Dawnspire: Prelude

Henrik Öquist, Producer at Silent-Grove took time out to answer these questions regarding Dawnspire: Prelude. The game is an action-oriented team-based game, which can be played on-line with multiple players. Unlike other RPGs, Dawnspire allows players to purchase skills and attributes, rather than going through the prolonged methods of leveling-up. The game offers four distinct classes that can be customized accordingly, and offers various maps for players to do battle on. The latest version of the game includes the option to play against bots if no one is on-line at the time. To get more insight into the game, you can check out the Q&A below.


Q [William Usher] -Graphically, Dawnspire looks amazing. The clarity of the game is sharp and the details are impeccable. What sort of game engine is Dawnspire running on, or is the engine built in house?

A [Henrik Öquist] - Thank you, I'll pass those kind words on to our little art team. Tommy and Nicklas toil every day to make the game look better. We'll never stop working on making the game as great as possible and the graphics are naturally a part of that process. This will be a work in progress that will continue long after the release of the game.

The game engine and all the related tools are produced entirely in house by our programmer Anders Hammervald.

At any time during the development, did you consider using third-party support software? Or did Anders know exactly how the project was going to pan out, and develop tools on the fly?

We've looked at various third party technical solutions during the development but we didn't find a matching solution for any major portions of the game. The one thing we're using is RakNet for the networking, which has worked out quite well for us.

Since the project hasn't had a crystal clear definition from the beginning, I must admit that Anders has had to spend quite a lot of time exploring solutions that were ultimately discarded.

What made the team want to design characters and classes that were outside the standard RPG “box”?

A lot of us in the dev team enjoy hybrid classes, so we found it pretty natural to move in that direction. We also wanted to keep the number of classes low but the number of gameplay opportunities high. We wanted to make every skill in the game count and give the player the ability to choose how they want to play their character. We'll continue to add new classes and abilities after release to give the player more interesting strategic choices on the battlefield.

The game world in Dawnspire looks quite big. For those who haven't played the beta, or seen it, approximately how big is the game world of Dawnspire?

Well, the game world really isn't one coherent big world as in an MMO. Being an online action game we chose to present the world in portions of smaller maps, such as in Counter Strike or Battlefield 2. You join a server that plays a certain level and the first team to complete the objectives wins the round. The maps can be fairly big though and we can definitely go bigger if we find an appealing game mechanic in it.

Behind the scenes however, we do have a level of deeper lore that we hope we'll be able to explore more thoroughly sometime in the future. In what shape and form that will be, we don't know yet.

For those who don't know, Dawnspire has a fast paced battle system for players to work together and battle foes. What made you want to change the standard encounter system and how does it differ from the classic system most persistent online RPGs have?

Being an action game instead of a much slower experience found in traditional RPG's or MMO's the first thing you will notice is that the pacing is a lot faster. If you rush into a group of enemies alone you won't last three seconds. You really need to move and play like a team in order to survive, and to be victorious you have to have some form of overall strategy.

The reason for us to move away from the traditional, almost turn based RPG combat was to empower the players. In Dawnspire it's not a necessity to have the best items or the highest level character to be successful, the player will have an easier time being successful if he or she is a highly skilled player or by being a good teamplayer.

That's a concept I sincerely wish more mainstream titles took with MMO, offline RPGs, and weapon-based games. Especially considering that most concepts for action games is that the higher up the number keypad, the better the weapon. Do you think other publishers will take note of Silent-Grove's innovation?

I would honestly be quite surprised if the bigger publishers took notice of Dawnspire: Prelude at all. I do hope however that we can contribute in some small but positive way to the gaming community by bringing a few unique features and gameplay along.

Compared to previous projects by Silent Grove, how difficult was it to take on this ambitious project? And what sort of conceptual basis did you have for creating Dawnspire?

This is actually the very first title of our young start up development studio and we've had our fair share of challenges. Most notably the difficulty of getting a publisher without having any previous documented experience in the games development business. It's only recently that publishers have started to notice us and approach us with curiosity and interest. Now that the game is all but done, that is.

Dawnspire: Prelude is a true "seat of the pants project" where we've explored new territories at every turn. I can't really say that we had a detailed view of where we wanted to go from the start, the project has simply evolved organically from the basic idea of having a "fast paced tactical action game which focuses on teamplay in a fantasy setting".

Did you tamper with different concepts trying to achieve the basic outset of a tactical, team-oriented action game? Or did you originate with the current design and just worked from there?

Since we're still trying to create the perfect version of Dawnspire: Prelude, we'll always be tampering with the concept. This is a process that will continue even after release, supporting the community and improving the game.

With all that being said, the basic formula for the game has remained intact since we decided to change it to the "tactical team based action game" that it is today.

What prompted for the team to forgo the traditional level up system? Was it because of the boring and repetitive nature many MMO games suffer from with the “camping” and the awful amount of time it takes for higher levels to level up?

Yes, it was exactly for that reason. In Dawnspire: Prelude you purchase individual skill levels and you can do that a lot more often than you would "level up" in most games. The treadmill isn't our main focus, action packed team based combat is, and that's where the fun of the game is.

Camping really isn't a problem since we don't have any real PvE content in the game. It focuses solely on PvP combat, with the exception that you can play the game entirely against bots if you would like.

Are there plans to add more characters and classes before the final version, or will we simply see a greater variety in the options and character customization for the four available character classes?

The game will be released with the four classes currently in there, but adding more classes into the game is a huge part of our future plans. The Dwarven Seeker is the first to be added, a free add on available for everyone who tries or buys the game. The class is a mixture of a berserker and an engineer and will really be a great addition to the tactical landscape of Dawnspire: Prelude.

We're also going to be adding gameplay elements to the game well after release so expect more game modes, more skills on existing classes and other little nice features to be added constantly.

In the final version of the game, how many players will be able to populate the Dawnspire world at once?

I can see no real upper limit on the global population of the game as more servers may be added by the community themselves at any time. But on every map we're regarding 8vs8 as the perfect balance between individual player skill and teamplay. This however, is simply a server setting and can be set to anything.

How far into the beta is the game, and when do you expect to release the final version?

The game is quite far gone in development and will be released in early September. What we're working on now is polishing the features we already have, making the current game as tight and fun as possible.

With that said, we don't see the release as a "final version". The very day after release we'll simply go back to work and continue to work full time on the game. To keep evolving it, together with the community, to a special place that's reserved for Dawnspire: Prelude.

I would like to thank Gametunnel.com for the support during the beta and also send a big hunk of loving out to our beta community. We've had tremendous support from our testers and we're positive that with the help we've gotten Dawnspire: Prelude will carry on to be a big hit. Thank you for your support!