Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Interview

Bit-tech.net got up close and personal with Josh Drescher, producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The Warhammer based MMO being developed by EA Mythic. Here’s a snip from the interview:

BT: So you were specifically offered the rights to a Warhammer MMO without having to hunt it down?

JD: The head of our studio is actually very good friends with the guys at Warhammer and they’ve known each other for years. It was one of those things where we’d been offered it before, but the timing was never quite right because of this or that. Luckily though the star just aligned a few years ago and we got a chance at this idea we couldn’t say no to. Warhammer is something that everyone knows, everyone loves.

For example, every time you’ve ever seen a green Orc then that’s come from Warhammer. Traditionally Orcs weren’t green until Warhammer. So, part of our artistic approach was trying to capture that traditional feel of the franchise. We have a high level of detail and, though some proportions are exaggerated, we’re certainly less cartoony than you’ll find in some other games.

That said, we’re perhaps not as photorealistic as some other games. The whole thing is about finding the right balance and avoiding that uncanny valley where the character is looking almost too real and is weirdly abstracted as a result. We needed to find something immersive, detailed, fantastic and evocative. It helps when you have a great art director.