|
Interview with Josh Kurtz Lead World Builder for Stargate Worlds |
|
|
|
Written by Game Keeper
|
|
Tuesday, 21 February 2006 |
©2004-2006 Stargate Game. All rights reserved. This material may not be reprinted without written consent from Stargate Game.
You may quote from the article and link to it, but always reference Stargate Game (www.stargate-game.com) as the source (with a link). You may not reproduce any article, story or interviews published by Stargate Game on your own site, or directly translate an article, story or interview into another language and publish it without written consent from Stargate Game.
I was recently given the opportunity to sit down with Josh Kurtz from Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. Josh is the Lead World Builder for Cheyenne's game Stargate Worlds. Stargate Worlds is currently in pre-production
Nathan: Josh, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us today.
Josh: Sure thing Nathan, always glad to help.
Nathan: Can I begin with a bit about you personally? Tell me about Josh Kurtz. How did you get into world building? What is your background?
Josh: I got into the industry as QA on Diablo 2. From there I moved up to the Development team for World of Warcraft as one of their first Level Design/World Builders. It was very early in development and the toolset wasn’t complete yet so I got to be part of developing that toolset into a very robust and detailed system that gave the designers the ability to do almost anything within that one program. Over the course of the project I moved around and became the person who took on the new areas of design where we needed tools designed and a process defined starting with Spawns and encounters and moving on through flight paths and triggered events. As for my background, that pretty much covers it for the gaming industry. Previous to working in games I worked a number of varied jobs including Cinematography, Photography, Film Editing and the ever present and frightening world of Customer Service.
Nathan: What does the typical day of the Lead World Builder for Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment consist of?
Josh: A lot of it at this point is developing a process and a set of tools with which our worlds will be built.
Nathan: Do you get a god-complex when creating worlds?
Josh: If I were to admit to that it would only be a matter of time before SG-1 showed up at my office to overthrow my rule and take away all my slaves, then how would I get all these worlds built?
Nathan: What type of worlds are we going to find in the Stargate Worlds Universe?
Josh: That’s such a vast question with so many answers. The show has taken us to literally hundreds of worlds over the last few years and all of them have been interesting and unique in some way. I think the fans of the show want to revisit some of those worlds, especially the worlds that looked so vast and interesting but gave us only a glimpse of what mysteries they held, and to be honest I would like to see some of those worlds again too. We aren’t limited by the same concerns that the show is and so I think we can explore some of those worlds more fully, more in depth. And of course that same freedom from sets and locations will allow us to create some brand new worlds which are limited only by our imaginations.
Nathan: Will all worlds be available for free roaming or will some worlds be locked until certain objectives have been met? From that will all worlds be accessible through a series of Gate addresses or will it be map/menu driven?
Josh: We have to save some juicy tidbits for later discussion. If we told you everything right now, there wouldn’t be anything to get excited over later.
Nathan: How large are the worlds expected to be? For example will we be walking everywhere or will there be need for vehicles at some stage to get from point A to point B? Likewise will things like the Sodan transportation devices be used to cover large distances?
Josh: We will have worlds of different sizes, to answer more than that right now I feel would be premature. Once again something your readers are going to have to keep tuning in to find out.
Nathan: What are some of the things we can expect to see on the words? Markets/bazaars? Caves? Mountains? Cities, forests, oceans etc?
Josh: I think your list is too limited, think outside the box and ask yourself what besides those you would like to see?
Nathan: I understand guilds will be playing a large role in the way Stargate Worlds operates. Will guilds be able to create their own worlds - that is will a guild if sufficiently large enough, be able to "buy" a world? If so, will these be pre-determined worlds available through the local world shop (called "The World is your Oyster" - I made that name up) or will they be able to request certain environments from Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment directly?
Josh: No reading the last page of the book to see if the butler did it. I think this is a big enough topic that we should let the anticipation simmer a little bit.
Nathan: In a recent press launch the level of detail on worlds was discussed as being slightly less that photo realistic. What is the poly count of a typical world expected to be? Does that mean that players will need fairly powerful PC's to play?
Josh: Very likely the poly counts of different worlds will be different as we make them different sizes and use different artwork within them. As for what types of PC’s and how powerful a system will be needed, that is such a more wide ranging question and covers far more than just world building.
Nathan: Will every world be accessible via a Stargate or will there be worlds available only to ship owners/paid passengers on ships?
Josh: This is another topic that is larger than it looks and I think it deserves some simmering time alongside guilds.
Nathan: Are you thinking about adding Easter eggs to the worlds at all?
Josh: Only during Easter. Actually we would like to do Easter Eggs of some kind but won’t telling you all about it kind of ruin the hunt?
Nathan: Lastly how many Stargate Worlds are you hoping to have on release?
Josh: However many we have, there will always be more to make.
Nathan: Josh thank you for your candour and your time. I look forward to exploring your worlds in the not too distant future.
Josh: Thank you Nathan, it was a pleasure talking with you.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 22 February 2006 )
|
