Erik Roggeveen is one of the designers working hard on the eagerly anticipated new MMORPG by Simutronics, Hero's Journey. Today, Erik talks a little about what his job is like:

"Ya ever sit up late when you were a little kid, under the tent of your sheets with a flashlight so your parents didn't see it shining beneath your door, munching stolen cookies that grandma had made earlier that day (she had it comin'!), and plotting the viscera-slopping disembowelment of a few of your pals' innocent characters?

Designing modern MMORPGs is a lot like designing tabletop campaigns, Erik says. Capture the players' interest, then step back and let them set their own course - but  be ready for anything they throw at you! One needs to be able to bring players  back into the stories when their interest wanes.  Most important, however, is "customer service" - everyone wants some personal attention.

The creation of a fantastic, deeply layered game world demands meticulous preparation, according to Erik. This is where the team is at the moment. Now that the HeroBlade Engine works, the GameMasters are working toward crafting the game to fit.

"Everyone not involved with the engine had been working on the development of the lore, quests, intrigue, and interactions for years ahead of time, and now we've finally got a place to really assemble it all. It felt like we had an actual-size model of the universe, and nowhere big enough to put it together!" Erik adds.

Each of Nomgar's region has a separate team of GameMasters working on the details, with lots of support from the Development, Onsite, and the Art teams. With huge areas covering scale miles of explorable terrain loaded with quests, combat, and treasure, these teams have their work cut out for them. The World team lays out the basic geography, including common dungeons and crannies. Meanwhile, the Quest team adds instances wherever possible, connecting the story strands.

Erik's next topics will (hopefully) be the Region he's been developing: the battlegrounds where the worst acts of the Sundering took place. Of his own Region, he says: "It is a seriously chaotic and demented place - strongly befitting my own leanings - where greed, violent and unpredictable machines, corrupted magic, and the power plays of wealthy and craven alike play out in a harshly unforgiving wasteland."

Via MMORPG.com