Today we have a little bit different interview. We have with us Riya and Net, the creators of the gargantuan mazes that we saw and suffer in the releases.
Q: Tell us a little about you both. Where was your love for SotA born?
Net: I like pen & paper RPGs. And I like to role-play even in normal games, especially those that allow role-playing and you can choose your own path (Deus Ex, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines). I hope that SotA will be a game like that with the addition of allowing interaction between players.
Anyway, I also like Space Games (especially Freelancer) and I am big supporter of Star Citizen (maybe some Star Citizens in SotA community will know me from SC forums). It was Chris Roberts (creator of Star Citizen, Wing Commander, Freelancer and many other games) who introduced me to Lord British and Shroud of the Avatar.
I pledged as soon as the game was out of Kickstarter (I like the idea behind Kickstarter, but I want to support games more directly). Oh, and I do not buy games with DRM, but I want to support those without it. I hope that games like Star Citizen or Shroud of the Avatar are signs of better times for PC gamers.
Riya: I'm a middle aged woman which grew up with browser games and economic desktop games. But I got bored fast by them, when I knew the best way to solve them. Then I played WoW for many years but when it came to the end content, I couldn't play my char like I wanted it, I had to play it optimized way and got tired of it.
When I found SotA I was happy, because it will be a game where you have to use your brain and will be who you are and not something, what just make the most damage. The funny thing is, I never heard of Lord British or Ultima before.
Q: What is the story of your mazes. What will be the next?
Net: I was inspired by Riya, but her mazes were too easy. I missed the R5 maze and I enjoyed the R6 one (I made first person walkthrough through it). I wanted to help her in R7 (and I did, a little), so I grabbed a lot next to her and made assembly line of crafting tables. However her plans were rather different from what I wanted to do.
I wanted a maze where people will be unable to cheat (jump over obstacles). And shelves were too low. I also did not want people to cheat with third person camera. I tested few things with wardrobes and they were perfect for the task I planned. Also Riya’s mazes were no challenge once you knew the way. So the idea of 3D maze was born. My mazes are challenging even for me and I made them.
In R8, I went for bigger maze, which was not supposed to be really challenging, however with bugged jumping it is really extreme, few people made it with my help, but as far as I know only one or two players were able to really beat it (not counting myself). It is shame because people helped me to decorate the Inn in the middle and it is really great. And I got help from Riya on this one. She made the maze at the entrance.
I got a lot of help and make new friends while building mazes. Here I have to thank all the people who helped me. I am sorry not to mention everyone, but I would like to give special thanks to:
I would also like to congratulate Thron for beating my R8 maze. It was really tough one. I am sorry that I do not remember others who helped me, I am really humbled by the help I got here, but it keeps me going and I want to do even better job in next release.
What will be next? Well, my last maze was too hard; I have to work on reducing the jumping parts to minimum. I learned a lot in this release, I used my knowledge and know-how from the R7, but I still discovered plenty of things that will make my future mazes better. I want to push my own limits as well as the limits of the game. And even though my mazes may seem too hard during these short releases, once the game will be persistent people will have time to practice.
What might seem hard today will be easy and what seemed impossible will be ‘only’ hard. Anyway I do believe that the bigger the challenge, the bigger satisfaction if you overcome it. If everyone can solve my maze, I am doing my job wrong. If no one can solve it, I am doing it wrong as well. I will need to find the golden path between both extremes.
Oh and about R9. If things go well, Riya and I (with the help of others) will cooperate to make mazes even more professional, we want to combine the cunning of all maze builders to make mazes in SotA better. The mazes have tradition of their own now and we want them to live till the final release (and beyond). We would also like to bring the new PvP aspect into mazes and maybe make a competition around it. I hoped we will be sharing more, but the R8 just finished and we had not time to make proper plans for R9. Keep an eye on forums for more news regarding the R9 maze(s).
Riya: The maze was born out of frustration and boredom. I had the idea of a maze already in R5 but didn't realized it. In R6 I tried to decorate my house again and failed because of a bug. So I cleared my lot and went on a walk around in Owls Head and saw on Eks lot many plants as decoration and remembered my maze idea. I ran to the plant merchant and bought plants for 10k gold and just started it. In the end it became a little funny community project and I went on with the mazes in the other releases. My personal goal is to test SotA with fun and this will always be part of my mazes.
The next maze will become better^^. We (me and Net) plan a cooperation and want to realize bigger and better projects and want to still have time to enjoy the releases. Nets last maze took him over 20h, my black hole maze took me over 10h and that is time we don't have to play.
Next to our time we need more and more support from other community members and learned, that preparation not only saves time, it also allows us to find the tricky parts before the implementation and don't run into unsolveable problems.
The next maze will hopefully bring a new fun aspect to pvp and help to test some important features of combat. It will like always be hard to find the balance between fun and challenge.
Since is a double interview and also is a little bit longer than usual I'm going to split the result in two parts. If you want more resources you can take a look at their galleries:
Net: I like pen & paper RPGs. And I like to role-play even in normal games, especially those that allow role-playing and you can choose your own path (Deus Ex, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines). I hope that SotA will be a game like that with the addition of allowing interaction between players.
Anyway, I also like Space Games (especially Freelancer) and I am big supporter of Star Citizen (maybe some Star Citizens in SotA community will know me from SC forums). It was Chris Roberts (creator of Star Citizen, Wing Commander, Freelancer and many other games) who introduced me to Lord British and Shroud of the Avatar.
I pledged as soon as the game was out of Kickstarter (I like the idea behind Kickstarter, but I want to support games more directly). Oh, and I do not buy games with DRM, but I want to support those without it. I hope that games like Star Citizen or Shroud of the Avatar are signs of better times for PC gamers.
Riya: I'm a middle aged woman which grew up with browser games and economic desktop games. But I got bored fast by them, when I knew the best way to solve them. Then I played WoW for many years but when it came to the end content, I couldn't play my char like I wanted it, I had to play it optimized way and got tired of it.
When I found SotA I was happy, because it will be a game where you have to use your brain and will be who you are and not something, what just make the most damage. The funny thing is, I never heard of Lord British or Ultima before.
 |
| In the labyrinths you could find terrible and inhumane traps... |
Q: What is the story of your mazes. What will be the next?
Net: I was inspired by Riya, but her mazes were too easy. I missed the R5 maze and I enjoyed the R6 one (I made first person walkthrough through it). I wanted to help her in R7 (and I did, a little), so I grabbed a lot next to her and made assembly line of crafting tables. However her plans were rather different from what I wanted to do.
I wanted a maze where people will be unable to cheat (jump over obstacles). And shelves were too low. I also did not want people to cheat with third person camera. I tested few things with wardrobes and they were perfect for the task I planned. Also Riya’s mazes were no challenge once you knew the way. So the idea of 3D maze was born. My mazes are challenging even for me and I made them.
In R8, I went for bigger maze, which was not supposed to be really challenging, however with bugged jumping it is really extreme, few people made it with my help, but as far as I know only one or two players were able to really beat it (not counting myself). It is shame because people helped me to decorate the Inn in the middle and it is really great. And I got help from Riya on this one. She made the maze at the entrance.
 |
| Amazing viewpoint in the R8, especially now that exist the fall damage. |
I got a lot of help and make new friends while building mazes. Here I have to thank all the people who helped me. I am sorry not to mention everyone, but I would like to give special thanks to:
OneAndOnly for wardrobes and wooden boards.
Riya for inspiration and help with R8 maze.
Arianna for help with both mazes.
Winfield PaxLair. He did great job at crafting most of the wardrobes for my R7 maze.
Soleidad and Duke Violation for help with R7 maze.
Gaelis Trajan for the help with R8 maze.
I would also like to congratulate Thron for beating my R8 maze. It was really tough one. I am sorry that I do not remember others who helped me, I am really humbled by the help I got here, but it keeps me going and I want to do even better job in next release.
 |
| To reach the sky you only need the power of the friendship... and castle lot with a wardrobe factory. |
What will be next? Well, my last maze was too hard; I have to work on reducing the jumping parts to minimum. I learned a lot in this release, I used my knowledge and know-how from the R7, but I still discovered plenty of things that will make my future mazes better. I want to push my own limits as well as the limits of the game. And even though my mazes may seem too hard during these short releases, once the game will be persistent people will have time to practice.
What might seem hard today will be easy and what seemed impossible will be ‘only’ hard. Anyway I do believe that the bigger the challenge, the bigger satisfaction if you overcome it. If everyone can solve my maze, I am doing my job wrong. If no one can solve it, I am doing it wrong as well. I will need to find the golden path between both extremes.
Oh and about R9. If things go well, Riya and I (with the help of others) will cooperate to make mazes even more professional, we want to combine the cunning of all maze builders to make mazes in SotA better. The mazes have tradition of their own now and we want them to live till the final release (and beyond). We would also like to bring the new PvP aspect into mazes and maybe make a competition around it. I hoped we will be sharing more, but the R8 just finished and we had not time to make proper plans for R9. Keep an eye on forums for more news regarding the R9 maze(s).
 |
| Riya's mazes, creating headaches and oxygen since R6. |
Riya: The maze was born out of frustration and boredom. I had the idea of a maze already in R5 but didn't realized it. In R6 I tried to decorate my house again and failed because of a bug. So I cleared my lot and went on a walk around in Owls Head and saw on Eks lot many plants as decoration and remembered my maze idea. I ran to the plant merchant and bought plants for 10k gold and just started it. In the end it became a little funny community project and I went on with the mazes in the other releases. My personal goal is to test SotA with fun and this will always be part of my mazes.
The next maze will become better^^. We (me and Net) plan a cooperation and want to realize bigger and better projects and want to still have time to enjoy the releases. Nets last maze took him over 20h, my black hole maze took me over 10h and that is time we don't have to play.
Next to our time we need more and more support from other community members and learned, that preparation not only saves time, it also allows us to find the tricky parts before the implementation and don't run into unsolveable problems.
The next maze will hopefully bring a new fun aspect to pvp and help to test some important features of combat. It will like always be hard to find the balance between fun and challenge.
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