But the progression just felt wrong for our game. You get to the equivalent power level of about a level 20 character in pen and paper, and for a long time we tried different ways to have only 10-20 levels for launch. Our max level is 60, that’s a pretty big deviation from D&D. One of the easiest places to see something like that is with the level numbers. It’s a tough line to walk to make sure everything feels right but works and plays well in context. Wizards of the Coast has been very supportive about us making a game that feels like D&D instead of any one particular rule set, so we’ve been able to pick and use the parts of the systems that fit and fill in some blanks or alter things when they might bog the game down. I think my personal favorite is that we found a way to get the 10’ pole in, it just isn’t D&D without it. Past the main storyline there are a lot of little nods in the game that we hope will make people smile. We work with WotC closely to make sure that everything we do accurately represents and expands on the IP. The story and lore are strongly connected with the history of the Realms and pick up right where recent source books and novels have left off. We’ve worked hard to make sure the game oozes lore and nostalgia across the ages. Which elements have been drawn on from classic D&D and which have been Cryptic's own inventions?Ī: From the beginning we’ve tried to build a game that is evocative of D&D. How much has Neverwinter drawn upon its D&D roots? Obviously, a lot of lore has been brought over, but it's hardly a game where everyone's sitting around rolling dice at their computer. So when we had an opportunity to help bring a part of that world and experience to life we jumped at the chance! Can you tell me how and why you guys decided to go in the direction of fantasy and D&D?Ī: Well most of us at the office are pretty big D&D nerds and spent countless hours rolling dice in someone’s basement with friends. Q: Cryptic has been a well-known name in the MMO world for a very long time now, but I think it's usually associated with superhero and sci-fi games. I’ve been with Cryptic since before City of Villains launched and worked in the pen and paper games industry before that. Q: Can you tell me your name and position at Cryptic Studios, as well as the work you're doing on Neverwinter?Ī: I’m Zeke Sparkes and I am lucky enough to be the Lead Designer on Neverwinter. Zeke really went above and beyond the call of duty here in the depth of his answers.
Many of my questions touched upon the cooperative aspects of the game as well as similarities and differences to the pen-and-paper game for all you tabletop nuts out there. Just in time for the launch, I had the opportunity to do a Q&A with lead developer Zeke Sparkes from Cryptic. Neverwinter, a free-to-play MMO with some pretty strong cooperative elements (it is based on D&D after all!), goes into public open beta tomorrow.
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