Gamereactor asked Bill Roper (formerly with Blizzard North and Flagship Studios), who recently joined Cryptic Studios, some questions about their upcoming game Champions Online. He mentions some of the lessons he learnt with Hellgate: London.
"Something comes up each week where I draw upon both what has and has not worked in my past games. Perhaps the biggest lesson learned is maintaining a focus on what's vital to the game. With Hellgate: London we simply tried to do too much and spread ourselves (and our ability to properly test and balance the game) too thin. Also making sure to have a solid base of social and community features is vital - as is constantly staying in contact with our players."
IGN : Remember Hellgate: London? The dark fantasy action role-playing game came out in 2007 for PC, a year before developer Flagship Studios went bankrupt. Since then, various free-to-play and online revivals have come and gone. Now, 17 years after the release of Hellgate: London, it’s back.
I remember some friends and I all bought Hellgate: London day one because it was made by some original Diablo devs. We had fun playing it, good memories.
Cryptic Studios appears to be the latest Embracer-owned company to be impacted by layoffs.
PC Invasion: Hellgate: London is back on Steam, but it's not what you expect it to be. It's a single-player game in the vein of Asian MMOs.
