More TED Talks

Procreating

Interesting Talks from TED.com

Le Tabarnak

GameSpot reviewer fired due to publisher pressure?

SIEGEcon Panel

Across the pond and to a different company

Dreamlords Review at MPOGD

Dreamlords scores an 8 at GamersHell

Some Dreamlords reviews

Escapist Q&A

TE: Tell me a bit about the gaming business scene in Sweden. I don't know a whole lot about it. What kind of environment do you guys work in? Is it competitive, is everyone supportive, who are some of the major players, etc.?

JS: It's a very exciting place to be developing games. There are a bunch of big names around, like Massive, DICE, Starbreeze, Avalanche. If you don't recognize the names of the studios I think their games might ring a bell: Ground Control, World in Conflict, Battlefield, Chronicles of Riddick, The Darkness and Just Cause. Over in Norway we have Funcom with Age of Conan lingering around the corner and a bit further out in the ocean there's the Icelandic CCP with their hit game EVE Online. We have the makers of Hitman over in Denmark and the creators of Max Payne a bit to the east in Finland. All in all, we are in good company and it's a very friendly environment. We run into each other on various expos and conferences from time to time and talk about what we are working on and exchange experiences. But more often than not it's just a great opportunity for the whole lot of us to get [drunk] together.

Stratics Q&A

Stratics: Dreamlords is only available from the Dreamlords website. The client is only available as a subscription download and you pay-as-you-play with monthly fees. What was behind your decision to not market the game so that it’s not sold in stores?

Jon Selin: Well, Lockpick Entertainment is an independent company, and we wanted to stay that way. This way we make all the calls regarding the game, no publisher can tell us what we can and can’t do. This is important for us. We don’t want the game to get dumbed down or have it populated with orcs and half-naked elves. Every penny we make goes directly to improving the game, not to some company that wants to increase its profit margins.

Comic at theBrasse.com

Ten Ton Hammer Interview from GDC

No one can ever fault Lockpick Entertainment for a lack of ambition, and that the game is launched, looks great, and has enjoyed near 100% server uptime since launch is an impressive accomplishment for a development concern operating with fewer than 30 employees. Even if you're not excited by Dreamlords, keep your eye on Jon Selin and the crew at Lockpick – they bring a level of concept-level intelligence and energy to an fairly inflexible genre that we haven't seen since EVE Online busted onto the scene in 2003.

New Developer Journal

A few days later, I was glaring at the true meaning behind his question. The Dumbest Quest in the World. Behind closed doors we call it “The Gay Quest”, and no, it’s not about gay bashing, the quest is actually about interracial homosexual relations, but it doesn’t stop there… Oh well, I better explain it from the top.

Dreamlords Preview

Dreamlords Launched!

Strategy Informer Interview

Strategy Informer: Thank you for your time! Is there anything else that you would you like to add?

Jon Selin: Well, we are a bit of the underdogs in this business. I have to say that the big games out there, like WoW for example, are doing a great job at being good at their thing. We are not trying to make a carbon copy of their game however, as we are not aiming at bringing over the people who actually like those games. If you don’t like those big games however, it might be interesting to try us out as we are very different from most things out there. Dreamlords launch the 15th of February and we will be there waiting, hoping that you decide to check us out.

Interview at MPOGD

Staci: How user friendly will the game ultimately be since real time strategy games aren't exactly known for their simplicity? Will players be able to quickly move about and do what they need, or will they get lost within numerous stat screens. How streamlined is the process?

Jon Selin: Ouch, going for the throat with the last question are we? Well, Dreamlords is admittedly a very complex game, there's no denying that. I think we have managed to get the learning curve somewhat reasonable in the end however. In the early alpha testing you had to be a rocket scientist to play the game, now with the new tutorial and expanded information about features in-game it is actually manageable. We are also shooting a new tutorial movie as we speak. There was actually someone's mother who was quite hooked on the game a while ago, and from what I gathered she wasn't very computer savvy at all so I think we are heading in the right direction.

Developer Journal

Basically, yes I do realize that this is starting to sound like Peter Gibbons in the movie Office Space. You know when he is explaining to his shrink that each of his days are worse than the ones before, hence every time you meet him he is having the worst day of his life. I even drew a picture to show exactly how it works:

Tattoo Time

MMORPG.com Interview

MMORPG.com: Are you able to tell us more about your personal avatar at this time? Describe for us character development and customization in Dreamlords.

Jon Selin: There are several aspects of the Dreamlord’s development. First of you have the traits, these are benefits that your Dreamlord can learn that will boost both his direct power but also influence the management of the land. Then you have equipment for the Dreamlord that you can gain for example from completing exceptionally hard quests. Just as the traits, the equipment strengthens the Dreamlord when he is used in direct combat but also empowers various aspects of your land. Both traits and Dreamlord equipment are persistent and carry over between Eras. Oh, one more thing Carolyn. I really don’t want to hurt your feelings or anything, and I hope that you can forgive me, but… there’s no painting of toe-nails or dying your armor pink in Dreamlords. It’s more on the dark side of the scale.

Dreamlords Launch Date Set

Interview at OnlineWelten

OnlineWelten: Dreamlords is divided in two technical parts: game client and browser. Can you express the difference between those parts?

Jon Selin: Basically Dreamlords is the product of the idea that browser-based strategy games would be a lot more fun to play if you add the element of action to them. The logical step would be to add some way of resolving the battles in real time combat, and that’s exactly what we did. The browser part of the game is what we call the management; this is the long-term strategy side of things. Everything revolving around the progression of your land and your character is situated here, and the basic premise is that pace is rather slow. Many of the things you can do take hours if not days in real life, but this is also a true persistent world, meaning that everything will develop while you are offline.

Interview at MMORPG.com

MMORPG.com: One of the unique attributes to Dreamlords is the ability to give orders and farm for resources through the website; will this feature continue to be a part of the game?

Jon Selin: Absolutely. One of our major features is that the game is separated into two parts, and that the management parts are easily accessible through a browser, this is not something we are planning to change. In fact we have greatly expanded in this area with the recent updates. The web parts now contain a much more intriguing gaming experience which you can really dig into; You have a map where you can explore, build cities, attack monsters, etc, there's a fairly advanced market where you can place buy and sell orders, the crafting system is coming along nicely, the tech-tree adds long-term strategy, etc. Then we have the community side of things where you can talk to your friend in the game and plot schemes together and work out your combined strategies. A future update that is approaching implementation is a really neat ladder system which will give very detailed information regarding the top players in different areas as well as people who are close to you. It should add a lot more competition and rivalry in the game for those who like it.

Dreamlords alpha-preview

Level7 Interview

Lockpick i Skövde är snart klara med sitt mest ambitiösa projekt hittills. Spelet heter Dreamlords och blandar strategi- och rollspelselement med ett onlinekoncept. Dreamlords har varit under utveckling i två år, sedan hösten 2004. Inspirerat av strategispel som Warcraft och Rome: Total War och gamla webbspel som Utopia är det lite av lead game designer Jon Selins drömspel – en djupare, över tid mer belönande och mer social strategiupplevelse än vad genren i regel bjuder på. – I RTS finns det inte så mycket som håller ihop matcherna. I Dreamlords finns det saker vid sidan om som gör ett helt nytt spel. Vi försöker göra ett spel som är mer sammanhållet, säger han.

E3 Coverage of Dreamlords

Developers are working hard to get away from conventional MMO issues such as grinding and boredom. Gathering resources will have dangers and battles with wandering monsters hoping to disrupt player progress. Players work together to master resources, politics and warfare. The Dreamlord beta is expected this summer with the game targeting release for late third or fourth quarter this year. The game certainly changes up the way we think of MMOs and adds large battles to a genre where you are not just one soldier, but the avatar of an entire army.

RPG Vault Interview

Jonric: What is the function of the web interface that you mentioned? How does it work, and does it let players do outside the normal game client?

Jon Selin: Since a very large amount of the management is done through a web interface, it can be accessed from computers that don't even have the game installed. However, when you want to get down and dirty and fight other players, you will need to have the client installed just like any traditional game. There is a duality to the game; on one hand, we have the slower-paced management interface, which is web-based and has a strong sense of long-term strategy to it, and on the other hand, the fast- paced action of the client where you play RTS battles against other players or embark on different quests.

Lockpick restructured

Dreamlords community launched

Dreamlords announced and site launched

Lockpick Entertainment founded

Saga of Ina wins Swedish Game Awards

- Det krävs en mångsidighet för att kunna sätta ihop pusselbitarna, det är det svåraste när man producerar ett spel. Alla bitarna är lika viktiga för att helheten ska bli bra, säger Jon Selin. I gruppen har det dessutom funnits en extern projektledare och en som har komponerat musiken.

CCP Games

White Wolf

• SIEGEcon Panel
• The Dumbest Quest in the World
• Being a Lead Designer

• More TED Talks
• Procreating
• Interesting Talks from TED.com
• Le Tabarnak
• GameSpot reviewer fired due to publisher pressure?
• SIEGEcon Panel
• Across the pond and to a different company
• Dreamlords Review at MPOGD
• Dreamlords scores an 8 at GamersHell
• Some Dreamlords reviews

Video Game Voters Network

Zero Punctuation

Save the Internet