Reakktor is well known for Neocron, a sci-fi masterpiece that remains a landmark in the past MMOs panorama. Now the next target is a flying one, and the competition will be very interesting with EVE Online and especially with the upcoming Jumpgate Evolution. We told with Kirk Lenke, CEO of Reakktor Media.

 

 

GS: Could you talk about the game’s background, including races and classes?          

In the 26th century, mankind has expanded across the galaxy, yet only few of its colonies are controlled by Humans. The true rulers are the cybernetically enhanced Tyi and the biogenetically perfected Genides. Their striving for total control over all human species drives them into the territory of an ancient alien race that does not tolerate other cosmic civilisations: the “Restorers”.

To survive this war and uncover the motives of the alien’s destructive behaviour, the player is forced to join one of the two dominant human races. Their search for the origin of the Restorers becomes a race for survival of all three human species.

Black Prophecy’s setting and background story has been created by the award winning sci-fi author Michael Marrak. Like none other, Michael succeeds in letting the player immerse into a complex and vibrant universe with its spectacular atmosphere.

 

 

GS: Giving a first glance to the teaser, BP looks similar in many ways to EVE Online and especially Jumpgate Evolution. What are the main features of the game able to beat the sci-fi competitors?

Unlike other games, Black Prophecy’s focus is set on action-paced real-time combat and straight-forward gameplay without the necessity to invest excessive amounts of time to achieve goals within your character development. Furthermore we put very much emphasis on making the player vs. player combat as attractive as possible. To this effect, Black Prophecy’s mission system will offer various different PvP missions in which specific mission objectives can be strategically assigned to one or more team members.

 

GS: How much of Neocron we’ll find again in BP, especially about the clan system?

Even though both games are completely different in their setting and game play we remain true in our way to create extra-ordinary atmospheric virtual worlds. Features that have been successful in Neocron will also be ported to Black Prophecy as much as they fit into the game play and render technically possible, such as the mentioned clan system.

 

GS: What’s the state of the game right now?

The game is currently in the early beta phase where the preparations for the upcoming closed beta have already begun.

 

GS: The graphics looks stunning. Could you talk about that? What’s the graphics engine implemented in BP?

For Black Prophecy we have licensed the Gamebryo graphics engine that has been modified for our needs and requirements. Black Prophecy’s network engine has been completely developed from scratch by our development team and is specially dimensioned for massively multiplayer online games. 

 

GS: The game will be PVP oriented or there will be solid PVE contents?

Black Prophecy will of course have solid PvE content as it is the major part of the character development. While it will be possible to already participate in PvP quite early, the PvP orientation will become fully apparent in the endgame where PvP combat in various forms will become daily business.

 

GS: A casual player will be able to enjoy the game?

Definitely, it is our stated aim to also appeal to the casual gamer by making the game as easy and intuitive as possible to play.  

 

 

GS: EVE online awaits “the ambulation” of the character since years. We will be able to see our alter ego in BP?

For the beginning it will be only possible to create a 3D avatar of your pilot which will appear in dialogs with NPCs or in conversations with other players but the so called “station walking” feature is definitely something we would like to see in Black Prophecy. Though this is not planned for final release version, we have plans to offer it as part of a future game update.

 

GS: What about instances in the game? How big will be the game’s universe?

Major parts of Black Prophecy will play in instances as we see this as the optimal way to let players enjoy the game without being disturbed by others. Of course there will be also open world areas where players can enjoy both, PvE and PvP content.

 

At the current time we are unable to provide details about the overall game world size as the game is still work in progress but we will see to provide further details in the near future.

 

GS: BP will be released only for pc or for consoles too?

Originally it was planned to release Black Prophecy for PC and XBOX 360, but the console version has been stopped by our former mother company, 10tacle Studios, in the past. The release of a console version in the near future seems quite unrealistic now as the porting to the XBox 360 is much more difficult to accomplish as it would have been in the beginning of the development. Nonetheless a console release of Black Prophecy is not completely ruled out.

 

GS: Could you talk about the music and soundtrack aspects of BP?

We have considered several kinds of music that we deemed suitable to support the setting and atmosphere of Black Prophecy at best. In the end we have decided to use a classic orchestral soundtrack without any electronic or synthetic elements.

 

The music itself was composed by Dynamedion who truly did a fantastic job. The themes and pieces have been worked out, composed and finalised in close cooperation with us over a period of about one year. The final recording has been realised in cooperation with Genuin Music Production Leipzig and the Brandburg Staatsorchester.

 

 

GS: How the character progression and evolution will work (skills, attributes, etc.)?

As the character system is still work in progress we can only reveal as much as that it will be a classic role-play system where skills give you access to better versions of items. Therefore, success or failure in combat is very much in the hands of the players in terms of utilising the ship and its abilities.

 

GS: What about crafting and ship’s customization?

The player can completely customize his space ship over the course of his career. He has the choice between hundreds of different Modules, with up to millions possible variations for his Ship. Furthermore, the modules can be customized through modifications, allowing the player to create a strongly individualized ship. A classical crafting system is not planned for the release version of Black Prophecy but could possibly be part of a future game update.

 

Thx to Reakktor for the interview.