War World : Enhanced Edition interview

War World is an intense online combat game with heavily-armed Mechs, powerful weapons and a very explosive gameplay. After taking a closer look at the game in our review, we decided to pull Morton Brodersen (CEO Thirdwave games and programmer) and Johnni Christensen (Lead Artist) out of their Mechs and shoot a barrage of questions at them, so we could get some information about the upcoming enhanced edition that should hit the shelves early 2006.

Going for the flag!

First of all, could you tell us a bit more about Third Wave Games?

Morten: Third Wave Games is an Australian based game production company functioning a bit like a film production house in the sense that we are two partners running the company and everybody else are contracted on a project-by-project basis. If the project is big then we contract a big team to do it. If not then we won’t. Instead of having an office where everybody is working, the projects we do are distributed global over the internet. War World was created by people in the US, UK and Australia. It is a truly international team.

How and when did the idea to form a new studio get born? And could you tell us a bit more about the team itself, and the team's mission?

Johnni: Third Wave Games officially started in June 04 but you could say that the seed was planted a long time ago when Morten and I first started talking about starting a business together. We badly wanted to do this for a long time. Working for a number of developers such as Rare taught us how to make games and now we have the freedom to create our own. Our objective is to make games that we love to create and people love to play. It is as simple as that.

Explosions are such fun

As some of our readers may (or may not) know, you both used to work for Rare, one of the game development companies that helped to make Nintendo popular back in the 90's. On what Rare titles exactly did you have a chance to work?

Johnni: While working at Rare Ltd. I worked as an artist and a Lead Artist on such titles as Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark and Starfox Adventures.

Morten: My first released game was Banjo Kazzoie, a top selling Rare game. I worked as a software engineer and wrote the engine and part of the gameplay.

Did the experience you got while working for Rare come in handy while developing War World? Or has it been an entirely new experience for you?

Johnni: I learned a lot while working at Rare, mainly about how to make great games. Also working with so many talented artists at Rare was a great inspiration. At the same time it has been a very new and positive experience developing War World. This is mainly because of the new technological way of working we are using at Third Wave Games which uses the internet as the main communication tool with a global team.

Morten: Working for Rare was a great learning experience. Being a part of a talented and very competitive team brings you up to speed very fast. It was an excellent foundation to build on.

Vast battlefields await you

Could you give us a quick introduction of the War World universe?

Johnni: Mech Warriors are always fighting on War World. War World’s primary outlet for mech on mech combat (for sport and for training), is the ACN (the Arena Combat Network). There are ACN arenas located throughout War World – mostly inside the protected confines of the seven city-states. However, there are many arenas that are not protected by the laws of the city-states, where a much fiercer and deadlier form of mech combat takes place; sometimes for sport, sometimes for punishment and sometimes for conflict resolution.

You control your mech through what is called a Wave Chair. This chair transfers your consciousness into the matrix of your mech, as your body remains safe in the Wave Chair. This process is referred to as “riding the wave,” or “the ride.” If your mech goes down, your consciousness is swept back to your body – unharmed.

The ultimate achievement and honor for a mech fighter is to become known as a War World Master.

How did the idea to make a fast-paced game with fully customisable mechs come along? And what was the main reason to go for a faster gameplay than most other mech games?

Morten: The idea came from playing Virtua On in the arcades many years back. We realized that we had a lot of great ideas of how to evolve that type of game into something unique and new. Using weapons and speed in a new and more tactical way.

Johnni: We wanted the game to be an adrenaline rush of an experience and we really think the faster gameplay style does that. The faster gameplay style creates a really exiting gaming experience. I guess it’s like riding a bike at 200 mph instead of 50 mph. Very intense :)

Going for the flag!

The game has been out for a while now, and a enhanced version is being worked on for the European retail market. War world amassed quite a large fan base since its initial release. How are you handling the input from the community?

Johnni: We have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback we have gotten from our community members since the initial online release. We think it is important to listen to what the players of War World thinks of the game and what ideas they have for future versions of War World. A lot of the features we have implemented since the initial release are things that the War World gamers asked for in the community.

Morten: The War World community has been extremely supportive and is an excellent source for not only what doesn’t work but also excellent ideas for what would make the game better. It is a new experience for us having direct contact with the people who play our games and it has so far been a very positive experience.

Could you elaborate a bit on what we might expect in the enhanced version? Are there going to be new additions to the already large weapon arsenal, or new battlefields?

Johnni: The Enhanced version of War World will feature several new additions such as new mechs, maps, LAN support, “Capture the Flag" multiplayer mode and an Assault multiplayer mode. There will also be new singleplayer modes like “Deathmatch” and “Team Deathmatch”

Morten: The enhanced version will be a big improvement over the previous version and we are really looking forward to hear the feedback from the community when it is released in February 2006. We think they will be really exited by the new additions to the game.

The mighty T1000

War World is mainly an online shooter. Are there any plans to give the gameplay a persistent aspect? Or an online rankings system?

Morten: War World is designed to work well both as a singleplayer and multiplayer game with 4 singleplayer game modes and 4 multiplayer game modes. We are talking to a number of potential partners who are interested in managing War World leagues/ladders but we can’t say anything officially yet.

Will the game remain free to play online after the initial cost when buying the game?

Johnni: Yes. When you have bought the game everything else is free including unlimited online play.

1on1

Are there any plans for add-ons or other games after the release of the enhanced version of War World?

Morten: It very much depends on the community interest. If there is enough interest then we will definitely do it. We are keeping a close eye on the community website and will make decisions based on what people tell us.

Any last words for our readers?

Johnni: We are big gamers ourselves and we look forward to joining the other War World fighters out there for our daily fix of War World fun. See you online in February 2006 ;)

Morten: You can get more info at the War World website and also join the fast growing War World community!