an economy for such items. There will also be new account bound crafting materials which will also be a once a day, per location occurrence. What types of places? Jumping Puzzles, giant world bosses, dungeons, and others. Salvaging Fine and Masterwork items (blues and greens) will give you a chance to get a Magic Find Consumable. Which brings me to….

Crafting

Magic Find

Sometime this year Magic Find armor will be a thing of the past as MF is taken out of item stats all together and made an account wide stat that improves the odds on all your characters. Improving your MF will be done through consumables and the achievement reward system.

 

Legendary

Legendary weapons are hard. Getting the precursor is the hardest part. But that will change this year as a way to craft the precursor is introduced. It will require level 500 in crafting professions, and the new materials which will be introduced. Players who do craft a legendary will also be able to pick from a list of already existing stats combos so transmuting will no longer be required anymore. And on top of all of this there will be new legendary weapons introduced.

Legendary

Ascended Gear

New Legendary weapons aren’t the only thing on the table. The new materials and level 500 crafting will be all about Ascended Gear. Armor and Weapons both will be getting the Ascended treatment. The weapons will have the stats of the same level as Legendary Weapons but not be as time consuming to create, or as pretty to look at. Ascended Gear will also be found as rare drops throughout the world however, they will be account bound.

 

LFG Tool

The LFG tool is officially “upcoming!”

 

New Skills and Traits

To try to combat releasing new gear every few months while still offering progression new skills and traits will be introduced. These will be obtained by unlocking them. There will also be new ways to earn skill points introduced to encourage players to try different things.

pvp

Rewards

New rewards will be introduced to give players even more options, and better choices while completing content. Much how chest events give one guaranteed reward chest a day so too will Champions. These chests will include things like crafting materials, unique skins, and skill points. This will make places like Orr and Southsun Cove where Champions are everywhere much more appealing. Dungeon completion will be getting a change as well. Players will be given bonus gold for each dungeon path completed each day. These rewards will be guaranteed and vary depending on the difficulty and length of each path. The bonus gold only counts once a day, per path, thereby encouraging players to look beyond the favorite paths.

Champ

TL;DR

Crafting to 500
No more Magic Find Stats
New Crafting Materials
Ascended Gear to be Crafted at 500 level
Green and Blue Level Drops Worth Salvaging
Crafted Legendary Precursers
New Legendary Weapons
New Skills and Traits
LFG Tool “Soon”
Champion Chest Reward
Dungeon Gold Bonus
WvW Orbs Returning
PvP Rewards Improved

Firefly Online Announced at SDCC 2013

Browncoats rejoice!

Firefly returns, as an MMO. Making one of the first announcements from San Diego Comic Con this weekend QMXi and Spark Plug Games announced Firefly Online, based on Joss Whedon’s hit cult hit. A mobile, space based social MMOG for tablets and smartphones. In it players will assume the role of Ship Captain, create a crew, and customize their ship before setting out for adventure. The game is expected to be released during the summer of 2014 and you can already register for the game on the official website.  There may not be much news on it yet, but there is a trailer, which you can watch below.

Shiny.

Stone Wardens – Kickstarter Campaign Interview

Questions by Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF), OnRPG Journalist

Answers by David Bowman, Creative Director of Stone Wardens

Stone Wardens Kickstarter Interview

I recently got the chance to ask David Bowman, the Creative Director of the up-and-coming Burst Online Entertainment game, Stone Wardens, a few questions. It will be a unique blend of Tower Defense and Action RPG. There will be the strategy and planning of traditional Tower Defense games, mixed with point-and-click action combat similar to what you get from games like League of Legends or Path of Exile. The game looks like it will be incredible, and from what I saw while playing the pre-alpha demo, it will deliver. The questions I asked are what I believe potential Kickstarter backers will be most interested in. I hope you enjoy the interview.

 
Hello and thank you for your time. Please introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m David Bowman, Creative Director on Stone Wardens.

 

Can you explain what it is that you do at Burst?
I create the designs for our games to meet the goals set by the company. I work with Paul Tanganelli, our Lead Engineer, on the details of the game design to specify the way the systems will work and collaborate with John Cboins, our Art Director, on the style and emotional goals of the art. We are a small team, so I also do the data entry to set the values for the game play, and then adjust those values and the corresponding spreadsheets based on play testing.
Tower Defenders

Burst is made up of industry veterans. Can you tell us a bit about your past projects and if you will be taking what you’ve learned from them into Stone Wardens? Do you think your experience will help you provide a quality Tower Defense game to your players?
Prior to starting Burst, we have worked at Bungie, Turbine, Nintendo, THQ, Gazillion Entertainment, NCSoft, Certain Affinity, and NetDevil on Asheron’s Call, Wizard 101, Guild Wars, Halo, Call of Duty, Left4Dead, Age of Booty and many other successful games. Our experiences have taught us how to create well-built, fun to play, online games. We’ve done a lot of multi-player titles, and our goal with Stone Wardens is to create a very fun to play experience that plays well as a solo game, but multiplies the fun as you add more people playing cooperatively. We love playing Tower Defense games, but the current ones are predominantly single player only. The few that allow for multiple players often make you feel you are playing a solo game at the same time as someone else is playing the same game, rather than create systems that are synergistic and cooperative at their core.

 

Can you tell us a bit about the game itself and what will set it above and apart from your competitors (such as Dungeon Defenders)?
Dungeon Defenders is a fun game, and we have played it along with every other example we could find of multiplayer games with tower defense mechanics. But we are looking for a different experience; one that is less about setting a tower down to create a choke point and then using your abilities repeatedly to kill the backlog of enemies. In Stone Wardens, the player’s abilities change the state of the enemies, allowing other players to get secondary bonuses in their attacks; for example, freezing an enemy sets them up for extra steam damage if they are hit by flame attacks, or a chance of shattering if physical attacks are used, causing shards of ice to damage other nearby enemies.

Our enemies also have many different abilities that not only affect other enemies (healing, speed boosts, damage protection), they also have abilities that keep the players on their toes causing not only damage to Wardens, but also creating secondary effects such as knockback, freeze, teleporting, etc.

Our world is a much more open world, with lots of vertical dimensionality which opens up opportunities such as the Ninja’s Assassinate ability letting you jump onto the back of a passing Cyclops as he moves under the bridge you are standing on.

Stone Wardens Invaders

What was the inspiration for the game setting?
Stone Wardens takes place in a world of magic that has been confronted by invasions for generations. The story of the Wardens being trained to combat these invasions, evolving into specialized Warden classes, and using their magical familiars to harvest spirit from the world and use it to bring ancestral guardians to life comes from both the core game mechanics and our love for fantasy novels and games. We built the game to be fun, and then we wanted to know why these things would be true? The story fits the game we have created, and then the art style grew out of that story and the fun, cooperative feel of the game.

 

 

Potential players who see the pre-alpha screenshots might be a bit put off by the current level of detail in the graphics. Are there plans for improvements for the final product?
Yes, we are iterating on the game, and improving some of the technical aspects. So far, we’ve gotten a great response to the look and feel of the game art, and look forward to reaching our release bar during Beta.

Stone Wardens Cyclops

Personally, I love the chosen art style as it reminds me of some of my all-time favorite games from back in the day. Where did the decision to go for this style come from? Was it purely chosen for aesthetics or did your cross-platform (specifically mobile devices) support play a role?
We set out our emotional goals for the game first; we wanted a friendly, approachable, cheerful art style that made people smile and want to engage with the game. We then worked with proportions on our Wardens, trying out many styles to find one that evoked those emotions. This, combined with the story that had evolved, set the style that we have today, and we are very happy with it.

 

Why Kickstarter and the large goal of $225,000? Are traditional investors not an option, or is it just personal preference?
Kickstarter has two purposes for us. Ideally it would help us find an audience that we could engage with early in the development while there is still time to respond to their feedback, and it would provide funding to complete the game.

We’re self-funded entirely to this point, but don’t have the resources to complete Stone Wardens without further investment. Publishers today appear to be primarily interested in low-risk, proven franchises or completed games that they then market and distribute, rather than funding 3rd party game development. Investors are also risk-adverse, and look to franchises or teams with long track records together. While we have extensive experience in making games on previous teams, this is our first major game as this team.

Stone Wardens Guardian 2

Are there any plans for Stretch Goals?
We’ve set out three stretch goals, which are focused on more content and adding iOS and Android mobile platforms. We’ll add more to those goals as we can, and add further goals once we get closer to our primary goal.

 

If this Kickstarter campaign fails, do you plan to seek funding elsewhere or will that be it for Stone Wardens?
We have not yet secured funding that would allow us to complete Stone Wardens independently, so we are continuing discussions with potential investors and publishers to help with that. Ideally, players would learn about the Kickstarter and back us. We’ve seen a great response among those who have visited the Kickstarter page, but the numbers have been small. I suspect because we have not done a great job of creating awareness about our game and Kickstarter; rather we have focused on making it fun. It’s a difficult challenge.

Stone Wardens Guardian

Speaking of final product, do you guys have a goal date yet?
If we meet the Kickstarter goal, then we’d be ready for release in February of 2014.

 

Thank you for your time and for answering our questions. It was a pleasure being able to have your insight on Stone Wardens and playing with you in the demo. Do you have any other message to share with our viewers?

Stone Wardens was born out of our desire to create a fun and unique multiplayer experience that blends the best of action RPGs and tower defense games…and to provide that experience to a community of players in an online service with social and competitive features. It is our hope the readership here will help catapult our funding efforts on Kickstarter and beyond so we can make Stone Wardens a reality.

Elsword Introduces Dimension Witch

DimensionWitchPromotion

Kill3rCombo, publisher of the hit free-to-play action MMORPG Elsword, announced today the launch of its latest new class, Dimension Witch as their Transformation Evolution series continues. The Dimension Witch class gives the popular character, Aisha, the power to control time and space with some of the most powerful magic of any character.  Dimension Witch is an enhanced version of the Battle Magician class. It retains the powerful melee abilities that made its base class so unique, but also gains spatial magic that allows her to pull enemies to her range and neutralize their attacks. With enhanced teleportation skills, she also dominates the arena with ultra-fast mobility.

ElswordDimensionWitchAttack

When Aisha began her combat training, she was given a magical pendant to enhance her physical power by her mentor.  As a sorcerer who could hold her own in close-range fighting, she trained and grew, but soon realized her combat abilities wouldn’t be enough to fulfill her potential.  She was given a scroll that informed her of rare moonstones that would fall to earth during the Harmony Festival. When these rare moonstones merged with her magical pendant, her powers were enhanced to the point where she could even control time and space.  With her new spatial magic, she could now show the world the ultimate power of a Dimension Witch.

Kill3rCombo recently expanded their Elsword service to Latin America and is bringing loads of new content to the game.  To play Elsword for free please visit ElswordOnline.com and keep watching the official Facebook page here. Also don’t miss our recent updated review by DizzyPW.

Age of Wushu Yanmen Pass Trailer and Expansion Details

Age of Wushu

 

Age of Wushu’s first expansion, Legends of Mount Hua, is set for
arrival August 8. In preparation, Snail Games has released a new
trailer, additional information and assets on the expansion features.

Yanmen Pass (Video): Take a peek into the conflict that awaits as
players journey through the Yanmen Pass. In this instance, players
will be able to choose which story they want to complete; each has a
path within a major plot at the center of Yanmen Pass war.

 

 

Jianghu Gratitude and Revenge System: Age of Wushu will be adding
exciting interactions that players can take up with certain NPCs. With
a high enough reputation, players can persuade NPCs to fight alongside
their character and provide some security in the unpredictable world
of Jianghu. Players will also be able to use their reputation, and
in-game gold, for darker purposes, like seeking revenge on a fellow
player by hiring an NPC to carry out the dirty deed. Types of
punishments range, depending on how much a user pays. For more
information on these interactions,
visit:http://www.ageofwushu.com/news/view/189.

Jianghu Hero and Treasure System: In the new Jianghu Hero System,
defeating certain enemies will attract the attention of Jianghu
martial arts experts. Players must prove their might and defeat these
challenging foes in order to receive Treasures, a new type of
equipment with powerful stat bonuses. Each Treasure has a different
power rank and offers varying benefits, ensuring a varied result from
each victory. For more on the Jianghu martial arts foes and the
resulting spoils, visit: http://www.ageofwushu.com/news/view/184.

 

Age of Wushu

 

The Age of Wushu: Legends of Mount Hua expansion is slated for release
online August 8.

OnRPG Shotgun News 7/17: End of Nations, Runescape, Everquest

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG News Junkie

End of Nations Is Back!

End of Nations MOBA

The first invitations to the invite-only alpha of End of Nations have gone out. The former MMORTS has been reborn into a free to play tactical MOBA with a streamlined UI, cleaner graphics, and faster paced MOBA gameplay. The new End of Nations features smaller teams, streamlined tactical combat, and much more. Registration is still being accepted on the End of Nations website.

 

Runescape Continues Expanding into Latin America with Spanish

Jagex, along with axeso 5 are teaming up to bring Runescape 3 to Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Venezuela, and Chile in Spanish. Runescape 3 will be launching worldwide on July 22nd and thanks to axeso 5 will enjoy full Spanish community support for games, competitions, videos, and more.

 

Everquest Heart of Fear is Live

Xaric Heart of Fear Everquest

The final part of a story started three years ago with the House of Thule is coming to an end. Heart of Fear is the epic conclusion of the story which has included House of Thule, Veil of Alaris and Rain of Fear. The update features massive creatures of nightmare, the story of the fear god, new class specific weapons, new items for all classes, new collections, and achievements. All of this on top of missions, raids, quests, and story.