Interview with S2Games
Triumph Of Man, 25-Jun-10 »
S2Games are still working hard on new content for their title Heroes of Newerth. S2Nome is a long standing HoN/DotA community member and more recently an employee for S2Games. We caught up with him to hear some of his thoughts on his favourite game.
Triumph - Ok Nome, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who you are and where you hail from?
S2Nome - My name is Richard Liu, AKA Nome. I'm currently living in San Francisco and commuting daily to S2's Rohnert Park office. My position within S2 is associate designer, but my job duties include design, community planning, and heading the new abuse report system. To be honest, a more accurate description would be "HoN stuff."
Triumph - Could you describe your gaming history for us, were you brought up as a gamer or is it something you've acquired more recently?
S2Nome - I've been gaming since elementary school, mainly playing platformers and FPS games. I picked up DotA during high school--I attended a boarding school, so we had daily inhouses, and had our own little closed metagame. I've been participating in the online DotA community for about four years, with most of my time spent within Clan TDA (an inhouse league). I transitioned into HoN after SupaFly, a TDA colleague and friend, got me a beta key.
Triumph - Outside of HoN are you keeping up with any other games?
S2Nome - Lately, I've been playing a good bit of Mass Effect 2. When Starcraft 2 comes out, I'll probably be checking out the multiplayer, just like everyone else. If you had to ask me what my favorite game of all time was (apart from HoN), it'd have to be Command and Conquer: Generals. So if CNC: Generals 2 is ever released, I'll be the first to jump on the preorder.
Triumph - Do you follow any particular HoN team? I'm sure no one would blame you if you're just jumping on the KDe Fantrain after the show they put on at Dreamhack.
S2Nome - I've been accused of being a chu fanboy, so his leaving the scene makes all my posters obsolete. I'm equally impressed with all the top teams right now though, so I won't name any favorites.
Triumph - In the days of DotA you had the original ideas that spawned one of my favourite heroes, Meepo the Geomancer. I see you've got Meepo's re-imagining the Mobgoblin Raiders on display in Dream and they're proving to be a pretty popular hit with the community. Tell me is there a chance we'll be seeing them in game soon?
S2Nome - I certainly can't promise anything, as I'm not in a position to do so, but it'd be awesome for me both as a designer and as a player to see an implementation of Meepo. That's about all I'll say here
Triumph - S2's heroes have some clever dialogue and we saw some great lines come from a community input session for Pandamonium, in fact almost all of his lines have sprung from there. Are there any plans to do something like this again in the future for new heroes?
S2Nome - It's very much a possibility. S2 is a very community-oriented company, and whenever we can engage the fanbase, we try our best to. It'd be great to do it for Gladiator (I think the secret's out by now), but we have time constraints so maybe we'll try it out for the next hero!
Triumph - Now personally my first introduction to DotA was through the AI maps, and although they didn't teach me everything that you need to know they functioned well as a set of training wheels for my first steps into the game. Are there any plans on S2's end to expand the tutorial to include AI opponents or are you planning to allow the modding community to take control of that once the SDK is released?
S2Nome - There are no imminent plans to work on the tutorial. If the modding community wants to take the torch on that, they are more than welcome to. But for now, our design and programming team are busy working on new features and gameplay content.
Triumph - Speaking of the SDK and things to come, how far is that down the road?
S2Nome - If I could, I would. But that's outside the scope of what I'm involved in.
Triumph - Can you leak us any information about some of the upcoming changes in the next patch?
S2Nome - So, the upcoming patch is going to be absolutely HUGE. Not only is it the biggest patch since release, but it's also the most far-reaching. There is one new hero, two hero remakes, one new item, and a plethora of hero tweaks and rebalances that will have a huge ripple on how the game is played.
Triumph - Can you give us any specific details? I hear rumours of some DotA items will be making their appearance.
S2Nome - You'd be correct there. The item is called Blood Chalice, and it's all about making sacrifices. Rampage, one of the most controversial DotA ports, has gotten a full makeover.
Triumph - Good to hear the Rhino Rider will finally cease to be the butt of Newerth's jokes.
S2Nome - This is a rework that's literally been in the pipeline since November in one form or another. A ton of people have contributed to it in one way or another, and the end result is one that is absolutely guaranteed to please.
Triumph - DotA over the last year or so has been going through metagame changes to push it away from the hard carry turtle strats. HoN has never really had this problem, hard carries like TDL aren't picked because they're considered sub-par. Why do you think this is?
S2Nome - One of HoN's design philosophies has been to emphasize speed and fluidity. Some people claim this is an S2 design flaw--they often say that carries are too strong throughout the entire game.
At S2, we don't necessarily see it this way. We design our heroes to be fun throughout the entire game, not just after twenty minutes of ricing. That said, we're aware of the current imbalances, and they have already been addressed for the next patch.
Triumph - Would you say extreme power gankers like Deadwood may be part of the reason HoN favours ganking strats?
S2Nome - Ganking has definitely been a HUGE part of what S2 has been trying to accomplish. In fact, the entirety of the incoming patch could be seen as S2 continuing to push for action. Rampage, for example, has been repurposed from a carry to a fast ganker capable of power projection and hero displacement. Gauntlet, similarly, is now an isolation specialist.
Triumph - On the topic of Neutral creeps. Jungling is a huge factor in the game, and some heroes completely revolve around what they find in the jungle. Have there been any plans to introduce some more Neutrals to expand this part of the game?
S2Nome - More neutrals are definitely on the drawing board, but right now, there are no immediate plans to make any new additions. On the other hand, there are talks to change the behavior of existing neutrals--it shouldn't be difficult to figure out which ones I'm referring to here :)
Triumph - Continuing the topic of neutrals, in DotA at night the neutral creep get tired and go to sleep. But in HoN they're quite happy to run out at inopportune moments and purge the crap out of you whether it be night or day. Any plans to 1:1 this?
S2Nome - There have been discussions about this, but nothing conclusive has come out of it yet.
Triumph - So we've got one new hero on the very near horizon, but how many heroes do you guys currently have in development? Whether they be S2 originals or ports.
S2Nome - A lot. Reworks, rebalances, ports, new heroes, the whole deal. A lot.
Triumph - That's great to hear. Solely from your opinion, if there was one thing that you could change with the current metagame right now, what would it be?
S2Nome - That's a hard one yo, hmmm. I don't know if this counts as a metagame change, but I'd want to rework the rune spawning system to involve less chance. Right now, the first rune spawn at 0:00 can win your lane for you, especially if it's illusion or double damage. So my ideal change, which I don't even know yet, would be to fix this so that it were more skill-based as opposed to who managed to luck out with RNG.
Triumph - So we're getting some new low tier support items, but are there any plans to mix things up on the high tier level with some new big farm hard hitters?
S2Nome - There's no official talk here, but I've definitely got a ton of ideas in my head.
Triumph - Alright that's about all we have time for, thanks for dropping by, Nome, but quickly before we go do you want to make any shout outs to friends and favourite IRC trolls?
S2Nome - Shoutout to Zyzzx, who's devoted a TON of time to helping me out with just about everything. Shoutout to Aggression--please manner up IMO. Norroar, my favorite Dane, tifa3 and Pandaroohoo, my favorite AFKers, and of course, Ms_Pudding, my girlfriend. And a special thanks to my friends in the NeoGAF community, who indirectly have taught me boatloads about design and the games industry
-----------------------------------
Heroes of Newerth is a fantastic game for those of you who haven't tried it we completely recommend checking it out. It's got a passionate team of devs behind it and at only $30 it's a complete steal. You can get yourself a piece of the action right here.
On top of that S2Games has given nGR some great swag to give away including copies of HoN. These will be going up for grabs over our shows and live LAN event coverages so make sure you tune in to pick up some awesome prizes!
Also a reminder that CGNA is running an S2Games sponsored tournamanet. Entry is free and sign ups are closing this Sunday so if you want to try and score some prizes hurry on in!
S2Games are still working hard on new content for their title Heroes of Newerth. S2Nome is a long standing HoN/DotA community member and more recently an employee for S2Games. We caught up with him to hear some of his thoughts on his favourite game.
Triumph - Ok Nome, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who you are and where you hail from?
S2Nome - My name is Richard Liu, AKA Nome. I'm currently living in San Francisco and commuting daily to S2's Rohnert Park office. My position within S2 is associate designer, but my job duties include design, community planning, and heading the new abuse report system. To be honest, a more accurate description would be "HoN stuff."
Triumph - Could you describe your gaming history for us, were you brought up as a gamer or is it something you've acquired more recently?
S2Nome - I've been gaming since elementary school, mainly playing platformers and FPS games. I picked up DotA during high school--I attended a boarding school, so we had daily inhouses, and had our own little closed metagame. I've been participating in the online DotA community for about four years, with most of my time spent within Clan TDA (an inhouse league). I transitioned into HoN after SupaFly, a TDA colleague and friend, got me a beta key.
Triumph - Outside of HoN are you keeping up with any other games?
S2Nome - Lately, I've been playing a good bit of Mass Effect 2. When Starcraft 2 comes out, I'll probably be checking out the multiplayer, just like everyone else. If you had to ask me what my favorite game of all time was (apart from HoN), it'd have to be Command and Conquer: Generals. So if CNC: Generals 2 is ever released, I'll be the first to jump on the preorder.
Triumph - Do you follow any particular HoN team? I'm sure no one would blame you if you're just jumping on the KDe Fantrain after the show they put on at Dreamhack.
S2Nome - I've been accused of being a chu fanboy, so his leaving the scene makes all my posters obsolete. I'm equally impressed with all the top teams right now though, so I won't name any favorites.
Triumph - In the days of DotA you had the original ideas that spawned one of my favourite heroes, Meepo the Geomancer. I see you've got Meepo's re-imagining the Mobgoblin Raiders on display in Dream and they're proving to be a pretty popular hit with the community. Tell me is there a chance we'll be seeing them in game soon?
S2Nome - I certainly can't promise anything, as I'm not in a position to do so, but it'd be awesome for me both as a designer and as a player to see an implementation of Meepo. That's about all I'll say here
Triumph - S2's heroes have some clever dialogue and we saw some great lines come from a community input session for Pandamonium, in fact almost all of his lines have sprung from there. Are there any plans to do something like this again in the future for new heroes?
S2Nome - It's very much a possibility. S2 is a very community-oriented company, and whenever we can engage the fanbase, we try our best to. It'd be great to do it for Gladiator (I think the secret's out by now), but we have time constraints so maybe we'll try it out for the next hero!
Triumph - Now personally my first introduction to DotA was through the AI maps, and although they didn't teach me everything that you need to know they functioned well as a set of training wheels for my first steps into the game. Are there any plans on S2's end to expand the tutorial to include AI opponents or are you planning to allow the modding community to take control of that once the SDK is released?
S2Nome - There are no imminent plans to work on the tutorial. If the modding community wants to take the torch on that, they are more than welcome to. But for now, our design and programming team are busy working on new features and gameplay content.
Triumph - Speaking of the SDK and things to come, how far is that down the road?
S2Nome - If I could, I would. But that's outside the scope of what I'm involved in.
Triumph - Can you leak us any information about some of the upcoming changes in the next patch?
S2Nome - So, the upcoming patch is going to be absolutely HUGE. Not only is it the biggest patch since release, but it's also the most far-reaching. There is one new hero, two hero remakes, one new item, and a plethora of hero tweaks and rebalances that will have a huge ripple on how the game is played.
Triumph - Can you give us any specific details? I hear rumours of some DotA items will be making their appearance.
S2Nome - You'd be correct there. The item is called Blood Chalice, and it's all about making sacrifices. Rampage, one of the most controversial DotA ports, has gotten a full makeover.
Triumph - Good to hear the Rhino Rider will finally cease to be the butt of Newerth's jokes.
S2Nome - This is a rework that's literally been in the pipeline since November in one form or another. A ton of people have contributed to it in one way or another, and the end result is one that is absolutely guaranteed to please.
Triumph - DotA over the last year or so has been going through metagame changes to push it away from the hard carry turtle strats. HoN has never really had this problem, hard carries like TDL aren't picked because they're considered sub-par. Why do you think this is?
S2Nome - One of HoN's design philosophies has been to emphasize speed and fluidity. Some people claim this is an S2 design flaw--they often say that carries are too strong throughout the entire game.
At S2, we don't necessarily see it this way. We design our heroes to be fun throughout the entire game, not just after twenty minutes of ricing. That said, we're aware of the current imbalances, and they have already been addressed for the next patch.
Triumph - Would you say extreme power gankers like Deadwood may be part of the reason HoN favours ganking strats?
S2Nome - Ganking has definitely been a HUGE part of what S2 has been trying to accomplish. In fact, the entirety of the incoming patch could be seen as S2 continuing to push for action. Rampage, for example, has been repurposed from a carry to a fast ganker capable of power projection and hero displacement. Gauntlet, similarly, is now an isolation specialist.
Triumph - On the topic of Neutral creeps. Jungling is a huge factor in the game, and some heroes completely revolve around what they find in the jungle. Have there been any plans to introduce some more Neutrals to expand this part of the game?
S2Nome - More neutrals are definitely on the drawing board, but right now, there are no immediate plans to make any new additions. On the other hand, there are talks to change the behavior of existing neutrals--it shouldn't be difficult to figure out which ones I'm referring to here :)
Triumph - Continuing the topic of neutrals, in DotA at night the neutral creep get tired and go to sleep. But in HoN they're quite happy to run out at inopportune moments and purge the crap out of you whether it be night or day. Any plans to 1:1 this?
S2Nome - There have been discussions about this, but nothing conclusive has come out of it yet.
Triumph - So we've got one new hero on the very near horizon, but how many heroes do you guys currently have in development? Whether they be S2 originals or ports.
S2Nome - A lot. Reworks, rebalances, ports, new heroes, the whole deal. A lot.
Triumph - That's great to hear. Solely from your opinion, if there was one thing that you could change with the current metagame right now, what would it be?
S2Nome - That's a hard one yo, hmmm. I don't know if this counts as a metagame change, but I'd want to rework the rune spawning system to involve less chance. Right now, the first rune spawn at 0:00 can win your lane for you, especially if it's illusion or double damage. So my ideal change, which I don't even know yet, would be to fix this so that it were more skill-based as opposed to who managed to luck out with RNG.
Triumph - So we're getting some new low tier support items, but are there any plans to mix things up on the high tier level with some new big farm hard hitters?
S2Nome - There's no official talk here, but I've definitely got a ton of ideas in my head.
Triumph - Alright that's about all we have time for, thanks for dropping by, Nome, but quickly before we go do you want to make any shout outs to friends and favourite IRC trolls?
S2Nome - Shoutout to Zyzzx, who's devoted a TON of time to helping me out with just about everything. Shoutout to Aggression--please manner up IMO. Norroar, my favorite Dane, tifa3 and Pandaroohoo, my favorite AFKers, and of course, Ms_Pudding, my girlfriend. And a special thanks to my friends in the NeoGAF community, who indirectly have taught me boatloads about design and the games industry
-----------------------------------
Heroes of Newerth is a fantastic game for those of you who haven't tried it we completely recommend checking it out. It's got a passionate team of devs behind it and at only $30 it's a complete steal. You can get yourself a piece of the action right here.
On top of that S2Games has given nGR some great swag to give away including copies of HoN. These will be going up for grabs over our shows and live LAN event coverages so make sure you tune in to pick up some awesome prizes!
Also a reminder that CGNA is running an S2Games sponsored tournamanet. Entry is free and sign ups are closing this Sunday so if you want to try and score some prizes hurry on in!
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| Category: | Gaming Interviews |
| Posted: | 25-Jun-10 12:35:10 pm |
| Author: | Triumph Of Man |