• Interview with Cryptic’s Matt Highison

    09/10/2009

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    Posted in: Interview, PC

    Matt Highison, Lead Character Artist at Cryptic Studios was kind enough to meet with me at the PAX 2009 Atari booth. We chat about Star Trek Online, from Gorns to ship customization, and touch on bringing Champions to the 360.

    Cat: You announced Mirror Universe costumes, will there be Mirror Universe quests?

    Matt: There will be. We want to sort of cover the whole range of the Star Trek experience. We’re gonna have time travel episodes, we’ll have Mirror Universe. Right now if you’ve got the lifetime subscription to Champions you’ll your Mirror Universe outfit right off the bat.

    Cat: Will there be missions to the home worlds of lesser known species like the Gorn?

    Matt; Yes, of course. There will also be missions to home worlds of species that you have not met yet, are not in the known universe.

    Cat: Right, because players get to create their own alien race when selecting a character, so there will be evidence of that in the planets?

    Matt: There’s going to be planets that below to auto-generated species.

    Cat: And evidence of them in the universe, like in artifacts?

    Matt: We’re working that out.

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    Cat: What is the fate of Romulus is the game? The recent Star Trek movie plot was unclear about whether Romulus was saved in the new timeline.

    Matt: So we’re in the prime timeline. We love the new movie, but ours takes place about thirty years past when Spock went back in time so Romulus is destroyed and the Empire is broken up and there’s a lot of turmoil.

    Cat: If Romulus is destroyed, how do you think that affects their villainy?

    Matt: Oh, I think it increases it a lot. It gives us a lot of play in who we’re going to make our enemies and make some interesting alliances. Since the whole game is story-based every single episode follows a mini-plot and it all works together into an under-arch it feels a lot more like watching a whole series of Star Trek.

    Cat: Will there be a way to see past cloaking devices, like the tachyon detection grid?

    Matt: We’ll have a lot of powers for that – and PvP with Klingons is fantastic.

    Cat: At the beginning of the game, everyone gets a ship. Will everyone get the same ship?

    Matt: At the very beginning I believe you get the same ship, but then you’re able to branch out to many many different classes of ships. On our website we have a few of the like “meet the ship” features.

    Cat: So when you level, do you carry that same ship with you when you level and upgrade it, or do you just change ships?

    Matt: You’ll be able to own many many different class ships.

    Cat: No commitment then! How deep is the ship combat, will there be advanced maneuvers like the Picard Maneuver?

    Matt: Of course, of course! I believe over here (points to screen) each of these holds powers that they can activate. Like this guy here, he loads in three photon torpedos, another may give more power to the thrusters.

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    Cat: And what kind of weapons are available for ground combat?

    Matt: There’s the many different energy types, you’ll be able to pick up a lot of different load.

    Cat: On the ships, will players be able to roam around, check out the quarters?

    Matt: I know right now we’re focusing on talking about the space and ground. In this demo, there’s actually a mission where you board a Klingon ship.

    Cat: The concept of hubs or social areas have come up in the past, will Deep Space Nine act as one of these hub?

    Matt: I don’t think we’ve said anything about that, but you a lot of IP locations. (laughs)

    Cat: N4G member Shotcaller 33 wants to know how you think Star Trek Online compares to other space-based games?

    Matt: In what way? I think ours is a little bit different. You’re playing as a captain, you customize your crew, you also get to beam down and play with that crew. These guys that are sitting in your different command consoles right now (points to screen) you’ll beam down and you’ll be fighting right alongside with them. You’ll also be able to group up with other people and have them fill in those roles.

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    Cat: What do you think is happening to the hero in gaming, and how do you think Champions approaches the idea of heroism?

    Matt: I think what’s great about Champions is it allows you to play as the hero you want to be whereas in other games, there’s a lot of good superhero games out there, but you’re always driven towards playing as someone. Whereas in Champions you get to create your whole power set, what it looks like, what your costume looks like, and play it the way you want to play it.

    Cat: The beta testers have said the character creator is one of the best around, what have you done to take it to the next level?

    Matt: Oh my God there’s thousands of pieces, for each one you’re able to change size and scale, muscle options, full range of color, you can really make whatever you want. Just cycling through random alone is pretty incredible.

    Cat: What challenges have you run into bringing the game to 360?

    Matt: We have no comment on that right now. 360 is a fantastic console, though. We have “unofficial support” for the controller in Champions right now.

    Cat: And Star Trek online and the 360?

    Matt: We are working on a console version, we haven’t announced which one.

    Thanks again for your time Matt!

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