This weekend at the Fan Expo in Toronto, we had an opportunity to sit down with Randy Mosiondz of Cryptic Studios, lead designer for their upcoming superhero MMO Champions Online. The game is an evolution of the ideas that the studio previously had with City of Heroes/Villains for the PC, merging what they’ve learned with the Champions world from Hero Games and creating a very unique, action-based MMORPG where you are taking the role of a superhero in a world plagued by villains. You can take a quick look at our preview to get a good foundation for what it is all about.

We were able to corner Randy to ask him about the game, what Cryptic Studios learned from their previous works and just what is going to set Champions Online apart in the MMO landscape.

Howlett: Can you just give us a bit of history of what you’ve done at Cryptic and what you did before you joined up?

Randy Mosiondz: I graduated from the University of Regina in Computer Science. I worked in business development for ten years, but during that time I was a gamer. The last few years before coming to Cryptic I was working with Pinnacle Entertainment Group, they did Deadlands, the work I did was with Savage Worlds. Just helped writing, editing and working on game design with them. When the main guy from Pinnacle, Shane Hensley, became the lead writer for City of Villains he said “Hey, we need a content designer. You want to come down and move to California and help me make video games?” I thought that sounded a lot more interesting than business development. So I gave it a try and I’ve been in California for almost 4 years now, working with Cryptic. About a year ago I was asked to be the lead designer for Champions.

H: How has it been working with John Layman [online writer for Champions] and how closely have you been working with him and other teams to put this all together?

RM: John Layman is great to work with. He’s a very good-natured person and a hilarious guy. He’s written some good comedy series, too. He wrote Bay City Jive. It’s very hard to find, but if you can find it it’s worth it. Kind of like Shaft meets Big Trouble in Little China Town.

H: Yeah, that sounds awesome.

RM: [laughs] It is. Anyway, John’s been great to work with. He’s been working in comics for ten years or more now. He’s got a gift for dialogue, he knows a lot of the properties, comes up with really interesting story arcs and he’s a bit of a gamer himself. Actually, a lot people consult with him on how things are supposed to look, and works a lot with Steve Long from Hero Games in terms of taking the Champions universe property from the tabletop game and converting it into something to use in the video game. He works really closely with the content team in terms of what new things we can do with different missions and the world.

H: Looking at the influences for Champions from tabletop to MMOs to console games, which of those do you think is the main focus? Are you approaching the game mainly as an action game?

RM: Yeah. One of the things we wanted the players to do was to pick it up, of course get lost in the character creator for a while, but then continue on, select their powers and get in the game and play with their friends. The main thing we wanted to translate from the RPG are the amount of customizability. You start off with a series of powers, but as you advance you start gaining advantages which you can apply to your powers, which is something straight out of the Champions pen and paper game. We also included things like the upgrade system to allow you to modify your powers in different ways. Those type of elements go towards the customization that the hero system is known for. Another system we’ve applied are hindrances, instead of just saying “You have this hindrance and it applies in a certain circumstance.” we implemented the nemesis system. You have an enemy and you are hunted by his minions. It essentially takes an element from the game, the hunted flaw hindrance, and puts it into the game in a cool way. That’s really the trick, you can’t be a total purest. What elements would be awesome in a game?

H: It’s like taking any medium and translating it, like books to movies.

RM: That’s the real trick. A lot of tabletop games have a Games Master to actually bring in different elements, like having a lost mentor who turns evil. For Games Mastering we can’t have people actively in the environment, we do have some but it’s mostly “Oh, I’m stuck in a hole, can you get me out?” We can’t be there for everything, so we have to build a system to handle that kind of stuff. We wanted to build an integrated system that was fun and could get everyone involved in it.

H: The game is very action based, was that a decision that come along with moving it to the home consoles?

RM: That was a big factor. For the most part, a lot of traditional MMOs are not a big draw for console fans. There have been ports to done to consoles of these games, but it is usually people who already like MMOs who have consoles that play them, so we wanted something that would be a better fit for console users. It also fits very well into the “super” genre, because superheroes are all action-based which give console users a better experience right away.

Ian: I also noticed that you could link together skills. You could use the force blast to push enemies away, and then use the hold to keep them in the air.

RM: Exactly. We wanted the powers to be tactical choices for the players. That’s why we have an open build system, as well, which is something we learned from City Of. People love customizing their characters, especially superheroes, they want to invest in an identity. And not just visual customization, but action customization and we’ve got both of those in spades. We want to show off the stats of the character to the player so they can see “Oh, I’m heavily offense, and I’ve got no defense, so that’s probably why I’m dying.” If they want to play it that way they can, but we want to let them know how their character is shaped. Ultimately, though, it’s the player’s choice. We don’t want to lock them into being a tank or a DPS guy, it’s going to be their choice. They can build what type of class they want.

Steve: Once you set on a path, can you change what kind of class you’re building?

RM: Of course. We have a system called “retconning“. So, of course people are going to want to experiment and we want them to experiment. We’re not sure of the fine details yet, whether it’s every level you’ll get a chance to retcon or if it will use some in-game resources, but essentially we want people to rebuild their characters. “Didn’t you have psychic blades?” “No! Retcon, man, retcon.”

H: What is your favourite element that you’ve personally added to the game?

RM: The nemesis system. It was a collection of everyone’s ideas, but I took the ideas and put it into a cohesive whole. The guys on the content team are doing an excellent job of implementing it and I can’t wait to show it.

H: What was the vision that really drove Champions Online?

RM: Well, there were three main vision principles. One of them was total customization. Visually and functionally being able to modify every aspect of your character. The next one was the push towards an action style of gameplay. I think we established that very well with the whole blocking and reacting, and movement based powers. The third thing is diverse environments. We didn’t just want people doing the same things over and over again. We want to move more towards personalizing your game experience, which is something we’ve done with the nemesis system. It’s a big thing at Cryptic now moving towards more player created content and essentially nemesis is player created content. You just create him, wind him up and let him go. And there’s more movement to have more player investment in the world and we want to expand on that in the future. It’s true from the first game we created and it’s true with Champions moving forward.

H: From a design standpoint, how do you make a gamer feel powerful?

RM: Well, part of it is the visualization. The art team has done an excellent job combining animations and special effects together to make a force power look right, with a big wind-up, big flash of light, big exaggerated movement and the enemy just goes flying back. You give the players powers like that right away, instead of telling them “Here’s a dagger, go kill a rat.” No, you get “Here’s your force blast!”

H: You can still use that on a rat. A gigantic rat.

RM: A giant, mutant rat! [laughs] Yeah, a part of that is visualization and part of that is giving enough power at the beginning to make you feel like you’re bad-ass. Also the types of critters (enemies) that you face. For example, you start off in the desert and you’re called as a hero to an atomic wasteland. Giving you a chance to prove yourself as a hero. When you start off the game with situations like that you feel powerful. All part of that is story telling, animation, art, circumstances and zone design. It’s all part of the experience.

H: Outside of Champions, where do you feel the industry as a whole is moving right now?

RM: I think the industry as a whole, well, you see the Xbox 360 being firmly established as the first of the “next generation” consoles. What makes a next generation console? Well developed online component, the Xbox Live component. They did have one for the original Xbox, but the 360 was a big step for that. Playstation has got a similar system, coming in a bit later. I think that’s going to continue to grow. Online is the big movement in the industry right now. It’s becoming more than just games, too. If you look at any of the other Live services, like downloading movies as well as games, so it’s becoming more about entertainment. People are starting to get that, as well, looking there for more than just games. It’s becoming a global community.

Even handhelds, like the DS Lite, it has wireless integrated and for less than $150. I think you’re going to see a lot more games moving towards the online component. People like to connect and they like to interact.

S: Also, replayability. Like with Bioshock which is a great game, but doesn’t give you much of a reason to go back with no multiplayer. Games like Halo 3, though, keeps people coming.

RM: And I think that’s part of the appeal for MMOs. Typically, MMOs have been a specialized niche because of issues with MMO play like latency, etc. So, they had minimal graphics to mitigate those issues, but the evolution of networking and what machines are capable of doing has pushed it in a new direction where the PC gaming experience or console gaming experience are coming closer together. A lot of console gamers won’t like MMOs because the gameplay isn’t fast enough or the graphics aren’t crisp enough. I think now Champions is evidence you can get action style gameplay in an MMO atmosphere and it’s what we want to do going forward. Cryptic is an MMO house; we build MMO games. We want to keep pushing the envelope and be an industry lead for developing MMOs. We don’t want to just rehash the same ideas, we want to innovate with every game we design. There are some of traditional elements in Champions Online but there’s a lot of new stuff, too.

H: I know you’re originally from Saskatchewan, so what is it like living in California? Are there a lot of Canadians in the Bay Area?

RM: There are actually a lot Canadians working in the Bay Area. I’m actually part of the Bay Area Curling club. During Canada Day celebrations we usually get together. Apparently there’s about ten thousand Canadians living and working within the Bay Area. So, every year we get together and it’s like the Green Lantern recharging his power ring.

S: Aside from Champions, what games do you play at home?

RM: Actually playing a lot of Civilization Revolution right now on the 360 and the DS Lite. I’m a big Civ fan, I like the world development games. Of course you have to get the technology victory, economic victory, conquering victory and cultural victory. I’ve played Civ 1, Civ 2, Civ 3, Civ 4. I mean, the new version is like a Civ Lite almost, where you can get in, play for a few hours and you’re done. I still like going back to the PC version, but it’s nice to be able to take it with me. Playing a bit of LEGO: Star Wars, which is a fun game. And I’m always playing MMOs. You can’t be ignorant of what’s out there, and what innovations are spreading throughout the industry. I also like just going into GameStop and Game Crazy and just pick up used games that I never had a chance to play before. I’m enjoying Puzzle Quest on XBLA right now.

Another good MMO, which people don’t normally class as such, is Puzzle Pirates. My wife and I have played through it for quite a while because she really likes puzzle games. It is an MMO in the sense you can crew with other people and navigate a ship, do sword fighting, and it’s all a series of puzzle games. Sword fighting is a Tetris-style game.

H: Is there anything else you’d like to close with?

RM: Well, the game is in alpha right now. We’re going to be wrapping up and putting it into beta soon. The guys have been doing a really great job at work and we really want to show off more of the environments, fans have been asking to see more of the game. We just want to try and make it as polished as possible before we show it off. First impressions are everything. We want people to get excited because we want communities to develop. We also don’t want to go off and promise a whole bunch of things we can’t deliver on, we just keep asking people to be patient and we’ll get things out as soon as we can.

Lots of thanks to Randy for taking the time to speak with us. Look for Champions Online to hit in Summer of next year and we’ll have more coverage of the game as it develops.