Q : Can you give us a short description of Nevrax?
Nevrax is a company dedicated to the creation, development and maintenance of MMOGs. We have about 40 people working in a dozen of complementary teams. Our skills cover every aspects of the creation and conception of these new entertainment products:
- World and game design.
- Coding of new technologies (client, server, network, production and administration tools).
- 3D graphics (modelisation, textures, animation, special effects).
- Maintenance of finished products.
Nevrax does not handle the administration of our games once released, even if we will of course always provide debug, updates, patches and add-ons for our games.
Q : How many people are working on Ryzom at Nevrax?
43 as of today.
Q : What inspired you when you created the universe of Ryzom?
Many things, from the works of Miyazaki and David Attenborough to the single piece of moss you can find in our forests. I watch small scale life and I like constrasts and parallels between adverse items. Of course, you need a direction, a way that you can follow in order to create a consistant whole. And finally, there are the dreams.
Q : According to you, what is the main difference between Ryzom and other MMORPG ?
A lot of things. It depends on what you're talking about (code, game design, world design...). Basically, the main difference is the potential actions available to the players through guild features, and in the world itself that can be altered by these actions. That's what we want to do, and it is a very important part of the gameplay of Ryzom. General quality is also on top of our 'must have' lists.
We don't want to just be different. What we want to create is a new entity, with an innovative shape and core. This will affect all levels, from the players who will inhabit Ryzom to the people who will operate the game and to our own future developements. Everyone has to be satisfied and properly supported, or nobody won't go anywhere interesting.
The liberal gameplay of Ryzom is quite inovative too, but is still attached to the basics of classic RPG features (role, evolution, etc). The relationship between the universe and the gameplay is also especially rich, but eventually, the question about what makes Ryzom truly different should be asked to the players themselves.