Land of Chaos Online is a hybrid between roleplaying, real-time strategy and first person shooter games. WarCry was lucky enough to score an interview with Product Manager Hendrik Loga. Learn what sets Land of Chaos Online apart from the pack (and grab the link to the awesome LOCO site) below:
1. Please introduce yourself and describe your position at burda:ic.
Hi, my name is Hendrik Loga, and I’m the Product Manager for LOCO – Land of Chaos Online.
2. Who does your web design? The Land of Chaos Online site is -awesome-!
Thank you for the compliment! I will be sure to pass that along to the development departments both here and at Danal, I’m sure they will be quite happy. Both teams are working closely together, but the main input and content is coming from Danal’s development team. They even built up an extra unit just for videos and webpage design. The whole team at Danal gave the game a very unique look and feel, so of course we want to share this unique tone with our users on the alaplaya website. We’d like to thank this great team for all the wonderful and exciting artwork and trailers they provide us.
3. Please tell us about Land of Chaos.
We have taken well-established elements from RTS titles like DOTA (the popular Warcraft 3 mod), MMOs, and third-person shooters and built them into a completely new game experience. LOCO brings these three game styles together in a very unique and interesting way, combining the tactical and strategic elements of an RTS, the variety and depth of an MMO, and the fast-paced action of a third-person shooter.
Although some features are quite similar to DOTA-style games, the main part of LOCO is a combination of MMO and third-person shooter elements. During matches, players earn experience and gold by fighting enemies and hostile heroes. They can then use that gold to buy temporary items (which only last until the end of the match), as well as upgrade heavy weapons, buildings, and other strategically important points.
Users also need to carefully build out the skill trees of their characters during matches, adjusting their selections and overall tactics based on the activities of their opponents. The third-person perspective, the layout of the controls, and the intense action that LOCO provides make it just as thrilling to play as any of the latest third-person shooters.
4. Has Land of Chaos been released elsewhere or is it a ‘new to the market’ game?
Loco will be released in Korea a short time before the US and EU version, so it is very close to being a simultaneous release. This is somewhat unusual for this type of game, but the developers have been focused on the preferences of western audiences from the very beginning.
5. Would you consider Land of Chaos online an MMORPG or more of an MMO action RPG?
Definitely an MMO action RPG. As already mentioned, one of the core features of LOCO is the action-oriented gameplay you know from other third-person shooters (like S4 League).
6. Where did the idea for the game come from and what is the back story for LOCO – Land of Chaos Online?
The idea for LOCO came from a creative and absolutely ambitious developer team. They came up with a game concept that combines three of the most popular game genres to create a new type of game experience.
For the background stories, we tried to stay clear of commonly-used “good and evil” clichés and instead focused on making the individual characters interesting to the users. Each character has his-or-her very own story and a unique reason for why they have joined the battle.
The story of the world is still confidential, and we plan to reveal it step-by-step as the launch of LOCO approaches. The story so far is that something evil has risen out of hell to destroy the world… although no one knows why. Each race and every hero has to decide which group they want to side with and it’s up to the users to decide which army they want to support.
7. What “mainstream” MMO characteristics does LOCO – Land of Chaos Online employ? What sets it apart from other MMOs?
Besides the already-mentioned combination of game elements and unique character design, we provide game modes like “Annihilation Mode” (classic Deathmatch) and Battlefield mode. The goal in Battlefield Mode is to power up your hero as fast as possible, vanquish the hostile defenses, and destroy the enemy headquarters. With the destruction of the last building, the final end boss appears to face down the challengers.
Character creation is the core of the entire game. Global customization lets users equip characters with unique weapons and items before joining a battle, although everybody has to start from scratch at the beginning of a match. During the fight, users gain experience by killing monsters, conquering strategically important stations, etc. With this experience they gain levels and also earn the right to use equipment chosen before the match.
8. Walk us through character creation. How customized can players make their ‘toons?
We will launch the game with twelve different characters. These heroes can be individualized in two ways, and the first is with equipment. To start, all the characters have basic equipment, and your mission as a player is to earn unique items, weapons, and armor to individualize their look and abilities.
The second way to customize heroes is through the varied skill possibilities in the game. Skill choices need be adjusted in response to opponents’ activities and the overall battle situation. Mastering all the skills in each character’s repertoire is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of the game.
9. What classes and races are included in LOCO – Land of Chaos Online?
We abandoned classic race concepts like elves and dwarves, as well as typical classes like warriors and mages. The heroes of Land of Chaos Online are absolutely unique and uncommon. Each character has his-or-her own background story that provides their motivation for why they are taking part in this war. Each character has their own specialization as well. Some are very strong, some have healing abilities, and others can cast powerful spells.
To guarantee they are ready for a wide range of scenarios, users can prepare up to three different characters before a match. They can then switch between their three choices during respawn times in a match. This is a very important aspect in the tactical elements of the game, as choosing the right character for the right situation is half of the battle.
10. How does the level up system work?
There are two different level systems. One is the global one (current max level 30) that mainly affects the users ranking, and the other one is the temporary, match-based level. The maximum level you can reach in a match is 17, and this is divided into several sublevels (1, 5, 9, 13, 17). Once a character has reached one of these sublevels, they can equip items the user chose before the battle.
11. Will Land of Chaos online be free to play?
As part of our gaming platform alaplaya ( http://www.alaplaya.net ) Land of Chaos Online will be free to play, yes. We provide all services (registration, game client, playing, enormous support, etc) for free to our users and it’s up to them to decide how much money, if any, they want to spend on their characters. As with all the other alaplaya games, LOCO only can live with a fair and working economy and that’s why we keep always a strict eye on pricing and on the balancing of items in the game. Both paying and non-paying users are an essential part of making a game fun for everyone.
12. Will there be an item mall? If so, what types of items will be included?
There will be an item mall, yes, and items that can be bought will mainly be rare and heavy equipment, permanent enchantments for weapons and armor, consumable items like potions, and much more. There will be a huge selection of different items for the users to customize their characters, but basically most of items in the mall will also be available as rare rewards after a successful battle.
13. Which purchasable item is your favorite and why?
My favorite one is the master sword of Nosferatu called “Gravestone”. I really like the style and effects it displays when you take down enemies. The neat thing is that Nosferatu controls his sword with his mind, not with his hands. This means that the blade floats in circles around him like a protective shield. That’s really cool.
14. What is your favorite area of the game and why? May we have a screenshot?
My favorite map is the “Crimson Fields”. The lovely and detailed design of this map is really great, and this area is the front of the whole war. Destroyed siege weapons and dead monsters are lying everywhere. The strategic positions are absolutely ingenious in design, so it is very hard to master an opponent here. Players looking for a challenge will love this map.
15. Will Land of Chaos online feature competitions and tournaments? Is there a guild system in place?
A clan system is always the heart of a good game, and we have built an extensive guild system that will let users organize themselves and plan battles from the very beginning. Weekly tournaments and competitions are also planned, and there may even be a special guild item mall.
16. Where can players go to get signed up?
Once you have an alaplaya account you can play all the alaplaya games without creating a new one. This means that users can sign up right now at alaplaya.net if they’d like to join our great community and have a shot at winning one of the closed beta accounts we will be giving away!
17. What are the system specifications to play the game?
A big goal for the developers was to create a game that can be played by everyone, both in terms of design complexity and system requirements. Anyone with a reasonably equipped PC should easily be able to join in the fun!
Minimum : Intel Core2 Duo Processor, 1GB Ram, GeForce 6600
Recommended : Intel Core2 Duo Processor , 2GB Ram, GeForce 7600
18. Tell us about the great music featured in the trailer. Who is Bada Kim?
Bada Kim is a very famous musical artist and band leader in Korea, and his music has given the release trailer a very unique touch. Based on the positive feedback from our community, we are excited to be working with Bada to include more of his music in the game.
By the way, the song “Ventil of Nightmare” can also be played in “Audition”, our Dance battle game on apalaya. It’s really fun! You can visit his profile and leave a message here: myspace.com/badakim
19. Please add anything else you wish!
LOCO is the sixth high-quality game to be featured on our gaming platform, alaplaya.net. Interested users should definitely sign up and give our other games a try because they may just be one of the lucky members of our community who gets a CBT account for LOCO!
Published: Apr 21, 2010 03:06 pm