Interview with Fallen Earth Lead Game Designer, Lee Hammock

Having spoken to both Vivox about their VOIP technology and Icarus Studios about their middleware solution we had a quick chat with Lee Hammock, Lead Game Designer for Fallen EarthFallen Earth reviews, which uses Icarus middleware for its development. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic North America and is at the time of publishing, without a release date.

Don’t forget the t-shirt giveaway! Read the details here.

The MMO Gamer: Could you tell us more about yourself and about the company, please? When was Fallen Earth LLC formed?

Lee Hammock: My name is Lee Hammock, and I’m the Lead Game Designer for Fallen Earth, which means I’m responsible for all the story-lines, world creation, mechanics, and writing for Fallen Earth. I’m directly in charge of the Content Department and work closely with Art and Programming. Previously, I worked as a freelance game designer and writer, and before that I worked at DC Comics.

Fallen Earth, LLC was formed in 2005 and is located in Cary, North Carolina and consists of the three departments (Programming, Art, and Content) which work on Fallen Earth.

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The MMO Gamer: Who are the owners of the company and what do they bring besides eventual funding?

Lee Hammock: Jim Hettinger is president and principal owner and brings almost twenty years of MMO experience to the project. Chris Babcock, Brad Lineberger, and Chris Pavlou are also owners, and they programmed the engine, the front end, and the network platform respectively.

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The MMO Gamer: How many people work at Fallen Earth LLC?

Lee Hammock: Currently there are about forty artists and writers in addition to the programming support team.

The MMO Gamer: Besides the interesting post-apocalyptic setting, how will Fallen Earth compete with other MMOs?

Lee Hammock: Fallen Earth is a massively multiplayer online game with a role-playing game style structure and character advancement but a first person shooter style combat system. We think this combination will give players a new, more active style of play than other MMOs while also utilizing character development that keeps them working for that next level. We’ve worked hard to fill our massive world (over 7,000 square kilometers) with things to do, with the first sector of play having over fifteen hundred missions and twenty thousand lines of dialogue. Add to that rag doll physics, vehicles, a huge crafting system, VoIP, and massive character customization, and I think we’ve got a game with longevity.

The MMO Gamer: Icarus Studios’ middleware tools offer VoIP solutions, how will Fallen Earth integrate this technology to the game? Will it be something more than just an extra method of communication?

Lee Hammock: VoIP from Vivox is automatically available any time players form a group, allowing for easy communication without any extra effort. Players will be able to call phone numbers using the game interface, so if a clan mate is missing an important encounter, you can call his phone to find tell him what he is missing. Also, phone calls can be made into the game so you can let your team know if you are running late. We’re trying to integrate communication inside Fallen Earth with communication outside Fallen Earth so players can keep in touch even when offline.

The MMO Gamer: Fallen Earth has been in development for some time without any rough indication of when it will be released; is the game still without a release date?

Lee Hammock: We are currently performing internal testing with the intention of having Beta testing this year. However, our stance on predicting any deadlines remains the same: We won’t do it until we’re sure.

The MMO Gamer: How is the development of Fallen Earth being funded?

Lee Hammock: Fallen Earth is privately funded.

The MMO Gamer: The website says that there is no maximum limit on how many people can play simultaneously, but most 3D MMOGs have a server limit between 3000 and 5000 people, how can Fallen Earth have no limit?

Lee Hammock: Chris Pavlou, our network genius, has designed a dynamic load-balancing system which automatically adjusts the number of players handled by any one machine. Therefore you can have any number of servers all linked together, fluidly sharing as many players as you want. So it’s not just one machine, it’s a large number of machines all working as one.

The MMO Gamer: Finally, is there anything else you’d like to tell us about Fallen Earth which hasn’t been addressed in this interview?

Lee Hammock: This is really an astounding game from a technical standpoint. I can say that objectively because I had nothing to do with it. As a content creator, my job is to create a world that really emulates where I can see our world heading (on a bad day, anyway). From a content standpoint, I think people will go nuts over the social and political system we’ve created. The amount of choices players will have when they’re deciding how to develop their characters is immense. RPGers will be in heaven with the interplay between the factions. FPS fans will love the skill-based advancement and twitch combat. Crafters will love that they’re not limited to a small handful of trade-skills, and that they gain experience for crafting. And what would a post-apoc world be without exploration? 7,000 square kilometers of space is a huge playground to explore!