Interview With Free Realms Lead Designer
Free Realms launched on the PC earlier this year, and it marked a new adventure for Sony Online Entertainment. Being a MMO for all ages, Free Realms is also completely free to play, although it's possible to engage in micro-transactions and it's a model that's really helped it blossom.
Gaming Union was able to catch up with Stephen Bokkes at GamesCom 2009, for a lengthy chat about Free Realms.
Gaming Union: You've been going in the US for 4 or 5 months now
Stephen Bokkes: Yes since April.
GU: How do you think things have gone so far, have they gone as you expected?
SB: To be honest with you, this is my first MMO. I've been in the industry for 14 years in game design but this is the first MMO I've worked on. So to be honest with you, that combined with the fact that this is a brand new - not only business model, but gaming concept a casual free to play MMO - I didn't really know what to expect to be honest with you, and yeah I’m pleasantly surprised by the success of Free Realms. I get in, I play and I see people in there all the time playing and having a great time. To me that’s pretty much what it's all about.
GU: What does the future hold?
SB: We just got done with Speedway Thunder update, which was all about racing. We just now launched our international version as well, so we have Free Realms in French, German, Spanish and UK. That was launched last week and that's pretty unique because most MMOs when they have a multinational launch, launch separate servers for each region. We have you all playing together, so you can play with all new friends all over the world on the same server.
GU: Is there some kind of auto-translate?
SB: There's a chat filter I wish there was an auto translator I would patent that and make millions and millions of dollars.
GU: Well Final Fantasy XI has one of sorts.
SB: Of sorts, that's the key right. So what we do is we allow you to sort of filter out languages that you don't understand, so that way you are not going to get spam. But yeah, you know you can listen to anybody, It's great for kids to get exposure.
GU: A great way for them to learn languages
SB: Exactly, so yeah we just had our international launch, coming up we're going to be releasing our soccer update, or football depending where you are at in the world. So that will be all about the new job the 'soccer star', comes with its own mini-game much like with the racing game. We'll have our own 3-on-3 multiplayer soccer game very arcady, very fun to play, lot of powers up's that sorta thing.
GU: Kinda like Mario
SB: Mario Strikers, yea, a little bit of inspiration there. There's a little bit of SEGA Soccer Star to, we pool from different sources. I've played it and once you see you'll agree. It's got its own thing going on, so it's a really interesting game. Wee also have another update that's due out soon, which is fishing. It's another mini-game we're going to throw in there that's also something unique to most MMOs. World of Warcraft has fishing, but it's very basic fishing. You cast and it's a skill check.
GU: You either catch or you don't
SB: Right, so we are introducing more mini-game aspects that give it more of an arcade feeling attention meter combo'ing, fishes that sorta thing, a cast mechanic, little things like that to beef it up and give it more of a mini-game feel. If you haven't noticed that's a common trend in Free Realms everything's a mini-game. All the activities are treated like a mini-game, they all have the same interaction icon to start you know a mini-game, they all have the same kinda score screen it's all part of one big theme of mini-games in a giant seemless lobby.
GU: Speaking of which does that mean there could be a PSP release at some point?
SB: I'm not going to rule that out. I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not there are plans for a such a thing. I don't see why not, I mean, we do work for Sony after all.
GU: How many updates have you had since launch?
SB: Well it depends how you define it, because we've been updating pretty much every other week. We tend to have an update of sorts, but more of these major content releases we're trying to get more to month basis and then of course we'll have regional expansions planned too, the big updates that offer you a whole new area to play in.
GU: Do you have an ETA on the first one of those?
SB: [It's] coming soon definitely. We are definitely focusing on trying to get that out, we want to make a commitment to players so they can expect these on a regular basis so it's not just done when we get it done, but they know every 6 months, 8 months whatever it ends up being they can expect a regional expansion.
GU: I'm sure you're getting quite a lot of feedback.
SB: Exactly yes. So I mean that's one of the greatest things about MMOs from my experience as a game developer is the game is never done. We're constantly fixing it we're constantly improving it, such a short feedback loop. We have a pretty vibrant and vocal community online, they tell us what they like and don't like and we react and change it like that. It's pretty awesome.
GU: So essentially in terms of the game, there is pretty much no limit on what you can put in it, as long as it's family friendly?
SB: Well I wouldn't say that. There's always limits and there definitely are fewer limits than other games for sure. There's limitations within the technology like everything. I'd love to be able to say we can do whatever we want to do, but the reality is that we've always focused on providing a gaming experience that all players can have access to keeping our minimum spec's as low as possible, so you don't have to have a fancy gaming rig to play.
