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An archived Hellgate: London feature. See the Hellgate Archives for more.

Interview: Bill Roper on influences, the flagship crew, replayability, setting, and more.
Date: June 30, 2006
Source: RPG Vault

RPG Vault Interview

Jonric: So our readers can understand what kind of game you set our to create, how would you summarize Hellgate: London and its underlying concept?

Bill Roper: Hellgate: London is an action RPG that does everything it can to give players a massive amount of choices. The original concept was to create a game where Diablo II met Half-Life, meaning it had all of the randomization, plethora of items and ease of play found in the Diablo series while also being immersive and presented from the first-person view like the Half-Life games. As the game has grown through the development process, we have opened up the control scheme to allow play from either the third- or first-person views.

Jonric: What are the major influences and considerations reflected in the premise for the game as well as it's design? And is there a special meaning to the title?

Bill Roper: As far as major influences, there are probably too many to list! We play a LOT of games, read, watch movies, listen to music, and all of those (and much more) go into shaping the game and the world. Players who keep their eyes open will see influences from the expected (Diablo), the unexpected (Animal Crossing) the inspirational (Templar history and English mythology) and even things to which we wanted to pay our own homage (Shaun of the Dead). The list really goes on and on - but it all works well together, adding spices to the action RPG recipe.

The name Hellgate: London comes from the demon's portal into our world, the Hellgate, and the location where our story takes place, London. It also allows us to contemplate looking at how this catastrophic event affects other parts of our world - to examine their demons and their heroes.

Jonric: When did development actually begin, and were there many people working on the game in the early stages?

Bill Roper: Development started on the game literally on the first day of Flagship Studios' existence in July of 2003. Granted, the first several months we had a small team, starting at five and ramping up to nine or 10. We're coming up on the third anniversary of Flagship Studios and of Hellgate: London, but as with any game, the first months don't see as much sheer volume of work getting done as the rest.

Jonric: Given the play experience you're creating, is it correct to assume you believe Hellgate: London will appeal to a broad range of gamers?

Bill Roper: Based on the feedback we have received when showing the game at events such as E3, we think that Hellgate: London will appeal to a wide variety of gamers. If you played Diablo, this will be a must-have. Beyond that, if you enjoy action-packed, fast-paced games with a lot of character, you'll like Hellgate: London. If you like to set your own pace of play, Hellgate: London will appeal to you as well.

Want to be part of a massive online community with continuing content? We have that as well in our multiplayer model. Want to solo your way through the entire experience whether offline or on - you can make that choice too. Have you wanted an FPS with an amazing amount of weapons that are all customizable AND a character whose skills you can hone along with your own? Yep. You guessed it. Check out Hellgate: London.

Seriously, we believe that the game has an amazingly broad appeal, and that players from a variety of game genres will have a blast with it.

Jonric: Do you have a sense for the average duration of the campaign? And to what extent do you feel the game will be replayable?

Bill Roper: In terms of playing time, it's a bit too early to have a solid figure for your first time through. We're guessing anywhere from 30 to 40 hours, but it could be more depending on how many missions and events you want to get into, how hardcore of a player you are, and so on.

With respect to replayability - the answer is nearly infinite. The entire play experience is randomized. This means that once you set foot outside of the Underground station that acts as your "town", you never know exactly what you're going to find. The layout is randomized, the area type is randomized, the monsters and their treasures are randomized. We have random missions, chance events, timed events, and on and on.

Rarity and collectability also factor into every aspect of the randomization. This means you can find special versions of the items, monsters, levels, events - and even skills! Some of these rarer versions form parts of sets that imbue the user with even more advantages if they complete the collection. And since we will be creating content and continuing to make it available to players, you'll never see everything.

Jonric: What would you care to say about the setting, what has happened before Hellgate: London begins, and the story element thereafter? And to what degree is the play linear vs. open-ended?

Bill Roper: The game is set in a post-demon apocalypse, near future London. The characters find themselves a generation past the time when the demons invaded, meaning that some recall the world as it was, and others have grown up never knowing what it means to be free from the dark influence of the minions of Hell. The story focuses on your character's involvement in taking the first major steps toward driving the demons from our world - by finding their weaknesses and destroying the Hellgate that acts as a portal between their world and ours.

There are many enemies, from nameless innumerable hordes to powerful overlords of the underworld whose names and motivations will become known as the game progresses. There is a main story and plot to follow that, while having a few variances players can take, provides a linear direction and set of motivations to follow. There are also many non-linear missions and events that occur, so players are able to follow the path of the story or just go and explore the world on their own as they please.

Jonric: Why did you decide to set the game in London, what kind of research did this involve, and how much variety can we expect to see among the various locations?

Bill Roper: London is a fantastic place to set a game for many reasons, both the architecture of the city and the amazing structures that lie beneath it, and also the mythology and heroes associated with the city. Doing the research involved with creating a rich world and an alternative history (and future) that firmly sets our universe within a recognizable location while still offering unexpected twists and views has been educational and enjoyable.

We're creating a wide variety of areas for the players to explore, from city streets to parks, alleyways, storefronts, sewers, the Underground railway, maintenance room and tunnels - even the river Thames. Our main goal with the settings is to create ones that take full advantage of our randomization and dynamic level generation techniques so that there are constantly new experiences for the player. One downside of a static world is that once you've explored it, there's nothing new until the developers release an update. With Hellgate: London, you'll never see exactly the same thing twice.

Jonric: What kind of character system are you implementing? Will we be able to play as different races and classes?

Bill Roper: In Hellgate: London, the characters represent the survivors of humanity, so the only "race" is mankind. There is definitely be a wide variety of looks that can be chosen as different cultures (or races in the real-world sense) are represented. As for classes, we've announced two so far, and there are more on the way. Also, our classes are very broad in scope, and to make this a bit easier for players to navigate, we've started looking at suggested sub-classes.

For example, while a character may be a Templar, he could also specialize in certain ways and be an Exemplar, or a Defender, and so forth. Basically, it is like saying someone is a writer, and their sub-class is a journalist or a script-writer. These sub-classes may have other specific skills, abilities or statistical upgrades to help distinguish them - it's something we've just starting playing with so I'm afraid I can't give you much in the way of detail.

Jonric: How will the character development system function? Will it be experience- and level-based?

Bill Roper: Character development is very much rooted in the classic RPG principles. Players have statistics and skills that can be improved upon as they gain more experience. There is quite a bit of tweaking that occurs here since every time a character gains a new level, they get points to spend on both stats and skills. The farther the character progresses, the more choices are available - and the more impact they have.

Jonric: How much character differentiation will be possible within a given class? Will there be much in the way of non-combat skills or abilities?

Bill Roper: Characters can become quite different depending on the choices they make. This is not only in skills, spells and statistics, but also in equipment and weapons. With over 100 basic weapon types in the game, there is a vast amount of room for differentiation. Start folding in the customization that can be accomplished through mods, how the character's equipment choices impact that, their play style and their skills... well, we expect to see a wide variety of characters within each class.

Finally, since the focus of our game is battling demons, the vast majority of the skills focus on combat, or assisting in combat situations. We have some ideas for non-combat skills, but our focus will be what the meat of the game is first.