The Safehouse

City of Heros is the hottest new MMORPG on the block. Set in the fantasy city of Paragon, players can transform a simple Avatar into an awesome super hero. Created by Cryptic Studios, the game has breathed fresh life into a genre dominated by aging heavyweights with a game that just blows your socks off!

With a tip of the hat to Mease the Mad, I sought out our resident rogue who just happend to be an Artist at Cryptic Studios. I am proud to bring you another Safehouse exclusive interview with Christopher Chamberlain of Cryptic Studios!

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Q: So....hows it going? Do you wear tights and and a mask at work?

Yes! I also go by the name of the Stupendous Irony. My super power is that I cackle with glee as I leap off of our rooftops, and plummet to the ground.

Q: So when your not covered in Spandex what do you at Cryptic Studios?

In short, anything that moves other than the player, I've built it. Villains, NPC's etc. We have a very small team, and were much much smaller up until recently, so many of us had to cover a lot of ground.

Q: Do you play the game often? What class? You gonna join the SH Supergroup Reedemed?

Yes, I play quite a bit! I prefer Scrappers and Defenders as they are more my playstyle. I would have liked to, but unfortunately we cannot give out our in game names. Although mine isn't exactly hard to figure out. Wink

Q: Artist eh? How long have you been drawing?

I think my earliest portrait was with Gerber Mashed Bean Paste on the table. So it's been awhile, probably some 25 years.

Q: Whats the first piece you remember drawing?

The first thing I drew that I was really excited about, was my rogue character from D&D. I thought she turned out so well, and I look back now and she sort of resembles Sponge Bob Squarepants.

Q: Have we seen your work in other games or material?

Probably not, I worked for Atari/Midway for 2 years before Cryptic. Both games were cancelled only a year into development, which is why I eventually left for Cryptic, which was a bit scary considering we were all just this little start up company, trying to do something so huge.
I've had other things here and there, animation festivals, our manual, etc.

Q: Did you start working in the computer games industry or something else?

Inititally, my dream was to be a comic book artist. I remember when I was about 16 and Jim Lee announced that they were looking for some artists to draw a new comic called Gen-13. All you had to do was send in your art. Unfortunatly I lost out to some nobody hack named Campbell. (Sarcasm there, the guy is probably my favorite comic artist, and is much better than I am.)
Bartending paid the bills for the next few years, then around '96 I found a school that had 3D art/animation. What a cool job it would be to make video games! I played them 24/7 as it was, it was almost a no brainer. I couldn't believe it hadn't dawned on me sooner. However even after school it still took me 1 1/2 years to find a job. It's a tough industry to get into, but once you do, it's great.

Q: Any isnpirations from old classics games?

Oh of course! Bard's Tale 3, the Thief of Fate is still my favorite RPG to date. But most of the inspiration for villains comes from a huge variety of sources. Anywhere from City of Lost Children to Big Trouble in Little China to Brom artwork.

Q: What engine is the game built on?

An in house engine that our lead programmer/engineer guy Bruce created. He makes it look so easy!

Q: Do you do level design, character design, mob design? If so what specific models, zones or structures did you work on?

As mentioned before, I do most of the things that move in the game. But about 90% of my time is spent of villains. Probably my favorites are TV headman from the Lost, the Devoured from Devouring Earth and the Shockers from the Freakshow.
It usually takes about 1 week per villain. This is from start to finish which includes modeling, UV mapping, textures, skinning it to the skeleton, LODs, and then actually making sure it's all in there.
A funny sidenote is that the villain who gets the most complaints about his look is the Hamidon. The funny thing is he took close to 6 weeks to create!

Q: Did you work on the graphics for the powers? I love how combat is a visual orgy of fun.

Most of the FX are done by our great artist here Doug, he has done some amazing things with the FX system. I really only do FX for villains which finish out their costume. (Auras, glowing eyes, etc.) However they did let me create the entire FX set for the upcoming Carnival of Shadows, which was a lot of fun. It's a nice change doing FX from doing villains all day.

Q: The surviving 8 have some really nice costumes, did you work on them as well?

Yeah, we wanted to give each of the Surviving 8 a unique costume piece that made them stand out from any of the players could choose from. To be honest, I was bugging my boss to let my character equip Back Alley Brawlers gloves... I love those things!

Q: My favorite gangs so far are the Freakshow and the Lost, they look like something between Mad Max and Heavy Metal, where do you get the ideas for them?

A lot of the ideas come from my art director Matt Harvey. He has this HUGE plethora of material for ideas and himself is a big fan of many different genres. However he lets me design many villains as well. The Lost were one of these sets, and I went around asking everyone in the company, "If you were a homeless warrior, what would you use for armour?" Thats where most of the odd things like the Stop sign breastplate came from. I had created even goofier things, but they started to look almost comical, so we reigned it in a bit. The fishbowl helmet (equipped with a goldfish!) was cut unfortunately. Smile
I really like the idea behind the Freakshow, they are one of my favorite villain groups. Much of their inspiration came from, like you mentioned, Mad Max and the like. They are fun, because for me, maniacal villains are the coolest.
If some of the villain faces look similar, its because I use my face for a ton of reference. It's hard to find people to pose with a Jack Nicholson 'Shining' gleam in their eye. So I do it myself!

Q; You know CoH is pretty damn impressive, is there anything that you wanted to include but couldn't?

Oh man! This game is currently only about 10% of what we all would like it to be. Having been a huge MMO/MUD player myself, I wanted to include so many other cool ideas. The problem has really just been time. It's taken me alone over 3 years just to create all of the villains, and there are just tons more I would like to do. The options are endless.
I think a year from now, this game will be huge in terms of gameplay elements. With all of the stuff we have planned for the next year, by the time City of Villains is implemented, this should be a very very diverse game.
We are all huge gamers, and like everyone else, we seriously want ALL of the things that people mention. We don't cut things from the game to save money, or because it's too hard. It really is just all time. We have this HUGE list of stuff we want to add, then we prioritize it down to what can get us the most bang for the buck. Once all of the main things we want to get in are in, then we can start focusing on the littler things. Which is what many of you will be seeing within in the next few months.

Q: What can we expect as far as player models? Will we ever be able to change our costumes? If so to what extent? Will it be something separate from the power respec?

As many people are seeing, we are currently expanding the costume changing abilities. Currently you can change out particular parts at any time, and thats just the beginning of what we would like to do.
There are some really really cool things designed for player costumes coming up.

Q: Capes?

Shhh... >whispers< but the capes look friggen awesome! Like nothing I've ever seen in an MMO before, you will be impressed.

Q: There is alot of attention to detail. The stop signs have scratches and graffiti, the streetights have moths around them it seems alot has gone in into making Paragon City feel real. Other games have tried this and failed, how do you make it so seameless?

I think this has a lot to do with Matt Harvy's vision. He knows what needs to be there and where to draw the line. Many things we cant add just because of technical reasons (street signs would take up an amazing amount of texture space.), however he makes up for it in other areas so that the city really does seem to have its own life.

Q: Wil the trend of freee content upgrades continue or can we expect a content expansion before CoV?

As far as I know, everything will be free. The first pay expansion will be City of Villains, and thats a ways off.
Our next free expansion is really insane. There is so much we are adding in that patch, I can't believe it's all getting done.

Q; Any tips for tweaking the system for smoother gameplay? Whats up with the graphic slider? I still dont see any real effect from messing with the sliders. How does the particle thing work?

Man I wish I could help. Remember though, I'm an artist, I use the left side of my brain. Or is it my right? Either way I dont use the smart half. Smile
To be honest though, I'm fairly sure the graphic slider pulls in the LOD's. LOD means level of detail. Everything in the game is created in 3 levels. For example, that Hellion you beat on up close probably has around 1400 polygons. When he is about 50 feet away, the geometry is switched to around 900 polygons. And at about 200 feet he is switched to about 200 polygons. The slider should reel that in and out to make things easier on different graphics cards.
Not entirely sure how the particle thing works, since thats not my area. I would assume it works on the same principle though.

Q&A Lighting Round
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Q: Pancakes or Vanilla Pancakes?
Bunnies with pancakes on their heads!

QC or Marvel?
Marvel if I can include Batman.

Q: Gnomes or Hobbits?
Gnomes of course!

Q: CD you currently listen to?
Someone just turned me on to a band called Luxt. I've been listening to all 3 of their CD's for about a week now.
One of the best bands I've heard in years.

Q: Love is....
Video games! My wife comes in at a close second.
If my wife is reading this, then it was nice knowing you all.

Q: Coffee or Tea?
What kind of question is this? Mountain Dew of course!

Q: PC or Console?
PC, even though they frustrate the hell outta me.

Q: I-tunes or Kazaa?
I use something called Music Match. Nice little program, and has TONS of stuff and all the music I need.

Q: Pen & Paper or MMORPG?
MMO's. I dig the versatility of P&P, but I am too much into the visuals these days. I need to see my big bad sword o' doom! And it better have flaming kittens on it!

Q:Anything I missed or something on your mind?
Having been my first interview, thanks for all the great questions! I almost feel like J.Lo!

Many thanks for this time and be sure to stop by our CoH forums and join the fun!

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