ProSiebenSat.1 Digital, Alaplaya et Nitrozen nous proposent aujourd’hui l’interview de Lee Jang Wook, fondateur du studio de développement. Dans le but de satisfaire les attentes de la communauté, les joueurs ont eu la possibilité de poser leurs propres questions au développeur.
Vous pouvez retrouver l’intégralité de l’interview en anglais à la fin de l’article ainsi qu’une galerie d’images.
Lee Jang Wook répond aux questions.
Durant cette interview, Lee Jang Wook dévoile davantage d’informations sur « L.A.W – Living After War », parle de son travail sur ce MMO post-nucléaire et révèle des détails sur l’un des éléments clés du gameplay : la stratégie en temps réel en PvP : « L’un des principaux aspects de L.A.W. est bien évidemment son PvP sophistiqué, qui est essentiellement un mode de stratégie en temps réel très abouti. Cette guerre pour les ressources est ouverte à tous, 24 heures sur 24, 7 jours sur 7 ».
Il explique également comment et pourquoi « L.A.W – Living After War » s’oppose aux modèles actuels de MMOs en proposant uniquement 3 classes de personnages. La personnalisation individuelle du Guerrier, du Fantôme et de l’Esper offre bien plus de possibilités que les autres grands titres du genre et façonnera l’aspect MMORPG de « L.A.W – Living After War ». « Vous ne jouerez pas l’une des nombreuses classes, vous aurez au contraire la possibilité de développer librement votre personnage et combiner habilement les compétences de ces trois types », précise le développeur.
Une opération spéciale a été lancée sur alaplaya.net, permettant à tous les joueurs intéressés de soumettre leurs questions concernant le nouveau jeu multijoueur de Lee Jang Wook. Les réponses seront publiées très prochainement sur le portail de jeux.
Concept arts exclusifs
Lee Jang Wook dévoile également des éléments visuels de « L.A.W – Living After War » sur alaplaya.net, dont certains sont de sa propre création. Il s’était auparavant fait un nom en tant que Lead Concept Artist durant le développement de Diablo III : « J’ai travaillé avec Blizzard à partir de début 2000 jusqu’à 2003. A ce moment, j’étais Lead concept artist et faisais également de la modélisation 3D. J’ai passé la majorité de mon temps sur Diablo III et d’autres nouveaux projets », confie-t-il. Ses talents se confirment désormais avec son propre jeu, « L.A.W – Living After War ». Les concept arts dévoilés contiennent des armes, de magnifiques environnements et des personnages uniques, permettant aux joueurs d’avoir un aperçu du développement de « L.A.W – Living After War ».
L.A.W – Living After War est un MMO d’action et accueillera officiellement tous les joueurs au premier trimestre 2012, sur le site www.livingafterwar.de.
La bêta fermée en novembre 2011 permettra à certains joueurs de découvrir en exclusivité une bataille passionnante en temps réel. Pour plus d’information, visitez le site officiel ou la page Facebook.
How did you get into the gaming industry?
When I was a teenager and senior high school student I became interested in some games for the Apple computer. This early experience made me think about how games are actually made and constructed. Ever since then my interest in computer games continued to grow and I eventually started working in the gaming industry. In my early adulthood, while studying abroad in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to visit one of my friends at work. Back then he was working for SEGA, a famous Japanese console game company you have surely heard of. This fortunate meeting had a profound effect on me and gave me the motivation to enter the video game industry as a profession. My first job in the gaming industry was with SNK, another Japanese game company.
Your company profile states that your way also lead you to Blizzard where you worked on the Diablo series.
I worked with Blizzard from around early 2000 until around 2003. At the time, I was the lead concept-artist and did 3-D modelling as well. I spent most of the time on Diablo 3 and other new projects.
After your time with Blizzard you founded Nitrozen and are now working on the Action-MMORPG L.A.W – Living After War. Why did you choose to work on a MMOG?
The main reason I decided to create a MMOG is simply because it wasn’t difficult to find some outstanding individuals who were already experienced working on this genre. Especially in South-Korea, a country specialized in the genre with state-of-the-art technologies. More so than other countries, really. These reasons were good enough for me to choose the genre of MMORPG. And well, another important point is that I was a great fan of World Of Warcraft at that time. It made a huge fan of MMORPGs! Therefore, in a way, it made absolute sense to me to choose the genre of MMORPG for my next project.
What were impulses for the world and setting of L.A.W – Living After War? What inspired the dark and grim vision of the post-nuclear world?
As human beings, and particularly in stressful situations, we all have instincts of aggressiveness. And yet, human beings can also be defensive, or try to develop themselves in positive ways. I am hoping that people can find the essential instincts of human beings mirrored in our game L.A.W.
By experiencing the war presented in our game L.A.W, the player can learn about instinctive behaviour, self-development and the essence of humanity – themes found throughout our game.
Aside from the setting: what makes L.A.W stand out in the mass of MMORPGs?
One of the main features of L.A.W is of course its sophisticated PvP, which essentially is a full-fledged real-time strategy mode. This war over resources is open for all player, all the time. 24 hours/7 days a
week. Combined with this, we realized an economic system, where you trade gathered resources like you would on a stock market. This makes all aspects of resource allocation easier to access for beginner and advances players alike. So instead of offering a typical form of “Siege Warfare” or so called “Realm-versus-Realm” battles, which are basically just a lengthy version of common PvP-battles we offer a far larger and above all much more strategic possibilities in L.A.W.
This real-time strategy part is quite unique for MMOGs – even more so when it is such a big and central part of the gameplay as it is in L.A.W. Can you tell us a bit about the details of the system? And how do you balance this game mode to make it fair for all players?
All players who belong to different tribes can freely enter combat and fight each other – basically like the frontier regions from World of Warcraft or Dark Age Of Camelot. But in case of L.A.W, we have deployed resources in the PvP regions that players need to harvest. With these resources, players are free to install a base and arrange a line of defense to protect their resources. Alternatively, they can attack other players and occupy their bases by actively controlling vehicles such as tanks or helicopters. Furthermore, players are supposed to transport the resources accumulated to a safer base. Which means it will also be possible to raid such transports! The rule sounds simple, but the gameplay is captivating and very strategic!
Most MMORPGs offer a wide range of character classes. L.A.W concentrates on only three character classes with a wide range of skills for individualisation. Why are you going against the trend?
It’s true, recently more and more varied characters are appearing in the MMORPG genre. But from the view of role playing, most of these classes are based on three fundamental types – the Tanker, the Dealer and the Healer. We have tried to make our existing characters more simplified. More synthesized if you will. You don’t just play one of many classes, but you have the ability to freely develop characters and combine skills from these three forms. For example a Warrior as Tanker and Dealer, or an Esper as both Dealer and Healer. By concentrating on the essence of these three fundamental types our characters are multitalented and much less isolated in their range of skills.
Are you playing the game yourself? And if so: what race and character class are you playing?
Of course I am! I have to say I am a man of the sword. So naturally the character I like best is the warrior. I find this character impressive and powerful. A single strike from his sword is enough to leave a lasting impression on his enemies.
Aside from L.A.W, what are your personal favourite gaming genres? And do you even play a lot in your free time?
Aside from L.A.W, I always enjoy a round or two of the game Counter Strike. Since its launch in 1998 I have remained a great fan. That means I’ve been playing it for 13 years now! That’s why my wife uses to say she just doesn’t understand my obsession. Sometimes I even find myself wondering about it, but that proves all the more that it simply is a very well-made game in many ways.
What is the first game you have ever played?
Dragon Ball on the Famicom. I still find it very captivating to this day!
Thank you for your time and the best of success with L.A.W – Living After War
