Mage Knight Apocalypse Q&A - So What is Mage Knight?

Based on the popular miniatures game of the same name, Mage Knight looks to be a fast-paced Diablo-style action role-playing game with a beautiful 3D graphics engine and some interesting tricks up its sleeve. The game isn't due out until next year, so to get the details on Mage Knight we spoke to senior producer Chris Wren.

Welcome to the world of Mage Knight. Now kill some monsters already.

GameSpot: For our readers who aren't familiar with Mage Knight, could you explain briefly what it is, and why did you decide to make a game about it?

Chris Wren: Mage Knight is a fast-paced tabletop war game involving a techno-fantasy-based universe with several really diverse factions. Players build up their collection of figures and then play head-to-head with other players by setting up their units and then, through a series of dice rolls and strategy, attempt to wipe out their opponent. The universe is mostly a traditional fantasy universe with orcs and elves like you might find in The Lord of the Rings, but it also has a nice mix of steam and gunpowder technology, as well as future technology fused with a healthy dose of magic.

GS: Could you tell us what the story is behind Apocalypse? Who are you? Why are you fighting? And what are you trying to do in the game?

CW: In the current storyline of the tabletop universe of Mage Knight, a magic egg has been stolen by a faction known as the Shyft (a tribal, lizardlike, manipulative culture), and a rise in the chaotic forces in the world has caused this egg to hatch. From the egg was born the Apocalypse Dragon, which is a juggernaut of destructive power. It is growing in strength each day and threatening the security of the whole land.

Our story starts with you as a champion of your people, called forth by a mystical race, the Solonavi, to help put an end to this dragon and the forces of chaos that surround it. A powerful mage of the cursed Apocalypse cult is trying to take control of this dragon to bring about the end of the world; he and his cult will be trying to stop you from accomplishing your mission. Mage Knight lets you choose one of five heroes, which will embark on this quest. Whatever characters you do not choose will end up joining you along your journey as you go from region to region. You will only directly control your hero, and the other members of the party will take care of themselves and will help you out where they can.

GS: So we know that you can play as a dwarf rifleman or a female vampire (among others). What character classes are in the game? What's character creation like? Do you choose a race and then a class, or are you limited to certain templates?

CW: There are five playable characters in the game. Each one has its own disciplines and fighting styles and each one can be developed to fight and evolve in multiple ways. The dwarf rifleman is good with guns, melee weapons, and explosives. The nightblade specializes in necromancy, vampirism, and melee. The elf guardian does protection, ranged combat, and melee weapons. The amazon warrior has speed combat, defensive combat, and ranged combat, and the draconum mage casts earth magic, fire magic, and storm magic.

Character creation at the start of the game is simply choosing one of the heroes, and then choosing from a set of customization options about how you want him or her to look. Some of these options are: hairstyle, hair color, skin color, eye color, as well as a couple race-specific attributes, such as beard shape (if you happen to choose the dwarf). There is further customization, which is dependent on your play style and the choices you make.

GS: Can you tell us more about the gameworld? How large is it? What kind of terrain and places can we expect to explore? Will there be towns that you can go in to trade and get missions?

CW: The gameworld consists of five major regions. Each of these relates to one of the characters in the story--there is a draconum region, a nightblade region, etc. Each region will have a town that is the hub for exploration and questing, as well as the place where you shop, upgrade, train, and receive new missions. Each of the regions will have several main quests to embark on, which move the story along, as well as several side quests, which you can do to acquire new items, more money, advance your character, etc.

In our dwarven region, you will explore abandoned quarries, mountain passes, swamps, as well as the huge dwarven capitol of Silverholt. The amazon region will take you to ancient pyramids nestled in the jungle, cursed temples swarming with zombies, and the grasslands of the Fist where you will fight your way through swarms of orcs. The nightblade region will start out in a cliff dwelling and you will adventure out into the vast desert on your way to a mountain necropolis filled with undead minions. Our draconum region is high in the mountains atop rocky spires and will involve various mountainside crypts and caverns. And the elf region takes place in a snowy ravine complete with ice citadels and caverns.

Once you have your party together and the pieces of the puzzle complete, the story will take you to our final region, the Vurgra Divide, which is where the Apocalypse cult is staging its grand assault on the land.

GS: Mage Knight has an interesting skill system that's quite different from conventional role-playing games. For instance, there aren't "levels" in the game as we know them. Could you explain it for us?

Apparently, chain mail bikinis offer plenty of protection.

CW: For an action-based game, we thought the process of stopping play to distribute points interrupted the fast-paced nature of these kinds of games, so we took them out. We instead adopted a more natural evolution of the player character using a system we call ACD, or adaptive character development. The idea behind it is that we start you with a broad range of basic skills, and depending on which ones you use the most, you will naturally be granted new statistics and skills, which will further contribute to that play style. By doing this, people will simply play the game how they want to, using the abilities they like the most, and their character will become proficient in a particular discipline over time.

For example, if I was playing the nightblade character and continued to use vampiric attacks to defeat my enemies, my character stats would naturally gravitate toward those which contribute best to that skill set. Likewise, I will unlock new, more powerful vampiric skills and proficiencies as I progress. In addition to skills, stats, and proficiencies, my character will begin to take on a more vampiric appearance as she progresses up this skill tree. Her eyes may begin to glow red, and her skin may become pale. We think this will lead to a great diversity of combinations and play styles, which will not only benefit the single-player experience, but will make for a huge pool of multiplayer options and combinations.