12-7-2009 Game News Red Blood OL Interview: Science Fiction Combined with Classicality

Genre:Fantasy Status:Development
Dev: Gorilla Banana Entertainment Pub:
Fee:TBC Area:KR
CB Date:Unknown OB Date:Unknown Release:Unknown Hot:6755




In the Autumn of 2006, the newly founded company, Gorilla Banana announced they would develop an online game named Red Blood Online based on the comics of the same title and released a video for the game, from which, we can see stunning graphics and characters. And the comics author Kim Tae Shin's joining in the development of Red Blood Online aroused great attention from the gamers.
Nevertheless, in the next 2 years, the dev team released no further information about Red Blood Online. And players gradually lost their interest in the game. It's rumored that the company gave up the plan on setting up servers for Red Blood Online for the excuse that the game is still under development.
Recently, people's attention was pulled back to the game. Now, let us find out what kind of MMORPG Red Blood Online is like through the following exclusive interview conducted by the well-known Korean media "This is Game" with Red Blood Online dev team.
Science Fiction Combined with Classicality
TIG (This is Game): Glad to see you! A long time has passed since you unveiled Red Blood Online for the first time.
Lee Jung Wook: We have been busy with designing basic framework for the game. So nothing unique or special is worth to be revealed.
TIG: Perhaps many new players know little about Red Blood Online. Please introduce it briefly.
Lee Jung Wook: Red Blood Online is a 3D quest centric MMORPG. In the game, players can do quests and get rewards, similar to other MMORPGs. From the name of the game, you might have an idea that it is developed based on the comics Red Blood.
TIG: Are there any differences between the game and the comics?
Kim Tae Shin: Red Blood Online is set in the past. The world view of Red Blood Online can be divided into 3 parts, 2 of which are inherited from Red Blood comics and the other part describes the stories occurred before the world was reshaped.


TIG: One of the outstanding features of Red Blood Online is its world view combines science fiction and classicality. Can you share with us how the world view is demonstrated in the game?
Kim Tae Shin: The cities in the game are Chinese style. You can see the trace of the most high-tech structures in the Chinese traditional buildings.
Lim Do Shin: If we ignore the original author's standpoints, we can say the game background combines both science fiction and classicality.

Comprehensive Information System focusing on Families and Houses
TIG: How is the development of the comprehensive information system going?
Lim Do Shin: The basic combat system is still in the phase of testing. The current combat mode enables players to launch slight attack several times first and then give a deadly blow (similar to Sagoumousha series). In addition, we are attempting to add fun functions to the game, such as grab, extra attack, jumping attack, and so on.
TIG: We just talked about the family system. Is it like the family system in Granado Espada?
Lee Jung Wook: We call the family system the House system. It does not simply bind a player's account to the family. It will enable players to have a real family in the game. For example, if a player already has a family and a house in the game, then he can have their idle characters served as NPCs in their house, and the idle characters can join various activities too. Later on, families can declare war upon each other once the nation vs nation war is added

TIG: Does the war system refer to the PvP system?
Lee Jung Wook: We are planning to develop a siege war system for the game. There are four nations in the game. No nation has a government. Under such circumstance, players are allowed to capture and occupy areas through siege wars.
Red Blood Online is a MMORPG adapted from the comics of the same title. Currently, the game framework has already been completed, and the developer aims to launch the first closed beta test at the end of this year.

Question: To tell the truth, we thought that the development work of Red Blood Online had already stopped. We have never got any information about the game for more than three years, so what have you been busy with specifically?
Lee Jung Wook: Designing maps. Each underground cave house in Red Blood Online is built on a foundation. In order to design the foundation of each house unit, as well as the automatic map generation and combination system, we have to first decide the foundation size and the range of each map so as to generate maps automatically. In addition, the company also has spent much time on the structure of the game, so after the automatic map generation system was completed, the development progress has been greatly speeded up.

Question: You mentioned "automatic" just now. Does that indicate that this game is a 3D MMORPG game featuring a random map mode?
Lim Do Shin: Of course not, the randomly generated maps shall be refined by the dev team before being put into to use, because if the randomly generated maps have not been refined, there will be a high possibility of getting unbalanced game difficulty and bugs. There are too many maps in the game, so you got a feeling that it's a random map mode.
Lee Jung Wook: Switch between maps shall also be paid special attention to; there is a possibility that big BOSS will spawn, so "random" is not the optimum choice.

Question: What is the approximate time for you to test the game?
Lim Do Shin: We plan to run the first closed beta at the end of this year. We have already started the test on the combat system internally, and we will carry out the test on the quest system after the internal test completes.
Kim Tae Shin: The graphics and arts are the most affected parts in the course of development, but we will make efforts to improve them.

Question: What stage has been reached in the development work? As the original author of the comics, what are your views about the game?
Kim Tae Shin: To be honest, it's a little different from what I have envisioned, and I believe other people may also think so. These parts are still under discussion.
Question: Finally, would you please make a free talk about whatever you want to say.
Lin Do Shin: I want to focus on the improvement of the essential gaming fun. Players can enjoy themselves without any burden or distractions while experiencing our game. To achieve the goal, we are cautious on the development of combats and quests which are the two most basic parts of the game.
Lee Jung Wook: Just like President Lim Dao Hin said, compared with the magnificent game system and distinctive game mode, game play fun is the most basic part of the game.
Kim Tae Hin: At the end of this year, we will announce the quest system, BOSS system and so on. Hope players can pay close attention.

By MMOsite