A Christmas Warble - 11-Dec-2009

[Carl]

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel! My name is Mod Edam (yes, as in the cheese). I’ve recently started work at Jagex and my first project is this year’s Christmas event. I want to talk about what was going through my head as I developed this project, what I felt was important and how I approached it.

 

Plot

 

Beware of the Humbug

 

I was excited and a little daunted at having the Christmas event for my first project. As holiday events only stay in the game for a short while, developers are usually given more freedom to do what they want, however, this freedom can be a mixed blessing. Holiday events are some of the most played content in RuneScape and players have high expectations.

 

My foremost concern was getting the plot right. I know from experience (a couple of half-finished novels) that the overarching plot is the most important thing to get right when starting a project. From that, the characters, atmosphere and game mechanics are derived. If you get the plot wrong, it makes it so much harder to get everything else right.

 

As this was my first project, my first instinct was to go for something as quirky and off-the-wall as possible, but I subdued that impulse. I think when working with something like Christmas there’s a mine of timeless stories and folklore to dig into. If I were to create an off-the-wall Christmas, I’d risk alienating myself from this material and perhaps find myself unable to capture some of the things people most associate with Christmas.

 

The problem with reusing traditional Christmas tales, though, is that I run the risk of making something boring or creating something that feels like a sitcom’s cheesy Christmas special. Don’t get me wrong, cheesy Christmas specials are awesome, but I didn’t want to create something boring. I decided to use a traditional story as the basis of my event, but to change the perspective and give it a twist. Hopefully, a bit of humour and a fresh perspective could give the story a bit of a kick, yet still let me tap into that traditional atmosphere I have a hankering for.

 

Atmosphere

 

One of the main differences between quests and holiday events is atmosphere. An event has that charged, almost panicky atmosphere about it. The frantic mass of players who arrive in the first ten minutes has an anarchic beauty to it. It’s exciting to see all those players in one place (while the server whines and groans under the pressure of it all), but, more than that, holiday events are about inciting a feeling in a player. I want players to get just a little bit of that Christmassy feeling in their stomach while playing my event.

 

Creating atmosphere is partly done through dialogue and plot, but I think graphics will always play the bigger part. Communication between developers and graphics artists is crucial for success. As a developer, this stage can be quite scary - I have to trust that my graphic artists will produce what I want them to. Unless it’s something absolutely crucial to the in-game mechanics, I can’t really dictate how I want something to look. Instead, I tell the graphics artist what I want something’s function to be, or what a character’s back story is, then leave it to their expertise. If I were to try to control this process too much and say exactly how I wanted something to look, I’d be making poor use of their expertise and the project would undoubtedly suffer for it. As it is, I’m really pleased with what was produced.

 

Characters

MiscreantArt

 

In addition to creating new characters there were some old characters I was dying to re-use (there's a small cameo for Jack Frost and the return of some impish characters). For me, creating the new characters was the easy part; reusing the old ones proved far more challenging.

 

I had to be sensitive to the character - many NPCs are under another developer’s curatorship, so it’s good manners to make sure they’re happy with how I’ve used their NPCs. If I were to add a particular new trait to an NPC it could potentially hinder future developments for that character. There’s also the challenge of writing dialogue in a character’s ‘voice’. This can be tricky, and I sometimes found myself replaying old bits of content just to work out how one character may address another.

 

There are advantages to reusing old characters. The first is that I had tremendous fun writing the dialogue - especially for those I am particularly fond of. It also allowed me to layer the content a bit more and give the players who know RuneScape well a bit of added fun. I could create in-jokes and reference other content, and I could put these characters into situations they’ve not been in before.

 

Rewards

 

It’s been decided (I believe rightfully so) that holiday reward items shouldn’t give players a notable in-game advantage. Because of this, there’s the danger that holiday items end up at the back of a bank account or being looked after by Diango - why would a player choose to wear something that gives no advantage when they could wear something that does?

 

To an extent, I think us developers (and players) have to accept that holiday items won’t ever be the most-used items in the game, but that doesn’t mean they should be written-off as useless. For me, a good holiday item is one which looks cool and is a bit of fun. More importantly, it should have a distinctive look that’s true to the event it came from. What better way is there to nostalgically say "I was there at Christmas 2009" than by wearing a piece of it?

 

If you'd like to discuss this blog on the forums, please visit this forum thread.

[Dire_Wolf]

Looks OK. Just hope this Mod is not a type of developer who think's a half rotten carrot is cool.

[Carl]

Likewise! However, it was a rather enjoyable event. Just an awfully boring reward. But it's not all about the rewrads, so I'm not that bothered. Just as long as the event itself's enjoyable.

[Serpent Eye]

"Its been decided (I believe rightfully so) that holiday reward items shouldnt give players a notable in-game advantage."

 

:thumbup:

[Romy]

"Its been decided (I believe rightfully so) that holiday reward items shouldnt give players a notable in-game advantage."

 

:thumbup:

+1.

[Dire_Wolf]

"It’s been decided (I believe rightfully so) that holiday reward items shouldn’t give players a notable in-game advantage."

 

:thumbup:

A item does not have to have a in-game use to be useful...

 

Christmas scarfs - That's cool.

 

Santa outfitt - OK.

 

Easter carrot - lousy.

[Shepherdman7]

"It’s been decided (I believe rightfully so) that holiday reward items shouldn’t give players a notable in-game advantage."

 

:thumbup:

+1.

:thumbup: :thumbup: I agree it should be this way. As much as I would like another in-game advantage, this is the fair thing to do.

 

Now, give me a Christmas Cracker and that'll level the field, because I missed out on that in 2001. I'd say anyone there at the time at least was given the opportunity for an extreme advantage. :razz:

[Tim]

Hopefully they learnt from the Easter mistake. I'm quite looking forward to it.

[ilovecuttingyews]

Quite well written article. It looks quite promising, and so does this freash meat in the Jagex team. Just judging by his style of writing I think he'll be a good adition to the team.

[Pr3c1pit0us]

"Its been decided (I believe rightfully so) that holiday reward items shouldnt give players a notable in-game advantage."

 

:thumbup:

Other than the older holiday items, which gave economic advantage, what holiday items have given notable advantage? Why is this even here?

[meili]

I have my fingers crossed that it won't be a big huge difficult long and boring puzzle like last year. It took me like 2 hours sliding through all the rooms. :thumbdown: :thumbdown:

[Toad]

Was expecting a blog today (thursday-fridays) and woo it's a christmas blog, can't wait :) should be fun, the ice dragon looks sweet reminds me of tutorial 1

[ilovecuttingyews]

When do people think the event will be released? Christmas is on a Friday this year. So they could either release it Thursday or Friday the week before (17th/18th) or wait until Monday (21st). Monday seems to late but how often do we get Friday updates? I'm leaning towards the 17th.

[Toad]

When do people think the event will be released? Christmas is on a Friday this year. So they could either release it Thursday or Friday the week before (17th/18th) or wait until Monday (21st). Monday seems to late but how often do we get Friday updates? I'm leaning towards the 17th.

 

Well FTP3 is still scheduled this month I think, last year the Xmas event was released on the 16th, so around that timeframe I guess (we could get 2 updates next week)

[metoo1000]

Was expecting a blog today (thursday-fridays) and woo it's a christmas blog, can't wait :) should be fun, the ice dragon looks sweet reminds me of tutorial 1

 

yeah that dragon is pretty cool looking i hope they bring a more permanent dragon into the game that looks like that

[Tact]

I have my fingers crossed that it won't be a big huge difficult long and boring puzzle like last year. It took me like 2 hours sliding through all the rooms. :thumbdown: :thumbdown:

It was pretty easy once you figured out that you could slide diagonally. I also liked the small chunks of xp you could obtain along the way. ;)

[Hawks]

For me, a good holiday item is one which looks cool and is a bit of fun. More importantly, it should have a distinctive look thats true to the event it came from. What better way is there to nostalgically say "I was there at Christmas 2009" than by wearing a piece of it?

 

Yes. No more 'Easter Carrots' or Cornucopias. I want a matching set of clothing for my '05 hats and scarves! Or at least something cool... Santa suit was lame, I dunno why anyone chose it as our reward (if you recall, they had a poll and the players chose that stupid reward).

[rsp]

I have my fingers crossed that it won't be a big huge difficult long and boring puzzle like last year. It took me like 2 hours sliding through all the rooms. :thumbdown: :thumbdown:

 

We puzzle lovers cannot help that you want instant gratification... Try not to rain on others' parades please...

[Hippodo]

Quite well written article. It looks quite promising, and so does this freash meat in the Jagex team. Just judging by his style of writing I think he'll be a good adition to the team.

I agree, I think this event will be a good one :) I always like the Christmas events, with the whole theme of the Land of Snow and the Queen. They create a very nice atmosphere. And as a bonus, we get to see some of the new characters on the Christmas card :D (just like last year with Jack Frost).

[Punitive_D]

Santa suit was lame, I dunno why anyone chose it as our reward (if you recall, they had a poll and the players chose that stupid reward).

 

Really? You don't? Maybe I'm too cynical, but I can imagine those who were voting for the suit simultaneously running around buying up the hats. This much is certain, the hat roughly doubled in price at that time, hitting an all-time high. (It later fell back but since has rebounded to eclipse even the suit-induced high.)

[Romy]

Do you guys think we'll get another Cryptic clue fest event? (Possibly with a Sleuth-ish reward?)

[Pr3c1pit0us]

Do you guys think we'll get another Cryptic clue fest event? (Possibly with a Sleuth-ish reward?)

I loved that event.

 

We need more of these.

[Romy]

Do you guys think we'll get another Cryptic clue fest event? (Possibly with a Sleuth-ish reward?)

I loved that event.

 

We need more of these.

 

Definetly.

[Zepheras]

The Santa suit reward from last year wasn't that bad. It's one of those costumes that I don't mind seeing around in RuneScape, although the motive behind voting for it was blatantly obvious. What I dislike about last year's Christmas event was its un-christmas-like storyline, what's with the rebellious kid and weird family relationship between RuneScape NPCs and Santa Claus. I'm not a fan of Jack Frost, so his cameo better be as small as possible.

 

Looking forward to this wearable holiday item(s) :grin:

[LatinII]

Am I the only to notice the glow around the dragon, and around the environment? I'm guessing that that is the Bloom we've all been waiting for. Looks nice.