Mage Knight: Destiny's Soldier
Mage Knight: Destiny's Soldier is based on the tabletop game of the same name. Featuring an all new story, new units, army customization and 80+ maps including villages, forests, mountains, and icy plains. We conducted a Q&A with the lead designer of Mage Knight, Mark Maia, to get more insight into this title.
VG Core: For those who aren't familiar with the Mage Knight franchise, what is the general goal in Mage Knight: Destiny's Soldier?
Mark: Our goal with MKDS was to take the strategic game play of the table top version and move it over to the more portable Nintendo DS. Custom built armies, turn based combat and recognizable characters from the table top game are all present in the DS version. And it's all wrapped up in an epic story line the likes of which have yet to be seen on the Nintendo DS. To summarize, in MKDS you travel across "The Land", recruiting warriors, fighting battles and earning respect in order to further increase your numbers on a quest to destroy the Evil Solonavi.
VG Core: How do you decide where to take a story based on a tabletop game?
Mark: Mage Knight consists of more than just a table top game - there are novels, comics, time lines, biographies and history books that outline key events of the MK world in detail. And sticking to those details was very important to us in the making of MKDS, especially where the story is concerned. So when it came down to writing the story, we had lots to work with and the guys
down at Wizkids were a great help in making sure we didn't contradict the existing story line and fudge up the works.
VG Core: Following up on the previous question, how do you determine how long the game should be?
Mark: Determining the length of the story was always tied directly into "how much game play we want to pack into this thing". The average player could easily clock in 80+ hours of game play alone, so any story that would back that up would have to be pretty hefty, but what we didn't want to do was to bore the player to death with long winded speeches that kept them reading for 30-45 minutes at a time. The story in MKDS is mostly presented as heartfelt and witty banter among fellow warriors that takes place between battles. This really helps the player get interested in his warriors and care for their safety.
Vg core: What are some of the character units that will be available for players to use?
Mark: Well, right off the start, the player will be able to select one of 5 warriors that will play the part of the hero; these warriors are exclusive to the MKDS. But aside from them, MKDS is packed with 90+ character units that fans of the table top game will immediately recognize, such as Troll Smashers, Oak Warriors, Steam Knights and over 20 unique characters that include the likes of Amanuensis, Jareth Starsdawn and Varatrix just to name a few.
VG Core: With the cast of characters based on the tabletop game, was it difficult implementing various personalities that would stretch throughout the course of a videogame?
Mark: With all the character info we had, getting their personalities to come across in the story was the easy part. Getting all their attacks and special abilities to work together in harmony was the pain in the ass, hehe. The truth of the matter is, not all characters in MKDS play an important role in
the story, some are there to be soldiers and that's all. Focusing on specific characters to drive the story helps the journey go by that much smoother without all the clutter.
VG Core: Customizing an army in Mage Knight...will this be similar to Advanced Wars or will there be a different set of options for building or altering an army?
Mark: Before you get to army building and customizing, you'll need to do a little recruiting. Along your journey you'll come across towns; in these towns you'll find taverns; and in these taverns you'll find warriors ready to be recruited - that is if your respect points are high enough. Recruiting warriors costs respect points and to earn respect points you'll have to win battles. The better you do in battle, the more respect you'll get allowing you to recruit better warriors. You start off the game with a predetermined amount of respect points based on which hero you select. So right off the bat, you'll be recruiting.
Building and customizing your army is done through the use of the army construction window (ACW). Before each battle the player will get the option to go to the ACW and ready their troops. Here you'll find an inventory of all the troops you have recruited and their stats. Building an army is as easy as dragging and dropping troops from your inventory window to the
battle ready window.
VG Core: While the touchscreen will be used to move units around, will the touchscreen be used for any other features in the game?
Mark: Everything from the main menu to the battle system and the army construction window is controlled via the touch screen. Aside from pausing the game, I don't believe there is any reason to ever have to use the "A" or "B" buttons or d pad. I hate it when games force me to switch from one to the other.
VG Core: Wi-Fi seems to be a growing part of the DS gaming library. Will Mage Knight make use of Nintendo's Wi-Fi functionality?
Mark: Sadly. no. At the time we started the development of the game, Wi-Fi library wasn't even available to developers.
Our thanks go out to Damir for answering our questions regarding Mage Knight: Destiny's Soldier. For more information, news and media, be sure to stay tuned in with VGcore.com
Article By: Cyguration
|
