Our Depths of Peril interview
Our Depths of Peril interview
Interview - posted by Vault Dweller on Mon 29 October 2007, 15:59:26
Tags: Depths of PerilI've had an opportunity to ask Steven Peeler a few questions about Depths of Peril, an action RPG with a strategy twist:
5. What would you have done differently given a choice? Also, what are you best and worst DoP design decisions?
Looking back on the project, I would probably say something I would do differently is bringing in artists a bit earlier in the project. This turned out fine in the end, but finding artists and getting good progress on the artwork was pretty stressful for me during a lot of the project.
I think the best design decision of the project was including the covenant gameplay. Not only is this one of the biggest distinguishing features of Depths of Peril, but it is also the feature that led to other important unique things in the game like consequences to your actions and the very dynamic world. The covenants is one of those features that changes just about everything in the game. They adventure in the world, they can solve quests before you do, they start wars and raid other covenants including yours, they help out when the town is attacked, they can grab recruits before you do, guards, rumors, and crystals all are due to the covenant gameplay, they can destroy your covenant, and the list just goes on and on.Also, here is a review of the game, courtesy of Rampant Coyote:
First of all, if you resent and hate Diablo-style RPGs, you probably aren't gonna like it. Depths of Peril is firmly in that camp. The combat action is intense with lots of real-time clicking. However, unlike Diablo, your character will keep fighting the targeted enemy if you don't issue different commands, so you don't have to wear out your mouse button quite so badly in melee.
And if that was all there was to Depths of Peril, I'd call it a competent if uninspired Diablo clone, give it a short rah-rah go-indie speech, and call it good. But what makes Depths of Peril so fascinating is that it goes well outside the comfort zone of traditional RPGs, and incorporates elements that might sound like a mash-up on paper, but really work extremely well as a unified whole. The "strategy elements" aspect of Depths of Peril isn't some tacked-on gameplay or mini-game, but actually a well-executed logical extension of the roleplaying experience. It complements the core gameplay extremely well.If you are interested, you can grab the demo here.
5. What would you have done differently given a choice? Also, what are you best and worst DoP design decisions?
Looking back on the project, I would probably say something I would do differently is bringing in artists a bit earlier in the project. This turned out fine in the end, but finding artists and getting good progress on the artwork was pretty stressful for me during a lot of the project.
I think the best design decision of the project was including the covenant gameplay. Not only is this one of the biggest distinguishing features of Depths of Peril, but it is also the feature that led to other important unique things in the game like consequences to your actions and the very dynamic world. The covenants is one of those features that changes just about everything in the game. They adventure in the world, they can solve quests before you do, they start wars and raid other covenants including yours, they help out when the town is attacked, they can grab recruits before you do, guards, rumors, and crystals all are due to the covenant gameplay, they can destroy your covenant, and the list just goes on and on.
First of all, if you resent and hate Diablo-style RPGs, you probably aren't gonna like it. Depths of Peril is firmly in that camp. The combat action is intense with lots of real-time clicking. However, unlike Diablo, your character will keep fighting the targeted enemy if you don't issue different commands, so you don't have to wear out your mouse button quite so badly in melee.
And if that was all there was to Depths of Peril, I'd call it a competent if uninspired Diablo clone, give it a short rah-rah go-indie speech, and call it good. But what makes Depths of Peril so fascinating is that it goes well outside the comfort zone of traditional RPGs, and incorporates elements that might sound like a mash-up on paper, but really work extremely well as a unified whole. The "strategy elements" aspect of Depths of Peril isn't some tacked-on gameplay or mini-game, but actually a well-executed logical extension of the roleplaying experience. It complements the core gameplay extremely well.
