Q&A with Rise of Legends Executive Producer Tim Train (Part 1)
Microsoft Game Studios: What holes in the RTS genre did you aim to fill with RoL? What new things does RoL bring to the RTS genre? How does RoL differ from other RTS titles?
Tim Train: With Rise of Legends, we were aiming to break through some of the stagnation we feel has crept into RTS. It seemed like all the fantasy settings were the same, the gameplay mechanics were starting to get a little long in the tooth, and in general the games being released played out in a similar style. Legends brings many new innovations to the RTS genre, including the fantastic magic-vs.-technology setting, the expanded single-player Conquer the World campaign, and gameplay concepts like dominances and district-based city customization.
MGS: Can you talk in detail about some of the new features in RoL?
TT: Dominance powers are a new concept in Rise of Legends that allows players to compete in a variety of nonmilitary ways. There are four dominances in the game, each of which is gained by completing a different set of goals. For example, you acquire Army Dominance by being the first player on the map to build five footsoldiers. You retain that dominance until another player builds seven footsoldiers (or you can extend the dominance by being the first to build seven). So long as you hold the dominance, you are granted a special power called “Treachery,” where you can convert enemy footsoldiers to your side.
In addition to the dominance powers, each race has a unique National Ability activated by researching technologies. For example, the Vinci can create Strip Mines that cause attrition and knockdown to enemy units in the area. The Alin create large armies instantaneously, to summon aid where needed. With everything in the game, we're aiming to make the races play radically different from each other, and the National Ability helps give each race a distinct flavor.
MGS: Why did you decide to go with a fantasy theme this time?
TT: We’ve always loved historical subject matter, but having just come off a game where we covered the entire history of the world, we were more excited by doing something fresh and new, where we would get away from some of the “constraints” of a realistic setting. When we thought about what excited us, the central conflict of magic vs. technology really grabbed our attention.
MGS: What were the reasons you chose to go with just three races and two resources in RoL, as opposed to the 18 races and six resources in RoN?
TT: With a history game, there’s a certain expectation that you’ll have broad representation of the cultures and geography that have shaped our past. In a fantasy game, you can create more asymmetric races that have radically different playstyles. Similarly, with resources you’ll find that in many RTS games, resources all behave relatively similarly. There are piles of rock that may have different colors (gold, silver, metal, whatever), but the action of gathering these resources is very similar. We wanted to simplify the resources down to two, but each is gathered in a very different manner.
MGS: What was your inspiration behind each race? What were your goals in differentiating the races? What were your criteria in devising the heroes?
TT: When we set out to create our fantasy world, we wanted to avoid the usual Tolkien-inspired races like elves, orcs, and dwarves. We feel many other games have used that subject matter, and we were excited to create our own fantasy world that would feel fresh and new. For years, designers Brian Reynolds and Doug Kaufman were interested in doing a game set in the world of Arabian Nights, and so that setting became the inspiration for the Alin, the first magic race in the game. They are themed on fire magic and the desert, and came together very quickly.
Our second race, the Vinci, drew inspiration from the works of Leonardo da Vinci and also from a variety of "steampunk" sources, including the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki and other movies like Steamboy. Once again, the inspiration for this race came from an old friend and co-worker, Michael Ely, who originally thought of doing a da Vinci themed game.
The idea for the Cuotl was drawn from Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods, a now-discredited piece of work theorizing that much of mankind’s ancient glories were actually produced by offworld visitors. While much of the book has been proven fraudulent, the central idea still captures the imagination, and makes a great foundation for our third race.
When devising the heroes, we had a very simple focus: make them look and play COOL! In many ways, the heroes have gone through the most iteration of any single aspect of the game. We’ve had a lot of fun creating the spells and abilities that put these powerful units at the center of the gameplay.
MGS: RoL is much more story-driven than RoN. How important do you think story is in an RTS?
TT: It all depends on the context and setting…with a fantasy RTS, creating a compelling world with believable, interesting characters is critical, and we knew this would be one of the most important aspects of Rise of Legends.
MGS: How did the team adapt to working within a fantasy genre as opposed to an historical one?
TT: I don’t think there was much “adapting” required—after three years of phalanxes and musketeers, our team was very excited to spread their wings and really show off our graphical capabilities! Certainly creating all-new races has been an interesting challenge, and we’ve done a lot more looking at concept sketches on this project, but on the whole it’s been a lot of fun to step out of the historical setting.
Go to Part 2