Roper working on Champions' longevity
Admits mistakes were made with Hellgate.
Bill Roper has said he's applying lessons learned from the failure of Hellgate: London to his new project, superhero MMO Champions Online.
"I'm looking forward not only to bringing what I've learned from the numerous successes I've worked on to Cryptic and Champions Online, but also what I learned from the failures," he said.
Roper, a former Blizzard star and founder of Hellgate creators Flagship, recently joined Champions Online developer Cryptic Studios as a design director.
His chief concern is improving Champions Online's endgame and long-term appeal, he said in the interview on the official site.
"I'm particularly interested in coming up with some ideas on how to make the game experience really last; things that players will want to do both with heroes they've built up over time as well as with new characters they're creating," Roper said.
"Bringing social and community aspects into the game is something that we never got right in Hellgate and I'd like to correct that moving forward. "
Roper also mentioned that he'd be working on implementing crafting in Champions Online - which is "yet to be integrated", apparently - as well as polishing parts of the game that "need refining".
Champions Online is due out for PC and Xbox 360 in the first half of next year, and is "really very far along" according to Roper. You'll find more at our Champions Online gamepage.