Zeke Sparkes of Cryptic Studios Talks Neverwinter with GameOgre

Kyt “Kytsune” Dotson from GameOgre recently had the joy of speaking with Lead Designer Zeke Sparkes from Cryptic Studios about the upcoming MMO Neverwinter published by Perfect World Entertainment and it’s an entertaining jaunt through the expectations out of this interesting Forgotten Realms-set MMO. The last beta weekend introduced the Great Weapons Fighter and the Controller Wizard to the set of classes and it’s set to go into full production soon.

You can view it from a YouTube playlist and play it straight through.

From the interview we learn that Cryptic intends to stay as close to the Forgotten Realms material as possible—licensed and aided by Wizards of the Coast—with a lot of care for the property that it’s reflecting. Also a little talk about how the game intends to include some of the cultural humor from the Dungeons & Dragons community, although chances are we won’t be seeing the Head of Vecna there have been some cute little elements such as the 10-foot-pole (that temporarily grants “Adventurer” ability.)

The game is looking extremely good and includes a community-centric capability that permits players to make their own quests and missions for others to play through known as the Foundry. Sparkes mentions that it’s expected that it will be integrated heavily into the game and uses many of the same tools that Cryptic level designers use to make missions. Players will be rewarded for playing Foundry missions and exploring community input—and they can also tip authors in order to thank them for being part of it.

As seen with Star Trek Online the Foundry missions can become a big part of commentary about the game and community itself. The Foundry in Neverwinter already have some excellent missions.

If the video above doesn’t work, follow the links. It’s a great interview and Zeke Sparkes is amazing–check out his work in Neverwinter.

Link to interview, via YouTube.