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General: Crusade: David Allen Q&A
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
David Allen is on a Crusade. This week, the original and controversial designer of Horizons has a new company - QOL - of which he is the CEO. Now he and his team are hard at work on a new MMORPG: Crusade.
;) MMORPG.com: Weve yet to see a screenshot, so it gives you a unique opportunity to explain your artistic direction without people having formed their opinions. What are your goals for art in Crusade?
David Allen: The first few screenshots should be available by the end of May; but in the meantime, were still working to refine the artistic look and feel of Crusade. Were going for a warm fantasy-based setting, but dont want to go photorealistic, or too cartoony - finding that happy medium takes time. The conceptual artwork from individuals like Doug Shuler, and Anthony Waters is serving as a great foundation for the colorization, look and feel were trying to establish. Key to artwork is the culture of the Asheroth and Kujix. How their structures look, not just in general, but from a multi-racial perspective. We arent just establishing one core culture, but a baseline thats then evolved by other races, so when you, for example, enter a Talrok controlled area, you definitely get the Kujix feel, but it may be different from the feel of another Kujix race and their structures |
The full interview is available here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Good to hear that Allen is connecting with at least one of his allies (presumably) from the whole Artifact debacle, namely Douglas Schuler. I had a feeling we'd end up seeing some of the more interesting aspects of the original Horizons design in Crusade as soon as I saw Allen's name attached despite the original, droll press release.
Will at least be worth keeping an eye on.
~ Michael
nice to see this guy land on his feet after the theft of his previous game.
[MOD EDIT: No personal attacks.]
Make a difference!
"Artifact/Horizons is old news. They chose their path and the result of that path is clear for all to see." quote David Allen.
I really like this. Mr. Allen seems to be mocking AE with what they have done with Horizons. makes me wonder if he foresaw what was about to come to his orignal creation after he was fired.
hopefully crusades will turn out well and show everyone how good this guy is. maybe it would bring light to what Horizons was going to become.
welcome back Mr. Allen !!!
Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online
Allen is great at designing MMO's but terrible at ever getting anything accomplished.
Perhaps he should team up with the DnL/Mourning/Dawn developers and see could waste away 25 million in venture capital the fastest with the least results.
I smell vaporware.
I miss DAoC
In his past attempts he has either scared enough developers away from the project that funders have demanded him to step down or cash flow will be cut, or ended up having a major meltdown and closing the whole project down by moments whim.
He could do awesome game if he would just just be producer and leave actual leading of the team to someone with nerves and social-intelligence to do so.
With horizons David Allen managed to waste ALOT of money on half arsed concepts that he scrapped few days later and the company had to either overthrow him or perish.
Anyone who has followed his ventures closely would compare him as Rush Limbaugh of MMORPG world.
Going by past history I will take a wait and see attitude. If he ever gets a game to a working beta it will be a giant step forward for him. Don't mind me though. After Dawn, his version of Horizons, Mourning and DnL I am pretty cynical when it comes to this stuff.
I miss DAoC
Let me correct this for you
There is no doubt that DA is much more talented as a dreamer and as a salesman, than a business man or a producer.
Edit- I wonder if he has went out and bought himself a new Ferrari with his venture capital yet?
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20060427.html
I miss DAoC
Let me correct this for you
There is no doubt that DA is much more talented as a dreamer and as a salesman, than a business man or a producer.
Edit- I wonder if he has went out and bought himself a new Ferrari with his venture capital yet?
Your evidence for this allegation would be? Or is this typical disinformation?First part was opinion not allegation second part was part specualtion part attempt at humor because I remember a quote from a magazine or fansite article during his Horizons period about how he liked to play the big shot. Anyway I will file Crusades right up there with Duke Nukem Forever and Dawn until I see an article that beta has ended and the game went gold
Just out of curiosity has Allen ever actually produced anything ? Other than concept art and a best forgotten Diablo II wannabe dungeon crawl.
I miss DAoC
First up..i have no idea what happened with him in horizons,but to me horizons is a very old and poor game.
I like alot of the ideas he has put forth in the questionaire.Quests that are totally your own really is a great idea but i can't see how he will pull this off without just making a different number on the quest...example player 1 kills 35 ghosts player 2 kills 33 ghosts or goblins.How in depth these personal quests will be is what will tell the tale.
The idea of not choosing your starting family is another great idea.This will keep the game balance and not turn it into a dumb 90% player base all playing dragon or something similiar.
I'm all for only 6 classes IF they are done very well,otherwise quantity would be a better option.
I'm a little dissapointed in his direction of the battle system.What ever direction the entire game takes,there will always be times when your either killing the same mob over and over or your entailed in the same area for a very long time.This is where a very in depth battle system will take away from the boredom.Personally i think the battle system should be the mainstay of any game.The battle system is usally the only part of any game that is never static,each battle can be different and unique.
Evolving a game around quests IMO is a cheap way of making the game last longer.I would think most players want action not time travelling to point A or B to fullfill a quest.My personal example would be to look at FFxi's battle system.That battle system was so much fun that it kept me playing the game for over 3 years,even though i didn't think much of any other aspect of the game.It's dual class system was good as well.The dual class system played a very big part in the battle system as well.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I'm excited to see Dave Allen rebound from everything he has gone through. I wish the best for Crusade, it has a strong premise. The family system is unique, but as stated before by Wizardry odd parings will be a problem. Here's to 2008, may development come swift and unrelenting.
Off Topic:
Horizons, that's opening up a can of worms. I have some experience with it Wizardry so I can tell you the first warning signs. Horizons failed to ship with certain quests so baby dragons where stuck as babies for the first months, around six, of the game. Many players were reaching the cap with no content available. Missions and equipment for the high level range wasn't released with retail. Many players had to stop playing or group together to finish some of the obscene quests. Killing 100 Ogre's for example, tough and group aggro, players had to do it without the necessary equipment. This was amplified with the baby dragon players whose characters should have matured by that level.
I agree completely
I followed Horizons from the very beginning and have a pretty good idea of what really happened. Horizons was originally supposed to be a PvP centered game w/ some PvE and strong crafting and social systems in place, kind of reminescant of DAoC. It was going to have a game world split up into different regions that players would conquer. Once a region was held players could build themselves castles and villages, and set up serfdoms and families. Then of course they could form alliances with other players and set up empires, or declare war and try to capture other territories. It really had alot of potential IMO, it's a shame how it all ended up. Wether or not it was all possible at that time is another story, but we'd never find out anyway. The short story is that Allen's original partner threw him under the bus and set him up pretty much from the beginning. Eventually David Bowman came along and with Allens partner staged a coup. They pretty much stole the game out from underneath him and slaughtered his vision of it, he is totaly justified taking a shot at Bowman, Artifact and what Horizons became. Eventually Allen left and Bowman completely took over, eventually even getting rid of Allens old partner. The end result is what Horizons is today....a crippled shadow of what it could of been. It really is a shame....
I personally hope that this game gets made, if it has everything Allen wants implemented it should be a great game. I'll be watching this closely
*Artifact/Horizons is old news. They chose their path and the result of that path is clear for all to see." quote David Allen.*
Ya they did and they now have a fully functioning released mmorpg. What does David Allen have except more "concepts" to fling around on another mmorpg project attempt. He doesnt even have the $$$ to make this game. "seed capitol" is what they had with Dominion too.. They got no investors with Dominion what makes him think hes going to get one with this? this isnt ever going to happen.