Hellgate: London Updated Q&A - Quests and Quest Design

[MKRayden]

Hellgate: London is an action role-playing game that doesn't feature a fantasy setting, haughty elves, surly dwarves, or sassy peasants. Instead, this action RPG, which can be played from either first- or third-person perspective, is set in the gutted ruins of a future London after a dimensional portal has opened a rift that allows demons to enter the world. Your job is to kill every demon in your path as you pursue hundreds of quests and try to, hopefully, save the world. To learn more about the mission that you'll pursue, we turned to Ivan Sulic, writer for Flagship Studios. Hellgate: London will ship in late October.
GameSpot: We've heard that Hellgate: London will ship with hundreds of quests. How many are you up to currently? What's the typical quest like?
Ivan Sulic: I believe we're at about 250 quests for launch. There are essentially three primary quest types in Hellgate: London. We have story quests, template quests, and...um...tasks? The names get changed often. Apparently "task" isn't very exciting. Let's just call them, "Those grand opportunities of much astonishing fun."



Anyway, story quests are entirely unique. They are coded to offer experiences that may include minigames, special scenarios and/or events, environment alterations, and scripts not found in template quests. For instance, we have a story quest that lets players control a giant robot. We even have story quests that see the player leaping into the mind of a madman, chasing demons through supernatural rifts, delving the depths of an ever-darkening crypt, assembling a gibbering monkeylike demon from various gruesome pieces, shooting down a massive airborne demon with heavy weaponry, and even participating in several minigames modeled after popular competitive multiplayer modes like king of the hill, domination, and tug of war.
Template quests are pretty straightforward. They are built off eight basic formulas: collect, explore, escort, infestation, hunt, travel/talk-and-do, use item, and operate object. Templates allow us to create quests assigned to different non-player characters without a lot of code work. Their primary function is to give players something to do while they undertake story quests: Going to Bloomsbury because the story said so? You might as well pick up some template-driven side quests that also point to Bloomsbury. It's all pretty self-explanatory: kill stuff, get stuff, save stuff, etc.
The final type, which I'll just keep right on calling "tasks" until someone kills me with a hammer, are combinations of templates and story quests. We code each of these, but we do it in a way that allows us to drop them into the game at various parts. So, we may have a task players can stumble upon midmission, such as "Help me! I've been mauled by that thing over there. It shot purple stuff at my eyes. Most unpleasant. I'm quite sure I've got some kind of infection now. Can you do something about it? If so, you'll first need to do these other three things." Stuff like that.
There aren't so many tasks in the game at present, but there are a heck of a lot of story quests and templates. Our plan for future content includes developing much more of each type but focusing a bit more heavily on the random tasks that may appear during any given quest.
GS: Lots of games feature template quests. For example, you usually have to go out and kill X number of a certain creature or you have to deliver an object to someone. How does Hellgate put a unique spin on them?
IS: Our randomization systems help ensure every potentially mundane activity is unique in its own way. We also try and add a lot of character to our characters. Hopefully, if players are inclined to read quest dialogs, they'll be entertained, amused, or even offended. Anything but bored will work for me.
Aside from that, we try and make sure our primary story quests are as interesting as possible from both narrative and gameplay-design perspectives. Although, we are aware that templates and tasks are only there to enhance those primary quests and give players something extra to achieve while adventuring.
That being said, coding giant robots and real-time strategy minigames is a lot of work. It's just not financially viable to create an entire RPG experience off unique elements like that. And so, like most other developers (as you mentioned), we implement templates and tasks to create more activities for the player. But they also balance out leveling and loot gathering.

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