Last week, I jumped into a Skype chat with some of the fine folks at Perpetual and we … ahem … attempted to have a conversation about their upcoming squad-based Massive game Gods and Heroes. Despite my recording setup working 100% fine just the night before, we had nothing but problems the day of. Thankfully the understanding team at Perpetual and the persistence of media liason Dana Jongewaard has resulted in what I think is a fairly interesting email interview.

Again, I went ‘big picture’ with questions. Below, Art Director Mike Hines, Game Systems Designer Travis George, and Community Manager Chris Launius hold forth on various game elements like setting, combat animations, the squad system, and the value of releasing with focused gameplay. I think that some of the team answers shed light on elements of the game I’ve been a bit murky on to this point, and I know that the folks over there seem to have a good sense of humor.

We also focused a lot of attention on our interactive—we refer to them as “paired”—moves, which allow the player to actually animate in conjunction with the enemy, allowing for much more dramatic and visceral animations. Centaurs can throw you in the air and impale you with a spear or you can grapple with an enemy Samnite gladiator and take him down with a number of different wrestling moves. There is a reason it’s called Greco-Roman wrestling!

Read on, and be enlightened.

MMOG Nation: The choice to focus on a historical setting, rather than pure fantasy, is definitely a breath of fresh air. We’ve heard you discuss the clash with the Titans and Telchines, but what kind of historicity should we expect in quests and overall story? Should we expect more of the fantasy/Greek mix of a God of War, or will we get to hear about encounters from the Punic Wars as backstory to NPCs?

Mike Hines: We have been getting that a lot—it is great to hear so many people feel the same way we do about the historical element. We have been very active in preserving a significant level of historicity in Gods & Heroes. Our primary focus has been on making the game fun and playable, but we have always initially tried to use historical underpinnings for our fiction and art in the game. Our fiction technically takes place before the Punic wars, but we have tried to tie everything we can into the cultures and events of the time period. We did extensive research on the cultures that surrounded the Romans on the Italian peninsula and included as much detail as we could from historical fact while still maintaining enough differentiation to keep it interesting. Realistically the cultures were pretty mixed and derivative, so we had to push it in various directions to make it more game-like, but we tried to keep the essence of the cultures. The Samnites, Etruscans, Greeks, Gauls, and other cultures in our game all take extensively from history in their fiction and visual style. We also work to tie in all of the ideas of Roman politics, culture, and historical warfare directly to our fiction and art throughout the game by including specific historical locations, figures, legends, and events.

MMOG Nation: Your focus on animations and art in combat is quite laudable. I’ve seen mention of Soul Calibur as an influence in this area of the game. Can you give us some other examples of influences on the game’s combat? Does each class (or even perhaps each minion) have truly differentiated move sets?

Mike Hines: Thanks—we are really excited about the animation element of our game and about raising the bar of that aspect of the MMO genre. We definitely looked a lot at fighting games, as well as looking at combat styles from a number of movies and utilizing some in-house knowledge and reference of traditional sword fighting styles. We really wanted to capture the epic and heroic pose and flare of the fighting games and some of the more recent combat in movies that focus on the pre-strike moment and dramatic impact. We all felt like combat was such a core component of the MMORPG experience that it really needed to be much more entertaining and visceral.

We also focused a lot of attention on our interactive—we refer to them as “paired”—moves, which allow the player to actually animate in conjunction with the enemy, allowing for much more dramatic and visceral animations. Centaurs can throw you in the air and impale you with a spear or you can grapple with an enemy Samnite gladiator and take him down with a number of different wrestling moves. There is a reason it’s called Greco-Roman wrestling!

MMOG Nation: Why minions? It’s an interesting idea, don’t get me wrong, but why the focus on gaming with groups of NPCs? What was the inspiration for the system? Who originally came up with that as the core concept? Just to get a sense of the process, were there ever any other ‘hooks’ considered for the game?

Travis George: The Minion and Squad Combat System has always been one of the core differentiators for Gods & Heroes, and also something that I’m personally extremely excited about. The minute that you play G&H with one or two minions—who each bring their own specialties and feats into play—you realize you are simply playing a different game than you are in other single-character MMOs. This is still a multiplayer game, and we’re in no way trying to replace real players with NPCs, but players get this unprecedented layer of character customization through the Minion and Squad Combat System. Our primary goal is to let players shape their minions and squads in a way that fits their own unique play style, as opposed to the minions shaping how a person would play. G&H is a squad-based MMO adventure game, and we think that it is a very strong innovative gameplay design compared to the styles that are out there.

MMOG Nation: The Beta tester journals have been very interesting follow along with. The epic tales that the testers are relating make it sound as though, with minions in tow, it will be easy to imagine your character a true hero. It also makes me wonder what whether the need to group with others will be less than in other titles. What content are you going to offer that will tempt players to cooperate?

Travis George: Grouping will be just as valuable and fun in G&H as in other MMOs. We’ve designed the game to allow the majority of content to be solo-able with the smart use of your squad. That said, we have also designed the game so that content will provide the highest level of entertainment and fun when it’s played in a group. We’re adding abilities that are unique to each of the player characters and their interactions with minions. Player characters will be able to do exciting things that minions can’t and vice versa. Plus minions will have the ability to bolster specific abilities of the player characters, making them valuable in supplementing each player’s feats.

MMOG Nation: Do you foresee difficulties with players identifying with their characters, given the squad-based nature of the game? How whimsical do you plan to allow the game to get? Holiday-seasoned minions, perhaps?

Travis George: I feel like the minions will actually enhance the player’s attachment to their characters. Each character not only has its own customization options, but then you get the chance to assemble your squad from one of over 100 unique minions. And when they all fall into your camp and take on the colors you’ve selected, you really feel like your character is the leader of a heroic group—you forge this real identity with your squad mates. It’s also really cool that you can enhance your own abilities through them, and that they can supplement your character’s efforts in areas that your character doesn’t specialize in adds even more to the camaraderie. As far as holiday minions—well we’re always looking for ways to have fun, so you’ll just have to check back and see. J

MMOG Nation: We’ve heard elsewhere that the goal is to make leveling “slower than in other games,” while avoiding the feel of a grind. Can you give us an impression of how long you’re hoping people will take to work through the game’s initial content? What elements are being worked into the game to ensure that a slower leveling curve doesn’t feel grindy?

Travis George: We don’t have a goal at all of making leveling slower than in other games. We do have a goal of making leveling happen as almost a side result of playing a really fun game, exploring a cool world, and fulfilling really interesting quests. We think it’s much more important for players to be wrapped up in what’s happening in the world rather than staring at the level bar. With all of the amazing loot and rewards to earn—individual feats, gear, minions, minion gear, individual minion feats—there will always be something at every point along the way that players will be excited to discover.

MMOG Nation: The Coliseum and Chariot track sound very interesting. Would you be willing to share some of your plans as regards those structures?

Travis George: We unfortunately don’t have any plans we’re going to share with you right now, but rest assured that we do have some exciting stuff in mind. As with anything we do, of course we are making sure it fits into our unique style of game and into the rich mythology of the world.

MMOG Nation: You’re shipping a very stripped down Massive game at launch; no PvP, no crafting, no housing. PvE Questing and great-looking squad-based combat seems to be the focus. Do you think this puts you at a disadvantage, given the large number of Massively Multiplayer games shipping this year?

Chris Launius: We think we will have a pretty solid offering when we launch. We are shipping a different MMO than other games that have come out so far. Our game offers features that aren’t being offered in any other MMO out there—squad building and squad combat, visceral action combat, and the deep minion system. In addition to player feats we also have a separate string of special moves and abilities called God Powers that allows you to command the powers of your selected Deity to help inflict massive damage on your foes and protect you from a crushing defeat in a glorious and spectacular fashion.

There actually is a form of player housing in the game, which we call player camps. Each player gets their very own camp where your minions are stored and upgraded; it’s also where you find your personal bank and postal service. These camps should be bigger and more elaborate than most player housing available in other MMOs.

We do recognize the importance of crafting, and want to take the time to make sure we have a crafting system that fits in with our gameplay mechanics and systems. We have chosen to focus on the core game mechanics and work on adding the crafting experience post launch.

When Gods & Heroes ships, we feel that it will be a fantastic product that will definitely have a major place in the market.

MMOG Nation: I know you’re still a ways off from talking about technology per se, but (with the extraordinary movement sets and large number of characters on-screen), do you see Gods & Heroes as a system-demanding title? The look of the game seems to be a bit more stylized than truly realistic. Was this a deliberate decision, or a result of technology choices?

Mike Hines: It’s important to us that Gods & Heroes is playable on a wide variety of systems, so we’re making sure that the game looks good and is playable even on lower-end systems. Our visual direction choice was actually more about making the game fun and mythological than about technology restrictions. All the characters and environments are still highly detailed, so we didn’t really save a lot by going with the more stylized art direction. We did focus more on hand-painting and detail work for the textures in the game instead of doing more complex shaders, which works better for both our visual style and means that even lower end systems can still get the full visual payoff. We’ve included bells and whistles for the higher end systems that will add extra polish details and quality if people are able to take advantage of it, but the game will still look great and play well without them.

MMOG Nation: Stepping back and looking at Gods and Heroes from a big picture standpoint, what is it that your game offers that no one else does? What does your game do 100% better than any other game?

Chris Launius: We’ve built an amazingly beautiful and robust world based on the best parts of the ancient mythology and the early Roman civilization, including some of the more well-known creatures and gods which you get to interact with and command to do your bidding. We also have a very high-action and visceral combat system which draws you into the game and keeps things interesting. But the most unique and differentiating feature is the squad-based combat system and the minion system which allows you to find, collect, level, and upgrade dozens of minions, including mythological ones such as the Minotaurus, Cyclops, and Volta. Add them to your squad, and Gods & Heroes offers a whole new experience for combat that has never been seen on this level in any MMO before.

MMOG Nation: What do you want gamers to take away, in these months leading up to the game’s launch? For those of us who have been playing these games for many years now, what do you see as the best reason to switch to Gods & Heroes?

Chris Launius: We feel that everyone should play Gods & Heroes—seriously. The action combat system offers a unique take on battles and fighting that no other MMO out there can match in terms of depth, and the minion system allows you to have a truly unique MMO experience. Add those things to the beautifully crafted Roman mythological world, a fantastic fictional backdrop and storyline, and amazing production values, and Gods & Heroes becomes a game everyone can enjoy.