Do you remember the early MMOG Stone Age? Do you remember those cute pets, dinosaurs and wild adventures in Stone Age? Can you forget your happy time in Stone Age? For many of us, Stone Age is our indelible memory for childrenhood. It#DY#s a great pleasure for Aeria Games to announce that it has acquired its seventh title called Stone Age 2, a casual MMORPG originated from Stone Age created by DigiPark Inc. to be releaseed in North America. Now let Josh Bakken, the product director for Stone Age 2, give us some latest news and details about this MMORPG!
MMOsite: To start, can you basically introduce yourself as well as your company to our readers?
Josh Bakken: Sure, I#DY#d love too. I#DY#m StoneAgeChiefJP and I#DY#m a Producer over here at Aeria Games and Entertainment. I#DY#m in charge of making sure Stone Age 2 becomes the most popular "Casual" MMO in the world. And as far as who Aeria Games and Entertainment is; we are a leading publisher and portal for Free-to-Play online games.
MMOsite: What led you to import Stone Age 2 into the North American market? And what types of gamers are you targeting?
Josh Bakken: Well, some of your readers may already know this, but the Stone Age franchise was extremely well received in Asia (particularly in China) where it generated some 260 million dollars over the course of about 6 years.
So, while I wasn#DY#t the individual actually making the decision to import the game, I do believe that might have been a small factor in it. I also think Aeria was looking for something to broaden its user base and with Stone Age 2, I think it will be able to do just that. Plus, D.O.M.O. told me it was getting lonely being the only anime themed game here at Aeria.
As far as what types of gamers we#DY#re targeting, that#DY#s a very good question and my answer is that Stone Age 2 is targeting the same types of players I feel Nintendo is targeting with the Wii; and that#DY#s pretty much everyone.In our forums I actually wrote a long post about who I thought Stone Age 2 was geared to, but to boil it down here, it#DY#s really for people who like games that can be either as advanced or as simple as they want them to be.If you want to devote a lot of time to Stone Age 2, it can be advanced.
If you don#DY#t have a lot of time to devote, but you still want something fun, Stone Age 2 has got you covered there too. There#DY#s an old saying about getting out of something what you put into it and I think that#DY#s really true of Stone Age 2.
MMOsite: Cute pets, dinosaurs and wild adventures in Stone Age give us a deep impression. What are the major features you#DY#ll inherit from Stone Age? And what will be the major improvements?
Josh Bakken: Well for one, the area of Stone Age 2 is roughly 4 times bigger than the area of the original Stone Age so that#DY#s a pretty big improvement.
In addition, some of the things we inherit from the original Stone Age are all the things that made the original so great to begin with; great art, great pets, great dialogue, fun adventures, mystery, danger....all that stuff.
Also, Stone Age 2 is continuing to expand upon the theme of communication; communication between players, communication between players and their dinosaurs, and even communication with people outside of the game.
DigiPark actually describes Stone Age 2 as one big "communication tool" where all types of communication are being pursued. For example; one new feature is that pets may write in diaries to communicate their feelings (and possibly send messages to your cell phone as well). We also have cameras that can be placed throughout the game to communicate to offline players what#DY#s going on in game even when they#DY#re not playing. Also, in certain instances, you#DY#ll have the need to communicate to others that a whole group needs to go to a certain area in order to unlock some hidden feature (which DigiPark calls the "happening system").
So as you can see, while communication and interaction have always been big themes within the Stone Age franchise, those themes are greatly expanded upon in Stone Age 2.
MMOsite: How would you describe the game#DY#s art style and its overall look? Will Stone Age 2 look very different from Stone Age?
Josh Bakken: Thankfully Stone Age 2 will pretty much be keeping the same look of the original Stone Age. If anything, it will add some polish to an already fantastic and original look. I personally LOVE the look. I love the pets, I love the fashions, I love the structures, I love the details.
I mean everything about the game from an art standpoint (actually from every standpoint) is done really well. Even our Art Director said so and he#DY#s REALLY hard to impress. DigiPark did a great job.
I remember when I first started on the project and someone asked me how I liked the game. My response was "It makes me smile every time I look at it". That was true then, it#DY#s still true today, and the art and audio have a lot to do with that.
