Rise of Immortals Interview w/ Gameogre.com

Rise of  Immortals

“Rise of Immortals is a free-to-play, micro-transaction-based online game that will be available via direct download. The game features the popular action-strategy gameplay of traditional MOBA games, but adds enhanced socialization features, along with persistent character progression – a first for the MOBA genre. In addition, Rise of Immortals features a social hub where players can show off their enhanced Immortals, chat, emote, browse leaderboards, shop, manage friend and guild lists and more. Players also have the option of taking their Immortals through cooperative Player versus Environment (PvE) scenarios to learn the game, try out new abilities, and earn persistent experience before jumping into Player versus Player (PvP) matches online.

Features of Rise of Immortals:
·      12 unique Immortals at launch with additional Immortals released on a regular basis
·      Persistent per-Immortal level progression and skill trees
·      Persistent artifacts for stat enhancements
·      Player versus Environment instances with collectable items
·      Player versus Player instances with up to 5v5 multiplayer
·      Persistent experience and leveling in both PvP and PvE instances
·      Collectible pets for combat and vanity
·      Account and Immortal statistics tracking
·      Player hub instances for socialization”

Rise of Immortals interview is done by Mathew Anderson (Community Manager) and Steve Wetherill (Producer) of Petroglyph Games.

GameOgre: Rise of Immortals  is an online, free-to-play  game that expands on the hit Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre. Can you tell us about the backstory for Rise of Immortals and why you decided to make a game within this genre?

Petroglyph: Guardians of Graxia is Petroglyph’s first self-published IP. When Rise of Immortals was developed, we had the opportunity to really bring all the cool background about the Graxia world into our new MOBA game. Since Rise of Immortals sports both fantasy and sci-fi characters, we thought, why not?

Rise of Immortals is set in the world of Graxia, 300 years after the events of Guardians of Graxia. There have been a lot of changes to the world since then, as you can image. Crystals are essentially the power of the land with everything relying on them to sustain life. They are dying. Fast forward 300 years and you get the last few Immortals struggling for power in a series of competitions to the last stand.

GameOgre: For players who aren’t aware of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games can you tell us a little bit about how it works and how it will work with Rise of Immortals. For players just trying out this genre for the first time what can you tell them to expect?

Petroglyph: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games are fast-paced action strategy type games that get you in the game fast to play fast. Usually they consist of two teams of up to 5v5 players on a map with two or three paths (Lanes) you progress down to attempt to reach the enemies base. The objectives are rather simple… destroy the enemies and destroy their base.

That’s a classic MOBA. We take all that and then add on persistence, Player vs. Environment (1vE, 3vE, etc.) gameplay modes, and a “Hub” where you can gather with other players to show off your cool gear and Immortal skins before jumping into a match.

GameOgre: Rise of Immortals will feature a persistent character progression which is a first in the MOBA genre. Can you tell us some about that and how it will work?

Petroglyph: As players complete games, they are awarded Prestige Points, which is a persistent currency type. Players can spend PP to equip their Immortals with persistent items called Artifacts, which provide various stat boosts. Artifacts are also awarded as item drops in certain gameplay conditions (primarily PvE).

Additionally, as players gain persistent level on their Immortals, they gain Discipline Points which may be allocated to the Discipline Tree. The Discipline Tree enables players to put points into Immortal base stats, or into the Immortal abilities.

So, there is a multi-tiered system of persistence in place that allows players to build out their Immortals’ base stats and abilities.

GameOgre: Rise of Immortals will also feature a Social Hub. Tell us more about this hub and how it works.

Petroglyph: The Hub is really the hallmark of making a MOBA game truly persistent and dynamic for the community. No longer is the entry to the game a simple list of titles of others interested in joining in on a match. Now you have a mini-map of sorts that you enter and can literally show off your Immortal (along with its stats) to others before even stepping foot into a match. This social hub will also have persistent item vendors, as well as ways to keep track of who’s playing the game and where your rankings currently stand against others.

GameOgre: Rise of Immortals starts out with 12 unique immortals with additional ones added monthly. Will additional ones always be added monthly for as long as the game runs or will there be a point when no new ones are added?

Petroglyph: It all depends on if we run out of cool ideas of course… ok, that probably won’t happen :). Still, development is always in flux, so while we cannot guarantee a regular release every week or even month, this is what we’re currently targeting. You won’t have to go long before another Immortal shows up to challenge you!

GameOgre: With adding new Immortals each month how will this affect gameplay and do you have any concerns that players might get frustrated if new immortals come out often that they would rather play and with having to continuously start over their characters?

Petroglyph: The game’s core gameplay and flexibility is really built to withstand these challenges. Built from the beginning, we knew more Immortals would come onto the scene, much like other MOBAs regularly release new characters. Of course, each time that a new one is released, it will be strenuously tested and balanced by our Immortal beta community before the masses have at it :).

GameOgre: Rise of Immortals will have PVE and PvP. Can you tell us a little about both and what players can expect to find and do in the PVE content and how the PVP content will work as well?

Petroglyph: Our PvE scenarios feature familiar MOBA laning, creeps and towers, but it’s combined with a dungeon crawl experience, so there will be bosses and sub-bosses. We steered away from a straight “PvP against bots” approach for the PvE mode, though we are evaluating this as a possible additional scenario type after launch.

GameOgre: There will be pets in Rise of Immortals. What importance will pets play in the game? How do you obtain the pets? Can you tell us a little about the pets, are they made up fantasy type creatures or normal animals like cats, dogs, bears etc?

Petroglyph: Pet class Immortals will vary tremendously as the pet has to be a core part of the Immortal design. One Immortal that we have revealed is Scorpix, who is a Scorpion Centaur with “broodling” pets that provide both passive stat boosts and tactical combat capability.

GameOgre: Rise of the Immortals will have account and Immortal statistic tracking. Can you tell us what statistics it will track and how this feature will affect gameplay?

Petroglyph: Stats are primarily tracked on the Immortal, rather than on the account. This is in line with our Immortal persistence. The type of stats we track includes the familiar KDA, creep kills, structure kills, etc, as well as your persistent XP and PP stats and ELO ranking for matchmaking, plus persistent itemization. We’re also tracking item usage stats which enables us to do deep analytics used for balancing work.

GameOgre: For players who are interested in getting into the closed beta for Rise of Immortals, can you let them know how they can participate?

Petroglyph: If readers are interested in the closed beta, sign up at www.riseofimmortals.com. Of course, being active in the forums and on our Facebook and Twitter sites could get you noticed early :).

We have a rather significant open-door policy when it comes to participation. Rise of Immortals is being built around the community, for the community, so every single point of feedback counts. So we’re pushing to bring in right away as many as possible.

GameOgre: Is there anything else you would like for our readers to know about Rise of Immortals?

Petroglyph: First and foremost, this is a core MOBA game centered around PvP. While it will have a lot of familiarity to other games in the genre, we take things a couple of steps further in a few ways; the social hub, persistence on the character, and a sprinkling of PvE, just for starters. While more features are all well and good, the community needs to know that they are being listened to when it comes to changes they want to see made. We can’t promise we’ll please everyone of course, but we can promise to at least listen :).

Links:
·      Rise of Immortals Website:  http://www.riseofimmortals.com
·      RoI on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/riseofimmortals
·      RoI on Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/riseofimmortals
·      RoI on Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/riseofimmortals
·      RoI on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/riseofimmortals