Interview: Inside Red 5 Studios with Ed Stark

Kevin Stoner is back with more information from Gen Con Indy, this time an interview with Ed Stark of Red 5 Studios, recently started by former Blizzard Entertainment designers. The interview gets into the company’s philosophy, but also touches on some details about their plans for their first game.

Imagine putting together a group of people who are among the top minds in gaming to come up with the industry’s next big thing. Would such a bold maneuver result in a game with much repeated design? Or could this prove to be the next big thing in decisive gameplay and multiplayer design? Red 5 Studios is a game studio which has recruited many of the best minds in gaming, and is designing the next generation MMOG which promises to be different than any MMOG on the market today. I sat down with Ed Stark from Red 5 Studios to try and peel back some layers and get such an answer.

My initial impressions came from knowing Ed as a creative director for Wizards of the Coast during the development of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, and helping with the design of D&D online: Stormreach. I will admit that as an MMO gamer I was less than impressed with D&D online, but Ed has written several wonderful books , including many for the Torg series which I was quite a fan of.

I sat down with Ed in a cozy interview room and found him to be a warm and friendly gentleman who indeed seemed to have a vested interest in his work at Red 5 Studios.

My initial interest was in the structure and development of Red 5 Studios, so of course I inquired about CEO Mark Kern who spent 7 years with Blizzard producing such games as Diablo II, and Starcraft. Not to mention being Team Lead on a little project called World of Warcraft. Ed explained to me that Mark Kern was very involved in the design and development of the game itself, and that in no way should this interfere with his ability to make those needed decisions such as what content to cut. Ed further explained that there were projects axed that Mark had personal involvement in because they would not make sense when coming back to them later. As a CEO it appears that Mark Kern has no problem tossing his own work out for the betterment of the game.

I asked Ed how they acquired funding in a market so flooded with MMOG’s, was it on the names from the golden ticket alone? Ed answered that the company names may not have hurt, but the primary funding pitch involved putting forth a company philosophy of teamwork that is unusual in today’s market for games. We discussed at length some of the company designs and compared them to Red 5 Studios, it appears that Red 5 Studios has a teamwork centered philosophy. While there is a company structure, there is little to no red tape held in the office between Designer and CEO. This philosophy was emphasized several times and appears to be at the core of what Red 5 Studios was built around. I spoke with Ed about the comparison to his time at Wizards of the Coast, and Ed believed that Wizards was more businesslike and that may have an impact on a product while Red 5 Studios cuts down those walls allowing for free flowing design to take place. In fact the engine the company is using, Offset, espouses a similar philosophy in their own company and was a primary reason for their implementation.

While this philosophy seems to look great on paper, how would such a thing actually work in implementation? Well according to Ed there is but two words to answer that question, Tiki Bar. It appears the company has a Tiki Bar onsite where the guys can hang out and have a good time to wind down from projects.

So while I began to be personally impressed with the company philosophy, it was time to come down to brass tacks and ask about the underground MMOG that is being kept very hush-hush. Ed gave me as much as he could and according to him he may have walked up to the edge and peered over, but would not spill the entire sack of beans.

According to Ed this will be a unique game in MMOG terms, it will not be anything like the EverQuests or WarCrafts we have seen previously, indeed it will be unique and promises to bring something unseen ever before. Ed further explained that this game will be quicker to play and “faster than any MMOG on the market.” This, Ed says, is to allow people to feel like they can log on for minutes at a time or hours at a time and feel like both of those are valid experiences. During longer playing experiences, there will be rewards for community effects, such as guild improvements overall resulting from gameplay. That is to say something you do as a guild would move toward improving that guild, not just those characters involved.

So if they create a mega game, then how will they deal with such existing MMOG problems like selling of gold in WoW? They have had many meetings discussing this very issue, and have yet to reach a conclusion. If Red 5 Studios approaches this and allows gamers to sell items or money, this could indeed have a lasting impact on the giants as they stand and the legality of their claim to such intellectual property. That should be something interesting to watch on the horizon.

So a gaggle of game designers have all gotten together to design the next big thing, but what about running a company? Someone has to manage the books and keep the paychecks coming. According to Ed, Garett Wiley is a business expert amongst them. According to the Red 5 Studios website, Garett was co-founder of a database technology company and this experience helps him keep the Red 5 Studios ship afloat.

So I finally told Ed I had to have something for the readers, what is it we can promise them besides next year sometime. Ed said they are interested in offline/online content mixes such as given in the WoW trading card game. He also said that there will be “No Elves or Dwarves in this game.” While this was a bold statement to release, I felt even better when Ed said this company would promise innovation. He said there is nothing on the market to compare this to, and we should find the experience altering the idea behind what an MMOG is.

So while our peek behind the curtain was brief, it is my hope that such an innovation will come true and that we can look forward to seeing something to shock and amaze us in early 2008. I think they have a solid company philosophy and think this attitude may bring us to new horizons. Now I am off to begin construction at The MMO Gamer. I think we can tear down the editing room and put up a Tiki Bar, instead. Have one for me readers.