Free Realms Developer Blog

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Author: FreeRealms

Free Realms is filled with all kinds of mystical creatures that players can befriend, train, dress up and even RIDE. With the large variety of pets at launch (several varieties of dogs and cats) and the later addition of Ponies, Pegasus, Unicorns, Dragons and Dinosaurs, it was only a matter of time before players wanted to take these new friends for a ride! So how could we resist creating Rides!

Rides in Free Realms allow players to move quickly through the over world with excitement. To be a bit more precise, players are granted a speed bonus of approximately a 150% of the normal player run speed.

Our first Rides included striped T-Rex’s and a gold-tipped dragons. Each has its own texture and a variety of tints. Why these particular creatures first? Well, the team came up with a ton of ideas, but we wanted our first rides to not only be stylish, but give players something to brag about. I mean, who doesn’t want to saddle up on a dragon and float through the crowds in the Crossroads? Who wouldn’t want to romp through Briarwood on a fierce T-Rex?

Well, if dinos and dragons aren’t your Ride of choice, we most recently introduced Horse and Pegasus Rides! These new pets definitely give the Dragon and T-Rex some cool competition as they trot and gallop across Free Realms.

The Pegasus is a mythical horse that unfurls its wings as it takes stride.

If you prefer more modern horses, there is the Stallion or White-Nosed Mare, each available in six different colors. And they sure do love to jump!

And, acquiring any of these Rides is a cinch! Players who don't have a ride can access the Rides category in the Marketplace by easily clicking the Ride icon on their game dock. What if you already have a ride and you want to buy a new one? Don't fret! Go to the Shops link on your game dock and choose Marketplace. Then, you can click the Rides category from there. You can switch between your rides by clicking the Ride icon on your game dock. Pick the one you want and you're set!

For those who prefer to traverse the 3D world, stop by any of the stables to pick up a local breed. The stables are located in Seaside, Sanctuary, Merry Vale, Highroad Junction, and Lakeshore.

Transportation in Free Realms doesn't end here! We hope to offer more types of exotic beasts, and possibly a few mechanical Rides to boot. I've already bought myself a few of the Rides...My current favorites are my red gold-tipped dragon and my purple Pegasus (Can you tell I like Rides with wings!?). What's your favorite Ride? Tell us what you would like to see!

P.S. If you have some extra time, the idle animation for each of the rides is pretty sweet.

M. Margaret A. Krohn
Free Realms Game Designer
Sony Online Entertainment

Hello MMORPG.com readers!

Free Realms' Festival of Hearts is upon us, so if you're the type to get a little nauseous at the thought of lovey-dovey amore, then you'd better lather on the cootie repellant right now!

The Festival of Hearts is a well-known holiday throughout Scared Grove, but no one delights in it more than the fairies of Merry Vale. Their town is home to the heart flower, named for its magical petals that radiate love. Players are welcome to pluck a petal from the flower each day.

The Festival of Hearts is a time to show appreciation for friends and loved ones. But how do you let that someone special know that they are, well... someone special? Chocolates? Flowers? A poem maybe?

In Free Realms, you'll have a bunch of ways to show someone you care! Thanks to the awesome art and items teams, there will be plenty of gifts to choose from at the marketplace and coin shop. I'm partial to pink blocks and heart wall stickers, in case anyone's thinking about giving me in-game presents! *hint, hint!*

For the people of Sacred Grove, collecting forget-me-nots is the way to show how adored you are. Luckily for all of you, we've placed an unlimited pile of them near the mailboxes in Merry Vale during the events. You can pick some up to throw at friends. If you manage to get enough tossed at you each day during the festival, you'll be rewarded with a mystery gift!

Of course, not everyone's idea of a good time is hearts and hugs and roses. In fact, there are a few around Merry Vale who would rather see all of this lovey-dovey crud wilt away. The old adage claims that misery loves company, and these heartless troublemakers are ensuring that as many people in Merry Vale are also unhappy during Stone Heart's Rampage.

You can pick up a love potion during the event and help defeat the heartbreakers, or put on your own Queen or King of Broken Hearts costume and join in on the mischief.

For those of you who want to help get to the bottom of things, speak to the curious pixie, Cudip, close to the heart flower in Merry Vale to follow along on the Festival of Hearts story.

The fun has begun in Merry Vale, and will continue on throughout the month with a variety of mystery awards available through daily activities, quests, and events.

If you see me in-game, be sure to toss a forget-me-not my way!

<3 Julie

Julie Burness
Associate Game Designer
Free Realms
www.FreeRealms.com

Hi! I'm Floyd Bishop, a Senior Artist (Animator) on Free Realms. I recently did a UStream Event (http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3233553) where I went over the steps involved in animating a character for Free Realms. During the session, I animated our TRex pet doing a push up trick. Look for this animation in a future game update.

As an animator, I make things in the game move, but animation is much more than that. There are a few things I have to keep in mind before I start animating.

-What is the purpose of the animation? Is this an emote, a locomotion (movement), a trick, etc?

-Are there any design specific needs for the character's animation? Maybe they have a very specific need based on lore or quest specific actions? (This type of character is scared all the time because a spell was cast on him long ago... things like that)

-Are there any technical limitations on the character that would inhibit a certain animation? For example, a rig might have two attach joints, but I want a character to juggle three things. (We actually overcame that with the Robgoblin Jester. You can see him juggling away in a few different spots in the game.)

-Does the animation I'm planning fit with the look, mood, style, and rating of the game? We are an E 10+ title, and as such, you shouldn't be seeing anything racy or gory in Free Realms.

Once I have a little better understanding of the game related guidelines for an animation, I can start in on what the character is all about, and what I want to do.

These kinds of details really help an animator flesh out a character:

-What kind of character is this? (Main character? Ambient wildlife? Pet? Enemy?)

-What kind of personality does the character have? (Happy? Sad? Angry?)

-What kind of back story does the character have? (Favorite foods? Where is he/she/it from?)

Once I have all of that in place, I sit down and sometimes do some very quick thumbnail drawings of the animation I plan on doing. I only worry about key poses. What are the fewest number of poses I can use to get the idea across? I think of it as a comic strip panel. How many drawings does it take to get the main idea across? If it's more than a few, then the animation is probably too complicated, and I'm over thinking it. For something like a pet trick, three or four keys should be just about enough to sell the idea I'm trying to get across. Sometimes, the idea comes in so clear that I just jump right into the computer and start setting keys, skipping the thumbnails all together.

A work in progress animation can take several days to get just right. We share our work each morning at Dailies with the rest of the animation team. Each animator shows what they were working on the day before. This allows for team input on animations, making for higher quality movements and actions. For example, maybe one animator has done a lot of run cycles on cats and has some workflow tips for someone working on a similar character. Maybe an animator is stuck for trick ideas. The rest of the animation team can look at the character with fresh eyes and offer trick suggestions. It gets pretty silly sometimes. Dailies allow us to continue to raise the bar and push ourselves to make the most entertaining game possible.

Once we have a good animation blocked out, and everyone seems to like what they see, we go ahead and finish up the animation, making sure we have a few key things in place.

-Do we have clear poses?

-Does the character squash and stretch?

-Is there a good sense of weight and balance?

-How are the arcs on the extremities?

-Is there any overlapping action?

-Is there any overshoot and settle back into position?

-How is the timing? Too fast, too slow, or just right?

When we finish the animation in Maya, we're still not done. We have to export the animation to work in the game engine, and add the animation to the character's file, putting it in the right location. For example, for a character to jump in our game, it actually uses three different animation files. A jump anim is used for the character lifting off the ground. A fall anim is the character freefalling through the air. A land animation is the character touching down on the ground again. Each animation has to start and stop in a very specific pose, so that they place seamlessly. Any differences in poses will show up as a mistake to the player, with characters popping all over the place.

The Free Realms crew works hard every day to make our game as fun and entertaining as possible. Hopefully you all enjoy the game as much as we enjoy making it!

Floyd Bishop
Senior Artist (Animator)
Free Realms, Sony Online Entertainment
 

We have made some pretty hefty changes to combat in Free Realms and we wanted to take some time and explain to you what is going on. The overall changes include alterations to monster population and mechanics within combat encounters, changes to items and player power. There is a lot to cover so lets get started.

First off, let’s talk about our reasoning for these changes and why the team felt they were needed:

Pacing and Feel
We felt that Free Realms combat wasn’t as exciting and fast paced as we wanted it to be. Combat felt slow and some of the longer encounter took a very long time to beat. We wanted a more arcade game feel, where you get in, engage in some fast paced and visually stimulating combat, get good rewards (more on this later) and get out, catch a breather and dive back into another encounter. Instead it felt like trudging uphill through mud.

Combat Job Balance and Fun Factor
Some jobs felt very underpowered, while other jobs (most notably the Medic) felt overpowered. Most combat abilities felt bland and the benefits to using them over auto attack where marginal. None of the abilities had the visceral flash that we wanted – Nothing made you sit back in your chair and say “Whoa! Did I just do that? Awesome!”

Progression
This was a big one. Both combat jobs and items didn’t progress in a meaningful way. There was little difference in a player’s power from items and abilities from level 1 to level 20. This made upgrades as players’ leveled marginal and it also tied our hands when it came to offering players truly awesome items as rewards. This also negated two of the traditional benefits of leveling.

Complicated Stats
It’s tough to have a level progression and items without having stats on those items – something to quantify the benefit of the item. Unfortunately the stats we had weren’t transparent enough for most of our players. We needed to make stats easy to understand. We also needed to be able to progress them in a way that wouldn’t eventually break the game, while giving the players a tangible increase in power as they leveled and got new items. This isn’t an easy task and most traditional MMOs don’t even try, instead opting for stats that aren’t easy to figure out, but do progress well.

What did we change?
• Larger Groups of Monsters - You will be fighting larger groups of monsters at a time with your new, more powerful abilities.
• Monster Spawners - Most combat encounters now have monster spawners placed at strategic locations. These will continue to spawn monsters until they are destroyed.
• New Improved Powerups - Defeating monsters can cause them to drop powerups, but unlike the old power ups some of the new ones give you powerful one-time-use abilities if you pick them up.
• No more Click to Attack - You no longer click your mouse button to attack. This is a big change, but we get some benefits from it. You can now run and attack without being stopped. You can use click-to-move and not have your movement stopped completely.
• All attacks are Area Effect - All your attacks now affect an area around or in front of you – no more single target attacks. No more beating on one monster while its friends hammer the back of your head.

Combat Jobs, Progression and Stats
• Combat Abilities now tied to weapons – All of the old job abilities (kick, rock toss, etc) are no longer part of the job. Instead all attacks come from the various job specific weapons. Each weapon has two attacks on it:
o A normal attack that can be used as often as you like without consuming energy. These always hit all of the monsters in front of you, if they are in range.
o A super attack. This attack deals an enormous amount of damage and will knockout any normal monster it hits. Super attacks consume all of your energy, but energy comes back pretty fast (instantly if you get an energy powerup!).
• Each combat job now has Traits. These are passive abilities that increase the player’s power. They are unlocked as the player gains levels.

Let me explain this –

When you get a weapon, like the wizard wand above, it will have two attacks on it. If you got a different wand it may have different attacks on it. Compare the above item to this item –

Items are much cooler now and it is very easy to figure out if one item is better than another. Stats are no longer a mystery. It is easy to tell what the weapon does because all stats are explained.

Level Locked Encounters and Encounter Progression

Just as our stats and player power used to be shallow, so was our difficulty progression through encounters. Now that player stats increase greatly over the 20 levels of progression our combat encounters have also increase in difficulty. Because of this higher level encounters will require that all players entering them be of the appropriate level. Encounters are broken down into tiers –

Tier 1 – Levels 1 to 4
Tier 2 – Levels 5 to 8
Tier 3 – Levels 9 to 12
Tier 4 – Levels 13 to 16
Tier 5 – Levels 17 to 20

A player can enter an encounter up to one tier above his current tier. A level 2 player can enter tier 1 and tier 2 encounters, but not tier 3. A level 7 player can enter tier 1, 2 and 3 encounters. Once a player hits 13 they can enter all encounters.

Gear also becomes very important. A player will need the gear from lower tiers to survive in higher tiers. If a level 13 player who has a tier 2 weapon tries to go into a tier 5 encounter they will find it very hard, if not impossible. Luckily, weapon drops are fairly common and shouldn’t be hard to get. You can also buy all the weapons at the coin store.

In summary we think that you will find combat more streamlined and easier to understand. At the same time it should engender the feelings of excitement and anticipation that come with an item and level progression. It will now be worthwhile to seek out those encounters that drop items you want because those items will now make a difference in how you play and what you can do while in combat.

We hope to see you in our groups as we race for level 20! We hope you have fun playing Free Realms Combat!

Darrin McPherson
Senior Game Designer
SOE

The coldest days in Sacred Grove are almost upon us, and with the frigid air comes the start of the Snow Days, the Free Realms winter holiday celebration. The people of Snowhill have been busy prepping, and their efforts won’t go unnoticed. During the Winter Holiday, Snowhill will be transformed into a winter wonderland filled with food, fun, and of course – presents!

The Food!
No one in Snowhill knows more about the Winter Holiday than Candi Ivy! When she's not keeping a close eye on the Gifting Tree, she's baking dozens of cut-out cookies, fruit cakes and other delicious holiday treats for others to eat!

Those who visit Candi and follow the holiday quest line may have a chance to try all of her sweet holiday treats, that is, if you trust her baking...

The Fun!
Getting your friends into the holiday spirit is as easy as picking up a snowball from one of the many piles around Snowhill. From there, it's ready... aim... fire, and fun!

Pelt your friends with snowballs as you duck behind ice barriers in the Snowhill snowball fighting area. Once you've perfected your aim, speak to Calvin Coldcastle just inside Snowhill. He'll open up your very own snowball fighting arena, where your friends can battle it out team vs. team.

The Presents!
The Gifting Tree is the oldest pine in Sacred Grove. It was planted in the heart of Snowhill by Silversnow, the old pixie, back when he was just a wee boy. He claims the magical tree was a gift from his friends, the Elves, who are rumored to live just beyond the crystal barrier.

The enchanted tree comes to life during the coldest days of winter, and continues to bloom until all the presents have fallen from its branches.

In awe and appreciation of the tree, the people of Snowhill adorn it with brightly colored lights and glittering garland. They gather around its base every day while it's in bloom to receive magical gifts. To pick out your special gift from beneath the tree, visit Candi Ivy in Snowhill. Be sure to come back every day and see if the tree has grown a new gift for you!

Bah Humbug!
Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with the spirit of giving. Some snowmen have been spotted running amuck around Snowhill, attempting to ambush the tree and snatch its presents! It's up to you and your friends to stop this thievery by pelting snowmen with snowballs

.

While classic tacky sweaters are a staple for the holiday season (remember the ones your mom always made you wear?), we'll also have bunch of brand new costumes and items to help you to show off your holiday spirit. You never know when you'll need the perfect outfit for a special holiday party!

Be sure to gather your friends, and head to Snowhill to enjoy all of the wintery fun! From the Free Realms family to yours, happy holidays!

Julie Burness
Associate Game Designer
Free Realms
www.FreeRealms.com
 

Hello everyone, Taylor Steil here, Free Realms game designer. I’m currently in the Sacred Grove Shallows with my good friend Reed Stillwater. He’s going to tell us about a new minigame that is being added to Free Realms in the next game update, Fishing!

Taylor: Hi Reed! What are you doing?

Reed: Hey there Taylor. Thanks for stopping by. I’m just gathering up my fishing gear. I have my fishing rod, a collection of lures, and my favorite fishing cap.

Taylor: Cool hat! So, how exactly does fishing work in Free Realms?

Reed: Well Taylor, that’s a good question. First, you have to find a fishin’ hole. My favorite is right here in Sacred Grove at the Sacred Grove Shallows. Then, you just walk up to the pond and cast your line. There are so many fish in this pond that you are almost guaranteed a bite!

Taylor: Is it hard to reel in the fish once you get a bite?

Reed: No sir, it’s easy! When you get a bite, just click your mouse. It’s as simple as that.

Taylor: Wow, that does seem easy. Can you catch anything else?

Reed: Yup, you can catch a bunch of extra stuff. You see, some robgoblins like to swim in this pond and they’re constantly losing things in the water. When you fish, you have a chance to hook those items and bring them up!

Taylor: That’s cool! How many different fish are there?

Reed: Well Taylor, so far I’ve caught about 30 different species of fish but who knows how many more are out there. There could be a new fish just waiting to be caught!

Taylor: That is a lot of fish! Can you catch them all just starting out as a new fisherman?

Reed: Nope, you’ll need to practice a whole lot and really get your fishing skills up to snuff before you can catch the more elusive fish.

Taylor: I see. Can you tell me about these lures you have in your tackle box?

Reed: I sure can. Lures help you catch a specific fish. For example, if you are looking for a Chipsen Fish, you’d want to use a Thorn Jig. The lure will last for 30 minutes and it will improve your chances of catching the exact fish that you want. All the information about lures is in your Tackle Box, which is a new ability just for Fishing.

Taylor: That sounds awesome! So, is there anything else you can tell me about fishing?

Reed: Yeah Taylor, there is one last thing I want to say about it -

IT ROCKS!

Well folks, it looks like Fishing in Free Realms is going to be a lot of fun so I encourage everyone to go to Sacred Grove Shallows, cast your line, sit back, and wait for a bite!

That’s all for me! See you next time!

Taylor Steil
Game Designer
Free Realms

www.FreeRealms.com

Hi, I’m Darrin McPherson, a Senior Game Designer on the Free Realms development team and I am here to give you some more details on an upcoming new feature– Player Houses! You heard me right! Players will soon be able to own their own homes in Free Realms. Meant to give you a little space in the world (or a big space depending on the house you buy) to call your own, player housing will allow you to get really creative with your interior and exterior decorating skills. You can also invite friends over to show off your new pad or throw a house party and go wild!

Our team has been working hard so that owning a home will be a fun experience for all of our players. Our artists have been hard at work building unique furniture and decorations so that you can make your house look just how you want it to. And, while our artists have been busy creating items, our programmers have focused on making it easy to place and move your items and decorations within your house.

Items for your home are not just about couches, desks and tables – that stuff is cool, but come on, where is the really cool stuff? A group of our artists and designers have been specifically tasked with creating a load of fun, extraordinary items that you can buy like a gumball machine, jukebox, aquarium or even a full blown fountain! Other “fun items” vary wildly, from a talking stone head to an enormous rocket ship that will launch when you tell it to.

You’ll also want to be certain to check out the Mega Dance Floor which is sure to be the center of any house party. And of course, no party would be complete without an AHSA (Automatic Head Size Augmenter) which makes the heads of all the players and pets in your home grow huge.

Everyone who plays Free Realms will get a free apartment that they can live in and decorate. Members also get a free two room house complete with a yard. There is also a deluxe house that can be purchased.

And this is just the beginning …We have big plans for the future of Free Realms houses, so stay tuned!

Darrin McPherson
Sr. Game Designer
Free Realms
www.FreeRealms.com

Ok, so in Free Realms we have lots of friendly dogs and cute cats that you can adopt and train (even some ghost pets too). And, while the canine and feline pet variations are pretty cool, we have been secretly working on several new breeds of exotic pets for you to have fun with.

Initially when the development team took on the task of designing new pets, the whole character team sat down together and we started throwing out ideas left and right. What would make for some crazy and unique pets? From alpacas and zebras, to turtles and porcupines, we had all kinds of zany suggestions.

Once we had our brainstorm session, we combined our ideas with what the community team had compiled from player requests. This gave us a good idea of whether we were on track or not. We did concept drawings of several of these and picked out what we thought the players would like the most.

So, the next game update will bring you some awesomely adorable companions to choose from:

Ponies!        Pegasi!               Unicorns!

For the more reptilian friendly, we will release two types of flying dragons and a cute triceratops.

When we started building these new pets, we wanted to make sure they were very different from what you can find in any pet store. As you can see they are very colorful, distinct and whimsical.

Each of these new pets has their own set of tricks and will show off their specialties with some fun shenanigans - dragons breathe fire and unicorns “tinkle” rainbows! We’ve had a blast making them and can’t wait for everyone to get their paws on the new Free Realms pets! ?

Hmmm...I still think a platypus would be cool...

Matt Case
Lead Character Artist
Free Realms
www.FreeRealms.com
 

Halloween is almost upon us, but the super spooky festivities have been going on all month in Free Realms!

The Spooktacular celebration grows each and every day, with plenty of pixies and humans parading around Sanctuary in costume, scaring townsfolk in return for sweet treats.

Be careful which sweet treats you eat, though! The candy in Sanctuary has been known to have some eerie effects...

The Free Realms' world design team has been dreaming up Halloween events for quite some time now. Most of us are convinced the haunting holiday should be celebrated year round, so needless to say, when asked who was willing to create a few tricks and treats, we all eagerly raised our hands.

Luckily for me, I'm the tallest one on the team, so naturally my hand was raised the highest. Luckily for the rest of you, the world design team had too many fantastic ideas to choose just one, so we decided in addition to traditional trick-or-treating, we'd let you all follow along on a spooky tale, only to be told during Halloween!

Players are introduced to Halloween Harry in Sanctuary, the confectioner who has a super-secret recipe to create sweet treats. He's been crafting gooey candy for longer than anyone can remember, so when some strange things start happening in Sanctuary, he's not too spooked.

Old man Greyli Dustywings on the other hand, is convinced ghosts are to blame for all the mischief. If only he had his spectral spectacles, he could show everyone that ghouls and ghosts are lurking around Sanctuary!

For those who aren't scared of a little ghoulish fun, keep an eye open for Pumpkin Prince sightings! Rumor has it he's been haunting Snowhill, Bristlewood, and Stillwater Crossing. Ghost Hunters in each of those areas could always use some help scaring the ghouls away.

If you'd rather dress up and devour candy, be sure to join the party in Sanctuary! Some of the townsfolk are passing out rare goodies. If you don't get the treat you want today, come back tomorrow and try again. Members and non-members alike are invited to trick-or-treat every day!

So whether you want to help Halloween Harry get to the bottom of things, or simply scare away ghosts from Sacred Grove, there's something for every type of player in Free Realms' Super Spooktacular update! So come join in on the fun. We'll keep a delicious raven cupcake waiting for you!

Julie Burness
Associate Game Designer
Free Realms
www.FreeRealms.com

Halloween has come to Free Realms and it’s

Super Spooktacular!

From ghosts, goblins and creepy cobwebs to candy corn costumes, Free Realms gears up for the biggest virtual Halloween event of the season.

We are celebrating Halloween in Free Realms, with weeks of spooky activities and festive live events. It’s our First Annual Super Spooktacular and you’re invited to try out loads of great quests, costumes and more.

What a great holiday for the Free Realms character art team!! Most of us love dressing up in costumes, so making a bunch of costumes for the game was a blast!

We started out by making sure we had all the classic monsters like a vampire, witch, Frankenstein, mummy and werewolf. We made sure to give them a bit of Free Realms flair and they ended up looking awesome!

Thinking back to when we were kids, we also thought it would be great to put in a bunch of what we called "supermarket" costumes. Basically, those one piece jumpsuit costumes that came with the plastic mask, that just made a sauna on your face. Those costumes were usually made in the likeness of your favorite Saturday morning cartoon characters, so we thought we would make them all the various characters around Free Realms.

I think my favorite costume would have to be the full body Chatdy outfit. It looks hilarious, and most importantly, players will have to do something special to find that suit!

                              

There are many other costumes and surprises in there for Halloween, so be sure to get out in the world and shop or do some quests for all the crazy costumes out there!

And for those of you who like to “party” we’re having a Halloween Dance Party and you’re invited. Boy, girl, ghoul or ghost, you need to be there for our biggest dance party yet! How many people we can get into the graveyard near the Bone Bog Cemetery? Be there and find out!

Wednesday October, 21st
4pm PDT – 6pm PDT (11pm – 1am UTC)
Blackspore, Teleport to Bone Bog Cemetery
Server 1

Wear your best costume and get ready to shake your bones across the cemetery floor. It’s going to be a crazy night of creepy moves and Halloween grooves.

I’ve got my costume…See you there!

Matt Case
Lead Character Artist
Free Realms

www.FreeRealms.com