Rezpls has a chat with the director of Wizard101
Posted on July 17, 2009 by RezPLS
Melding concepts of magic, collectible card games, and role playing games, Wizard101 has managed to secure a unique spot in the MMORPG world. It is currently one of the fastest growing MMOs out there, and seems to appeal to all stripes of gamers. How do they do it? What’s in store for the future? We wanted to know. Luckily for us, J. Todd Coleman, Director of Wizard101, was willing to grace us with an in-depth interview.
What are some of goals for Wizard101, and do you believe you’ve met them?
We had a handful of goals for the game, some of them pretty lofty:
–Making a game that would be fun for both kids and adults. Something deeper and more engaging than a ToonTown or Club Penguin, but not as time consuming or hardcore as World of Warcraft.
–Combining a virtual world and a collectible card game in a story-based game full of great characters. To this end, I wanted it to feel like you were watching an episode of Yu Gi Oh on TV, where the spells you cast would literally come to life.
–Safety was very important. We wanted to create a game that allowed for fun, multiplayer interaction within the confines of a safe environment for tweens.
–Innovative design. So often, new online games rely on the standard WoW and dikumud style of combat. We wanted to create something entirely different and visually engaging.
In the case of Wizard101, I think our strong belief in assembling a great team has paid off a hundred fold. We have really met and surpassed the goals we set for ourselves with the game, and I’m extremely proud of that.
Wow, over 1 million players. How do you think this size of userbase will affect Wizard101?
It’s amazing isn’t it? I haven’t experienced this before, we’re adding servers like crazy and ever week when I log in more of them are filling to capacity. We are breaking our own records almost every week.
We’ve had to adjust since launch in other ways too, like offering new pricing options with the family plan and the access passes. We are pushing the design in new directions, like the Player-vs-Player Arena. And, of course, adding hundreds of hours of new content. Players are a black hole of content consumption — even moreso when game advancement is directly tied to that new content. We’ve also been suprised by the nature of our fan base: the age range is muc much wider than we anticipated, which means we’re appealing to both kids and adults, as well. This means we’ll have to start thinking about features that we hadn’t considered before, like less restrictive chat channels and more rich (i.e. complex) combat rules. We’ve also been very fortunate that our engineering team did such a good job with our back-end architecture… otherwise we would never have been able to scale up our production environment this quickly.
How do you think Dragonspyre has been received by the community?
Dragonspyre was greatly anticipated by our fanbase. From the first hint we dropped, players were all over us to find out more: is this where Malistaire was hiding? what was the world like? who lived there? how difficult would it be? would it wrapup the main story, or end in another cliffhanger?
Dragonspyre is the darkest of our worlds — both visually and from a storytelling standpoint. This is as close to gothic fantasy as the Wizard universe gets, it’s a fallen military academy built on the ruins of a kingdom of dragons. It does, in fact, wrap up the mainline narrative that was started back in Wizard City, when the player first starts the game. It’s pretty challenging, as well and overall the reception for it has been great.
How has the game been received by parents?
We’ve had lots of great feedback from parents about everything from game play that’s surprisingly easy to learn, but takes a long time to master — to a deep appreciation for the safety features that have been integrated. We’ve been really surprised by how many parents are playing the game… in fact, we’ve been suprised by how many adult players we have who do not even have children.
My favorite stories, however, are the ones we’re hearing from parents who play with their children and are enjoying it as a family! The general story is: the child finds the game, and the parent jumps in to make sure it is safe. After some level of evaluation, they turn them loose on it, and in the course of this process, a suprising number of them stick around and play themselves.
Your new Arena system seems to have a lot of player participation, is it the amount you would have hoped for?
Player-vs-Player turnout has been higher than expected — which at face value seems kind of odd for a family-friendly game — but if you think about it, it makes sense. The core of our game is a CCG, and by their very nature, that’s a PvP experience. It’s an interesting change of pace to test your skills against a thinking opponent. Most players find out (quickly and painfully) that the strategy of the card game is a lot deeper than they realized.
Also, remember, free players can participate in practice Arena duels for free… and if they don’t want to subscribe, they can still participate in ranked duels for a small microtransaction.
Are there any community world events in development? PvE or PvP?
We’ve been looking at in-game events for several months now and different ways to make this a reality. We tend to add in themed content around holidays, and we’re hoping to expand on these plans in the future. (Unfortunately, I’m not allow to say much more than that at this time!)
Will voice-overs be enabled for the rest of the worlds?
Yes, which is great because the voiceovers really add a whole new layer of polish to the experience. I was suprised at how effective they are in drawing you into the story, and how much depth they add to the personality of our NPCS.
What was the greatest inspiration for Wizard101 and its design?
That’s a tough question, because Wizard draws from so many different sources: literary, television, film, even the occasional odd memory bubbling up from my childhood that I can’t quite place. Harry Potter is obviously an influence — though from a wizard’s apprentice perspective, we actually have more in common with the works of Terry Pratchett (Discworld), Robert Asprin (the Myth Series) and Jonathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy). Our characters are an interesting mix; you’ll see templates that are derived or inspired by Roger Zelanzey (the Amber Series) and Jim Henson (the Dark Crystal.) From a game design spectrum, we still use some of the tried-and-true Dikumud concepts that made EverQuest and World of Warcraft great, turn based combat that is similar to Toon Town and the old Final Fantasy games, spell cinematics reminiscent of Yu Gi Oh! and narratives that harken back to the old Shining Force RPGs. Like I said, it’s really a mixed bag.
Are there any other games that you or KingsIsle are working on?
My plate is still pretty full with Wizard101. KingsIsle does have another MMO project in development; that one is run by Tom Hall of iD / Ion Storm fame… but unfortunately, I’m not allowed to talk about that yet. You’ll have to ask him.
And a final oddball, does anyone at the office dress up like a wizard from time to time?
Halloweens are usually a bit crazy. I have told Fred (our VP of Marketing) that I would wear a Malistaire outfit to conferences if he would have one made. That would be cool, Malistaire is quite the snappy dresser! So far I’ve managed to steer clear of dressing up like Merle Ambrose, which is a blessing since I find fake beards to be itchy and hot.
Thank you for your time 
