Horizons: Empire of Istaria E3 Editorials

Both Warcry and Ten Ton Hammer have published editorials about the future of Horizons: Empire of Istaria, based on what they learned from Tulga Games during this year’s E3. A snip from Warcry’s article:

(It was not ready,) said lead content designer Jason (Amon Gwareth) Murdick. (We needed more time but the publishers didn’t want to give any more.)

Part of the problem may have been because of Horizons’ unfortunate launch date in December of 2003, which unfortunately coincided with the release of several other MMORPGs – Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, Final Fantasy XI, Lineage II and City of Heroes all came out less than six months on either side of Horizon’s release date.

Since that time, the Horizons team has continued working, taking the game from its unfinished state to the more polished version its players experience today.

And a snip from Ten Ton Hammer’s article:

Recently, Horizons brought fantasy author Peter Beagle into the game to write on a freelance basis. Beagle’s 112 pages of dialogue trees and branched content for his initial attempt, the (Wedding Quest,) was delivered to the live team in early April. As a content designer, Murdick was heavily involved in bringing Beagle’s quests to life using a very innovative tool, the Horizons Quest Editor.

Using a public copy of the game database, players and writers alike can use existing characters, enemies, and items to add or change their own quests. Tulga’s staff will evaluate these quests for quality before bringing the customized quests into the live game. These customized fan quests should certainly add a homespun dungeonmaster feel to the thousands of Tulga-crafted quests already in the game.