Announcer:
Now we're about to enter into the mind of a game designer. Right now he's building a virtual fantasy world on the Internet. (Yeah, right?) This of course means trolls and swords, as usual when it comes to Fantasy, however the source of inspiration is a bit unusual(?).


In the woods

Mats:
I work as creative director, or game designer, and my company is working on a MMO-game called Mortal Online.

I'm working on both the development-pipeline itself, the game world, the environments and the "feel" of the game.

MMO-games, Massively Multi-Player Online - you connect to a server together with other people and play together, so that you can communicate, fight or cooperate with other players, unlike in many other games where you are playing alone.

In these online worlds we are usually rather free to do what we want, and we don't always have to follow a predefined path. In Mortal Online we are aiming for a world that allows for a great deal of freedom.

Reporter:
What do you get your inspiration from?

Mats:
Above all else I think it comes from our own world. I get inspired by books, movies, music, but a lot of the times it's about re-shaping reality. It could be our history; the twelve law tablets of Rome, that we recreate in our game but make them thirteen instead. Or emperor Nero that was suspected of having burned Rome to the ground; that might have actually happened in our game, although of course the name of the emperor wasn't Nero.

Inspiration can be how the geology of a place in the real world have been impacted after a meteorite strike, or after the eruption of a volcano, stuff that looks unrealistic or otherworldly - we actually have "sci-fi" and "fantasy" places in the real world, and using those places as a "canvas" for our fantasy world can be a good way to start. We then might add those extra ingredients that makes it feel really "fantasyish" or unique..
..maybe it wasn't just a meteorite, maybe it was a punishment from the gods, but you never know?

Mats:
This is a rather interesting find, because we happen to have a creature in the game that is a rotvalta (Swedish name for "an uprooted tree"). Or, rather it lives beneath/inside the fallen trees. Wind may not be the only thing that makes a tree fall in MO, as there are parasites living in some trees, taking them over and making them fall - so that they can stretch out their tentacles, hidden and camouflaged among the roots. ..if this had been Mortal Online I guess we'd been in trouble sitting here.

Mats:
Mushrooms and fungi are really interesting. They exist almost everywhere and behave in peculiar ways. For instance, a large number of insects living in rain-forests have corresponding parasite fungi - fungi that has specialized in invading and taking over the mind of a specific insect-species. The only thing that's lacking is to give the fungi, or their spores, some form of intelligence or collective consciousness, and all of a sudden we'd have an extremely creepy mechanism/creature to use in the game.

There are ants that grow mushrooms in their anthills or caves, and then harvest them. This is of course a cool concept to use when making an insect-society, or any troglodyte society. It's also easy to twist this idea, and have a society that grow large fungi (polyporus) in gigantic trees, hollowing them out to be used as living quarters.


At the office

Mats:
These are our swamps, or marsh-jungles, and this is where you'll find one of our lizards races. (I should have said "several reptile species". I got a bit confused as I suddenly realized we don't have a Swedish word for them. Anyway, they are known as the Cold Broods.)
..like, here

This civilization grows a form of polyporus in the giant trees, and use them as platforms for their nests.

Hannu:
(Mumbles something inaudible about "nature".)

Mats:
You can see it in this pre-visualization.

Mats:
I really like to experience what I'm about to try to convey to other people. For instance if we are implementing riding in the game, and want it to feel believable, I really think it's important for me to get out and try riding myself. Not because I can, not that I would be good at it, but because I would learn small details and get a feel for it, that I could then possibly transfer to the game..
..when you research something and look for facts..(continued below)


At Malmo Castle/Dungeons

..I can look at Malmo Castle or Malmo Dungeon at a distance, I can be there to experience it, I can read it in books. I think these are different experiences, but I think you need all of them to make a believable setting. I absolutely do.

I believe environment and atmosphere is really important in a game, although you might not even notice or think about it. Consciously, for some players it's very important, for others it doesn't matter - as they're going straight for the "action". But the history and atmosphere/conceptual direction of the game must be a solid framework that the players can rely on and fall back on. That's how I want it to be.