This summer, you'll be able to play a new MMO called Wizard 101. Set inside the fictional Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, the game will feature traditional MMO gameplay, an in-world collectible-card game, and a host of mini-games that will remind you of arcade classics - but happen to be more fun.
The game has been in production for three years, behind a veil of secrecy, while the company itself was founded three-and-a-half years ago when an internet executive Elie Akilian partnered with a former Midway Games executive David Nichols to find new business models. The corporate headquarters is in Dallas, Texas.
All game development is centered in Austin, Texas, home to outposts of other MMO companies, most notably NCsoft and Sony Online Entertainment. The studio is under the direction of J. Todd Coleman, a noted developer of online games.
KingsIsle is in the old Origin building. In fact, they occupy the same office space once used by the developers who created Ultima Online. And what's now the conference room used to be Richard Garriott's office. Coleman jokes that they haven't seen any ghosts of Origin on the premises.
Currently two projects are in the works. Tom Hall, best known for his work at id Software and on Anachronox is working on a still-secret title with an considerably longer development schedule.
Coleman is in charge of Wizard 101, which was revealed to WarCry during an intimate tour earlier this month. His previous MMO, Shadowbane, was purchased by Ubisoft in 2004.
"We want to be an online entertainment company," chief executive Akilian said during a four-person press tour. "To become a real company, you have to have a conveyor belt of games," he said of different titles that will appeal to multiple markets.
Which is a key to Wizard 101: it's pitched as the game for players too old for Club Penguin, but too young to begin World of Warcraft.
This may be the first hardcore MMO aimed at the "tween" demographic; it has the full-production values of any large MMO. While it might look as good as any next-gen MMOG, it also features things like highly protected chat.
The game's director notes that it's important for the game to look and play as well as possible, and still keep the minimum system requirements in check so that a greater number of players can still enjoy the experience.
Coleman admits, "It's not what people expect from the Shadowbane team," but adds that the game does feature PVP, a trademark of the pioneering work the same team did when they started Wolfpack Studios.
It's easy to look at the game, and see a Harry Potter style world where players are trying to master the magical arts through quests and combat. But Coleman expects this game to be played by families together - the core tween demographic, certainly, but also their older siblings and parents would join in.
Coleman says that, like a good cartoon, adults will appreciate references and jokes embedded in the game that go over the heads of the younger players who are having fun with the surface of the game.
One absolute key to this is the game's art style. It's a very fine line, but Wizard 101's character design and art style simultaneously looks realistically plausible, fancifully imaginative - something that comes of as neither cartoon nor hyper-real, but comfortable and appealing to any type of player.
The key element to the in-game gameplay is the CCG, used in combat sequences. Currently, the company is investigating the production and sale of actual cards - and the interesting impact that would have when merging real-life gameplay with in-game gameplay.
As Wizard 101 nears completion for its summer release, KingsIsle is already hard at work on expanded content for the world. After all, it was the recurring revenue model that first convinced Akilian and Nichols to pursue MMOs over any other type of videogame.
The game's official website, http://www.wizard101.com/, is now online. Additional information, including exclusive screenshots and video, can be found in subsequent WarCry reports.
