We've recently been grated the opportunity to interview the producer of Sigils: Battle for Raios on the latest mobile title from Gameforge that is an iteresting mix of RPG and MOBA aspects. Carry on reading in order to find out what Botond Nemeth had to say:

First of all, many thanks for granting us an interview on Sigils: Battle for Raios. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Botond Nemeth and I'm the Producer of Sigils: Battle for Raios. I started with a very motivated crew over 3 years ago from a blank sheet. I started as the Lead Game Designer on Sigils and during the development I switched to a Producer role.

Which terms would you use to describe your game to somebodywho hasn't heard of it yet?

Sigils cleverly combines RPG and MOBA to create an innovative and fresh game experience. Players can acquire 15 different Champions at launch, each of them with their very own skill set and role. In contrast to pure MOBAs, Sigils doesn't focus solely on PvP, but also offers a huge PvE and Coop part with many hours of immersive gameplay.

The MOBA genre is continuously growing these days with lots of new games being constantly announced... So why should players prefer playing Sigils rather than other MOBAs? What will make the game stand out in its genre?

We re-interpreted the genre and came up with our own vision, which, different to other MOBAs, does not only focus on PvP, but instead also offers a unique PvE coop experience for everyone who doesn't like the purely competitive nature of MOBAs. Combined with rather short, but addictive game sessions, we believe that Sigils is the perfect synchronous gaming experience for gamers and non-gamers alike.

So Sigils is going to be a game for mobile devices. What were the causes for you to make that decision? Which operating systems will your game support and can fans expect to also see the title expand to other platforms in the future?

Sigils: Battle for Raios will be released exclusively for iPad series. We wanted to optimize the gaming experience as best as possible and felt the iPads with their unified engine and control system were the best point to start. But who knows what the future holds.

Please elaborate a bit on the control system. In which way have the controls been adapted to a tablet touchscreen?

We tried to keep the controls as simple as possible, but we also didn't want to lose the ability to create awesome skills. Sigils' controls are very direct and allow for fast paced gameplay, thus you also won’t find any gesture based input methods or similar.

Would you say your game is rather suited for casual players or even hardcore fans of the MOBA genre?

Sigils offers fun for both. Core and hardcore players will find their challenge, while casual players will be able to get some experience with the game and due to a good learning curve will be able to dive deeper and deeper into the core gaming with Sigils.

Which of the genre's traditional features will Sigils maintain and which ones will be relinquished?

Sigils is very different to typical MOBAs. Players are not fighting it out on a single map until the enemy base is destroyed. The maps are also very different and way simpler and more straight forward. The goals are usually to destroy every remaining enemy, rather than having to destroy a certain building. The single battlegrounds are rather small and thus there’s also no need for a minimap or similar.

What will be the average length of a match? Will Sigil offer quick matches as seen in Heroes of the Storm or rather get close to the staple 40-minutes games as in League of Legends?

Depending on what you are playing a session will last between 3 and 10 minutes. We really tried to care for the platform and give the players the experience they are expecting on the iPad. We never felt that longer sessions would really work on tablets. This doesn't mean that players have to stop playing, they can go on for several hours, if they like.

We've already gleaned that you decided to incorporate a permanent RPG-styled progression system. Let's talk a bit about that!

It's pretty simple: Champions gain experience points upon winning games, no matter if in PvP or Coop. Once a Champion has gained enough XP they level up and they also keep their level forever. The interesting part here is that Champions automatically raise their stats each new level, and are additionally granted so called Skill Points. These can be invested in any of the 4 skills of that Champion.

Will there be various game modes and maps available for play in Sigils? Could you please provide us with some details on them?

In the Campaign and Coop part of Sigils there is a huge variety of different maps. The maps are very different to normal MOBAs. They are rather compact and less complex. In PvP there are a handful of different PvP maps, which make the encounters very versatile.

For launch there are quite some different modes players can choose from:
• Campaign (solo or coop)
• PvP 1on1
• PvP 3on3

The Campaign is very long though and offers several different sub-modes, which are unique to Sigils.

Regarding the heroes Sigils will offer for play, could you provide us with a few examples of character skills and styles of play?

Sigils' Champions are quite diverse in their skill set, behavior and role. The class usually determines their main role, but doesn’t necessarily dictate the playing style.

Let's take Tarkin, one of our most significant tanks in the game. Players could equip and skill the Champion like a typical tank that usually defends certain Champions or even the whole group. Take the same Champion, skill and equip him like a mage and he will not be such a good tank anymore, but instead have heavy burst abilities.

Each and every Champion works like that. There's a main role associated with them, but players can experiment around as much as they want and ideally will find a setup that suits their very own playing style.

Do you plan to implement a cash store into your game? If that's the case, what kind of items will be on offer, exclusively cosmetic ones or also stuff that affects gameplay? Which measures are you going to take in order to deliver a well-balanced experience for paying and non-paying players alike?

Yes, Sigils offers a shop where players can buy virtual goods either for Gold (our in-game currency) or Gems (our premium currency). Beside Champions, we also sell Gear directly in the in-game shop. Most of our virtual goods can be bought for Gold and Gems. There are just a handful of items that can only be bought with Gems, like Skins or Boosters, but that’s about that.

The balancing part here is a bit tricky, but we have a smart system in place that matches players of similar power and skill together. This makes almost every matchup a balanced experience.

Is there already a set date or even a time frame for closed and open beta testing?

We are currently in the so called Soft Launch phase in certain territories. Sigils will be released worldwide on May 21st 2015.

Thanks a lot for your detailed answers. Would you like to mention anything else?

We'd love to get some early feedback of the Sigils community, once the game is out. We believe that every single player can help make the game an outstanding experience and we are eager to hear of your ideas. For this we are planning to do several Live Streams and Q&A sessions. Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming events!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2015 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Articles, MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Puedes dejar una respuesta, o un trackback desde tu sitio web.