About walls and secret worlds
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 16:24 Yesterday afternoon, I finally hit the wall.
Not in a scary way; I was going pretty slow and saw it coming. After more than a month of intense deadlines and constant pressure, there was suddenly nothing. As in: nothing aside from the regular high pace of game development, something I'm pretty used to at this point. (After seventeen years in The Biz, I should be.) I could focus on one thing instead of a million, and so, of course, I couldn't - at all. After a few hours, I gave up and went home.
This is nothing unusual, of course. It's always hard to get back into the rhythm after a long period of controlled chaos and intense stress, and waking up this morning, I already felt unusually refreshed and ready for the next phase of the project.
Of course, I can't wait for The Secret World to ship. Not only because five years is a long time to do any one thing, but also because the response to our latest media push has been tremendous, and both the community and gamers in general appear to be excited about what we're trying to accomplish. I think Jim Rossignol from Rock, Paper, Shotgun nailed it best in his excellent preview: our goal is to be interesting. Different, ambitious, creative - yes - but most importantly, we want to make an interesting game. A game that engages - mechanically, emotionally, spiritually - and a game that doesn't underestimate its audience. PC and MMO players are skilled, experienced, smart and creative, and a huge portion of them are actual adults. Not enough games recognise these facts. I hope ours does.
Here's the video we released this week, which you've probably already seen. It doesn't go into a lot of detail, but it does show a bit of the scope and variety of The Secret World, and it hopefully illustrates why and how we've been working on this game since 2006.
We've also launched a new TSW website, which you can find, conveniently, at www.thesecretworld.com.
I'll be back tomorrow with more about GDC, our presentation, perceptions, comments, corrections and feedback. After I've had a chance to pick up the pieces and recover completely.
Reader Comments (55)
I have really enjoyed all the info this week. Been following this for a while. As a long time unabashed Funcom fanboy (AO was my first MMO) I've been hoping you guys would pull off your vision for doing something new.
Rest and recover a bit. In no time its going to hit you how much has to be done before your beta testing starts, and the pressure will be back on again. :)
I hope more and more information on the new Secret World website gets published. Are you behind all the description/story-telling of the monsters in all the sections? I was wondering about that, when reading about the Draug, Djinns, and etc.
About stress. Is it a normal part of the developer that you've gotten used, and what is causing it? I'm not at all an expert about stress.
Thanks Ragnar.
Info? More info? /looks around for tentacles
For the last couple of years now, the end of GDC has marked the beginning of TSW fans going batshit-froth-crazy, and this year is no exception. Good to read about it from the other side of the fence and definitely looking forward to reading more, at least as time allows the writing. ;-)
Now I understand why Funcom has a distorted view of what constitutes "Soon"... Ragnar seems to think that March 2011 is actually JANUARY 2011!
I can't believe it's been five years since...
Well, I hope you have a big success here with The Secret World. I was only mildly interested about it until I watched the GDC 2011 trailer, and then looked back at some trailers that I had missed (like the "Starting out in London" trailer). Now, I only have one question:
When can I preorder? :)
will tsw be available on steam or some other digital distribution service, ragnar? pieces plactic, papers, retailers sucking off dev's money - all that bs is so last century.
Now that TSW is about wrapped up, any chance on a finish to The Longest Journey series? The ending to Dreamfall was a cruel tease.
All those videos from GDC makes me think TSW is rather boring... Another MMO. Even if it got plot it requires a lot of time spent killing zombies (booooring) to advance the plot.
I don't get it, why not make a really good game, the best of them all, a continuation of Dreamfall? Fans are demanding it, that would be something great.
Myself, along with everyone over at GameBoomers have been waiting a very long time for the continuing story of the Longest Journey. We're afraid this won't happen. Please put our fears to rest.
I suppose the devs could make some money off TSW in order to develop Dreamfall : Chapters.
People who loved Dreamfall may not like the action oriented gameplay with killing monsters. I know I won't.
Take a well deserved break, mate. Us longest journey fans want all your best creative juices poured into the next installment of Dreamfall.
I'm eagerly awaiting TSW aswell...only, I'm awaiting Dreamfall chapters more.
Welcome back to blogging, Ragnar:P
Remember me? Yup, I'm still around, lurking.. waiting..
The Secret World is getting better and better for each trailer and preview I read. Can't wait to see and try the final product:D
I'm increadably excited about this and have been since the first pic you posted in 07. im amazed its been so long since then. can't wait to break the game in open beta whenever that is.
hey, excellent job!
Your work - all of what's published - inspired me while designing adventures for my RPG sessions and I'm really thankful. The way you make the bridges between worlds helped me a lot when I was stuck.
What I mean is, I kinda know how it is to be stuck in the middle of something, and you got people waiting for you to not only finish it but to be "genuine" and surprising and stuff, and you want yourself to be surprised too.
Though, thinking again, you've got thousands of people waiting, and I've got only a dozen each weekend.. anyway, I hope your ideas flow again, this project has a huuuge potential and your style is awesome ;)
FIrst of all, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS. (sorry, I just had to say that out loud)
I,ve seen the first video with Mei Ling somewhere in 2008/2009 I believe. It really overwelmed me...So did the official website with all the new vids, pictures, news etcetera.
I've noticed that since the news this month, new people follow TSW more and more, ands they all are so very excited. Love it
I have never played a game of FunCom, but soon I will.
thanks in advance,
Crescens
Have been following this game for YEARS, so glad to see the stages it's up to now :). I checked out your formspring and noticed that the last question answered was 3 weeks ago. I believe some questions are collecting dust including my own.
I know it's tough, but I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we NEED/WANT more information! drool
Instances? Closed-Beta?
Well Ragnar seems like the future is catching up with ya (or might it be the past?) well anyway I'm really excited to discover more and more about TSW, but...
(there is always a down side) I'm going to keep you stalkin' aswell untill another TLJ game will be released ;). I'm 15 (turning 16 in may) years old now and played TLJ first time when I was 12/13 I think and I got obssesed with it, after discovering Dreamfall it didn't stop. I keep playing the games over, and over again.
I just REALLY need another TLJ game, or else... (well whatever). Anywayz Dreamfall's ending really made me cry (not becuz of the big cliffhanger) but because of the whole thing with Faith lettin' go. I was having a hard time back then and Dreamfall really helped me trough, telling me I had to have Faith. Please Ragnar, there are no other games like Dreamfall which hit me like TLJ and DF. And it would be a total loss to NOT create another TLJ game.
Funcom wants to earn money and they think the can with MMO's right? So why not give an HD version of TLJ (or DF - but TLJ preffered) a try? You can sell it in episodic format and try to gain more fans, making money about you're old products again - this might prove Funcom that they SHOULD continue with TLJ.
For now I'll just wait for TSW to come out, but I keep deaming of they that the first concept art for DFC comes out (and I hope that dream doesn't fall).
We'll just have Faith Ragnar,
Jordy, a young dutch fan ;).
Great, now you can finally work on stuff for TLJ games! =)
Ever considered to make it more an RPG (than adventure) with a choice to have different backgrounds? (3 Stark (Earth), 3 Acadia) I believe a game with a style like Dragon Age 1, venetica, or Divinity 2 would be ideal for setting up stories spanning two worlds in an rpg game.
As you can see from the responses to each of your posts.. Nobody cares about TSW... We're only here because of TLJ, and that's the only reason we'll keep visiting this site.... untill we forget all about it. Sorry but you should've listened to your fans in the first place. TSW will bankcrupt your company for sure.
#Hullengyllen-Badenbillveen
I don't agree with you on that point ALTOUGH I NEED another TLJ, TSW is GREAT as well! But sure, a new TLJ/DF would mean more to me than any other new BOOK, GAME or MOVIE!