Lekon
11-04-2011, 08:15 PM
We're proud to share an interview we've recently had with Jonathan Chey, former Co Founder of Irrational Games, and producer of System Shock, a game quite well loved around here. Currently Jonathan is working on Card Hunter (http://www.cardhunter.com/) with his new studio, Blue Manchu.
CoG - Please give us a description of what Card Hunter is, and tell us a little about the Team.
JC - Card Hunter is collectible card game / role-playing game hybrid. I know that’s a bit of a mouthful, but I think it’s the most concise way of describing the game that I’ve come across so far. Imagine you are playing an RPG but every time you fight a group of monsters you play a card game instead. And then, when you win the battle, you win more cards to make your party stronger.
The team building this awesome game is a motley crew of indie developers pitching in with their own unique skill sets. It’s kind of an unusual group as we’re all pretty experienced, all putting in different amounts of time and all located in different parts of the world. I’m the only one working on it full time and so I’m coordinating what everyone else is doing.
CoG -Though the game's focus is on single player, how will Co-op or competitive multiplayer work? Are there plans for things along the lines of each player playing their own specific hero, almost like a game of Talisman or D&D's new board games? (Ravenloft, etc?)
JC -Competitive play is sort of something we expect players to graduate to once they’ve worked their way through the single player content. In both games you have a party of 3 characters but in competitive MP you square off against another party instead of a group of monsters. Serious MP players will probably want to develop a “stable” of characters with different skill sets so that they can mix and match to create different strategic groups.
Co-op play is something we are scheming about but don’t have yet. It probably won’t be in the initial release of the game but something we look to add as we go on supporting it.
CoG - What Impact will player classes have, are they cosmetic or do they change game play? Also, how many classes are planned, and will you be given set classes for each dungeon, or be able to mix/match your party?
JC -Classes are certainly not cosmetic. Through the deck building system, they dictate which cards can go into each characters deck. In many ways, we see classes as analogous to colors in Magic – each class has their own set of signature powers and you can then create different deck archetypes by mixing them together in different combinations.
Our plan at the moment is to release with 3-4 classes. Wizard, warrior and priest are up and running at the moment and we plan to do a rogue too if we have time. After that, we’d like to expand that group considerably.
In terms of party composition – it’s totally up to you. We might have some specific achievements for using a certain build but won’t be prescribing particular classes for specific adventures.
Each class is basically defined by what items they can use. And, yes, items are the primary adventuring reward and the primary way that you grow over the course of the game.
CoG - How will the quests/modules work? I saw a number of awesome Modules on the blog/website, that looked straight out of the D&D 2e days, even down to the "For levels 1-4". Are those basically the set pieces for each dungeon, or will there be randomized dungeons possible as well?
JC -Those are what we call Adventures. Each adventure is a series of battles leading to a conclusion – kind of like a quest in an MMO. And, yes, each battle in an adventure is a set piece, we don’t have any randomisation in there at this stage. They’re much more intended to be structured experiences.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6231/6312782005_fa35b59647_o.jpg
One of the adventure modules. Nostalgia, ho!
CoG - Are there any plans for how the game will get money from folks? Cash Shop, expansion pack selling, etc? Or are those still too far in the making to talk about?
Yes, there are plans but we haven’t reached any conclusions yet so it would be premature to talk about them. I suspect the model will be much like a lot of free-to-play MMORPGs, i.e. there’s a bunch of free content, some extra content you can purchase and then some helper and/or cosmetic things that you can buy if you like.
CoG -Will dice rolls be animated? For example on the shield card, it has a 3 out of 6 chance to block, will we get to see the die roll across the board and almost knock over all the cut out characters?
JC -Ha ha, yes and no! Dice rolls are animated, but we keep the animations pretty short. Knocking over the pieces with the dice is an awesome idea, but it would probably get annoying if it happened too often.
CoG -Are there any plans to have a form of Model Painter, for players who want to make sure their adventuring party is the most stylish possible? (Well, cutout painter might be a better term). Some folk want to make sure they have the pink knight and the red wizard, after all.
JC -Nope, we don’t have that planned yet. In general, we simply don’t have time to look into user created content at this stage. Not to say we won’t get to it in the future if the game is successful, but we’re such a small team that we really have to focus on building the core game properly first.
CoG - How does the team handle the distance issue while programming or getting ideas together? Are there team game nights or online get to-gethers to unwind between sessions of programming/designing/brainstorming? Does anyone play Magic with Richard Garfield?
JC -We make heavy, heavy use of Skype, both for voice chat and text. So, for example, we have a Skype group where everyone programming on the project gets together. That’s me and Farbs in Canberra, Australia, Tess in Austin, Texas, Jay in Brisbane, Luke in Sydney and Martin in Sweden. So we’re hardly ever all there at the same time but, on the other hand, there’s usually someone hanging around in there.
We don’t really get to play a lot of games with each other apart from Card Hunter, which is always up and running if someone wants to challenge someone else on the team.
Last time I was in Seattle, I did get to go to Richard Garfield’s house and play board games with him and some of his friends. It was simultaneously awesome and frightening. We didn’t play Magic but we did play his new game, King of Tokyo, and about 10 other games, most of which I’d never seen before. I had a lot of learning to do.
CoG -When are you hoping to release Card Hunter, and is there any timeline for Beta in place yet?
JC -Well, we’re *hoping* for a Beta late this year and release in first quarter next year, but we don’t want to commit to any sort of timeline because we’re focussed on quality above all else.
CoG -What indie games has the team been most impressed by/sunk the most hours into playing recently?
I personally have spent a lot of time with Desktop Dungeons and I know a bunch of other people on the team really like that too. I think it’s a very clever tightly designed little game.
Thank you again to Mr. Chey, and we look forward to playing Card Hunter (http://www.cardhunter.com/) soon!
CoG - Please give us a description of what Card Hunter is, and tell us a little about the Team.
JC - Card Hunter is collectible card game / role-playing game hybrid. I know that’s a bit of a mouthful, but I think it’s the most concise way of describing the game that I’ve come across so far. Imagine you are playing an RPG but every time you fight a group of monsters you play a card game instead. And then, when you win the battle, you win more cards to make your party stronger.
The team building this awesome game is a motley crew of indie developers pitching in with their own unique skill sets. It’s kind of an unusual group as we’re all pretty experienced, all putting in different amounts of time and all located in different parts of the world. I’m the only one working on it full time and so I’m coordinating what everyone else is doing.
CoG -Though the game's focus is on single player, how will Co-op or competitive multiplayer work? Are there plans for things along the lines of each player playing their own specific hero, almost like a game of Talisman or D&D's new board games? (Ravenloft, etc?)
JC -Competitive play is sort of something we expect players to graduate to once they’ve worked their way through the single player content. In both games you have a party of 3 characters but in competitive MP you square off against another party instead of a group of monsters. Serious MP players will probably want to develop a “stable” of characters with different skill sets so that they can mix and match to create different strategic groups.
Co-op play is something we are scheming about but don’t have yet. It probably won’t be in the initial release of the game but something we look to add as we go on supporting it.
CoG - What Impact will player classes have, are they cosmetic or do they change game play? Also, how many classes are planned, and will you be given set classes for each dungeon, or be able to mix/match your party?
JC -Classes are certainly not cosmetic. Through the deck building system, they dictate which cards can go into each characters deck. In many ways, we see classes as analogous to colors in Magic – each class has their own set of signature powers and you can then create different deck archetypes by mixing them together in different combinations.
Our plan at the moment is to release with 3-4 classes. Wizard, warrior and priest are up and running at the moment and we plan to do a rogue too if we have time. After that, we’d like to expand that group considerably.
In terms of party composition – it’s totally up to you. We might have some specific achievements for using a certain build but won’t be prescribing particular classes for specific adventures.
Each class is basically defined by what items they can use. And, yes, items are the primary adventuring reward and the primary way that you grow over the course of the game.
CoG - How will the quests/modules work? I saw a number of awesome Modules on the blog/website, that looked straight out of the D&D 2e days, even down to the "For levels 1-4". Are those basically the set pieces for each dungeon, or will there be randomized dungeons possible as well?
JC -Those are what we call Adventures. Each adventure is a series of battles leading to a conclusion – kind of like a quest in an MMO. And, yes, each battle in an adventure is a set piece, we don’t have any randomisation in there at this stage. They’re much more intended to be structured experiences.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6231/6312782005_fa35b59647_o.jpg
One of the adventure modules. Nostalgia, ho!
CoG - Are there any plans for how the game will get money from folks? Cash Shop, expansion pack selling, etc? Or are those still too far in the making to talk about?
Yes, there are plans but we haven’t reached any conclusions yet so it would be premature to talk about them. I suspect the model will be much like a lot of free-to-play MMORPGs, i.e. there’s a bunch of free content, some extra content you can purchase and then some helper and/or cosmetic things that you can buy if you like.
CoG -Will dice rolls be animated? For example on the shield card, it has a 3 out of 6 chance to block, will we get to see the die roll across the board and almost knock over all the cut out characters?
JC -Ha ha, yes and no! Dice rolls are animated, but we keep the animations pretty short. Knocking over the pieces with the dice is an awesome idea, but it would probably get annoying if it happened too often.
CoG -Are there any plans to have a form of Model Painter, for players who want to make sure their adventuring party is the most stylish possible? (Well, cutout painter might be a better term). Some folk want to make sure they have the pink knight and the red wizard, after all.
JC -Nope, we don’t have that planned yet. In general, we simply don’t have time to look into user created content at this stage. Not to say we won’t get to it in the future if the game is successful, but we’re such a small team that we really have to focus on building the core game properly first.
CoG - How does the team handle the distance issue while programming or getting ideas together? Are there team game nights or online get to-gethers to unwind between sessions of programming/designing/brainstorming? Does anyone play Magic with Richard Garfield?
JC -We make heavy, heavy use of Skype, both for voice chat and text. So, for example, we have a Skype group where everyone programming on the project gets together. That’s me and Farbs in Canberra, Australia, Tess in Austin, Texas, Jay in Brisbane, Luke in Sydney and Martin in Sweden. So we’re hardly ever all there at the same time but, on the other hand, there’s usually someone hanging around in there.
We don’t really get to play a lot of games with each other apart from Card Hunter, which is always up and running if someone wants to challenge someone else on the team.
Last time I was in Seattle, I did get to go to Richard Garfield’s house and play board games with him and some of his friends. It was simultaneously awesome and frightening. We didn’t play Magic but we did play his new game, King of Tokyo, and about 10 other games, most of which I’d never seen before. I had a lot of learning to do.
CoG -When are you hoping to release Card Hunter, and is there any timeline for Beta in place yet?
JC -Well, we’re *hoping* for a Beta late this year and release in first quarter next year, but we don’t want to commit to any sort of timeline because we’re focussed on quality above all else.
CoG -What indie games has the team been most impressed by/sunk the most hours into playing recently?
I personally have spent a lot of time with Desktop Dungeons and I know a bunch of other people on the team really like that too. I think it’s a very clever tightly designed little game.
Thank you again to Mr. Chey, and we look forward to playing Card Hunter (http://www.cardhunter.com/) soon!