If you’re in the business of making role playing games, you should probably have an eye on Seven: The Days Long Gone. It’s a fascinating isometric stealth RPG with a gonzo setting and interesting traversal mechanics from studios IMGN.PRO and Fool’s Theory, whose founders have a history at Witcher developer CD Projekt Red. 

Over on the Gamasutra Twitch channel today, we were lucky enough to be joined by lead developer Jakub Rokosz and quest designer Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz (both late of The Witcher 3), who were eager to share stories about the game’s development process, and dive into the technical and design decisions that went into this unique RPG. 

It was an illuminating chat, which you can watch in its entirety up above, but in case you’re creeping around the island of Peh as we speak, here’s a few key takeaways from our conversation. 

Stealth games are about “idiot npcs”

When asked to quickly sum up what they feel makes a good stealth game, Rokosz and Kuzia-Rokosz talked about a need for players to feel smarter than AI characters. Of course, since the computer literally knows where the player is at all times, it then becomes necessary to make your AI really, really stupid, so that the player doesn’t feel discouraged or outmatched. 

When asked for what kind of stealth games inspired the sneaking mechanics of Seven, Rokosz and Kuzia-Rokosz tossed out a few familiar names like Dishonored and Thief, but excitedly pointed to the interactions in Fallout 2 where players could sneak up on NPCs and leave grenades in their pockets (Rokosz said a similar feature almost made it into Seven, but was killed to manage scope).

What makes a good RPG quest

Since Kuzia-Rokosz was the game’s quest designer, we asked her to sum up what makes a good quest in an RPG like Seven. Her first response was that it’s important for quest designers to think about enabling different playstyles, especially in a game like Seven, where there’s a range of options on the speaking—>brawling spectrum. 

Then Rokosz chimed in to remind her of one of the reminders she gave him constantly during development: that every quest needs to be clear about “what to do, where to go, how to do it,” even when it’s trying to be open-ended. This was apparently advice that Kuzia-Rokosz would badger him with constantly while implementing quests in gameplay. 

How to make a good “detective vision”

In Seven: The Days Long Gone, players can use the protagonist’s robotic eye to scout the environment around them and highlight loot and hiding places useful to completing missions. This feature is similar to the “detective vision” features seen in titles like Arkham Asylum and Assassin’s Creed. It turns out that Rokosz and the rest of the team were worried players would leave such a feature on all the time, so they tried to have their mechanic “gamify” the main character pausing to take a look around, help him gather information in a similar way that the player wants. 

Kuzia-Rokosz also pointed out to us that when they let players toggle this vision mode on and off, it quickly led to information overload since too many icons would pop in to the screen at the same time. 

For more developer interviews, editor roundtables and gameplay commentary, be sure to follow the Gamasutra Twitch channel.

“Of those 75 percent of the people, about half of those people actually spend some money and the other half just play without spending. But in a free-to-play world, that’s a fantastic balance of spenders and non-spenders.”

– CFO of Electronic Arts Blake J. Jorgensen speaking at the 37th Nasdaq Investor Conference 

During the 37th Nasdaq Investor Conference which took place on December 5th, CFO of Electronic Arts Blake J. Jorgensen spoke about the percentage of players who spent money on EA Sports’ Ultimate Team mode.

According to Jorgensen, “about 70-75 percent of all the people that buy the sports games join Ultimate Team.” He goes on to say that of those 75 percent, about half of those players end up spending money on Ultimate Team microtransactions.  

While the conversion rate provided is unusually high for a free-to-play game, it’s not EA’s first success with Ultimate Team. Former Bioware dev Jesse Houston cited FIFA Ultimate Team specifically when designing Mass Effect 3‘s loot box system. 

To hear more of his comments, check out the full recording on EA’s website here.

Yesterday’s Alpha and Beta system update (1711.171121-1645) is now available to Delta and Omega Insiders. If you’re a member of one of these two Xbox One Update Preview rings, then you may have noticed the update starting at 2 p.m. PST today. The update will become mandatory tomorrow at 1 a.m. PST and continues to deliver on fixes to 1711, specifically improving upon the stability and performance of the Guide, streaming apps and game installations. Read on to learn more about the fixes unique to this update and check in on the Known Issues in our previous post here.

FIXES:

Guide

• Fixed an issue that caused the Guide to crash unexpectedly

Installation

• Fixed an issue that could cause games to fail to install

Streaming Video Fixes

• Fixed issues which caused some streaming video apps to fail to show video and ads

Back in 2014 we reported on a Tokyo-based group of tourist event organisers that set up a Mario Kart-themed tour of the city – in actual karts! 

Well, fast forward three years and the the city is awash with colourful convoys, so much so that the Japanese tourist ministry is bringing in new laws to ensure blue shell-flinging drivers are safe before they hit the roads; seatbelts will be mandatory and the karts will need to meet safety standards.

A loophole in the current system enables operators to classify karts as both scooters and four-wheeled vehicles – since scooters don’t require seat belts and cars don’t require helmets, tourists have been cruising through traffic without a safety conscious care in the world.

However, the Mario Kart tour craze hasn’t been an entirely clean ride. Nintendo itself sued one company earlier this year for copyright infringement (which it lost a month later), while a spate of real-life accidents involving kart drivers ultimately led the Japanese government to enforce more stringent rules.

What do you think of Mario Kart tours? Would you go on one, or would buckling up spoil the fun? Comments at the ready.

DOOM VFR is Now Available on Steam!

DOOM® VFR brings the fast-paced, brutal gameplay fans of the series love to virtual reality. Play as a cybernetic survivor who is activated by the UAC to fight the demon invasion, maintain order, and prevent catastrophic failure at the Mars facility.

Unearth 135 new cards from Azeroth’s deepest dungeons in the latest expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s internationally acclaimed digital card game

Brave adventurers can now embark on single-player Dungeon Runs for an endlessly replayable, escalating challenge that’s completely free to all players—no prebuilt decks required

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Eager adventurers can now set out in search of Legendary Weapons, mysterious treasures, and 135 alluring new cards hidden deep underground in Kobolds & Catacombs^™—the latest expansion for Hearthstone^®, Blizzard Entertainment’s smash-hit digital card game.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171207006016/en/

Kobolds & Catacombs takes Hearthstone players into the bowels of Azeroth, where the dastardly kobolds have been boring tunnels for thousands of years and hiding away scores of ancient treasures. Hearthstone players will discover powerful new cards among these riches, including a Legendary Weapon for each class—one of which everyone who logs in to Hearthstone starting today will receive free. Rumors also speak of mighty Spellstones, magical jewels for each class whose effects grow in power throughout a match. Ever-wary of greedy adventurers’ plots to liberate their hoards, the kobolds have lured terrible monsters and laid deadly traps to help protect them. Luckily, adventurers don’t have to go it alone. By playing cards with the new Recruit keyword, players can summon random minions directly from their decks, opening the door for entirely new approaches to deckbuilding.

The deadliest hazards of all await players in Kobolds & Catacombs’ new and completely free single-player mode: Dungeon Runs. These high-stakes subterranean adventures are inspired by the iconic fantasy dungeon crawl, and they’re never the same experience twice. Those brave enough to embark on these challenges can earn three free Kobolds & Catacombs card packs by completing a series of introductory quests. Players who complete a full Dungeon Run with all nine classes will also earn the “Candle King” card back—indisputable proof that they’ve mastered one of Hearthstone’s most daunting challenges yet.

“Kobolds & Catacombs harkens back to the type of old-school fantasy-gaming experience that many of us at Blizzard and in the community grew up on,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We think players are going to love the new cards and testing their mettle in Dungeon Runs, and we can’t wait to see how deck strategies evolve with the new mechanics we’ve added with this set.”

Kobolds & Catacombs is available now for Windows® and Mac® PCs; Windows, iOS, and Android™ tablets; and iOS and Android phones. Card packs can be purchased individually or in discounted bundles from the in-game Shop for gold or real-world currency at the same price as all other Hearthstone card packs. Players now have the chance to win Kobolds & Catacombs card packs as quest rewards or prizes in the Arena, and can also craft cards from the expansion by using Arcane Dust collected from disenchanting unwanted cards.

For a limited time, players who log in to Hearthstone will receive three free Kobolds & Catacombs card packs to celebrate the launch of the expansion—in addition to the ones earned from the introductory Dungeon Run quests.

Visit www.koboldsandcatacombs.com to learn more about the expansion and prepare yourself for the hazards and horrors that await you in the depths below Azeroth.

Assets available at: https://blizzard.gamespress.com/Hearthstone

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft^®, Hearthstone^®, Overwatch^®, the Warcraft^®, StarCraft^®, and Diablo^® franchises, and the multi-franchise Heroes of the Storm^®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes twenty-one #1 games^* and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online gaming service, Blizzard Battle.net^®, is one of the largest online-gaming services in the world, with millions of active players.

*Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171207006016/en/

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Che’von Slaughter
Senior Manager, Public Relations
949.955.1380 x14338
cslaughter@blizzard.com
or
Lyndsi Achucarro
PR Manager, Global
949.955.1380 x12650
lachucarro@blizzard.com
or
Christine Yeo
PR Manager, North America
949.955.1380 x61002
cyeo@blizzard.com

Source: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

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