Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen producer Ben Dean recently did an interview with YouTuber Nathan Napalm touching on a wide variety of topics related to the game’s development, its community, and its search for investors. Emergent gameplay, for example, is something Visionary Realms loves; Dean professed his love of it, noting that it’s something the developers want and would even empower players to do if it’s found to be fun and not game-breaking, referencing events like the assassination of Lord British or the day the Sleeper was killed as examples of memorable and even wanted moments.
Another question brought up the subject of pre-alpha 5 and just what would make it a success. According to Dean, fun is ultimately the point, but the devs also want to ensure that it provides a full progression experience from levels 1-50. PA5 will include most of the games classes except for bard and necromancer and a raid encounter, though Dean also stresses that having a raid is not definite. And as expressed before, the length of the pre-alpha will likely be over several months, and will also mark the final pre-alpha.
So what would a good deal with a publisher look like for Visionary Realms? Here, Dean points out that several discussions were started previously with interested parties that ultimately were turned away simply due to them not being a good fit. “We need to make the game we want to make. We have a very clear vision, and sometimes that just doesn’t match up with potential partners. The most important thing for us is to find the right match,” he says.
In that same vein, Nathan asked whether crowdfunding alone would be enough, which Dean said is the case. “Crowdfunding, at the rate that it is now and has been, will get the game launched. It will take […] more time than it would if we had a quicker injection from a publisher or a major investor, but I would rather get the game done quicker without sacrificing our integrity.”
The interview continues to discuss things like what it’s like for the game to open up, the value and issues of having feedback from primarily veteran MMORPG players, finding hidden things in-game, and the desire to add PvP appropriately. You can get the full nearly hour-long skinny in the embed below.
