Interview With Jon Belliss, Product Manager For Battle of the Immortals

Battle of the Immortals is a new, free-to-play MMO from Perfect Worlds (who published site favourite Torchlight) due to enter into closed-Beta testing in a couple of months. The game is already out in China and is undergoing some serious westernisation to get it geared up for the North American audience.

Taking Norse and Chinese mythology to drive its story and with a strong focus on equipment and player v player combat, the game is making a lot of people rather curious. We caught up with the game’s Product Manager, Jon Belliss, for more information.

Negative Gamer: Hi Jon, firstly thanks very much for taking the time to chat with us.

Could you tell to us a bit about your role as the Battle of the Immortals‘ Product Manager? Where is the game being developed and how many people are working on it?

Jon Belliss: Sure thing. As Product Manager for Battle of the Immortals, I am responsible for anything related to the North American version of Battle of the Immortals. Whether that is coordinating with the development team or internal departments here in North America, if it touches Battle of the Immortals, I’m involved. Battle of the Immortals is from our Shanghai studio where we have hundreds of talented individuals working on the game.

NG: As the publisher of one of Negative Gamer‘s favourite games from last year, Torchlight, is there anything Perfect World Entertainment has learned from that game that’s helping with the development of BoI? Is there anything you’re learning from making the BoI MMO that will go into the Torchlight MMO?

JB: Battle of the Immortals actually came out in China a long time before Torchlight came out here, but fans of Torchlight will be familiar with the isometric viewpoint. I’m a big fan of Torchlight and if you’re a fan of adventure RPGs, you’ll really enjoy Battle of the Immortals. With every successive title we release here in the US, we gain more and more perspective not only on the Free to Play industry, but on North American PC gamers. You can be sure that everything we learn, we take with us into our future titles. I’m 100% sure that BoI will have some relevant data and information for when we publish the Torchlight MMO.

NG: Something that’s always a concern to PC gamers is the specs needed to run games. Is there a target minimum computer spec you’re working towards? Will it be playable on netbooks, for example?

JB: We are always designing our games to be very scalable, which means that they look great on a gaming rig, while still looking nice and running smoothly lower spec PCs. Most of our games do run on netbooks, which makes them very accessible to everyone with a computer and an Internet connection. Each game’s minimum specs are located on its game page.

NG: Is the game a plot driven MMO or more of a player combat driven game? In other words; where do you expect players to spend most of their time, battling instances or each other?

JB: There is an adventure aspect and something unique to Battle of the Immortals that players will see unfolds in chapters. Once players hit level 31, the game gets very PvP-oriented, where you’ll have to battle other players for the best loot and in some cases, even to take down bosses.

NG: What do you think most differentiates BoI from the large number of other MMOs on the market?

JB: The coolest thing that I think that differentiates Battle of the Immortals from other MMOs is the gear. Every gear set meticulously detailed and in many cases animated, which I think a lot of people will geek out about. On top of that, Soul Gear, which is the best gear one can obtain, will be very customizable and will grow and level with the player.

NG: The notion of boss battles where multiple groups compete for the spoils (something you’ve described as PvPvE in the past) sounds like fun, but how do you balance that? How to the weaker teams remain successful?

JB: Without a doubt, Battle of the Immortals is pretty hardcore and so it’s pretty unforgiving for noobs. A tip to weaker teams: team up with another guild! Once you’re a part of a bigger guild, you’ll be able to participate in the Territory War System, which will give you access to rarer loot, resources and treasure. With this you will become much more powerful and thus be able to become a much stronger team. Naturally, we’ll be watching the behavior of our players during Closed Beta and readjusting content where needed in order to ensure that everyone has a good time with BoI.

NG: How did the story behind the game come about? A combination of Norse and Chinese mythology doesn’t seem like one of the more obvious pairings.

JB: It’s not obvious, but when you think about great mythology, how can you not compare the two? The story has a huge push around visiting lost civilization and uncovering mythological treasure. What other game will allow you to visit the great Egyptian Pyramids, discover the lost city of Atlantis or uncover the mysteries behind Easter Island? Except maybe, ‘œWhere in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?‘

NG: I have to ask, why pick a logo so similar to the grand-daddy of MMOs, World of Warcraft? Or is it simply co-incidence?

JB: Our logo is based off of the original Chinese logo for Battle of the Immortals. The original logo from China has a darker color scheme. We wanted to go with gold and blue as our primary colors for both the site as well as the logo. (Mostly because it fit with some of the concept backgrounds that we had.) It just so happened that the final product ended up having a strong resemblance to ‘œgrandpa’. In short, simply co-incidence.

NG: How different are the localised versions of the game from each other and do you think these difference could cause some gamers to raise complaints?

JB: When we localize a game, not only do we make sure that the text is translated correctly, but we also need to make sure that the gaming style fits, since each market is different. The way Asia might play MMOs is very different than what North Americans expect. A great example of this is the push back from gamers about the level of grind found in Aion, while Korean players are used to that in their MMOs.

The version that’s currently being published in China would definitely fall on deaf ears if directly ported to the US. It’s for that very reason that we’re paying specific attention to localizing the gameplay for BoI. This is a long and complex process that requires diligent attention to the root game design, while also knowing what works and what doesn’t in the US free-to-play market.

NG: How will gamers be paying for the game? Will monthly subscription options be available or will gamers be buying gear and gold?

JB: As with all of our games, Battle of the Immortals will be free-to-play. Unlike the monthly subscription model, players only need to open their wallets if they decide to purchase items from the cash shop. We like to think of it as you pay AFTER you’ve decided you like the game, not before. We also make a point to NOT let players buy the best items, weapons or equipment, to make it fair to all of our players.

NG: What’s the current time line looking like as far as the beta and eventual launch go, and once the game launches how many players would you be happy to see playing?

JB: We recently pushed out the closed beta for Battle of the Immortals to mid-April, so that we would be able to meet both players’ and our high gaming standards and you can read more about what we are working on at the official Perfect World blog here: http://www.perfectworld.com/blog/?p=8701

Once we kick Battle of the Immortals off, I would love to see as many players as possible in the game. I even challenge players as well as your readers to overload the servers! For us, we can only deliver the best game possible, but it’s the players that make it the best experience possible!

I consider myself very lucky to be working on a title that has such a receptive design team. Combining player feedback, with the knowledge base here at PWE, with the agile development team in Shanghai, I’m sure that BoI will do very well in the US market.

NG: Thank you very much for your time, and good luck with the beta!

For the latest BoI news check out the official game page.