The Tip.It Times


Issue 7999gp

Dungeoneering Interview with Mod Mark

Written by and edited by Tip.It Staff

Tip.It: It was stated that this skill was originally planned as its own game; did it ever get past the planning stage before being switched over to a RuneScape skill?
Mod Mark: It’s tough to say – it was always something we wanted to add to RuneScape, yet we knew that it was going to be big enough to be its own game if we did everything we wanted to with it… which we did. So actually the stand-alone game and the skill were developed at the same time, because they were one and the same.

Tip.It: Did it really take 2 whole years to design this new skill? What was the hardest part about it? How many times did the developers bash heads over it?
Mod Mark: More than 2 years if you include all the time we have spent thinking up Dungeoneering ideas. The hardest part was sticking to the core design – it’s often the case that you get so many ideas while developing something, but not necessarily the time to make them all. If we developed all the ideas we had while producing content we would never ever release anything, but just keep tweaking it. If by bashing heads you mean “disagreed”, then the answer is frequently! I always ask my developers to be passionate about their ideas; this often means we argue about the best way to do something, but I think that’s a good thing.

Tip.It: What inspired you to create and implement this non-traditional skill upon the RS world?
Mod Mark: Simple – an adventurer’s spirit, and the need to give extra purpose to specialists, especially for skills like Smithing.

Tip.It: What was the intent of using prestige? Was it to stop people from doing the same floor over and over? A lot of people seem to be confused by it.
Mod Mark: To encourage variety.

Tip.It: Were there any ideas for the skill that did not make it into the released version?
Mod Mark: Several. Our original brief involved the TzHaar rather than the Fremennik and introduced a rival subterranean race at war with the TzHaar.

Future

Tip.It: Could we eventually see even larger dungeons for even greater numbers of players, e.g. a 12- man dungeon?
Mod Mark: Possibly. We can certainly run up to 200 players in a Clan Wars fight with no problem at all. The Dungeoneering system itself wouldn’t be able to support that number of players right now, but it is technically possible.

Tip.It: What kind of long term goals do you have for Dungeoneering?
Mod Mark: I’d love to see a new boss unlocked on every other floor, and I want to expand the rewards I can use within the dungeons themselves.

Tip.It: Aside from instanced dungeons that have been confirmed, in what other ways will we see Dungeoneering be used outside of Daemonheim?
Mod Mark: We currently have plans for Dungeoneering reward dungeons and also for Dungeoneering distractions for the surface world.

Tip.It: Are you confident that you can keep the single player ability there for the people that want it, in a largely multiplayer concept such as Dungeoneering, in future Dungeoneering updates? Is keeping the skill accessible to people who want to work solo important to you?
Mod Mark: Yes.

Tip.It: Are you planning on upping other skills to a max of 120?
Mod Mark: Not currently, but it is a possibility.

Tip.It: Will future skill updates be as non-traditional as this one was?
Mod Mark: Yes, if we feel that it’s necessary for the game and that it needs a non-traditional update.

Tip.It: Do you plan on updating the new skill with more floors, etc? If so when?
Mod Mark: Yes, this year.

Tip.It: With the release of Dungeoneering, will we be seeing more skills in the future that incorporate existing skills to make another one?
Mod Mark: If you look at skills like Slayer, you’ll notice that we have done this sort of “new skill built out of other skills” approach before, so it’s not a new idea. We may well do it again in the future.

Tip.It: Will we be seeing any more 'themes' or an even bigger variety (not quantity) of monsters per floor/level?
Mod Mark: There are 2 more themes planned for this year – chaotic and warped.


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Tags: Interview Recent Updates Skilling

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