There are many elements involved in organizing a successful game show. Once you get past the venue design, show girls and performances, what really matters is a wealth of greatly quality game content. The Gamania Game Show featured 4 MMO heavyweight titles and 9 SNS, Web Game and Mobile Game titles. The lineup not only demonstrated Gamania’s strong, vibrant R&D capability and originality but also gave this rare expo on self-developed titles in Taiwan both depth and breadth. In keeping with the spirit of “a good show is worth sharing!”, G!VOICE ventured deep into the GGS to bring Gamanians first-hand reports from the frontline. So let’s go and see what these games had to offer!
▲The GGS product launch drew media from all around the world.
▲Everyone waits with bated breath for a key announcement during GGS.
Technology is King! Core Blaze
Core Blaze is a MMO ARPG with a strong emphasis on action. Instead of different classes, the game offers the player four different weapon systems to choose from: Sword & Shield, Dual Blade, Great Sword and Long Bow. Each weapon has its own features and skills. Players can use the weapon they prefer and learn the corresponding skills. Unlike other games of its type, not everything is decided by equipment stats. Even having the best gear doesn’t mean much against the bosses. Instead, the key to victory is player reflexes and skill. The emphasis on skill not only gives Core Blaze more variety but also makes the game more exciting and challenging.
▲Even heroes are very mortal against great bosses.
▲The Great Sword can deliver devastating blows but still has its weaknesses.
▲The media was enthralled by Core Blaze!
G!VOICE Q&A – Interview with Game Producer Jacky Chu
G!VOICE: The player character in Core Blaze seems rather easy to kill. What exactly is the role of the player character in terms of the game background?
Jacky: In the game, the player character is considered to be the hero but still very much mortal as well. If they go toe to toe with a powerful monster, they will still die. Players must use different techniques to avoid enemy attacks then attack with items or weapons at the right times to prevail.
G!VOICE: Core Blaze progression seems to be based on weapon systems rather than the character classes commonly seen in MMO RPGs. What is the intention of this design?
Jacky: In past MMOs, players can only level up one character at a time. They must start again from scratch if they want to change classes. We don’t really want to force players to spend time on leveling up again because want them to spend that time exploring the game content and enjoying Core Blaze. That’s why adopted the weapon system instead. Players can use and learn any weapon, and when they change to a different weapon, the game will automatically filter out any unusable skills. For players, this means they don’t have to spend time leveling up all over again and can concentrate on exploring the world of Core Blaze to their heart’s content.
A Global Class Remade! Langrisser Schwarz
The name Langrisser is probably very familiar to Gamanians that love strategy RPG games. In Langrisser Schwarz, not only has the original classic’s strategic system been upgraded, it has been reborn as a MMO ARPG as well. The all-new design will undoubtedly send shockwaves through the gaming community!
Langrisser Schwarz inherits the original game world split between the Light, Dark and Empire factions. Players can choose a faction to join by answering the Goddess’ questions and advices instead of having to join Light first like previous games. The popular class transfer system has also undergone a major revision this time. Apart from saving up Training Points (TP) for class transfers, players can also change to advanced careers through the transfer system. They can even be reborn through special items to start in a new career track. All previously learned skills and classes will not be lost when changing to an advanced class or being reborn either. In other words, if you really put your mind to it, it’s possible to create a character with all of the classes and all of the skills.
▲The classic Goddess questions.
▲The class transfer system can be used to create an all-powerful character.
▲Show girls were on hand to demo Langrisser Schwarz!
G!VOICE Q&A – Interview with Game Producer Jacky Chiang
G!VOICE: What’s the biggest change in Langrisser Schwarz compared to the previous single-player Langrisser titles?
Jacky: The biggest change in Langrisser Schwarz is the change from turn-based combat to a real-time action game. Players will find an all new experience waiting for them instead of a rehash.
G!VOICE: The class system was very popular in the single-player games. How will that be executed in Langrisser Schwarz?
Jacky: We’ve come up with more than 70 classes so far and each will have its own special skills. Players can change to the classes they like through the transfer system. Once they meet certain conditions, they can also change their character’s class and career through the transfer system or special items. This means players don’t have to level up from scratch to enjoy playing with different classes.
G!VOICE: Were there any problems during development?
Jacky: I think it was the settling-in phase at the start of production. Team members had different approaches and ideas when it came to game development, making it difficult to keep track of progress at the start. Once we adjusted how we did things this problem went away.
Music is Magic! Tiara Concerto
In the world of Tiara Concerto, players can use “Tuning” magic to unleash ultimate attacks or combinations on evil monsters from other dimensions. The “Music is Magic” concept is therefore the core of the Tiara Concerto design. The “floating world” visuals will also draw players in. The gaming style of Tiara Concerto perfectly captures the idea of “Music is Magic”.
▲Using music in combat is the most important feature of Tiara Concerto.
▲The “Tuner” class can use different music combinations to cast magic spells.
▲Game producer Gabriel Pang provided a running commentary as the media played the game demo.
G!VOICE Q&A – Interview with Game Prod
G!VOICE: Can you give us an introduction to the three classes available in the demo?
Gabriel: There were three classes available in the demo. The “Performer” equipped with two-handed swords and polearms, the “Composer” that uses twin guns and blade guns, as well as the “Tuner” that plays different instruments. The “Performer” is a melee class with strong attack and defense. The “Composer” is a ranged class that can snipe from a distance. The “Tuner” is a caster character that uses magic to cast attack and support spells. In addition to these three classes, we are working on other classes as well in order to provide players with more exciting gameplay.
G!VOICE: The concept “Music is Magic” is rather unique. Did you run into any particular problems during the development of Tiara Concerto?
Gabriel: This was our first experience with MMO development. When we decided to make the “music is magic” concept the anchor of the game, we spent a lot of time defining the concept and working out ways of “presenting the concept” perfectly. This took a long time and was very difficult.
An Unconventional Fairy Tale! Dream Drops
Everyone is familiar with classics like The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. But have you ever thought about what other endings these stories might have had? Dream Drops will present a very unconventional fairy tale that will turn everything you learnt back in the nursery on its head!
Dream Drops is set in After Dreams, a world made up of many classic fairy tales. After World is very unstable however so many “unconventional” fairy tale characters such as an evil “Snow White” appear in the game. Players must investigate the situation, identify the source of the corruption and save the world of After Dreams. Team work is very important in the Gameplay so players will receive a guild castle once they form a guild. Guild members can decide on how the guild will look, and can also work as a casual on the castle. All of these help to build up loyalty to the guild.
▲Not your ordinary fairy tale character: Snow White.
▲Hard work is required to build up the guild castle!
▲European media delegation intently playing the Dream Drops demo.
G!VOICE Q&A – Interview with Game Producer Ken Cheng
G!VOICE: Can you give us a brief introduction to Dream Drops’ design concept?
Ken: Dream Drops is based around larger fairy tales like The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. Smaller fairy tales are also woven into the game as well. We wanted players to experience a rich, fairy tale atmosphere when they go through the game.
G!VOICE: Dream Drops incorporate quite a number of fairy tales. How is the connection between different fairy tales handled?
Ken: We’ve practically rewritten all of the fairy tales that appear in Dream Drops so they are no longer standalone stories but a part of the greater whole. The rewriting means that “good” characters in the original story might have now gone “bad”, providing for many plot twists in what was once a simple, straight-forward story. This approach should keep things fresh for players jaded by fairy tales they know well.
Small is Beautiful! SNS, Web Game, Mobile Game
In addition to the large MMOs, several self-developed titles for different platforms were also put on display at GGS including SNS games My Convenience Store, Hito Star, Opark and the newly unveiled Project Fighting World; the Web games Web 戀姬†夢想 (Koihime Musō), Web Phantom Brave and Web POWER DoLLS; and mobile games such as Soul Captor and Hero 108. These games on different platforms represent Gamania’s ambitions to bring fun and interesting games to markets!
▲Running a convenience store is not easy!
▲Welcome to Opark!
▲The general pavilion featured many SNS, mobile and web games.
G!VOICE Q&A – Interview with Senior R&D Director Jao Min-han (Cookie)
G!VOICE: We saw a number of self-developed games for different titles this time. Can you give us a rough idea of the developers’ hopes or expectations for these games?
Biscuit: As Albert said, Gamania will gradually move towards cross-platform interlinks on self-developed games. With the mobile game Soul Captor for example, the player can find books in the mobile game that can be traded for virtual items on the Soul Captor MMO. This cross-platform interlink will undoubtedly become a future trend. As a leader in MMO development we must naturally master and capitalize on this trend as soon as possible.
Secret Character! Warrior of Dragon
In addition to the 4 MMO heavyweight titles and 9 SNS, web and mobile games, G!VOICE also discovered a game at GGS with a strong Oriental flavor: Warrior of Dragon. Warrior of Dragon is a MMO that emphasizes PVP action between two factions. There are also other PVP elements such as arenas, kingdom wars, guild wars and random encounters. Players can evade enemy attacks or launch powerful ultimate moves by pressing different buttons, leading to very thrilling gameplay. In addition to the PVP, there is also a PVE component with many instances and plotlines for the player to solve. The game currently has 3 races and 6 classes.
▲The character banners for Warrior of Dragon seemed perfectly in tune with the retro walls.
G!VOICE Q&A – Interview with Game Producer Steven Chien
G!VOICE: Where there are any difficulties during game development?
Steven: We haven’t run into any particular difficulties so far but we are monitoring player feedback carefully so we can make our game even better.