Renaissance is set in a dark medieval fantasy world, where tens of thousands of players can play together, on one single server. The story relies on the players’ actions, which will also affect the environment dramatically. Epic quests and events, involving huge amounts of players - combatants and non combatants alike - are common and determine the way, how the story goes on.

The players join in a living medieval world, called Chronia, which was devastated during a tremendous war, and the newly arrived people, who are the descendants of the ancient races, have to discover the history, rebuild the world and create a new order.

Now, we have Attila Beke, the core member of 3D Magic, he comes to tell us more about Renaissance.

MMOsite.com: To start, can you basically introduce yourself and your team member to our readers? How many people are working on this project? What are some of their previous credits? And what motivated you to get together and do this project?

Attila Beke: My Name is Attila Beke and I joined the team about a year ago. I have no professional background in the gaming industry, but I manage a few fansites and communities in the Hungarian part of the World Wide Web, so I was happy to take the tasks of the community relations at 3D Magic.

The hard core of the team consists of 5 people but there are a few others, who are working on the title if extra work is needed. All together team is about 10 people working on Renaissance. They are all long time professionals, who have 10-15 years of experience in the gaming industry. Their previous works reach from Hitman to Warhammer Mark of Chaos, but some of the graphic artists were also working on the special effects to different movies, like Termintaor 3.

Our motivation is simple: We are hardcore P&P and MMORPG players and the actual (and upcoming) games on the market do not satisfy our needs. We think, that today’s games are cookie cutter products without real soul and also if they are fun for a few weeks and months, after a while they can not support the players? needs. We think, that they are just solo games in cooperative modus. We also read many message boards about MMORPGs and we know, there are thousands of people, who think the same. There are always the same ideas and topics swirling around on the net and people are crying for a real MMORPG, just like we do. So we decided: If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain.

MMOsite.com: In your own words, how would you summarize Renaissance? What will differentiate it from other fantasy MMORPGs?

Attila Beke: Renaissance is a game for true and hardcore roleplayers. There are hardcore rules and no compromises; no nerf to make the whiners happy (constructive criticism is welcome though). In Renaissance you can really influence the world. The world will reveal itself by the actions of the community and true heroes will be always remembered in the world. You can write history in Chronia.

There is no grind. Progress and character advancement is just the way, not the goal in Chronia. There is no end game and no level cap.

We try to realize as many features, as possible, which are long time topics in every RPG board, like player made quests, a dynamic world, thievery, castle sieges, epic battles etc.

MMOsite.com: How does the project progress? You mentioned that you make Renaissance in your spare time. Does it influence the progress of the game?

Attila Beke: Unfortunately the project has slowed down in the last months. We are focusing our resources to switch from semi professional to professional state and the coding and modeling is not our first priority at the moment.

We have meetings with possible investors and partners, we work on business plans, we are looking for an office and we do all the other things, which are needed to become a professional studio.

Yes, it influences the progress and we are not happy about it, but we hope, that we can make the change in this year and we can continue the work in full time.

MMOsite.com: Can you give us some details about the storyline behind the game? How will gamers influence the story?

Attila Beke: The story takes place on a fictional planet called Chronia, which was completely destroyed in a huge world war between the ancient races. For a second chance the gods start to recreate the world and populate it with human beings and creatures. The new inhabitants (the player characters) are the new life forms of the souls, left behind after the war. These people have to try to build a new community and a new order, but the evil does not sleep either. It is a harsh world and the players’ task is to ensure, that there will be no old mistakes made again.

The players can influence the story in many ways, because there are many story lines. In the first chapter they have to explore and discover the world and reveal the history of Chronia, while they build communities, conquer the lands and seas. This will be their own story line. Who discovered what, who controls which route, which kingdom is allied with whom and who is their enemy etc.

These things will be noted by the King and his decisions to govern the continent will be based on these actions. For example he may dishonor a clan and announce that everybody is free to hunt their members. A battle between two clans is not just a 2 hours fun for the participants, but it will be acknowledged by everybody and it may result in things, which can change the life of many other players.

There will be smaller story lines with smaller quests, which may only change the world in a smaller area, but there will be epic story lines too, where the community has to choose by their actions, which directions they want to go. For example the player’s actions determine, if he wants to be on the good side or rather on the evil side. The balance between good and evil will influence the life of all inhabitants and the following events.

MMOsite.com: In overview, how would you describe the gameworld? Are there different types of areas? How much is instanced space?

Attila Beke: Chronia is one seamless world with all kinds of areas. There are deserts, woods, rocky mountains, icy lands and everything you can see in other games too. Maybe there will be places, which you can not see in other games too… who knows…

There will be as few instances as possible. Maybe we have to instance the starting cities at the beginning, but they will not be separated worlds at all. A few dungeons may be instanced too, but in another way, as known in actual games.

If we instance an area, it is just for a short time to beware the atmosphere or for technical reasons. The community in Renaissance will stay always together, because it is a community game, not a solo-group game. The boss mob has to be slain by the community and only once, also if the way to him is instanced.

MMOsite.com: "Tens of thousands of players can play together, on one single server", which is similar to EVE. What were your considerations to adopt such a mode?

Attila Beke: First of all we do not like shards and we think, a real RPG can be played in only one world.

The second reason is: the basic concept of the game does not allow to support more than one world. It would be to expensive in hardware and human resources.