Recently we interviewed Eric Lin over at IGG about their game Angels Online. We'll they've decided to write a Developer Journal for Allakhazam about the new expansion, "The Lost Atlantis". In the first installment of the series Eric discusses the inspiration for the direction that was taken during development on the expansion.

Chapter I: Inspiration of the Lost Atlantis

Angels, Not Exclusive to Heaven!

In the Lost Atlantis, all maps are in the deep sea, which is quite different from the original Angels Online maps in the first expansion, Eden. The inspiration came from the story of the Lost City of Atlantis and I have read it dozens of times. We set the background as follows:

Long ago, there was a mystical kingdom called Atlantis, which was located to the west of the beautiful city of Eden. Generations of Angels lived and worked there in peace. However, this peace was soon overwhelmed by the ferocity of war. After the war, Atlantis was torn from the land and sunk beneath the waves. Even after this tragedy the people of Eden sought peace.

One of the things I enjoy about this industry, particularly in the MMO space, is the variety of different games available to try at any given time. While I'm not generally a fan of most F2P (Free-2-Play) games on a personal level, I've seen the audience that games like La Tale have and during my time within the game, I was bombarded with social interaction. We had the opportunity to sit down with Ross Parks, the Producer of La Tale a few weeks ago to talk about the title in it's released state.

Allakhazam : Before we get started here, congratulations on your successful launch of La Tale!

Ross : Thank you! We're excited about La Tale and the great response it's received so far, and glad for the opportunity to share some details about the game with your readers.

Allakhazam : Can you tell us a little bit about La Tale?

About a dozen fansite folks milled around excitedly in the Moors of Ykesha as Christine “Kiara” Renzetti summoned us in from all over Norrath for the Beta tour of The Shadow Odyssey.  Moors of Ykesha is the (very) large overland solo-content zone for the expansion.  Current estimates give the number of quests available around 400.  We were greeted by Lindsay Morgan  “Miss Doomcookie” Lockhart, the zone designer and the developer responsible for all the pre-TSO lore at EQII Players.  She told us that the Ykeshan landmass is about the same size as Fens of Nathsar, but there's action in the waters, making it actually larger.  The continent was once attached to the south east of the Desert of Ro, and is where Grobb and Gutka used to be.  It's home to Clan Ykesha and the Rellosian Ogres, who turned from Rallos Zek to Cazic Thule to survive the Greenmist.  It's also home to the Gunthak pirates.  

Morgan also worked on the Signature quest, and tells us it involves some of the toughest zones in the expansion.  At launch there will also be six new Heritage Quests which tie in EverQuest lore, and of course two new Diety quest lines. 

We were joined by Brett “Breb” Schienert as Kiara began taking us through the exciting new group content.  These zones all scale to the level of the first person zoning in (most start at level 50), so remember to mentor down before you zone.  There are a ton of new collection quests, and it was fun watching Niami Denmother scamper from shiny to shiny. 

Do you like free games that require few system resources to run? How about cute games that you can play with your children or your weird friend Tom? I have the perfect game for you! Angels Online. I sat down with Eric Lin, one of the Product Managers over at IGG to talk about their Free to Play (F2P) title that recently released a new expansion titled "The Lost Atlantis".

Allakhazam : Hello! Thank you for sitting down with us to talk about Angels Online!

Eric : Thank you. I’m Eric, the Project Manager for Angels Online. It’s my pleasure to be sharing Angels Online with all your players.

Allakhazam : Can you just tell us a little bit about Angels Online?

Eric : Sure. Angels Online as developed by UserJoy Technology Corp, and it is an IGG published game that prides itself on its cute characters, rich storylines and tons of fancy items.

As a cute MMORPG, it continues to be popular with many teenager players. It offers players various professions and skills to choose from, meanwhile, lovely pets and rides in game are always very attractive. The complete quest system, the funny Totem Battle and Holy Battlefield offer players a shortcut to obtaining abundant reputation and experience. Angels Online also lights up player’s worlds with its cartoonish paintings.

Atlantica Online launches later today but not before Producer Kim Tae Gon get's in one more Developer Journal entry at Allakhazam. In his final journal he talks about the 'mercenary system' that just so happens to be a major part of your adventuring within Atlantica. You can start to hire mercenaries shortly after you create your character so pay attention!

You’ve Got Friends in Atlantica

In Atlantica Online, you'll always have friends. No matter what the rest of life is like, at least in Atlantica you can travel with your buddies around the world to places like Egypt, and very soon to California. If you like to kick some butt while seeing the sights, then the friends found in Atlantica that we call mercenaries will make for perfect travel companions. They've got some great travel gear swords, guns and some wicked spells.

When we created Atlantica, we wanted the mercenary system to really heighten the excitement and fun of the turn-based combat that we had envisioned and worked hard to realize. These two features together would make the game different from the normal single-character, real-time action found in most MMORPGs today. But it’s not different just to be different. We believe the combination of the two systems offers an exciting and fast-paced form of gameplay that will hopefully have players coming back for more. With multiple characters to control, each with numerous moves and magic to take advantage of, there are countless possibilities in how a player can fight a battle. We hope players will experiment and tinker with the many different options available to them.