Earthrise Interview

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Eurogamer: How much player-versus-environment content is there, then? Is there a big story, are there lots of quests, will we be raiding later on?

Atanas Atanasov: There are hundreds of types of monsters, and lots of humanoids and robots in the PVE content. The quests will be focused more on the zone itself. There will certainly be one main quest or storyline, but we won't focus much on this subject. Players in Earthrise can switch their affiliation at any time and go to any zone and do quests for different factions there.

Every single faction has a different outlook on the world so the story of Earthrise will be told from lots of different perspectives. Earthrise is more of a sandbox game. The limitation will be how much time you have and what direction you travel, not what level you are.

Eurogamer: What's the endgame vision of Earthrise?

Atanas Atanasov: We're designing the endgame as a more PVP-oriented experience with territory conquest. Almost half of the island will be a very dangerous zone where only the strongest players and guilds will survive. It will be a place for those who are really looking for the endgame, where territory ownership changes overnight, and where the most precious resources are. It's a kind of strategy game where you build your own base and then go and conquer the base of the enemy.

Eurogamer: And is the focus on group play or solo play?

Atanas Atanasov: A single player cannot take over a whole base! But if you want to be the most successful player killer or the most wanted bounty hunter or if you just want to be famous, you can do it yourself.

Eurogamer: The economy and crafting system are other big areas for Earthrise. What's so special about them?

Atanas Atanasov: It will be very different to the games where crafting and player trade is not that importan because the best items come from raid monsters. We have designed the economy in a way where crafters will be the most important production team, and the monsters will only drop the resources for items. Everyone will need to either be a crafter or have a crafter as a friend - or just have a lot of money to buy those items. We expect that the players will run the economy themselves and decide what's precious and what is not on the market.

Abandoned cars, though - that's all new.

Eurogamer: Is Earthrise going to be subscription based?

Atanas Atanasov: Yeah. We're planning for a subscription-based game because we want everyone in the game to have the same experience. We don't want to limit content with restrictions. [The price] will be similar to other games.

Eurogamer: Is the MMO market quite frightening to launch into, given how quickly a game such as Tabula Rasa can come and go?

Atanas Atanasov: This is not a real threat because, firstly, the market keeps expanding, and secondly, there are always players looking for something new. If the new title is attractive to them they can either pay for both MMOs, or leave the other one.

Eurogamer: Have you got a publisher for Earthrise?

Atanas Atanasov: We're negotiating some terms at the moment. There's no single publisher we're talking to, but we've had talks with some interested parties. But I can't give information on that.

Eurogamer: How long have you actually been working on the game?

Atanas Atanasov: This is the third year right now. We started at the end of 2005, so a little more than two years.

Eurogamer: And you're scheduled to launch this year, is that right?

Atanas Atanasov: Yes, that's right. But it wouldn't be in the first half.