Stargate Worlds

Developer Chat

2008-04-28T10:19:53Z

Developer Chat with Aruspex this May 9th

There will be a developer chat with a developer on May 9th at 4PM East USA, 1PM West USA, 9PM UK. He is one of the system designers for Stargate Worlds. We commonly refer to him as Aruspex

Who? Aruspex of CME.

What? A live IRC developer chat with him for an hour.

Where? irc.sgwirc.com in channel #stargate-worlds ( Java: http://www.sgwirc.com/chat )

When? May 9th 2008 at 4PM East USA time, 9PM UK. Get there early to put your questions into the bot*.

The bot is a little tool we use to collect questions to screen before being asked.

Curse Stargate World

http://www.stargateworlds.com/

An Interview With: Stargate Worlds Again

2008-04-10T14:28:52Z

It's been a while since The Daily Quest has been active and I'm sure a lot of you out there are wondering where and why we disappeared. Well, that would be due to a slight change in direction for us.

Instead of writing messy articles without focus or inspiration, we've decided to change the direction The Daily Quest is heading and now, we will be focusing 100% of our efforts on An Interview With. We will be bring you one or two community relevant interviews with development teams, guilds and fan sites and so much more.

We've already interviewed the World of Warcraft themed dating site -- DateCraft -- as well as the guy responsible for World of Raids -- Teza -- not forgetting our interview with CME PR Manager Kevin Balentine about the upcoming MMO Stargate Worlds. You can read all of those articles by heading over to The Daily Quest!

This time around, we bring you an interview with A'a Netjer, a multi-gaming guild formed earlier this year that is waiting for the release of Stargate Worlds. We ask them about why they set up A'a Netjer as well as what they expect from the sci-fi MMO due for release later this year.

A'a Netjer members all want Beta! :D

What are you waiting for? Head on over and check it out!

Interview with Chris Bernert -- Lead Systems Designer

2007-12-18T03:34:13Z

mmolecule has a great interview with Chris Bernert available. Chris is the Lead Systems Designer of Stargate Worlds -- Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's upcoming MMORPG based on the sci-fi universe of Stargate.

First up after the introduction was a question I'm sure everyone who frequents Curse will be interested in -- User Interface Modification! Chris hinted at how customizable the User Interface for Stargate Worlds will be.

As I’m sure you already know everyone has a ton of questions regarding the user-interface. Will the UI be modular and fully customizable? Will third-party add-ons be allowed?
The UI design is based upon ease of use for the new player and customization for the more experienced player. We’re not ready to unveil the UI just yet but we are coming up with a design that is both easy to use as well as deep enough to maximize the play experience.

Chris was also asked about character customization on creation and he kindly obliged with some information:

Once a character is created, will there be options to change the aesthetics on that character -things like hair, skin color, height, weight, etc.?
Our character creation process allows the player to get the overall look of his or her character where they want it without too much minutia. We are using a more modular approach as opposed to a taking one face type and sliding bars in order to tweak cheekbones and such.

Players will control what faces, hairstyles, tattoos, scars, facial hair and other details their character will have.

The big difference between us and other MMOs though is that for us players get to play around with standard creation paradigms but they get to use objects created with the Stargate Worlds ‘look’ assigned to them.

Another hot topic in MMOs is character death, and this was echoed by mmolecule in the interview. Chris was up for the task and shared details on what happens when you die in Stargate Worlds.

There have been a lot of rumors and speculation about what happens when you die. Can you elaborate on this process?
Well, there is a great white light and you then begin to see many loved ones around you as you begin to float upwards and… Oh, you mean within the game.

All kidding aside, no one truly ‘dies’ in Stargate Worlds. They are just defeated. When a player is defeated they have three options; one is to revive in the nearest hospital. Two is to get revived by another player or three which is to revive where they were defeated. The penalties associated with these three choices are not finalized at this time but needless to say we want to make sure we find the balance between making defeat meaningful verses making it annoying.

This isn't the entire interview, though -- Chris Bernert answered quite a few questions, so head over and take a look.

Gates in Motion: A sitdown with Carl Coss

2007-09-06T01:36:45Z

Gateworlds has had the opportunity to sit down with creators of Stargate Worlds, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, and talk some about the ongoing development of their latest game.

GW: So it's not just objects. You'll also be responsible for animating the beaming effect?

CC: Well if an effect needs some heavy animation then, yeah, we can help out with it, but generally the art department is doing all the effects. Sometimes we'll see an effect and we'll be like, "To make it more real you should do this or this." And that'll help them out. But yeah, as far as the effects go, it's mostly their bag.

GW: OK. Wow. How did you get involved with Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment?

CC: Well, the art director, Howard Lyon, is a really good friend of mine. I've actually worked with Howard at a few other companies, including a company that we had ourselves, which was Professor Fog's Workshop. We made children's games and some budget games. It was pretty fun. So I've known Howard for a long time, and when he got the Art Director position he referred me here.

I owe it to Howard. It's awesome. It is a small valley here. There's only been a few companies through Phoenix. There's a good group of people here that all know each other. We hop around to the different companies. This is the best opportunity I've had and it's really exciting that Howard got involved and then I could get involved.

Click here to read the rest of the interview!

New Podcasts, Q&A and Developer Interview

2007-08-25T03:13:18Z

Stargate Worlds added a handful of new podcasts, interviews and Q&A sessions to their download section today.

You can listen to two podcasts where members of the Stargate Worlds development team discuss their plans for the game, check out the Developer Q&A where eleven questions direct from fans on the forums are answered, or check out Lead World Builder Josh Kurtz's own personal Developer Profile, where he talks about the Cheyenne Mountain team, his origins at Blizzard and his feelings about the current progress of his department.

Head over to the official Stargate Worlds website to find out more about all of this new SGW content.

Developer Bio: Nick Heitzman - Assistant Art Director

2007-04-30T19:16:35Z

Nick Heitzman, Assistant Art Director

Lets see, as I try and connect the dots that bring me to where I am today, I realize it has been an amazing journey.

Once upon a time, I was an Intelligence Specialist serving with the Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet in an intelligence analysis role. I was stationed on a ship whose home port was near Tokyo, Japan, and I was fortunate enough to travel all over the Orient, from Thailand, to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Australia, etc., etc. My life was wonderful, and I absolutely loved Japan, vowing to return someday even as I was sent to my next assignment for the Secretary of Defense, all the way to the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

While at the Pentagon, I began expanding my artistic talent. That talent had developed as I created elaborate briefing maps and classified illustrations, now I was using my art to create Japanese Comics with Japanese artists living in New York. They would draw the characters, and I would fill in the environments and backdrops. This was an amazing amount of fun.

My dabbling in manga creation only further stirred my desire to return to Japan. So after my career with the Navy was complete, I packed everything up and headed to Tokyo to seek my fortune. That fortune was discovered, even as I worked around the clock on freelance illustrations and art for various Japanese magazines - in the form of a tiny ad in the Japan Times, asking "Do You Want To Work On Videogames?" I thought, 'oh yeah, that sounds fun', and began a multi-part interview process which eventually landed me a job at SEGA Enterprises' Arcade Game Division. Working on such incredible arcade games as Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop, Daytona USA ... I look back at the sheer luck and good fortune to have been able to see these games take shape, and see firsthand the genius that SEGA embodied back then.

Alas, I became homesick for the United States eventually, and returned to Washington State where my family lived, to reintegrate into English speaking society. Unknown to me at the time, an actual game industry had developed in that area thanks to Nintendo and Microsoft. I put my skills learned at SEGA to use at Boss Games Studios on Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 titles, Microsoft Games Studios on Combat Flight Simulator v1.0, Cavedog Entertainment on Good & Evil and Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, as well as Surreal Software's PS2 Drakan game.

While at Surreal, I was offered the chance to work on EverQuest franchise MMO games at Sony Online Entertainment, and had four amazingly great years creating art for online titles in sunny San Diego. Working at SOE was definitely a high point, with some of the greatest coworkers I've had the pleasure of making games with so far. Unfortunately, my mother fell ill and passed away, and I wanted to be close to my father and family, so once more to Washington State I went.

This time I had the privilege of working at Gas Powered Games - first creating lush, expansive environments for Dungeon Siege II, and later as the lead artist working on the upcoming strategy title Supreme Commander. I can't say enough good things about my time at GPG, and I had every intention of working on games there forever ... until ...

... The opportunity appeared unexpectedly, to work on a game based on one of my all time favorite sci-fi shows and movie ever. Stargate.

No one at Gas Powered Games could fault the chance to be a part of Stargate Worlds. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment flew my wife and me out to beautiful Arizona, and thanks to almost 200 straight days of rain in Seattle, she was totally open to the idea of year-round sun and warmth.

That brings me to the present and how lucky I am to be the assistant art director on Stargate Worlds; working with our art director, acclaimed illustrator Howard Lyon, to bring our worlds and characters to life. We have an incredibly talented team of artists, engineers and designers devoted to the sole goal of creating the universe of Stargate for thousands to enjoy ... and the future looks brighter and brighter each day!

I am really enjoying this amazing journey!

Nick Heitzman

SG1-Radio"s Special Live Interview with Josh Kurtz

2007-04-26T10:39:27Z

SG-1 Radio is set to interview Josh Kurtz, the Lead World Builder for CME and Stargate Worlds, on May 4th at 2pm PST/5pm EST. Once again we are asking our listener base for input on what questions they want to hear asked. You can also post your question in the Stargate Worlds IRC during the show on April 4.

SG-1 Radio to interview Nick LaMartina!

2007-04-19T12:34:13Z

SG-1 Radio is set to interview Nick LaMartina, the Sound Designer for CME and Stargate Worlds, on April 20^th at 2pm PST/5pm EST.

Developer Profile: Alana Sabin, Graphic Designer

2007-04-05T23:02:03Z

Over at Cheyenne they have updated the developer profiles and information, giving us some "behind the scenes" peaks at the team behind Stargate Worlds. Below is the profile of Alana Sabin, one of the Graphic Designers working on UI and 2d art for the game.

I'm a third generation Arizona native. You know that saying, "Blood is thicker than water"? Not mine. I've lived through 28 Arizona summers and my thin AZ blood gets me shivering when the temperature dips below 75°.

What little growing up I've done up to now took place mostly in Apache Junction – a small town East of Phoenix. Unlike many of my talented cohorts here at Cheyenne, I exhibited very little talent in either video games or artistic ability as a young'un – though I found both extremely fun.

Right out of high school, I attended Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher, AZ, where I graduated with an Associates Degree in Liberal Studies. That basically means I went to school taking odd classes for two years and they gave me a degree for it. I had originally majored in Geology with a minor in Mathematics (yes, I took Calculus), with the intent of teaching high school math or science classes, but sometimes life just doesn't turn out the way you planned – and I say HOORAY for life not turning out the way you planned!

Armed with my Liberal Studies degree, I entered corporate America – first working in medical records, then for Mesa Public schools handling claims stemming from bus accidents, student injuries and worker's compensation. In the midst of all that, a pretty cool computer geek found me and asked me to marry him (geeks make the best husbands, imho). After having a little boy, I realized I didn't want to be the "stay-at-home" mom and that cool computer geek realized he didn't want to be the "go-to-work" dad. So, we decided to switch roles and I went back to school to get a more "serious" degree so that I could be the bread-winner.

Three years of working full-time as an Office Manager and going to school full-time at the Art Institute of Phoenix yielded me a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design (part of which I owe to my employer through those years, who allowed me to do homework during down times at the office. Thanks Bob!). While in school, I found my repressed artistic ability and put it to good use.

Working here at Cheyenne is my first gig out of college, which I find unbeatable to the nth degree. I managed to watch 11 seasons of Stargate (nine from SG-1 and two from Atlantis), within my first month on the job, and I've recently watched them all again – right up through the current seasons. Needless to say, I and my family are now avid Stargate fans…even the four-year-old!

Since working here, I've also been re-introduced to video games and can feel myself getting sucked into the world of acronyms (MMO's, RTS's, FPS's, RPG's). I find a curious delight in confounding my extended family members by talking in a language that only those involved in our universe can understand.

So what kind of work do I do here? Pretty much anything two-dimensional, but my primary work is on the User Interface. So if you have strong opinions on what makes a good one, visit the forums and make those opinions known (you're welcome, David). I've also done print work, t-shirts, and banners for our Marketing Department, and executed some "morale" projects for general office enjoyment. I work on different projects every week, which makes it exciting to come to work. In fact, I'm having so much fun at my job, I'd almost be willing to do it for free.

Almost.

Alana Sabin

Interview with Joe Ybarra

2007-04-04T21:42:48Z

MMOsite.com recently spoke to Joe Ybarra, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's Vice President of Product Development, and got him to lay to rest a couple of residual rumors that have circulated the Net about Stargate Worlds.

"I know there are a lot of people out there who can't wait to play Stargate Worlds," Joe tells MMOsite, "because I work with many of them and I hear from many others on our forums. I can't wait to play the game, but first we have to make sure it's ready. We expect to ship in 2008, but right now it s too soon to talk about beta dates. We just started our full production cycle and as we move forward those dates will become clearer."

Joe also discusses Cheyenne's eagerness to bring aboard talented individuals who have a passion for the gaming space.