Interview with SangYoun Lee, CEO of Phantagram
posted 14/02/06
The Kingdom under Fire series has been pretty popular in the XBW gaming den. With a genuine shortage of anything resembling a strategy game, the KUF series, with its strategy elements and healthy dose of action has been responsible for plenty of late nights online, and offline.
We were impressed, and keen to find out what Phantagram has in store for us on the Xbox 360.
We hounded Phantagram and have been fortunate enough to have a chat with SangYoun Lee about their upcoming game, Ninety Nine Nights (N3 from now on), a fantasy action title currently in development for the upcoming Xbox 360.
SangYoun Lee is CEO and Executive Producer at Phantagram Co., Ltd. Having started as one of the 1st generation Korean game developers, he began programming commercial games for MSX and arcade in high-school years, and eventually founded Phantagram as CEO in 1994. His key works over the 18 years in the business include; Kingdom Under Fire (RTS, PC), Shining Lore (MMORPG, PC), Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders (Action RTS, Xbox), and Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes (Action RTS, Xbox). As the Director of the upcoming Ninety Nine Nights (Action, Xbox360), SangYoun is aiming to set new standards for the next-generation console titles.
Read below to see what we found out about this amazing next generation title.
From the short videos we have seen so far the story of N3 looks quite interesting. Conspiracy, waring tribes, epic battles and the struggle of light versus dark. With very little story information released to date, what can you reveal to wet our readers appetite?
In the world of N3, Humans and Goblins once lived in a peaceful harmony that had been balanced by a powerful stone called "Orb." (This is the gem you see in N3 trailer movies.) One day this Orb was split into the Orb of Light and the Orb of Darkness. Doubt and disbelief started to grow in the hearts of Humans and Goblins, and eventually led to an interracial war.
Between the two sides, there is no absolute good or evil. Each race has justice on its side, as Humans consider Goblins as uncivilized brutes, but Goblins think Humans are evil oppressors.
N3 is about heroes who live and fight in this tragic war.
The game trailer ends with the phrase "Choose your side wisely". How does this choice relate to gameplay and what impact does the choices of the player have on the games outcome?
There are several characters in N3, and each character will fight for his/her own side for different reasons. Of course, their path to victory is different and the endings are different. The outcome of their choices will lead to different story endings as well.
We believe that there will be multiple playable characters in N3 and these will reveal different perspectives of story events to the player. Is this intrinsically linked to the light versus dark theme and what can gamers expect?
There are 7 playable characters with different plot backgrounds and perspectives. Completing the game with all of the characters will be a unique experience. N3 is not about "us vs them" or "light vs dark," it's more about the different versions of justice and the fine line between "good and evil."
The battle scenes and stylish characters initially reminded us of your last game Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders and its upcoming sequel, Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes. Is the story or even the game world of N3 in any way related to KUF and if not why was that direction taken?
The world of N3 is unrelated to that of Kingdom Under Fire. Mizuguchi-san (Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Producer) created the fantasy world of N3 as a narrative background to share his ideas on justice.
Kingdom Under Fire has a pretty even split between action and strategy. How does the action / strategy ratio of N3 compare to Kingdom Under Fire?
Kingdom Under Fire had about 30% action and 70% strategy, but N3 has about 80:20 ratio with very heavy emphasis on action. Basically N3 is an action game with a touch of strategic gameplay. Basically, you can enjoy it as a pure action game. But if you start using strategic elements, the gameplay will get a lot more effective.
Phantagram are working with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, President of Q Entertainment on N3. Q Entertainment is famous for the acclaimed puzzle games Meteos for the Nintendo DS and Lumines for the Sony PSP. What aspect of N3 best reflects Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Q Entertainments influence on the project?
Mizuguchi-san wanted to develop a game based on this fantasy world he created. He personally wrote the main storyline of N3 and directed story-driving cut scenes.
Will all battles be fought in open fields and forests or will there be castle sieges and battle within urban environments?
On top of the open fields and forests, there are castle siege missions and battles within the castle as well.
What are the Ninety Nine Nights of the games title?
After the Orb was split into 2 shards, a time of war and darkness will come and last for ninety nine nights. Legend has it that if the 2 shards of the Orb are not restored within the ninety nine nights, the world will come to an end. But Goblins have a different legend about this, and the culture clash leads into a war.
We have all seen the impressive battle scenes that await us in N3 but just how many individual characters is the graphics engine of N3 capable of displaying on screen at any one time?
At the moment, N3 can show about 2,000 characters on screen. But as we are not done optimizing the code yet, I think the number will increase in the end.
What has the Xbox 360's powerful hardware allowed your artists and animaters achieve that just wasn't possible on the Xbox? For instance, improvements to character models, movement and facial expressions?
As you can see from the close-up screenshots, each and every member of the massive armies has highly detailed CG-movie quality models. Each character can even move individual fingers and the movement of hair, cape, and accessories are calculated real time by the in-game physics engine. This is what I call power.
Do each of these characters behave independently with their own AI script?
All characters on the battlefield behave with their own individual AI.
Does the player only have control over one "hero" character at any one time, or can they switch between units or issue orders to others?
Player will select the main playable character at the beginning of the game. Other units cannot be directly controlled, but player can give orders to ally armies.
From the Xbox 360 trailers and demo reels currently in circulation, massive numbers of on-screen characters are not unique to N3 alone. One thing that we have noticed about these other games however is that the illusion of massive numbers appear to be created by cloning a much smaller amount of like character models. This is very obvious when looking at screen shots that show many characters of the same 3D model in the exact same moment of a running animation for instance. How have you implemented such huge numbers of 3D characters in N3 and are we likely to see issues such as those mentioned above?
N3 does not merely duplicate the characters to give the impression of a massive crowd. Although the code is not complete yet, each member of the massive armies moves individually and has his/her own AI. Our engine is very powerful and highly optimized for the display of massive armies.
What design elements will N3 contain to prevent its gameplay becoming repetitive and to increase its long term appeal?
There are seven playable characters with their own campaigns, action sequences, and control schemes. The gameplay will vary greatly as you progress through the storylines of each character. On top of this, once player finishes a campaign, he can revisit the missions. Only that this time, they will be advanced versions of the same mission.
What multiplayer options are planned for N3?
Sorry to disappoint you, but I can't comment on this yet. :-)
What aspect of the Xbox360's hardware are you most excited about from a game developers' point of view?
First of all, the powerful graphic processor gave us a lot of room for artistic expression. On top of the hardware, Xbox Live is an ideal multiplayer environment. I think there is a lot of potential for interesting titles using Xbox Live.
One final question. What are Phantagrams' plans for releasing more titles on the Xbox or are all your future projects slated for next generation consoles?
All our future titles will be developed for next generation platforms. BLUESIDE already started the development of a new Kingdom Under Fire title for Xbox360 called "Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom." It is a new kind of Action RPG title based on the world of Kingdom Under Fire.
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions. All of us here at XBW look forward to hearing from you again and eagerly await the release of Ninety Nine Nights on Xbox360.
Check out screenshot gallery for pics of N3 that Phantagram kindly sent over.. enjoy! Oh, and we simply cannot wait for more info on KuF:Circle of Doom.. an action RPG set in a KuF game?!?! :-)
Interview by Shane Kinloch
