We recently seized the opportunity to ask the development team of Evony some questions about the game itself, and about the recent Eva contest.
Evony is a browser-based multiplayer online game in which players build or destroy empires. The main aim of the game is to make your cities stronger by bolstering their heroes, resources, offense, and defense for the purpose of attacking NPC or players' cities. It's quite a bit more complicated than that once you get into it, but you'll have to find out for yourself at http://www.evony.com/
The game has been around ever since early 2009. In that time Evony has gone through many changes since its original form, including the release of Evony: Age II. It's also gathered a staggering 18 million players in over 167 countries.
Reading on, you'll find our exclusive Q&A with the Evony team. Our questions have been answered with great detail and should satisfy your every query about what goes on behind the scenes!
GAME QUESTIONS
Curse: Evony has been a mainstay in the free-to-play scene for years. What do you think it is about Evony that makes it stand out from the pack?
Evony: Our game was designed from the bottom up to be the kind of game that you keep playing, day after day with very rich gameplay that you really can’t find elsewhere. What keeps our fans engaged in Evony is the fact that there is so much to do. The game starts off as a city-building game. Players learn the basics of the game while building their city and raising their first army. This is where a lot of games end, but for Evony, this is just the beginning.
Let me illustrate by using a hypothetical player named Emily. Emily started the game, went through the tutorial, and followed as many quests as she could. For the first week of the game she was protected from outside attack by something we call “beginner protection.” Emily took advantage of this time, building up her city and training a good sized army. Feeling confident, Emily starts to expand her empire by targeting surrounding Barbarian cities (controlled by NPCs) for plunder and conquest. In no time Emily has a pretty good understanding of basic combat, and is well on the way to forging quite an impressive empire.
That is when the whole game world opens up to what we call the endgame, which is the part that we consider to be the most exciting part of the Evony experience. Emily zooms out of her city to the map view, revealing a bird’s eye view of the world. Emily’s empire, which was the focal point of the game up to this point, is actually surrounded by other cities as well as resource fields we call valleys. Some of these cities are NPC-controlled, but most of them are actually other real-world players, each with their own multi-city empires.
As Emily begins to explore her surroundings she discovers that these neighboring empires are part of a powerful alliance a hundred empires strong! Striking up a conversation with one of the members of the alliance in world chat, she decides that she’d like to join. Once part of the alliance, Emily is made privy to the inner workings of the alliance’s inner circle. Over time Emily discovers that their alliance is actually part of a coalition of alliances locked in a bitter struggle with another coalition of alliances. Emily, who started with the task of building a single city, is now drawn into a world of intrigue, diplomacy and massive battles as hundreds of players and thousands of cities struggle for supremacy, all in real time.
Lots of people I talk to tell me how people in their alliances become real friends outside the game. We even know of a few marriages that have emerged from the virtual battlefields of Evony. The best part about all of this is all you need is a browser and an internet connection. No long downloads, no complicated installations and best of all, nothing to buy. Go to our website and start playing right away. You don’t even have to register to start playing.
Curse: Since its release, how has Evony: Age II been received by players?
Evony: Evony: Age II has been very successful, building on the original gameplay mechanics introduced in Evony: Age I. Evony: Age II has Facebook integration to allow people to share their gaming experience with friends by sending gifts, visiting each other’s empires, etc. Evony: Age II also added a number of gameplay enhancements like achievements, hero equipment and equipment crafting, new quests, historical cities and historical heroes.
In addition to these changes we also added Stratagems. For me, Stratagems are particularly cool. Stratagems add an extra element to combat by introducing subterfuge, intelligence and sabotage to battles. Although it sounds complicated, Stratagems play a lot like your typical Collectible Card Game (CCG), allowing you to tip the balance of battle in your favor by sending false information to your enemies, altering troop movements or spying on enemy cities. Most stratagems also feature a counter ability, so it really adds to the excitement of the game, not knowing what your foes will do!
Curse: Game balance is a never-ending task for game developers. When looking back at several years of Evony, how has the game balance challenge been for its developers?
Evony: What makes online gaming of this sort so interesting is that players are constantly developing new strategies and tactics. This poses some interesting challenges for the game design and production team. Balance, in the context of Evony, has a very subtle meaning. In a wargame, the whole point of strategy is to obtain momentary advantage. Ultimately that means there really is no single “right” way to play. People play the game and test out new strategies all the time.
On the other hand, you don’t want players creating conditions that are permanently unfair. As a result, we have to be very careful to look at the ever-shifting game environment to make sure we don’t stifle player creativity, while at the same time ensuring that the game continues to be fun. It is subjective, and believe me, we sometimes have quite heated debates in the office over some of these game balance issues.
In the long run, the players themselves are the ultimate balancer. As new tactics emerge, players quickly find counter-strategies. Through alliances communications and forums, fan sites and in-game chat players share information with each other, allowing information about successful strategies and counterstrategies to spread. Eventually that advantage is negated, until some other clever strategist comes along and starts the whole process over again. I think that is the exciting thing about Evony: Age I and Evony: Age II, we have a living, breathing game that is evolving over time because of player-built knowledge.
Curse: What are your hopes for the future of Evony?
Evony: Evony is an organic entity. It is a synthesis of the game system and the player community, and we are constantly evolving with new players, new alliances and new strategies. The best thing to keep this organic process evolving is for the community to continue expanding. By bringing in new players and adding new servers, we continue to grow the Evony experience. I can’t even imagine what future Evony worlds would look like, but I do know the journey there will be lots of fun!
Curse: Can you talk about some future updates planned for Evony?
Evony: A while back we added two new features; Bernini’s Hammer allows players to queue up building construction while the Evony Toolbar lets them access critical game information, even when they are looking at other websites. Player response to both of these features has been very positive. We are always monitoring what players are saying online (even if we don’t always get a chance to respond directly!), trying to determine what kinds of new features we can add to the game in a way that won’t break the existing experience. Like everything else, there are always tradeoffs, so we have to be very careful that we don’t ruin the existing gameplay experience, so those decisions are always tough ones. As for something specific… sorry, that’s classified!
EVA CONTEST
Curse: Can you give some background on the contest: when did the decision come about to bring the historically illustrated Eva to real life?
Evony: When we created the Eva character, we spent a lot of time trying to create someone that we could strongly associate with the game. I spent a lot of time going back and forth with the artist, trying to get the right look. This campaign was seen as a way to extend her role, moving beyond a few images to become a real-life representative of the game for our players. We went through a lot of really great candidates in order to narrow it down to a few finalists. What we are looking for is someone who can represent Evony to the rest of the world.
Curse: What has been the fan reaction to this contest?
Evony: So far it has been incredibly positive. The week of October 3rd 2011, we ran a contest across Facebook and the official forum to choose the new Eva from among three finalists. With hundreds of comments and over 10,000 votes cast on the Evony Facebook page, we’d say the players are pretty excited about the three candidates! It’s been a great way to get the fans involved: some lucky players will win valuable in-game currency, and everyone gets the fun of choosing Evony’s representative to the world. By opening up the process to community voting, our players can make themselves be heard in a very concrete way. It was a close race, but Samantha clenched the victory!
Curse: Will the physical Eva be involved in-game at all?
Evony: We have a lot of ideas for Samantha as Eva. Right now, everything from videos, blog posts, game hints and in-game guest appearances are all possibilities, although nothing has been finalized at this point. Having Samantha as an Evony player gives us many opportunities, so please check back for more news!
Curse: Tell us a little about the winner of the Eva contest; what will she bring to Evony?
Evony: Samantha was the clear-cut winner to play the role of Eva, the new face of Evony. Beautiful, intelligent and graceful, she’s a perfect match to the Eva drawing that has welcomed players to Evony on our homepage for years. Samantha is a pro kickboxer who also happens to also know karate and medieval sword fighting. Her specialties include ping pong, rapping, dancing (hip hop, ballet and jazz), gaming, face painting (war paint, of course!), chess, baking cookies, and last but not least, the charm of British and Southern accents. She enjoys battling villains and defending a virtuous society – she may be gorgeous, but she’s just the kind of ally you’d want in a tough fight!
Curse: Are there any other community contests coming up in the future?
Evony: Yes we do have other cool community contests and promotions that we hope to run soon. Our players have made some great suggestions. We are now looking into the feasibility of turning the spotlight on some of our diehard players in the future. Our players are really cool, and we think they would represent us well. Stay tuned for details!
Many thanks to the developers for taking the time to sit with us and answer our questions!
Everything you need to know about Evony gameplay can be found at The Evony Wiki, including guides, battle strategies, and hero builds, along with descriptions and stats for every item, structure, and unit. Fortify your knowledge and get the upper hand at TheEvonyWiki.com
Comments