Introducing Sigonyth: Desert Eternity
Interviews

David: Welcome everyone, my name is David Makowski and I'm the founder of the New Desert group.

Our team is creating a MMORPG called Sigonyth: Desert Eternity. Sigonyth is also the name of a planet where the action takes place. The planet is located in the Tenaeb system over 100 light years away from the Solar system (detailed info on positions of the system and its planets can be found on our site).

Players will be representing on of the races that landed on the planet, and their role will be surviving in hostile environment and accommodating to the very rough climate of Sigonyth.

David: I'd like to keep that secret for the time being, but I promise that it will be revealed on the day of premiere.

David: Yes, I have spent some time playing this type of games, actually, I have still been playing one of them, but I don't refer to them while designing the game. I want to work with a fresh mind. Of course, there are some technical issues concerning Massive Multiplayer games like server-client communication or transferring data between the servers. Since I want the engine to be most efficient, I pay great attention to these aspects while watching games that have been already released. Together with our programmers we try to learn on their mistakes in order to avoid them in our production.

David: In my opinion, the biggest [attraction] is an unusual mood that goes with the specific (and still not over-used) game setting. It results in many surprises and interesting things for player to encounter.

Of course, there are some extra amusements like crafting, pvp, pvm and many others, but [details about the different game mechanics] are to be told in the future.

The clue of the game would be, greatly enhanced, championships system with all its background. This should improve the gameplay greatly. Another aspect is flexible game mechanics. A player won't be forced to determine his character [class] in the starting phase. This decision will be taken in further stages through choosing certain skills. Possessing specific skills will determine your specialization.

I'm convinced that players will be so interested in our world, that they will not only enter the game but stay inside for a long time.

David: As you can guess, it will be an eternal desert. Of course, when we talk about the desert we do not mean terrains cover with sand only; there will be some rocky grounds as well.

Terrain will differ depending on the race inhabiting the area. And so, mutants prefer underground cities or well hidden rocky shelters, while cyborgs build their technologically advanced dwellings. Humans, holding on to their historical tradition, raise majestic, solid buildings.

Moreover, you will find dungeons, deserted or still inhabited, and, as I mentioned many times before, there will be also a mysterious ocean. But this will remain my secret :-)

David: We don't plan to dedicate specific areas for pvp or other forms of playing. We want players to arrange terrains by themselves, our role will be introducing some deterrent solutions for particularly annoying players who will try to spoil the fun in our game. As far as crossing large vasts of terrain is concerned, the world is not going to be homogeneous, it will be divided into vast regions - players will move from one region to another.

David: Exactly, this will be one of the key aspects of the game. Considering the weather conditions, it's obvious that a player will have to take extra care of his character. It would be a shame for a game designer not to use all the benefits given to him by such climate. As you could see, characters that appear in game screenshots are wearing masks. Please remember that this is only one part of equipment from the essential means of survival.

David: Most of all, we want players not to get bored. Yeah, I know - all game designers say that :-), but here come all the issues:

- most of all, the art of surviving on the desert,
- no character classes: player will determine the development of his character using not only profession bonuses but also benefiting from hi-tech or bio-implants
- extended craftsmanship,
- complex guild system, particularly attractive in further stages of the game
- houses and estates - a possibility of buying a house,
- pvp, pvm
- multi-level championships (not only for warriors)

David: As far as the client side is concerned, we are in quite advanced stage. There is still some work to do, but I'm not worried about this part of production.

Talking about servers, we have entered server-to-client alpha version test phase. Yet, it's still under construction and a lot of things can change here.

David: FPS lovers may be dissapointed, but this mode is not going to be taken into our account. We focus on Third Person View and all the stuff resulting from it. Released FPS screens were made using the operating mode which will be probably turned off in official version.

David: It's hard to say, because we are still searching for an investor. Unfortunately, major part of the team works from a distance, and I have to admit that it slows us down greatly.

Because of these reasons it's hard to give any dates, but for the present day the game is to appear in the first half of 2006.