Neverwinter - Interview @ Gameranx

Gameranx interviewed Systems Designer Lindsay Haven about the development, and design of Neverwinter.

How successful has Neverwinter's launch been so far? What things did you think you were able to do right out the gate, and what did you wish you could have done better?

Neverwinter's launch generated a lot more interest than we anticipated it would, and for Cryptic It broke a lot of records in-terms of CCU (concurrent users) and the number of players logging in. This success speaks to the early game experience we created, our commitment to the Dungeons & Dragons emersion, and Cryptic's own experience in making MMOs. Of course when an MMO launches and the player base gets bigger it's easier to notice what experiences fall short. For Neverwinter our end-game content wasn't as compelling or as complete as it needed to be. That's why our first module, Fury of the Feywild, focused on delivering playable content to level capped players.

The Foundry has proven to be a popular part of the game. Do you plan to make any major improvements or changes to it in the near future? Why do you think fans.

Yes, The Foundry was an essential and popular part Neverwinter because it is based on Dungeons & Dragons, which players have a long history of creating their own adventures and campaigns for. Cryptic has a dedicated foundry team working to improve The Foundry every day to make it easier to generate content for Neverwinter. Every week we are fixing bugs and making improvements that go live, and when we released Fury of the Feywild we added a 3D editing, which allows authors a more immersive way to build their maps.