Introducing Ishtan
Interviews

Harvey: My name is Harvey Tasker and I'm the senior developer on the game Ishtan. Within the community websites and irc I use the name Kellare. I have been working on Ishtan since it's inception in May 2003 initially as the lead designer and then later as the Senior Developer and Customer Representative for the community.

Ishtan is a medieval fantasy role playing game set on the Island of Ishtan which covers approximately 22,500 sq kilometers. The game will use one virtual server for all members so that they can all play and interact with each other within the one virtual gaming world. Within Ishtan players may choose from 16 different playable races each with their own benefits and limitations, and 12 different character classes. The character classes are all fighting classes but with a wide variety of skills available players may also choose to make their way through the game with professions such as black smithing, Alchemists, Tailors etc...

Ruling area's of Ishtan are three cities, Good, Neutral, and Evil respectively. The good city offers reasonable protection for it's citizens, has some fairly strict laws and a fairly structured way of life, for the most part, citizens here can live a trouble free existence until they wish to find more excitement within the outside world. In contrast, the Evil city has a fairly flexible legal system, guards and city officials are quite open to bribes, Citizens here are able to behave with little regard to the welfare of others and as a starting place for new players this city is a dangerous place to be. The Neutral city is a blend of the two, Laws are more flexible than within the Good City but for the most part citizens are expected to behave with respect. The Neutral city takes many of the best aspects from the Good and Evil cities but also a few of their worst aspects and life here can be a little unexpected at times.

Harvey: One of the aims of Ishtan is to provide a world which is more 'real' than other games of this genre. When I say 'real' I don't mean in the sense that the graphics look amazing, I mean that many of the artificial limitations embedded into other games simply won't exist within Ishtan. Players will be free to work within the game as they like, if they wish to adventure, fight, raise armies, conquer castles, become a pirate, run cities, work as a simple black smith, a farmer, or become an inn keeper and run a tavern all of these things are possible. There are rules and laws within the game, some are imposed by the gods, others are created by rulers of the cities, but beyond those the game has been designed to allow the players as much freedom as possible
within the game.

I would say that this is both the best and worst aspect of Ishtan. The best because it allows the players freedoms not possible in many similar games but also the worst because it might not provide some of the players the protection that they find in other systems. Within Ishtan, it's possible for a player to attack another player at any point. In many cases the attacking player will find themselves up against some pretty severe penalties but in other area's where the laws permit such acts, there is little to prevent this sort of behaviour. Players will have to think about how they wish to play the game a little more than in other MMORPGs.

Harvey: Truthfully, I tend not to play other online games of this genre myself although I have looked at a few briefly and morrowind is one of my favourite stand alone games. The majority of the influence in creating the world of Ishtan has come from traditional role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Traveller, and MERP among others which I played quite extensively when growing up. One of the main goals of Ishtan was to provide such a system where the computer acts as the Dungeon Master or Game Master rather than requiring one of your friends to take on this role. Traditional role playing games provide the players with a lot of freedom but every Game Master plays their own game slightly differently sometimes fairly and at other times fairly eratically, within Ishtan all players will be faced with the same game rules and environment which will be applied in a consistent
way.

Harvey: Developing an MMORPG is something that I personally have wanted to do for a very long time although commitments in other area's have prevented this taking place. My work environment however changed and provided me the freedom to suggest a project such as Ishtan to the company I was working for and with a little help from some colleagues the game was started. This all occured back in May of 2003 and so the game has been under design and development for just under 2 years now. If everything goes to plan the game should be ready for release in about august of 2005 although things rarely run smoothly within game development so it could be delayed a little bit.

Harvey: From what I have seen of other MMORPG's Ishtan differs quite a bit from many other systems. Small items such as character customisation and being able to dress your character in the clothes you would like or a character gaining weight if they eat too much and don't exercise. The many possible skills available which will create many uniquely different player characters. The expansive and dynamic world which will allow players to build their own villages and strong holds. A dynamic quest system which will change and grow as the world changes. I think that the major difference with Ishtan though is that the game won't tell players how they must play, it will be completely up to the player to decide whether they wish to adventure, raise armies and start wars, begin life as a farmer or become a politician and the players arent locked in to a particular way of life. Their characters can grow and develop in the way that they desire, if a player decides to adventure through the world, they might decide later that they'd prefer the life of a black smith or they might prefer to throw themselves into researching new magical items or spells.

Competing with other mmorpg's isnt really one of our goals. I'm sure that this will be a factor but also there is a large market and many people desire different things at different times. Ishtan will simply be another choice available to people. We hope that Ishtan will be a game that people love to play and will return to time and again. We also know that many players play many games at the same time, they want many different things from different games which isnt possible to provide with just one title. One day they might play Ishtan and the next they might be playing command and conquer we hope that they will return to Ishtan though and when they are here they enjoy the experience tremendously.