Panumbra Interview July 23, 1998 at IGN

From:  http://rpgvaultarchive.ign.com/features/interviews/panumbra.shtml

Panumbra InterviewJuly 23, 1998 



When you think of online RPGs, Panumbra may not be a title which comes immediately to mind. Like quite a few other games, it is struggling to get its share of attention, both from the media and from gamers. Also like many other games, it has a uniquely interesting story behind it. The Vault Network's Jonric first heard about Panumbra last year, and has been keeping track of its progress ever since. He recently had the opportunity to obtain a full report on the game from Team Leader Marta Gabnai and Game Data Designer Brian Waak.

Jonric: Before we get into Panumbra itself, perhaps you'd give us a bit of background on your company, Manton Communications, and on yourselves.

Marta Gabnai: Manton Communications was formed in May 1996. It was the brain child of my husband, Jonathan Manton. Jonathan has been playing a mainframe-based multi-player RPG called Avatar for 11 years at the University of Illinois. In 1995, we both quit our jobs at Andersen Consulting and came back to Champaign to start Manton Communications. After a prototype and some attempts to raise financing, we decided to develop Panumbra from our own resources. We did the design for Panumbra in Spring 1997, and started programming May 1997. The demo, version 2.0, was released to the public on January 19th, 1998.

I'm the Team Leader. I do software design, work planning and coordinating, maintain the web site and keep contact with players. I am also the lead designer, but that means software design, not game design. Brian is our Game Data Designer. He made the world, the skills, monsters, maps, story etc. His D&D world, Taera is the basic world for Panumbra.

Jonric: You mentioned Java, which is unusual, but you also chose an unusual concept, a free web-based game supported by advertising. How did that come about?

Marta Gabnai: We think advertising is the web's revenue model of the future. We also like the idea of a free game because that is what we would like to see as players. There is a huge, unsatisfied demand for good free web-based games. On the other side, Internet advertising spending is growing exponentially. We believe if we act now, we can get a fair portion of that.

Jonric: You said you're developing Panumbra from your own resources...

Marta Gabnai: Yes. Our first investors were mainly friends and family. We used up that money long ago. Now, we support the company from Johnathan's consulting revenues. Everybody takes only money enough to live on. It is hard, but we hope our stock options will become very valuable.

Jonric: Have advertisers been responsive at all?

Marta Gabnai: Selling ads for a Java applet has been difficult, partly because we don't have enough impressions yet. We want to get to version 3, then start to build a user base large enough to sell Java-based ads. We realize this may take some time, so we are coming out with two new HTML-based games, which will hopefully start to bring in some advertising revenue.

Jonric: What kind of background did you bring to the game?

Marta Gabnai: Jonathan and I have backgrounds in large-scale client/server software development. Game developers do excellent PC games and beautiful graphics, but knowledge about massively multi-user, scalable, extendable software is comparatively scarce. In online gaming, this can be a definite competitive advantage.

Brian Waak: Game industry, well... um... you're looking at it. Game PLAYER, been doing that since I was nine. I've always favored games that bring you into a virtual world. But over the years I've gotten to know most of the genres pretty well.

Jonric: Any favorite games? Any that you feel were particular influences on Panumbra?

Marta Gabnai: My all-time favorite is Master of Magic. You have strategy, magic, heroes, items, tons of spells, and the best user interface I have seen. Other favorites include Diablo, X-Com, Railroad Tycoon, and lately, Earth 2025 on Solaria. Panumbra was Jonathan's idea, and the idea was based on the already mentioned Avatar. The idea has been changed a lot, but Avatar was the fundamental influence, for sure.

Brian Waak: Mostly RPGs and the new trading card games. My most obvious influence was D&D, with all the house rules I added to support the actual Taera campaign I ran in college. As far as game elements are concerned, my main influences were the Final Fantasy games and the Might & Magic series, particularly Isles of Terra and World of Xeen.

Jonric: How do you feel about the future of the RPG genre?

Marta Gabnai: The future is definitely online because it's the natural medium for RPGs; role-playing games are social by nature. But it takes a very different approach to develop a successful online game. In a PC game, the biggest selling factor is how it looks. In online gaming, the issue is how long players will play. Whether advertising-supported or pay-for-play, income depends on player longevity. Players stick with games they enjoy, not necessarily the ones with the best graphics. Look at GemStone and all the MUDs. Text-based! There is a huge, unsatisfied demand for online graphical RPGs, but they are coming slowly because of huge up-front development costs and lead-time.

Brian Waak: Games which stand out and get a following will succeed. I think "getting a following" is what we're focusing on. We don't have the resources to develop a Final Fantasy 7 or Ultima Online, so we'll go for something we can do. And we can do a free game that's fun to play. That'll get us a following, we hope.

Jonric: Where did the name Panumbra come from?

Brian Waak: My original D&D Taeran campaign was called "Shadow of the Ancients". Everybody agreed something involving "shadow" was good, and after months of debate we finally came up with the made-up word "Panumbra" - "Pan" meaning "all," and "umbra" meaning "shadow."

Jonric: How about the game itself? What are the main features?

Marta Gabnai: In the current version, you and kill monsters, gain experience and raise your skill levels. We have a sophisticated skill advancement system, several races and class templates. Items are coming in version 2.1. You see a 3D view of the dungeon. Monsters show up as pictures; they don't move. You can track other players, and chat with them. We already have a dedicated following, and it is a lot of fun if there are a lot of people on. The features are pretty basic now, but we are gradually adding more. The idea is to have a game which grows in front of the players, incorporating their feedback. For more info, check the features section on our web site http://www.shareplay.com/panumbra.

Jonric: Where and when does the game take place? What's the main story line?

Brian Waak: Version 3 is set in a small mountain mining town called Montparsa about 5000 years after the Annihilation ended the Golden Age of Taera. Some Tribal Orcs recently moved into the mines and began terrorizing the area. Players are either locals fighting for their livelihood and freedom, or adventurers who've come to help them.

Jonric: What is the game world like?

Brian Waak: It's largely a fantasy game with the usual warriors, wizards, dragons, and whatnot. However, Taera is a post-apocalyptic setting. It's set far enough in time past the cataclysm to have reached the stage of typical medieval life. But the ancient technologies and magic of the Ancient Taerans are still around in places, and characters may find working laser pistols, force shields, and such things to complicate their lives.

Jonric: How big is this world? And what will I find there?

Brian Waak: Taera is at least as big as Earth, and has underground areas including a "Hollow World". The initial release includes only a very small part of the surface world, but it will be expandable so players can always find new areas to explore.

Jonric: Cool. Now what will I find in that world? Many areas? NPCs to interact with? Monsters?

Brian Waak: There are many different areas planned already, and there will be even more in the future. There will be NPCs, but not necessarily in version 3. After all, what's the save-the-princess quest without a princess to save? We'll also add more monsters as time goes by. We have at least 20 in version 2.1, and there will be more for version 3.

Jonric: Are there quests or missions?

Brian Waak: At present, the game only has data-based quests. For instance, we have several monsters which appear in one place each in the game, and thus exist as a sort of challenge for players to reach and beat. And in version 2.1, several of these have special items that you can't get any other way.

Jonric: Can you tell me more about items?

Brian Waak: There are already special items, and artifacts, meaning there's only one in existence, are planned for the future. There are already at least 80 different items in 2.1, though many of those are simply different power levels - for instance, an Iron Sword is less powerful than a Mithril Sword.

Jonric: And how big a role does magic play?

Brian Waak: A huge role. Pure warriors, who don't use magic of any kind, won't tend to go very far. The three most powerful gods on this world are the three gods of magic - good, neutral, and evil respectively, so of course they influence the world that way.

Jonric: Can you tell me about the kinds of characters can I play?

Marta Gabnai: You can chose from six races (human, elf, dwarf, orc, goblin, gnome), and two more are coming in version 2.1 (minotaur and tabaxi). Races affect your statistics (strength, intelligence etc.), your starting vitals (hitpoints, mana, stamina), what kind of skills you can learn, and how fast you learn them. You also have a template (or class) which basically defines which skills you learn and how much - it is like your profession, and it is changeable and customizable. You can also customize both your starting attributes and skills. You can create as many characters as you want, and manage them from one game account. Visually...right now, you don't see other players. You only see them in the character list, and if they are in your area. We plan to add pictures and descriptions of adventurers, but that is in the future.

Jonric: How does character development work? Is it level-based, skill-based, some combination or something else?

Marta Gabnai: Ultimately skill-based, because your skills determine how powerful you are. However you only advance skills when you make experience levels. Also, every race has a different learning speed for every skill. Your template (class) tells how your skill points are distributed among the skills you want to learn. There are predefined templates in the game (warrior, sorcerer, fireslinger, healer, abjurer and the like) but you can also customize your character development basically without any limits. There are higher level skills which can only be attained after training in basic skills of similar nature.

Jonric: Is there a maximum for character levels and skills?

Marta Gabnai: Yes, but the maximums are very high, level 999. It is possible to max out skills though, which have maximum 100 levels. But with over 50 skills for every character, there is a lot of room for growth.

Jonric: What about combat? Can you fight other players? And how do you plan to address the PK issue?

Marta Gabnai: There is no player combat currently. We have to resolve interface issues first. You cannot see other players currently in the graphical view, so it would be hard to attack them. In the long run, we plan on "Wild Zones" where character combat is allowed. Players will be warned before entering them. We envision these zones as places to resolve conflicts resulting from role-playing; eg. a place for guild wars or player challenges. Our goal is to make the game fun, and foster community and cooperation. PKing tends to promote aggressiveness and anti-social behavior. Role-players argue that PKing is part of a virtual world. But most players just want to have fun, and not worry about their safety. Encouraging role-playing is a primary design goal but if role-playing conflicts with fun, fun comes first.

Jonric: How do you plan to address anti-social player behavior?

Marta Gabnai: So far we are lucky not to have to deal with it. We try to coach people nicely, but firmly, and that yields wonderful results... it only takes a little bit of understanding and tact. We also plan things like warnings and banning accounts, but as a last resort only. And we have a group of players, the Paladins of Panumbra, or PALs, whose main role is to help newbies, but they also coach people on respectful behavior.

Jonric: You've obviously put a lot of thought into world design and gameplay. Now let's look at the technical side. How does programming a multiplayer Java game differ from non-Java? What are the main benefits and restrictions?

Marta Gabnai: Panumbra is server-based with a Java client. Everything is processed and validated on the server, which is where our main advantage lies. The server uses all cutting-edge technologies to make it expandable and scalable. We aren't graphics experts, and are not trying to compete in that area.

Our engine has some exceptional advantages. One is expandability. Everything is data-based and highly parameterized, so that you can add world areas, monsters, items, races, templates, even skills without adding or modifying one single line of code.

Scalability means that the server load can be distributed over a network of computers. If load gets high on one server, we just move some areas to another machine. More people? Just add more servers.... and the world still looks continuous.

Maintainability. The system is very complex. We could not have done it without a formalized object-oriented software methodology, and the appropriate design tools. But we did, and now we have a well-written and documented code base to which we can add new features easily.

When we decided to go with Java, we loved that it runs from your browser, and is platform independent. Unfortunately that turned out to be untrue. Every Java implementation runs differently on every browser and every platform, and we have to work on all of them. As for limitations, you have to download the client every time, so it has to be small. Downloading graphics also takes time, limiting the number we can use. And Java is too slow for graphics manipulations like animations. We hope Java will mature, and these problems diminish. In the meantime, we will introduce in version 3 a Castanet version which lets you store the client and the graphics on your hard drive.

Jonric: How do you handle lag?

Marta Gabnai: Panumbra is not as dependent on response time as an action game since every skill has a built-in delay. A good connection helps, but unless you have a really bad one, you can enjoy playing.

Jonric: How about hacking and cheating?

Marta Gabnai: The Java client simply displays information and transmits commands to the server where everything is re-validated. So hacking the client would be useless. Cheating, we cannot really do much about. People will abuse a bug if they can. We try to encourage reporting bugs, and we don't mind a bit of abuse if you report it. But if you overdo it and we catch you, we'd probably do something like lower your levels.

Jonric: Where does the development process stand at the moment?

Marta Gabnai: Version 2.1 has entered system test, and it is expected to be released end of June. In the meantime, I am starting to design version 3. Our focus is version 3 which we think is the first "release" game, meaning it has all basic RPG elements. There will still be a lot of things to add in later versions, like guilds, quests and wild zones.

Jonric: What kinds of things will take the most time?

Marta Gabnai: By far, server design and programming, but as we go along, artwork and game data will be taking up more and more. We also need to be careful how much time we spend supporting the current version vs. developing the next one.

Jonric: What are your biggest problems right now?

Marta Gabnai: Money... we don't have any. One short-term solution is to launch two completely HTML-based games, which, apart from being really cool, are meant to help sell ads on a mass scale.

The complexity makes it hard to find and fix server errors. We will also have to rewrite the graphics engine at some point; it is very primitive now. Bandwidth and server capacity is also scarce, but that comes down to money again.

Jonric: What are the next important target dates in your development schedule?

Marta Gabnai: Version 2.1 with items is scheduled for release June 1st. Version 3, our first "full" version with trading, cities, outside world is scheduled for end of August. But Panumbra will never be completed. It will grow online, in front of the players... on the Internet, we can release new features as we go, and incorporate player feedback very quickly.

Jonric: How much more testing do you foresee?

Marta Gabnai: We will have an organized beta test after version 3. It may last as long as two months, but we'll see.

Jonric: Anything I haven't asked about that's you'd like to talk about?

Marta Gabnai: You were quite extensive LOL... but I'd like to invite everyone to visit our website http://www.shareplay.com to find out more, to subscribe to our newsletter, and of course to create an account to come in and play.

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