GameReplays recently sat with lead designer John Comes (aka Scathis) to discuss Demigod. Here's what he had to say!
1. To make such a hero focused gameplay appeal to beginners and
competitive players, controlling the hero decently must be easy, but
controlling it perfect must be ridiculous difficult. How do you allow
really good players enough headroom to set themselves apart from
beginners when using only one unit? Is DOTAs 'last hitting/denying'
concept of 'last hit gets all the experience' present?
That's the real trick isn't it? I can say that I spend part of every
week tackling this very problem. The key challenge is to find game play
that is easy to learn but has a lot of strategic depth. It's about
having heroes that are very easy to understand what they do and why they
do it but it takes time and skill to learn the best ways to use those
skills and how they work in conjunction with other demigod's skills.
DotA is only part of the inspiration of this game. We chose to leave
out a lot of its more hard core features in favor of some newer, simpler
game play.
2. Will there be 1v1 gameplay, and will there be 1v1 maps? Will it be
common, or is the focus on team gameplay?
The game is planned to be 1-10 players. There will be a variety of maps
both single player and multiplayer versions. That's about all I can
say.
3. What "traditional" RTS elements can players expect to be in the game
when choosing a general hero? Will there be base building, resource
gathering, and teching/upgrade research? Or does the hero summon the
Units? How does a player pay for them?
There will be the traditional RTS elements of economy, structure
building and unit construction for the generals. But this is a team
based action game, most of it has been streamlined to support that
concept.
4. Is it similar to DotA, where you either play as one faction or the
other (Horde vs Alliance), but can pick different heroes/characters
related to that faction?
The game is team based, so players will be on a team and choose the
Demigod they wish to play. How those teams are organized has yet to be
revealed.
5. What is the average target length of a typical multi player match?
Demigod is meant to a be a fast paced action game. Thus, we're really
shooting for 20-40 minute matches. You can get in, have quite a
ruckus,and get out.
6. How will the equivalent to creeps work in game? What will they
provide when killed, just credits and experience or also valuable
items/equipments?
Unfortunately, I can't elaborate on this yet. I can say that we've
added a very compelling mechanic to that game play.
7. How will the hero skills/abilities be unlocked?
Demigods level up like any RPG character and can choose new skills and
abilities as they go. We're spending a lot of effort making sure that
each skill and ability is balanced, compelling and most of all, fun.
8. How many items (equipments) will be present in the game, and will
they only be achievable by purchase or there'll be another mechanism to
obtain them?
The exact number of items is yet to be determined. This is another area
in the game where we've found a unique way of creating items. I can
assure you that there will be more than enough game play depth added
through the item mechanic that fans should be happy.
9. How will Demigod approach implementing a counter system? Rock paper
scissors based on effectiveness values based on Armor / Damage types or
based on weapon performance, hitpoints and dodging?
I can't reveal too many details on this at the moment. However, what I
can say is that we are using the Supreme Commander engine and we will
utilize its physics system in many of our game play mechanics.
Interview by prepare
