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Free Realms Welcome Players HOME!-Developer Blog

Dec 6, 2009 Articles Recommend|291views

Hi, I’m Darrin McPherson, a Senior Game Designer on the Free Realms development team and I am here to give you some more details on an upcoming new feature– Player Houses! You heard me right! Players will soon be able to own their own homes in Free Realms. Meant to give you a little space in the world (or a big space depending on the house you buy) to call your own, player housing will allow you to get really creative with your interior and exterior decorating skills. You can also invite friends over to show off your new pad or throw a house party and go wild!

Our team has been working hard so that owning a home will be a fun experience for all of our players. Our artists have been hard at work building unique furniture and decorations so that you can make your house look just how you want it to. And, while our artists have been busy creating items, our programmers have focused on making it easy to place and move your items and decorations within your house.

Items for your home are not just about couches, desks and tables – that stuff is cool, but come on, where is the really cool stuff? A group of our artists and designers have been specifically tasked with creating a load of fun, extraordinary items that you can buy like a gumball machine, jukebox, aquarium or even a full blown fountain! Other “fun items” vary wildly, from a talking stone head to an enormous rocket ship that will launch when you tell it to.

You’ll also want to be certain to check out the Mega Dance Floor which is sure to be the center of any house party. And of course, no party would be complete without an AHSA (Automatic Head Size Augmenter) which makes the heads of all the players and pets in your home grow huge.

Everyone who plays Free Realms will get a free apartment that they can live in and decorate. Members also get a free two room house complete with a yard. There is also a deluxe house that can be purchased.

And this is just the beginning …We have big plans for the future of Free Realms houses, so stay tuned!

Darrin McPherson
Sr. Game Designer
Free Realms
www.FreeRealms.com

Tags: Free Realms

How To Become A Soccer Star-Free Realms

Nov 7, 2009 Articles Recommend|394views

There’s nothing quite like tripping avatars and scoring on their goalie. That is what I have learned from my time with the soccer mini-game in Free Realms. I like to trip dudes and take the ball right out from under them. It is a tactic you will become quite familiar with while on your way to becoming a soccer star in Free Realms.

Mechanically, you can play as a soccer star relatively well. The controls are awkward though and they take some time getting accustomed to. The scheme seems like it would be much more at home on a controller than a keyboard. If you like Free Realms you will learn to live with it. If Free Realms is more of a passing fancy you might not want to deal with the uncomfortable control scheme.

The tutorial will teach you about the controls and power ups. To begin, you need to talk to Manager Landon. He is south of Snowhill and marked as a soccer ball on the main map. The Snowhill soccer field has access to the tutorial which I suggest completing before working on the first quest Manager Landon will give you. In the tutorial, you will be briefed on the control scheme and the overall set up of the mini-game. Matches are three on three and consist of two halves (each lasting three minutes). The goal you are trying to score on will always be fixed at the top of the screen. You do not control the camera during soccer matches. This means you have limited vision of sorts and it can make controlling your character feel like it is on a grid. The spacebar or left-clicking will do a number of things. While on defense it will make you slide and kick the ball out from under other opposing team members. While on offense, with the soccer ball, spacebar and left-clicking will kick the ball. Holding either of those buttons down will charge up the kick. Your alt button on the right side of the keyboard or your right-click on the mouse will let you pass the ball. Your ctrl button on the right side of the keyboard will dodge opposing team members.

The tutorial will also teach you about power ups on the field. There are three types of power ups for you to grab during a match. The first is a toughness power up allows you to get up quicker if you are knocked down. The next is a speed booster power up makes you run faster. The last is a charge speed power up increases the rate at which you charge up your kicks. To easily identify the power ups this is what they each look like. The toughness power up looks like a person with red ribbons around him. The speed boost power up looks like a shoe with wings. The charge speed power up looks like lightning bolt.

Manager Landon will start you on your soccer adventure with “Snowy Scrimmage.” To complete this quest you visit the Snowhill soccer field and select the question mark for the quest. Win the scrimmage and the quest will complete. Return to Manager Landon and pick up the new “Meeting the Team” quest. For this quest you will talk to members of the Snowhill soccer team. They are nearby at a picnic ground and are all in one area. Finish this by talking to Golden Leg Eddie at the picnic area. He’ll ask you to find the “Perfect Mascot” for the team. The mascot is a dog in close proximity to the picnic area and soccer field. You just need to click the dog and then return to Golden Leg Eddie. He will give you a new pair of cleats, money, and experience for completion.

In the “Goal Stopper” quest you must defeat the Goalstoppers without them scoring five times. This quest will offer a soccer star ring along with money and experience. After you have stopped the Goalstoppers return to Golden Legs Eddie again. He will require you to hit level five before continuing. Compete in a few matches to hit level five. Once you are level five another visit to Golden Legs Eddie is in order.

Right now, leveling the soccer star job is available to everyone until soccer star level five. After level five, you must be a member to continue leveling the job to 20. Getting to level five is an easy task but pay attention because matches do get harder as you level up. With the uncomfortable control scheme you will need to practice to really master the job. Do not be afraid to participate in scrimmages or lobby games to hone your skills. You will still level the job even if you lose a match so do not be too discouraged if your team loses.

All in all, the soccer star job lets you enjoy a taste of the sport without the grass stains, scraped knees, or throbbing headaches. This is not a high simulation version of soccer but it does the sport justice inside a massively multiplayer online game. Not to mention, it is not a tile matching game which makes it a vast improvement on what is already present in Free Realms.

Tags: Free Realms

Free Realms Lead Designer talk about the plans for F2P MMO

Sep 22, 2009 Articles Recommend|629views

There was a lot of talk about Free Realms at AGDC this year. We had the chance to sit with Laralyn McWilliams, Lead Designer on the game and talk about the success and future plans for the F2P MMO.

Laralyn first talked about the live events and how successful they had been. The Dares concert from E3 started things off and SOE has continued to make player events a priority. The concert was followed up with fireworks on the 4th of July. These types of parties go a long way with players and the social aspects of the game have picked up because of that.

Laralyn next talked about how important family play is in Free Realms. SOE is seeing many families play together and more importantly the parents are posting on the forums asking and looking for advice.

Speaking of parents, the concerns are always there to protect children online. Customer service has banned a lot of accounts for inappropriate language or behavior. Even with Free Realms chat system, they are still always on the lookout to keep kids safe. In game, if players are caught breaking the rules, there is a final warning from an NPC dressed like a state trooper. This gives players one last chance to correct themselves before there account is banned.

It is important to note that player housing remains an important part of Free Realms. It is part of the long term goals on the game. Players will enjoy full customization with there houses and expect to have lots of options when decorating their gardens, front lawns, etc.

The other area SOE wants to expand in Free Realms is the mini games. Right now, mini games remain a major part of the world. Free Realms is expected to launch many more in the near future. Currently, card dueling is a very popular area for players and there is even a profession players can learn called Card Duelist. The cards remain an important part of the online store as well, with decks being at the top of the items in sales. Free Realms is also about to launch soccer into the game and hopes to gain members of the international audience by having the world’s most popular sport available to players.

Being a game designer herself, Laralyn talked about how SOE’s goal with Free Realms was to bring the gender populaton to 50/50. Right now 67% of players are male, 33% are female and SOE is doing more to bring that number to an even level. Laralyn explained that they don’t make any assumptions of players. Some mechanics are gender based, but they are layered above many mechanics that work well for both genders.

In his keynote address, John Smedley talked about the age level of players in Free Realms. 51% of the players are under the age of thirteen. 29% are between the ages of 13-17. 12% are from the ages 18-24. The remaining 8% is broken up between ages 25-34, 35-55, and 45 and up. These numbers showed the kid friendly atmostphere of the game, but also how it appeals to adults.

Because the kid population is so high, the game was designed around short play spans of about 20 minutes. John explained that you needed to approach things differently when creating the game for kids. The biggest element was to make sure the game was easy to get into. Especially when asking someone their age. John pointed out that most children know their birthday, but they may not know the year they were born. Change the opening log in to ask how old they were improved the ease of getting into the game tremendously.

Jobs are important in Free Realms, they make up the choices players make fore their characters on style of class they will play. Right now the number one job in the game is a Brawler. The Brawler is a combat class which is more like a traditional MMO class. This is followed by the Demolition Derby driver and the Race Car Driver. The racing and demolition derby games in Free Realms are tremendously popular. Oddly enough the number four and five ranked jobs are the Pet Trainer and the Chef. The pet trainer is fun because pets are very interactive in the game. There are lots of commands and abilities you can explore with your pet. The chef takes advantage of cooking mini games all over the world similar to Cooking Mama styles games seen on the Wii and DS.

When talking about monetization of the game, John explained that 50% of the players have used the store. Of those 50%, 68% were girls. The number one purchased item in the store is card decks for the trading card game with Card Duelist growing quickly as a popular job. Other items that are popular in the in game store are health potions, costumes, and pets.

When it comes to marketing Free Realms, the TV is the best way to reach kids. The peak time is about 5:30 pm in the evening just before dinner and bed time. The channels that reach kids are easy to figure out: Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and The Disney Channel. The game sees huge spikes in traffic after the commercials are shown and within five minutes of a commercial run they can check the new log-ins.

SOE continues plans for more kid friendly and casual friendly games. John Smedley mentioned that they are working on a Facebook MMO and also have another project in the works for the kids market. The chat with Laralyn and John’s keynote gave us a strong insight into the Free Realms world. Not just from the kid’s perspective, but from the eyes of SOE as well.

Article By: Garrett Fuller From :MMORPG

Tags: Free Realms

Free Realms: Cheffin’ Ain’t Easy

Sep 13, 2009 Articles Recommend|298views

As one of the professions in Free Realms, the chef is a fun distraction from combat. As a chef, your primary concerns are with harvesting food and then cooking it. You harvest food at farms around the world and they are marked on your world map from the beginning. You cook at cooking tables you’ll find throughout the world with your harvested materials.

Without an auction house, what you make will probably only benefit you and your guildmates. However, don’t let that discourage you from cooking up a storm! What you do make is valuable to combat and other production jobs equally. Whether you’re giving people that health boost they need or making them faster in production, you’re helping other gamers. Some food makes you smaller in appearance and some makes you bigger while increasing your health as well!

To get started, you’ll need to unlock the job. There all four different NPCs you can talk to in order to get started. Auguste Frydaze in Highroad Junction, Helena in Stillwater Crossing, Simone in Crossroads, or Cloo in Sanctuary can get you started in the culinary arts. Obtaining stars, or experience, for the chef job requires you to pick up quests from these trainers and others found throughout the world. You’ll be naturally guided to your next cooking trainer once you’ve unlocked the job from one of the four NPCs listed earlier.

Like most of the jobs in Free Realms, following the quest line provided will help you level up. You’ll make many dishes along the way and knowing what to expect when cooking is vital. Cooking is a very interactive profession. First, you’ll need to get ingredients. You’ll need to harvest some from farms and buy others from cooking suppliers. Farms are already located on your map for you and are denoted by a little wagon with a melon in it. They show up as a purple dot in your minimap because farms are mini-games. Each farm has its own difficulty level which you’ll see when clicking on the farming tools. Each farm also has its own objectives but you’re usually going to attempt to get the ingredients you need and not worry about the objectives.

Harvesting is a tile matching game where you match like tiles in order to make them drop into your basket. A chain of like tiles, in this case, consists of at least three fruits or vegetables. A chain of three will fill the basket but not enough to count as one harvested ingredient. As you chain tiles together a bar below the basket will fill. Once the bar is filled completely you will acquire one of that fruit of vegetable. A chain of numerous fruits or vegetables makes the bar fill faster. You’ll basically keep connecting tiles until time runs out.

After you’ve got your ingredients, it’s time to get cooking. Select a cooking table and a list of the recipes you can create will open up. Cooking is an extremely interactive activity. Depending on what dish you’re cooking, you will perform a series of steps in order to prepare and cook the food. For example, when cooking Spicy Vegetable Stirfry, a two-dot difficulty recipe, there are five objectives and five steps. You’ll need three punkin, three sunleaf, three rainleaf, and seven butters (sold from a vendor).

The five objectives of Spicy Vegetable Stirfry are:

• Primary: Cook up some Spicy Vegetable Stirfry!
• Secondary: Finish in 35 seconds or less!
• Bonus: Add the ingredients in two seconds or less!
• Bonus: Chop the sunleaf in nine seconds or less!
• Elite: Finish in 26 seconds or less!

The bonus and elite objectives are, of course, optional. However, if you’re going for a high score and a place on the leaderboards, you’ll need to complete those objectives. Even if you don’t complete the secondary objective you’ll still receive the dish you made since you’ve completed the primary objective.

The five steps to create Spicy Vegetable Stirfry include:

• Smashing the punkin
• Chopping the sunleaf
• Chopping the rainleaf
• Adding the ingredients to the skillet
• Removing the food from the skillet

In the first step you’re required to smash the punkin. This is done by hovering over the punkin with a “smasher” and timing clicks with the strength meter. If strategically placed, the “smasher” can hit more than one punkin at a time reducing the time spent waiting on the strength meter. In steps two and three, you’ll chop the sunleaf and then the rainleaf. Although you chop these separately, they use the same mechanic. The item is on the chopping block and you rapidly left-click in order to chop it. Step four shows you the ingredients you just prepared on a list to the left of the skillet. You’re to find those ingredients from a selection of multiple incorrect ingredients. You pick the ingredients up with the tongs and place each of them in the skillet. Finally, in step five you wait for each instance of the mixed ingredients to reach the perfect cooked color and then you click them out of the skillet.

All the while you’re awarded points for your performance. If you burn the food you receive fewer points, if you remove it at the right time you receive the maximum amount, and so on. These points only matter if you’re looking to land on the leaderboards.

Spicy Vegetable Stirfry is a recipe you’ll learn while leveling up. Most recipes you’ll learn through questing and leveling, but there are other recipes to purchase from vendors. You’ll find these vendors throughout the world. For example, Bordon Cloo in Sanctuary has a few and Sous-Chef Elden in Merry Vale has some as well.

To conclude, the chef job is a fun and highly interactive one. There are other steps to the cooking process not listed in the Spicy Vegetable Stirfry example. Don’t go into the profession thinking you’re going to make a lot of coin. It’s a nice job to max out and relatively easy if you’re looking for the levels. Although you can reach 20 swiftly, the job is still a challenge to master. Being able to do three-dot recipes with all optional objectives complete is a feat to be conquered. A place on the leaderboards is always a goal as well.

Tags: Free Realms

Free Realms Brushing Up on the Brawler

Jul 29, 2009 Articles Recommend|484views

This time we’ll be looking at another combat class available in Free Realms. Last time we looked at a ranged expert appropriately named the Archer. The Archer is a members’ only job meaning only those that subscribe to Free Realms’ monthly fee of $4.99 can play as that job. The Brawler, however, is available to everyone. As one of the nine jobs anyone can play, the Brawler is one of two combat classes that does not require membership. The other job is the Ninja.

As a Brawler your main focus is damage up close and personal with the enemy. The job is really about damage, but it’s more formidable than the Archer. The Brawler can tank with a good healer around, but can’t always replace the Warrior. I often play with just one other person and I’ve found for smaller groups it’s nice to have someone who can deal damage but be moderately tough.

The skills of the Brawler allow him or her to deal damage to multiple enemies or one enemy multiple times. The job even has a ranged attack for times when pulling an enemy is necessary. Brawlers use hammers when fighting enemies and make short work of them with these abilities.

Aside from a basic attack that executes when clicked, the Brawler has four abilities. This is how all of the combat classes work in Free Realms. You will start with that basic attack and an ability called Leg Sweep. At level five, you’ll get Rock Toss, at ten it’s Pummel, and at 15 it’s Enrage.

• Leg Sweep - The Brawler sweeps all nearby enemy legs, causing 50 damage to each.
• Rock Toss - You launch rocks that stun 3 enemies and cause 53 damage each.
• Pummel - The Brawler attacks the enemy quickly, landing 3 consecutive blows for 29 maximum damage each.
• Enrage - The Brawler goes on a frenzied rampage for 10 seconds, increasing melee damage by 8 and critical hit chance by 1%.

As you improve these abilities with stars, you’ll do more damage on all of them except for Enrage. By improving Enrage, your melee damage goes up as well as your critical chance.

I’ll say it again; although there are only five abilities, the combat in Free Realms is still entertaining. When Free Realms hits the PS3, those five abilities will be easier to manage with a controller. Not to mention, there is a little depth in the upgrading of abilities. Honestly, if you’re looking for a combat heavy MMORPG this isn’t going to scratch that itch, but it’s still fun. For pick up and play reasons, you might get familiar with the Brawler since it’s one of the two free combat classes.

My experience as a Brawler in Free Realms includes getting to around level 12 where the level cap is 20. Like most combat classes in FR, leveling takes persistence. Like many MMORPGs there is a bit of a grind to it when leveling a combat class. Running dungeons and hopping into random encounters is a way to level, but really quests are the way to go. Finding a good guild to run with always helps and since loot is automatically distributed there won’t be much argument about who gets what. That may sound discouraging, but a lot of the fancy armor and weapons are purchased with coin. Aside from the journey of leveling, maxing out a job offers new weapons and armor.

One of the things I like the most about the Brawler is the way you dress when you’re performing that job. The Brawler wears makeshift armor. What looks a little like football padding, a pair of jeans, a backward ball cap, wrapped hands, and a pair of boots usually can be found on a Brawler. With hammers and the occasional drill in hand, the Brawler looks more like a crazy citizen on a mission than some pit fighter. The hammers are huge and two-handed. Some appear to be just hammers while others look mystical or even goofy.

To get started as a Brawler you need to unlock the Brawler job and start doing quests. When you first log into the game, a Brawler trainer won’t be too far away. Upon creating a character you’ll begin in the tutorial that will eventually allow you to choose to learn to fight or gather ingredients. You can do both, but choosing to learn to fight will unlock the Brawler job. This is done by talking to Ashley Lightwings who will lead you to Flanders; the man who will teach you to brawl.

If you choose not to talk to Flanders in the tutorial, you will have other opportunities to pick up the job. Once you’re out of the tutorial, there are several Brawler trainers around the world to give you quests and help you level up. The beginning Brawlers, for level 1 Brawlers, include Caitlyn Gravefog in Stillwater Crossing, Harold in Highroad Junction, and Carlos Brazenfist at the Crossroads. Like other combat jobs these beginning quests will lead you to repeatable quests that are optional in order for you to reach level 5. Once you hit level 5 you visit other trainers with quests that will later offer new repeatable quests to get you to level 10. This repeats for level 15 and finally to 20. You don’t have to take part in these repeatable quests, but they’re available for those who want the extra coin and experience.

There you have it; the ins and outs of being a Brawler. If you’re not a member this job will come in handy if you’re interested in Free Realms combat. Since you also have the Ninja you won’t get tired of the combat since their styles do differ. Of course if you’re looking for combat, $4.99 isn’t a terrible price to pay for a job you might enjoy more than the Brawler and the Ninja.

For next time we’ll examine the Blacksmith job; a production job that makes products for you and other players. It’s a members’ only job that highly relates to Mining. Join us next time!

Tags: Free Realms

Free Realms:First Impressions

May 23, 2009 Articles Recommend|463views

During a recent family gathering, I was explaining MMOs to my dad, the guy who still doesn’t believe that adults can earn their livings making and playing these things. In trying to explain the success of World of Warcraft, I hypothesized that WoW was a gazillion seller because they understand that the rats in the skinner box want a pellet every…single…time they whack a bar.

Free Realms gives you a pellet for thinking about whacking the bar, reaching for the bar, almost hitting the bar, hitting yourself in the face instead, hitting the bar, and raising your hand to whack the bar again.

Naming involves spinning three wheels. Or, you can pick your own name, and spin three wheels for the name you’ll use until your chosen name is approved. Character creation is light and cheerful, with tons of cosmetic options. Well, character creation is entirely cosmetic, because your traditional RPG stats are completely hidden from you. They do exist, in a limited sense (in the game, items and potions can increase your health, your mana, your ability to hit stuff with weapons, your ability to hit stuff with magic, your offense, and your defense), but everyone starts out exactly the same.

The tutorial is a work of genius. You cannot click past many components. Even those that can be clicked past have a voiceover that can’t be skipped. In short order you learn movement, NPC and object interaction (left clicking, not right, which required major brain rewiring for me), the basic minigame, and the basics of combat. You also get a feel for the tone of the game, which is that everyone is gosh darn glad to see you.

And then you’re in.

Anyone with plain exclamation points over their heads are eager to get your help with this or that, or to teach you a career. People with winged exclamation points are only willing to talk to those of you that shelled out your five bucks a month. Five of the fourteen careers are subscriber only.

There are lots of minigames. Lots. Seriously, more than once I thought I was in an elaborately reskinned version of MSN Games http://zone.msn.com/en-us/home . There’s chess, checkers, hideously addictive RTS games (Command and Conquer, but with happy little penguins and bees), simulators, trace-the-glowy-pattern-with-the-mouse, and probably more. But the main game you will play if you want to harvest cooking or crafting components is sort of a Bejeweled/Chuzzle thing. You will play this for hours. You will play this in a mindless haze until your wrist cramps up… or until your 60+ year old mother wanders in and says brightly, “How about that! I’m a gamer like you! I play a similar game all the time!”

Travel is a delight. Once you discover a warpstone, you can fly there whenever you want, however often you want, by opening and clicking on your map. Rather than stifle exploration, this feature encourages exploration. You’ve got nothing to lose by running off down a mysterious path, or getting distracted by side quests, because you can pop back to any city you want in seconds.

The look is cartoony, but very, very clean. The art direction is miraculously consistent, with every environment, every set piece, every item, and every prop working together. The world has been designed so everything you touch, see, and hear is a little bit of sunshine.

For example: The coins your dead enemies drop appear in a shiny pile of gold, and when you pick them up (no keyboard commands or clicking - run over the pile like a console RPG) there’s a metallic jingle, a musical serenade, and an enthusiastic text message.

Tickets, coins, points, stars - everything you do gets at least one reward, and usually several. Stars can be spent adding levels to your attack skills. Tickets are taken to the Royal Vault to be traded for a random prize. Coins buy components for crafting, armor, and potions. I’m not clear on what the points are for - probably the gazillion leaderboards, although the website has been unable to display those to me for the last week.

There is a microtransaction level to Free Realms - you can just buy your potions and armor if you’d rather. Honestly, it’s not necessary. As of this writing, I have careers ranging from level two to level ten, and I’ve never come close to running out of coins.

It’s light, it’s fun, and I find myself logging into it more often than I do with my various traditional MMOs - because it’s the first MMO where I genuinely felt like I could accomplish something fun in fifteen minutes. The browser based platform (and associated bandwidth needs) make it as portable as my iPod. I mean, I knocked out two quests and a Mining level while I was killing time at the airport.

And yet, I wonder if “MMO” is really a fair name. This is a first impressions article, and my full review is still a week or more away. It’s possible I just haven’t gotten to the cooperative bits. Still, I see lots of other people running around, but no one is talking. The chat window feels like an afterthought, a vestigial remnant of the designer’s MMO roots. I have yet to encounter any content that encourages grouping, let alone demands that I group. It’s in the game, I suppose. I clicked on someone else once (she was blocking the forge), and an array of options popped up. But unlike traditional MMO open chat channels, or traditional MMO content, there is no point or pleasure in interaction with other people.

My first impression, though, is that if you haven’t given it a try, you’re missing a fun game. I’ve watched kids from five to twelve enjoy the heck out of it. I’m enjoying the heck out of it. And if the hordes of Bejeweled fans out there discover this product, forget what you think you know about the potential for MMO success. The designers of Free Realms are going to spend the rest of their lives drinking margaritas in the sun.

Tags: Free Realms