If you been around for awhile and lately for that matter; you've definitely heard of Dragon Ball Online II by the guys over at DBO Team. Like last month's featured game, Pokemon Z, Dragon Ball Online II is a promising title that BYOND Anime can look forward to. The game looks to change how we look at Dragon Ball Z titles with innovative gameplay and stunning art. Sunday night; i caught up with three members of development team for a brief interview on the game and a bit of it's history. Lead Pixel Artist and Game Designer, Pmitch. Lead and Secondary Programmers, Chris Gayle and Quaddw.

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Dougie: Thanks for taking the time out guys.

DBO Team: No problem.

Dougie: Alright. There isn't a doubt in people's minds that DBOII is one of BYOND Anime's promising titles; but theres a ton of Dragon Ball Z titles around. What makes DBOII the game that'll transcend what we've seen from previous Dragon Ball Z titles?

Quaddw: The problem that I have seen with most of the DBZ games around is that it fails to capture the true essence of DBZ's combat and art style. With DBO II we will be working towards making it as close as possible to the show while still implementing original content that adds more depth.

Pmitch: To add on to that, A lot of the current dbz games don't really push any boundaries with the BYOND software. They don't think outside of the box. With dbo2, we've worked at coming up with new ways to do different things, in ways that some would have thought wasn't possible on byond. (The BYOND Updates have certainly aided us in this.) An example of that is our use of transparency for various things, or the pixel projectiles.

Dougie: Certainly something I saw when I tested my many times. One of the things alot of people are interested in, especially myself, is the smooth sliding like movement in DBOII, or in other words Pixel Movement. How did that come to the design table and how do you guy think it'll fare come release day?

Chris Gayle: Originally, pixel movement wasn't something I had my eyes on but the problem arose when it got a bit annoying seeing people easily outrun blast, pixel movements initial implementation was to give us more precise control of movement speed. We believe it'll fair well, its ran smoothly during test so, hopefully, it'll continue to be sustainable, BYOND's update to facilitate it was also a major help.

Dougie: That's a releif. DBOII's combat wouldn't work well with lag; speaking of combat. Lets get into that and how it's different and stays true to the series. What aspect went into designing the combat to make it different from other DBZ titles? We usually see punch, punch, punch, and then que the penis beam shot. How is DBOII taking a large step away from this?

Pmitch: For a long time I had always wanted to play a dragonball game where it really felt like dbz. A fast combat system where victory is reliant on your skill and creativity in battle. Unfortunately, there were no dbz games offering anything like this. That said, with dbo2, we've been able to do just that with the combat system. Sure you can punch, punch, and punch, then shoot a beam, but you're not limited to that. You can grab and throw, counter, smash your opponent into things, and whatever else you can come up with. As far as energy attacks go, they're not the same same attacks with new icons. We've worked hard on making sure each attack has its own attributes that contribute to its usefulness during a fight. With that, there are a myriad of possibilities in how a battle can play out, and we look forward to seeing what the players come up with. I personally have been lucky enough to be working with people who can not only do the things I've thought of, but add to it, making it better.

Dougie: It sounds like skill in battle and character builds will lead to victory. What alot of anime games lack is indeed that. Can you guys get into what you brought in to make character building interesting and indepth?

Quaddw: Each race will have its own unique ki, rush, and support tree. The ki tree is made up of basic, advanced, and expert skill levels, while the rush and support trees are made up of basic and advanced skills. As your character develops you will be able to spend points to pickup stats and new techniques.

Quaddw: You won't be able to get everything so you will really have to pick and choose what you want your character to be like.

Quaddw: You can view some of the early stages of developing these skill trees here: http://www.byond.com/ members/?command=view_comments&post=97194.

Dougie: In a recent conversation with Pmitch; we talked about stances. How will that play a part in Combat and Character Building?

Pmitch: Stances are something that we are still working on currently. The idea behind them is that they will offer both advantages and disadvantages in combat. Players start with a basic stance which offers no bonuses and will learn new stances through questing. A good number of them will be learnable for all, and there will also be some exclusive to the different races. In addition, some Stances will offer specific bonuses to a player's techniques. As An example:
*Wolf Stance:
- Increases speed
- Lowers defense
- Increases the power of the Wolf Fang Fist Rush.

Dougie: Moving on from Combat and Character builds straight into Player Progression. I know fight experience will contribute; but how else are you guys dealing with player progression? How are you guys making it interesting for players?

Pmitch: As much as I love multiplayer, I also love that single player element in games. That said, we've been working on an original story for the game, or rather, a series of stories for each planet we will feature in the game, complete with cut scenes, boss fights, and a number of other interesting quest objectives to complete. As you progress through our original stories, you'll also be able to unlock battle scenarios from the series, that you can play through in the pendulum room on Kami's lookout. I believe this will keep things both fresh and nostalgic for the players, in addition to making character progression a more memorable experience. We're also fans of team quests, and will probably venture into that after an initial release.

Dougie: Do you guys mind if I ask how will you handle leveling?

Quaddw: Lets just say, you won't be seeing things like "My character is level 50."

Quaddw: We have an idea in place for leveling, but it is still being worked on :P.

Quaddw: More details on that later.

Dougie: Alright. I think that's enough of the core gameplay. Earlier you talked about the story Paul. Can you shed some light on what the story is looking like currently? What can we expect to see?

Pmitch: Sure

Pmitch: One of the stories we have planned involves the planet the saiyans will be inhabiting in the game. Since we know it was true that There were saiyans exhiled from vegeta, we've run with the idea of exhiled saiyans repopulating the race. The story will deal with two of the main saiyan tribes fighting eachother over who will rule the planet. I cant get into too much detail, but i will say what we have planned for that story, as well as the others will be very interesting and fun.

Dougie: Sounds interesting indeed. From the story to races. In alot of titles seen before; choosing a race just meant different techniques. What are you guys doing to allow races to fight different, feel different and ultimately be DIFFERENT? What's different about a namekian? Or a Human? What makes those races play different to that of a saiyan?

Chris Gayle: They're just different ways in which different races fought in the anime/manga, we will be doing our best to emulate these different fighting styles, like the nameks ability to extend their body parts already presents a different fighting style versus a humans style. They're countless things that no one may initially notice but it will have a significant contribution to how the player feels about different races he/she may experience. Ranging from the more visual effects to the background status effects of different abilities.

Pmitch: Other examples include the Majin's ability to absorb players, and gain the abilities of thier victims, or the androids ability to absorb energy attacks.

Dougie: That sounds badass. Moving on.

Dougie: Last month's issue. I interviewed Zete of Pokemon Z. One of the community's better pixel artists. Paul, you are also looked at as one of the better pixel artists and you've done a great job on the art of DBOII with of course some help. Can you get into your thought process when creating the art for DBOII?

Pmitch: Well I'm more or less a generalist when it comes to pixeling. I definitely have DBOII to thank for that. As the Art lead, I've had a hand in all areas in the art development, from interface, to effects. As far as what I'm thinking when I'm pixeling, it usually depends on what im doing. When im dealing with a base icon, It's usually all about how i can fit a nice looking animation into a small 32x32 base icon, and how much detail I can fit onto it. When it turf, I'm usually thinking about how to keep within the constraints of the perspective, light source, and tile size. So far I would have to say working on designing an interface has been the most difficult for me . It takes alot to come up with a good solid design that everyone can agree on. In general with the art for the game, references make life alot easier. That's the upside to making a fan game in many cases. It's also challenging at times, but I love it. In addition to that, practice makes improvement, so I view it as a good way to improve my skills by drawing different things for the game.

Pmitch: The help I have received from various artists on the site who have either critiqued my work, or contributed their own to the project, such as Chris-G1, and AmonR have not only been greatly appreciated, but have worked as an inspiration to me to continue pixeling to sharpen my skills.

Dougie: And with that, you've really captured the visual side of Dragon Ball Z.

Dougie: Paul. I've known you for a coulpe of years now. I've sat here and watch on as you took alot of heat and criticism for DBOII taking so long to release. What i admired about you is you could've left DBOII easily over the years; but you stayed and took the heat. Why? Even though i know i helped in keeping you focus. :P. But why else did you stay?

Pmitch: That's a good question! I guess it's a mix of me being stubborn, and not wanting to just let all that we've done with the project go to waste. Personally, my biggest reason for working on this game, is because I myself want to play it. It's been a rough ride no doubt, A lot has happened, from artists or programmers quitting to losing work. Had I not gotten Chris Gayle on the team last year, I think I may have gone through with dropping the project! Now that both Chris and Quaddw are on the team, I feel like theres nothing stoping us!

Pmitch: You also helped keep me focused on my goal to get this game out there, and I'm still grateful!

Dougie: A lot of the naysayers and criticizers don't really know what you and DBOII went through yet they still do what they do. I've know Gayle since his days working on Naruto Alliance and O know Quaddw from Onslaught. I never thought I'd see you two on the same team. What made you guys join up with Paul to create this great current staff?

Chris Gayle: Paul has a internet-fishweb and reverse-recruit-mirror-no-jutsu, this dude recruited me when I was trying to recruit him for an RPG. So here I am.

Pmitch: I like to call it Jedi Mind Trick Sharingan.

Chris Gayle: He also had purple drank and watermelon.

Chris Gayle: He claimed he had kfc but it was all a lie

Quaddw: I offered because I was bored.

Dougie: Wow! What an amazing, touching story!................Okay, moving on.

Dougie: Quaddw. What are the differences between Onslaught and DBOII? What was it like transitioning to DBOII?

Quaddw: Well the differences are a bit too many to mention everything.

Quaddw: But I would say that DBOII is definately more advanced in terms of programming and usage of BYOND's features in general.

Quaddw: As for transitioning, it was actually easy, becuase a lot of the limitations I had with Onslaught were due to a lack of artwork, which is not the case in DBOII.

Quaddw: You will definately get some hints of Onslaught in the skill trees, which is the main thing I am currently working on.

Dougie: I, as a long time fan, am grateful. Both of you bringing your skills and talent to help Paul do something great for BYOND Anime and BYOND as a whole is nothing short of DOPE. So. The question i know everyone wants me to ask. When can we expect a release of DBOII? and what can expect see on release day? Will there be balloons?

Pmitch: Well, we still have no intentions of giving a release date. So far we've done better without public release dates. We have our own self imposed deadline that we're trying to reach, as for when that is, you'll have to wait and see. As for what the first release will have. It'll have alot, definitely enough to qualify as being a game. Definitely not all of what we have planned for the game. As things are going now, our working pace is pretty good, and can only increase.

Pmitch: When we do release, there will be baloons AND fireworks

Pmitch: Oh, and pie.

Dougie: Pie. Yes. I like pie.

Dougie: Can't wait to see what the future holds for DBOII. Thanks for taking the time out for the interview guys.

Pmitch: No problem!

Pmitch: We're just excited as everyone else for this game, haha.

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Be sure to keep an eye on the game's hub, the team host open testing sessions on rare occasions.

If you feel you didn't get enough from this interview; the team is hosting a Q&A( http://www.byond.com/members/BYONDAnime/forum?id=37163 ) topic on the forums so be sure to stop by with your questions!

Before next issue; I plan on catching up with our Guild Master, Stephen001, on the future of the guild.

Be sure to check that and next month's issue when they hit. Till' then. Stay safe. Peace.