Interview with Keith Parkinson

1. First things first, how many races do you expect to launch with and what are their names?

Well, let me tell you about some of my favorites. As a huge fantasy fan I’ve always loved the classic Tolkien mythos of Elves and Dwarves and all that goes with Middle Earth. I’ve always wanted to bring his words to the canvas, just like every other artist with a passion for fantasy art. So, we’ll have those races, as most games of our genre do, but I do hope ours capture that spirit he gave them in a way that has not been done before in a game. We have modeled some amazing faces and body types. Currently, we’re working on more outfitting for them and adding animations. Body language is so important when it comes to communicating attitude, and that has to be done by hand, by an artist that can feel it. Mo-cap is a great jumping off point, for there are surely details there that are so subtle that no one could reproduce them in a timely fashion without aid.

Building on that base, I also wanted to have some original Vanguard PCs. The Vulmane were the first we have shown, but you won’t know what they really are until you play one. Getting their feel right is the trick and that’s continues to be a work in progress. Going to their village with the music that Todd Masten has created lending mood, will give people a real sense of what this culture is about. Visuals and sound are magic when they are one. I think we nailed this one.

Currently, the playable races are (and remember, this is subject to change):

Human (Thestra)
Half-Giant
Halfling
High Elf
Vulmane
Dwarf
Barbarian (Thestra)

Human (Qalian)
Mordebi Human
Kurashasa
Barbarian (Qalia)
Gnomes
Dark Elves

Human (Kojan)
Half Elf
Wood Elf
Goblin
Orc
Raki

2. What can you tell us about Vanguards bone scaling system and why did you choose to implement it?

Since we will have a wide variety of Player Character types and we would like our game to run on your computer, there were technical reasons that made sense to approach our player characters in the way we did. As far as technical details are involved, we’re always improving what we have, so it’s really a moving target and tough to be specific.

Of course the end goal is to bring as much life and variety to the game as we can, as I mentioned above, and the way we are approaching this challenge seems to work the best for our engine.

3. What attributes will the bone scaling system allow us to control when we build our characters on release day? Height, weight, cheekbones, chin, shoulder width?

My goal is to give the player as much leeway in creating the Avatar as we can, bound within racial constraints that fit the genre. For example: I don’t want 7ft tall dwarves stomping around Vanguard like Storm Giants. That would be ridiculous. What I do want is Dwarves with personality, individuality and character. The same holds true for all the races, Player characters, and Non player characters. So things like height, muscle mass, weight, facial hair, hair color, how big you can make each face feature, or size of the head, among other things all play an important part in making that reality. We’ll go as far as the tech end of running a game allows.

4. Can you explain what other physical attributes not related to the bone scaling system that we will be able to adjust? For example will we be able to change our eye, hair, skin color?

That’s all part of the picture. For instance, some people see “Dark Elves” as pale, like the “Elric” type character, others prefer darker skin. Letting them be who they want is my goal. That includes eye color and all the other things that make that possible. The shape and color of eyes, hair on the head and face are very important in my view. When you look at faces from around the world the subtlest change causes a dramatic shift in appearance when viewed together.

5. Will there be tattoos or other distinctive markings such as earrings, tusks or fur patterns that we can modify to personalize our avatars?

There will be lots of ways to personalize your Avatars. Some I’ve addressed in previous questions, and others we’re still working on. The opportunity for variety, as in adding items, taking them away, will be there. How far we can push it remains to be seen.

Hey, if I had my way, I’d beam down Mr. Spock and have him build us a warp 10 mega blast server accelerator that allowed our player avatars take any fur they could lay their hands on, shave a clan symbol in it, and glue it to their helmet, tie on some bit of leather and bone chips…and on and on.

6. If there will be distinctive markings how many different choices are you shooting for on release day? 10, 20, 50?

I understand the interest in quantifying what’s possible, but I can’t do that at this point. Unfortunately, I cracked my Crystal Ball when I was trying to see how the Bears would do in this year’s race to the Superbowl. It was just too much for it. BTW, just in case anyone cares, this does not bode well for the Bears.

When something is adjustable though, as any kind of change to appearance tech is, that again is a moving target and we’ll have to let you know as time passes.

7. Will we be able to modify the visual aging of our characters to make them appear younger or older?

That’s something that is always appealing. I know at least one person that wants to play an old Gnome... Hey Glip!

There are different ways to approach this. For instance, posture that shapes the body is a large part of the equation as well as how big certain facial features are. A young man might have a long thin nose that slowly over the course of his life changes width, or droops. His eyebrows may lower and thicken; his hair may recede or fall out. There are so many variables that contribute to this, it’s is really part of the whole customizability question. It just depends on how you build your character.