Entwicklertagebucheintragungen
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Eintrag
1 vom 05.07.05
1. First of all, could you introduce yourself?
Hi, my name is Alexander Mishulin. I am Creative Director of Nival Interactive
and one of the game-designers for Heroes of Might and Magic V.
2. Why did you want to develop the next Heroes of Might and Magic
game? Was it important for you?
Of course, we are very excited about developing the next Heroes of Might
and Magic game. We have many fans of the series among our team (actually,
most of them are ?). But besides this desire we also had a great experience
in game developing, including games in TBS genres and/or fantasy universe.
We really felt that we COULD do the next Heroes of Might and Magic game,
and that we could do it good. And now we are trying very hard to make
it as great as any fan of Heroes series would dream of.
3. What is your ambition for this title? From what we heard so far
there will be few innovations regarding the core of the game. So where
is the challenge for you and what can we expect?
Our ambition is the “Best PC Game” of the year – the “Best
Strategy” at least. ? Heroes of Might and Magic V is not just transferring
the old gameplay into 3D. The game has enough innovations in it to keep
several game-designers occupied for a couple of years. We tried to make
the gameplay more mature, with even more strategic and tactic choices,
with more complex yet still clear schemes and structures. On the other
hand, we wanted the fans of the previous games feel at home in the new
game with all these innovations. This is our biggest challenge, and although
the game has not been played by outside gamers yet we can already see
that we succeeded with that.
4. Etherlords, Silent Storm, and now Heroes… Your teams seem
to enjoy turn-based gameplay a lot. Could you explain us why you appreciate
this way of playing? What are - according to you - the advantages/disadvantages
of it vs real time?
Turn-based genre gives you time to think the situation over and to implement
the best solution possible. So I would call it the most thoughtful gameplay
among all genres. Of course, real-time strategies also make you think
but because you are tied with the time factor you have to do it fast –
and usually you really can’t afford wasting the precious time on
tactics, you think more global, building your strategy. Yet because TBS
is so time-consuming it is not as dynamic as RTS, and this is its main
disadvantage in our present era of speed. It is especially a disadvantage
in multiplayer mode, when you wait not for the computer, but for another
human brain, that is thinking over all possible combos. That’s why
we are focusing on making the multiplayer in Heroes of Might and Magic
V dynamic, smoothing the waiting time with various means.
5. What is your vision of the Might and Magic universe? How will you
translate it into the game?
I would describe it in two words: dark and epic. By “dark” I
mean that the world of Might and Magic is more mature, with more complex
relations between “good” and “evil”. If you remember
the first Heroes of Might and Magic games they had very cute and cartoon-like
graphics. In the 3rd game the graphics became more “grown up”,
yet the general atmosphere was kept fairy-tale like. In Heroes 5 we want
its universe to be not a fairy-tale but a world as complex as our real
world is. And here we come to another word describing the new Might and
Magic universe – “epic”. We are making the Might and Magic
universe more large-scale, deeper and more global. Even the plot of the
game is more epic and more serious.
6. Have you been influenced by other movies/books/games? How will
that translate into the game?
Our artists have made a great job on studying different cultures and different
periods of history. In creating new images of towns and creatures they
took them as a base – say, human race reflects the period of Medieval
Europe, and everything, from the look of the warriors to the architecture
of the towns is more or less kept in these frames. You’ll meet such
references to various cultural heritages in the game, starting with ancient
myths and up to the Decadence of the beginning of the 20th century. Talking
on influence by some fiction, I should mention Lord of the Rings we surely
had been thinking of. Not like we tried to follow it in some way - although
you’ll find a couple of references to it in the game (since these
universes have some cross points up to some creatures, such as elfs or
orcs). It’s rather some sort of a standard we were trying to meet.
We were greatly impressed how epic, mature, and “dark” this
universe is, and consider it to be one of the absolute examples of the
fantasy universe.
7. What in your opinion are the features that make the Heroes series
that unique and addictive for players?
I will tell you my point of that, although I’m sure that everybody
will be able to name his own reason for his love for Heroes of Might and
Magic. ? I would say that the main reason why the series has been so popular
is the freedom in strategic and tactical solutions of the player its gameplay
suggests. You can fully concentrate on tactics and take a deep analysis
of the battlefield options, or you can play only on the strategic level,
leading your heroes to victory - or you can keep in mind both in any proportion
you like. Because of its depth on both tactical and strategic levels,
the gameplay of Heroes is very flexible providing each player with the
opportunity to play “his own Heroes” the way he likes. Yet despite
this complex structure the gameplay is also simple enough for anyone to
understand it intuitively and to dive into this world. It really is the
best strategy set in a fantasy world of all times! And we are keeping
these best features of the series – even with all the innovations
the game will be as comprehensible and addictive as the previous games
of the series.
8. Could you explain us the process of designing the creatures in
Heroes 5? What did you keep from the previous titles, how did you translate
that into 3D, what was your objective when you created/adapted the new
designs?
We wanted to populate new universe with some new creatures as well as
keep there the creatures that made this world real due to their vivid
personalities ? . We studied different forums to identify the creatures
that gamers loved the most. These creatures are kept in the game. Some
of the creatures from the previous games are kept in the new game but
they have been “moved” to other towns (factions). And surely
some new creatures have been added, kept in the traditions of each particular
faction. All the creatures were redesigned from the very beginning in
all the aspects. Since the graphic standards of Heroes of Might and Magic
V are much higher than in the previous games, we drew new sketches even
of the creatures that had been in the previous games of the series. Creating
their new image we definitely kept in mind the way they had look before,
plus the general style of the faction they belong to – plus the inner
vision and inspiration of the artist, of course. We also developed new
animations, new sounds and new effects for them. Many creatures have also
got some new abilities, so there was some work for game designers too.
9. How do you tune the gameplay on a game of this scale (over 100
creatures, 200 skills, 40 spells…)?
Well, we have already had an experience of balancing some large scale
games – Etherlords, despite its numerous creatures and spells and
their rather complicated relations, has a very strong balance. Coming
back to Heroes, I would say that we use standard mechanism of balancing
– mathematics at first, then we implement it to the game, when we
try everything over and over, when we use playtests and beta-tests to
make sure we didn’t miss anything. Plus there already are some balance
schemes from the previous games of the series that can be a good base
sometimes, too.
10. How will you handle the AI in the game?
I won’t be able to give you the programming details, so I’ll
tell about handling the AI from the game designer’s point of view.
? We studied thoroughly the AI of the previous games in the series, especially
in the third and the fourth parts and took the best features from there.
We also took as a base expert opinions, especially as one of our game
designers had been a pro gamer of Heroes of Might and Magic having a huge
experience of multiplayer gaming, and could give us very much valuable
expert estimations. Because of more tactical varieties the AI has to do
much more analysis now. Say, you can point your griffins a cell they should
aim at after some time, and should they meet an enemy’s unit there
when the time passes, they will make a big damage to it. However, if there’s
no enemy’s unit there, it will be count as a miss and you’ll
waste your turn and effort. So you should really think deep to use this
option to the fullest. The same goes for the AI as it has to analyse the
present situation on the battlefield and possible ways of its further
development. Then it points the future aim to the griffins based on this
analysis. This is just one of the examples of how analytical the new AI
needs to be.
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Conceptart der Garrison in Heaven
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Conceptart der Garrison in Inferno
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Conceptart Shackles of War
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Computersimulation Champion
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Mapeditor
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Programmierung
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Entwicklung von Heaven
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Entwicklung von Heaven
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Eintrag
2 vom 09.08.05
1. First of all, could you introduce yourself and explain us what is
your job on HOMM 5?
Erwan
My name is Erwan Le Breton, Might & Magic Content Director at Ubisoft.
My quest is to build the new world of Might & Magic that will be the setting of all the current and future M&M games produced and / or published by Ubisoft.
And my favourite colour is red (for those with an unhealthy obsession for the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.)
Outside of Ubisoft, I’m a published writer, author of a dozen pen & paper RPGs, children’s novels, and comic books for various French publishers.
Richard
I’m Richard Dansky, Might & Magic World Designer at Ubisoft.
I’v0e worked on numerous games for Ubi, including Far Cry, Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, and Cold Fear, and before that I contributed to roughly 130 roleplaying books for White Wolf. I’ve published four novels, including the fantasy series The Trilogy of the Second Age, and various other bits of fiction.
Outside of work, I enjoy building large wooden badgers, and running about with silly knees-bent advancing behaviours.
2. Why did Ubisoft decide to revamp the M&M universe?
There are several reasons for this.
1/ The world used as a background for the Might & Magic games has often changed from one title to the next (Varn, Cron, Terra, Xeen and then Axeoth with Enroth, Erathia, Jadame, Cheh'dian, etc.) As a result the consistency between all the M&M games was a little weak and the overall background was vague, if not flat-out confusing at times. We want to have a single, deep world that’s consistent across the board and has layers of story and content that players can just dive into.
2/ There was just so much information in the world that it was difficult for new players to really embrace everything that was there. The mass of backstory and continuity was almost intimidating, and we wanted to create a world that new players could enjoy as well.
3/ As much as we enjoyed the original M&M worlds, they had a certain science fiction undertone, while we really wanted to focus on the fantasy aspects – the “might” and “magic”, as it were. Those games were also “lighter” in tone than what we had in mind for the new generation of M&M games.
Again, we really loved what was done in the past, so it simply made sense to respect that and build our world from the ground up, focusing on capturing the core essence of what drew as all back to Axeoth over and over, rather than try to modify things that people really loved and enjoyed.
3. Precisely, what did you keep from the old M&M universe?
The more obvious aspect is that we are still in “high fantasy” world, ripe with valiant Human knights in shining armor, mysterious Elves lurking in the woods, savage Orc tribes raiding the frontiers, Undead armies gathering in the dark of the night, and all that good stuff. But of course, in our new implementation, expect to find more than one twist on the canonical representation of these elements.
Then, we decided to keep the Factions that made the Heroes line so popular. By “faction”, we mean the city / nation / race coalitions known to Heroes fans as Haven, Inferno, Academy, Dungeon, Stronghold, etc. Many of them will be back, some with a familiar aspect and “philosophy”, others with a bunch of surprises up their sleeves! Soon, we’ll be revealing loads of exciting stuff on the factions, but for now, here’s a quick rundown on the first two: Haven and Inferno. Haven: The Humans of the Holy Griffin Empire are inspired and guided by angels. It’s a feudal society driven by the rigorous edicts of the Dragon of Light – not any place you’d want to be a heretic. Picture an ironclad alliance of Arthurian Britain and Victorian England and you get a general idea. Oh, and did we mention the Spanish Inquisition? Guess not…
Inferno: Imprisoned between worlds by the legendary wizard known as the Seventh Dragon, the Legions of Chaos want out in the worst way – and we mean that literally. Destructive, hateful, vicious, sadistic – that’s just a warm-up for these guys. Even worse, they’ve got a plan, and that’s where things get really interesting.
We preserved the epic quality of the former M&M titles, which drives the player to experience fantasy on a grand scale and participate in world-shattering events. The actions the player takes impact the whole world.
We were also determined to maintain the ambiguous oppositions and moral choices which made the M&M narratives so compelling. Indeed, rather than a striking opposition between Good (Light) and Evil (Darkness), there has always been, in the former M&M games, a balance of the opposites, with most characters painted in shades and grey (ie: fully fleshed out personalities, covering the whole spectrum between radiant benevolence and wicked villainy instead of square-jawed caricatures).
Nobody is all good, and nobody is pure evil. Any character (and the heroes above all) could choose to be a villain or a hero at the moment. It’s a lot like life as we know it.
4. What are your objectives with this new world ? What innovations can we expect?
First things first: we want to make it deep, consistent, and exciting! By “deep and consistent”, we mean giving the world a sense of history and of scope. The universe shouldn’t feel like it was shiny and new and unwrapped just for the game.
You might not see all the background that’s being built in Heroes 5, but it’s important that it’s there – that sort of continuity informs everything else, and lets you know that the world doesn’t end at the edge of your mission map.
As for the “exciting” aspect, well, expect to re-discover all of the familiar fantasy places and races, with countless subtle touches that will spark your imagination.
Chief among the races you’ll see will be our Dragons, who are, literally, the base the entire universe is built on. They are a vital part of every aspect of our world – from the cosmology to the nature of magic, to religion and the way people talk day to day.
5. Could you describe us the process of re-creating a universe like this one? What are the key areas you are working on?
Our first task is to design a common background: a brand new fantasy world complete with history, geography, politics, culture, etc.
Then, we build a common “identity”: a tone, an atmosphere, a style that will permeate all the facets of any future M&M products from the global concepts (dramatic themes, general mood, etc.) to the more specific details (graphic codes and symbols, musical leitmotivs, etc.).
Finally, because we are talking about games, we must also create a common set of “core rules”: What is mana and how do we use it? What are a paladin or a fireball in our world? These things seem pretty basic, but you really need to nail down your definitions early – it’s amazing how many things can cascade off of simple things like this.
6. What are your inspirations for this new universe?
We’ve been heavily inspired by seminal fantasy authors like J.R.R. Tolkien (of course), but also Michael Moorcock, Guy Gavriel Kay, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Glen Cook and George R.R. Martin. These are authors whose worlds and stories are both epic and tragic, with the perfect balance of horror and wonder.
7. On the graphical aspect, what orientation can we expect from future M&M games?
Let us say that it’s time for Dorothy to ride the dark whirlwind and leave the gentle light-hearted fantasy of Axeoth behind. Ahead lies a world of blood and shadows, of jagged blades and voracious flames, of sweet lies and bitter poison…
That’s where we’re taking you, and the best part is, you’ll gonna ask for more.
8. Why did you decide to work with Olivier Ledroit on this project? Could you introduce him to us?
Olivier Ledroit is a French Comic book artist, very popular in Europe, best known for his first series Les Chroniques de la Lune Noire (“The Black Moon Chronicles”, 1989-2005).
He has more recently worked with the British writer Pat Mills (of Marshal Law and Slaine fame) on several “dark horror” series such as Sha or Requiem.
Olivier is an extremely talented artist, and his dark baroque fantasy universe was one of our main graphic inspirations for the new M&M world. So the logical step was to ask him to contribute on the project, and you easily imagine our extreme excitement when we he accepted the assignment.
9. Regarding Heroes 5, why was it important to have this new universe?
Simply because Heroes 5 will be the first M&M game published by Ubisoft, and as such, will really lay the bases for the “reborn” brand
So the events of the single player campaign you’ll play in Heroes 5 will have direct repercussions in all the M&M games to be released in the coming years. Here is where the avalanche starts, and it’s going to be a hell of a ride down.
10. What are your plans for the future regarding this new universe?
In the future M&M games, we will deal with the “apocalyptic” consequences of the main plot featured in Heroes 5.
We will also expand the “known world” to include new Factions (5 are currently planned).
And we are already thinking of a “prequel” saga that would let you delve into some of the more obscure mysteries of our world.
There’s an awful lot of backstory, culture and history in the world we’ve created, and we want to give you a chance to explore it. This is, of course, another way of saying we want to share all of the cool stuff we’ve been coming up with, because, well, it’s cool and we’re just naturally both a couple of show-offs. It’s still cool, though. Honest.
11. Can you tell us more about Isabel, the key character of the game? What does she look like, what will happen to her, how is she? Why is she so important?
Let’s just put it this way – when a child is born in a way that contravenes every known law of the universe, it might be time to start worrying.
And Isabel was that child. She’s a beautiful woman of noble birth, the only child of her parents’ old age. Her upbringing was rather lonely — she had nannies, tutors, and maids rather than siblings, parents, and friends. None of them could have prepared her, however, for what she’s about to go through.
Now that she has come of age, she is promised to Nicolai, the young ruler of the Holy Griffin Empire.
But Isabel is not destined to find happiness. Her fiancé will die, her world will crumble, and, well, you’ll just have to see what happens after that. It’s going to be one hell of a honeymoon.
As for her portrait, well, picture an immaculate apple-blossom frozen in its delicate beauty and purity by an early, unnatural, frost, and set to a sharp, metallic twig... This is what Isabel looks like…
12. To conclude why do you think people will enjoy the universe you helped to create?
I think that the best praise we could get for this new universe is that it “feels strong and it feels real”.
All of the different factions have very good reasons to justify their existence and their ongoing struggles with the rival nations.
All of the characters have legitimate motivations and credible mindsets.
The drama is tight, focused on a long chain of major events that covers millennia of spoken myths and written history.
Everything is related. Every action has its consequences, sometimes hundreds of years later.
And the Magic is there, stronger than ever and ready to lead you to places
you’ve never seen before.
Eintrag
3 - Dungeon
1. Hello. First, please introduce yourself.
Hi, my name is Alexander Mishulin. I'm Creative Director for the developer, Nival Interactive, and one of the Heroes of Might and Magic® V game designers.
2. How did you come up with the idea of creating a new faction for Heroes V?
Actually, it was not a single idea but rather a chain of ideas and decisions. In Heroes of Might and Magic V we try to unite each faction with a sole idea. When we looked at the old Dungeon faction we saw various mythological creatures who were only united by the fact that they lived underground. (And even this was a weak uniting feature, because placing some of them - for instance, Medusas - underground was somewhat questionable.) And we wanted not just creatures in the faction, but a race, with its own philosophy, history, special features, and lifestyle. Then we thought of Dark Elves. Dark Elf is a very popular fantasy race, probably one of the races with the biggest cult following - besides dragons, of course. : They have their own distinctive style and features, and consequently they bring unique ideas not only to the Dungeon faction but to the whole game.
3. Why did you call this faction Dungeon? Does it mean that the old Dungeon faction will totally disappear?
In creating Heroes of Might and Magic V we follow not a revolutionary but an evolutionary path. The old Dungeon faction has not totally disappeared; it was just reorganized and now has a unique idea and unique race living there. We left some creatures that had been living in Dungeon in the previous games. It's only natural that you can hire Minotaurs and Black Dragons in the Dungeon town, isn't it? Plus, Dark Elves are living underground, so, again, their housing in the Dungeon is quite natural. And they are quite strong in magic, which again fits the classical concept of the Dungeon from the previous games.
4. What were your inspirations when creating this new faction?
We somewhat based ourselves on the classical fantasy descriptions and general idea of Dark Elves, yet changed it to fit the Heroes of Might and Magic V universe. Actually, we were inspired by two ideas: the conception of Dungeon in the previous HoMM games and the conception of Dark Elves in various fantasy worlds, especially those Dark Elves that live in the city of Menzoberronzan described by R.A. Salvatore. The idea of Dungeon underground faction inspired us because it brings in wholeness and completeness to the gaming world and has many distinctive features from the gameplay point of view, while the idea of Dark Elves brings in a new culture with its own bright characters, individuality, architecture, and beliefs, which are all very inspiring. This mix makes for a really interesting and attractive faction!
This nation is not as evil as Demons, nor do they worship death like Necromants. Dark Elves used to be Sylvan Elves, but one day they made a pact with Faceless and accepted darkness. That's what we kept in mind when creating them. As fast, strong, free, and beautiful as common Elves, yet indifferent and merciless like one's shadow. Their actions are not aimed at others' sufferings nor do they try to bring good to the world. They follow their own way, and if you turn out to be in their way, they won't even listen to your excuses.
Classical Dark Elves worship spiders, but we replaced spiders with dragons - as dragons are very important creatures in the Heroes of Might and Magic V world, as well as in the Might and Magic universe in general. Visually, classic fantasy Dark Elves are pictured with purple skin and pale hair. As our Dark Elves are renegades from the Sylvan faction, they differ from the Sylvan Elves more in their morals than in their looks. However, their look delivers the general idea of this faction: free, strong, fast, and "dark." Indifferent to others' desires and sufferings, they follow their own way that lies through the shadows…
5. Why are women that important in this faction? Is it to balance the game?
In all the fantasy origins Dark Elves live in a matriarchy - the status of women in their society is rather high. We decided not to change that. Not only does it bring some more diversity to the Heroes of Might and Magic V world, it also distinguishes the Dark Elves more from the Sylvan Elves. Plus, female units make the faction more pleasurable to one's eye. :
6. Why did you decide to create an "underground" faction?
We felt that there definitely should be a more cohesive underground section in the game to deepen the gameplay role of the underground level. An underground faction is not new to the Heroes of Might and Magic series. The first idea in the Heroes series was to make underground levels just like stocks of different bonuses and resource items, but then it was decided to create rather large dungeons with their own castles and creatures there. In HoMMV we extended this idea to the unique underground race, and it seemed only natural to us. The Might and Magic fantasy world wouldn't be as rich without huge underground caves and dungeons, inhabited by an underground race that balances the game world and the gameplay.
7. What will the dungeon faction bring to the mix in terms of gameplay? Is it might or magic oriented? Does it have any never-seen-before abilities?
Dark Elves are very good warriors, quite dangerous to their opponents. They are strong and rather fast, so they can throw mighty attacks on the enemy. Yet their numbers are scarce and the cost of warriors is rather high, so their power is balanced by smaller amounts of troops. Dark Elves are quite magic-oriented, as their heroes are good in magic resistance. In Heroes of Might and Magic V, each faction has its own unique abilities, and Dark Elves are no exception. They can receive bonuses for various combinations of strikes.
8. What will be the role of the Dungeon faction in the story of Heroes V?
Their role in the story is rather big, but that's all I will tell for now. I'm not trying to tease you; I just don't want to spoil first impressions and the fun you will have from exploring the story of Heroes of Might and Magic V. Just believe me, as each faction has its unique features, each also has its own unique role in the plot of the game, making the story fuller and brighter.
9. So now that everybody knows about the six factions in Heroes V, would you tell us which one is your favorite and why?
That's a difficult question! We created factions one at a time (first there were humans, then demons, and so on), and as each faction appeared in the game I thought: "This faction will be my favorite!" :. I still can't pick a definite favorite, as each faction is so absolute in its diversity and pre-eminence. However, if I had to name one, it would probably be the Necropolis. I'm very fond of Gothicism, and in this faction our artists followed Gothic architectural style. But Dark Elves are a very close runner-up, as they have this dark and shadow mood around them, too. Plus, I think it will be very interesting to play a Dark Elf in the Heroes of Might and Magic world!