Craft of Gods: A First Look Interview

Please introduce yourself and describe your position on the Craft of Gods development team.

My name is Fabrizio Calì and I’m the CEO of Kalicanthus Entertainment. I’m taking care of all the product management part for Craft of Gods, which means I’m involved in everything concerning the game: from content to strategy to development of features.

Please tell us about Craft of Gods.

Craft of Gods is 3D Fantasy MMORPG based on Slavic mythology. It is a Realm versus Realm kind of game, which means that players are divided into two factions (Light and Darkness) that fight against each other – and soon there’ll be a third, neutral faction as well, that will bring equilibrium to the world. It’s a PvP game, but it will appeal also to PvE lovers thanks to the many quests and dungeons available. Moreover, there’s a sophisticated social part: not only you can create and join guilds, but you can also create relationships between players (father and son, brothers etc). There’s also a very nice crafting and economic system, with 8 professions that players can choose from and many other interesting features.

Has Craft of Gods been released elsewhere or is it a ‘new to the market’ game?

It is a totally new game, which haven’t been released anywhere yet. It will be released worldwide soon and it will be available in four languages: English, German, Russian and Italian.

Would you consider Craft of Gods a traditional MMORPG or more of an MMO action RPG?

It is more of a traditional MMORPG and by that I mean that the game focus on features and elements that have become extremely important inside an MMO game. Let me explain: we believe that community is the most important factor in a massive multiplayer game and we want to provide players that kind of fun, involvement and thrill that is provided by games that have become legendary, such as Ultima Online or Dark Age of Camelot, just to mention a couple of them. For example, there’s an element of exploration of the game world (and we’re talking about a huge world, with more than 25 different maps) that has been lost in recent years: many games tend to guide the player to the world in a very detailed way, by showing him exactly where to find what he needs and which direction to follow. We went the opposite direction, because we want to bring back the sense of satisfaction you have when you discover something new or the community spirit that is created when you share your knowledge about the game with other players that need help. And that’s just an example of the direction we’re following.

Where did the idea for the game come from and what is the back story for Craft of Gods?

The game is based on Slavic mythology and it’s the first of this kind. The storyline is very interesting: Rod, the God that created the entire Universe, created three worlds within it. Then, by breathing out his Divine Spirit, he created the Bird Mater Sva and Svarog, the Heavenly Father. Svarog lifted his hammer, and the world bowed to his will. Svarog created the sky and twelve columns that support it, and then Rod created the water and Great Ocean and the Alatyr Stone, the Stone of all stones, the first Stone. By smiting it with his hammer, Svarog created the fiery Semargl, and Svarog Warriors, known as Ratichi..
The Great Black Snake, born from the Darkness where Rod was imprisoned, looked at the world, smiled at Svarog’s heaven and decided to imitate him. He slithered towards the Alatyr stone, and smote it with his black hammer. And from this demons were born, known as Dasuni.

Semargl immediately felt the evil presence of the Snake and ordered Svarog to fight the evil Snake.

When Rod saw the battle, he was afraid that this conflict will cause the destruction of the world, and he decided to cut the world in half – and those halves were called Avi and Navi.

Svarog and Semargl settled in Avi, and the Black Snake in Navi.

But the Black Snake desired more lives and souls, and he created his soldiers and settled them over the entire world. To fight the Black Snake, Svarog created humans, but in this he made a mistake. Humans were not brave or powerful enough to conquer the Snake’s army.

Then Svarog created Giants, and give them strong bodies and mighty spirits.

And so the War began….

There are lots of new MMOs on the market today. What sets Craft of Gods apart from the rest?

There are a few features that we think set Craft of Gods apart from other games. First of all, the ‘old-school spirit’ that animates the game and that we’ve already mentioned. There are no classes in Craft of Gods, only skills: each player can choose from 14 schools of skills, every one of which contains 15 powers – there are 210 different skills, and you are completely free to choose any set you like. This means you can customize your character as you prefer. Not only that, but depending on the race you choose, you’ll have some abilities available that are specific to that race.

There’s a very nice endgame as well: you can become a DemiGod and acquire some special abilities if you’re able to guide your guild to the conquest of the 12 pillars. Of course you’ll have to fight against other players in order to do that, so it’s not an easy task… 🙂

Last but not least, there’s a very nice mount feature that we’ll explain later in the interview.

Walk us through character creation. How customized can players make their ‘toons?

The first thing you have choose is your realm: Light or Darkness – there’ll also be a third realm introduced with a future expansion. Depending on the realm you choose, you’ll be able to choose between three different races, each one with its peculiar features – for example, each race has got some exclusive skills. Then you can choose your sex and customize your skin and your hair style, your beard, your physical build, your legs, your hips etc.

Click through to read about races, the guild system and more.

What classes and races are included in Craft of Gods?

There are no classes 🙂

There are 210 different skills that you can use to customize your character and build it exactly as you want. No predefined archetypes, you can create your own.
With regards to races, these are the ones available:

Realm of Light – Svarog’s realm

Humans of Light
The human race is proud to be a part of Svarog’s family, and they want to change the world in which they live. They have spread all over the world; they are very adaptable and can live in any conditions.

Hyperborean
When Siana, a golden-haired maiden with sea-green eyes decided to get married, she asked Svarog to find her a good man. He sent Iaromir, they fell in love, and got married. Their life together was happy, but then Siana died and Iaromir ran into her burning pyre to follow his love. He came out from the flames as god Semargl, and a new race was born: the Hyperboreans. They are akin to humans, but they are extremely fierce, and worship the Great Semargl.

Velet
This race has also been created by Svarog. He smote a mountain with his magical hammer, and from flying shards a giant human-like race was created, which Svarog named Velet. They are giants, powerful and strong, but they are also honest, a little naive and innocent. They are good and kind to other creatures, but do not annoy a Velet, for he is as strong as Svarog himself.

Realm of Darkness-Black Snake’s Realm

Humans of Darkness
Not all humans, created by Svarog, became his followers. Some of them were fascinated by the power of the Black Snake, and chose Darkness. They are the same as humans of Light, similar in appearance, but the Darkness and the power of the Black Snake made them very powerful.

Voldkodlaki
One day, a wolf went to the Black Snake. He kneeled next to the Serpents great tail, and asked to marry one nice human female of Darkness. At first, the Black Snake refused, but then he realized that uniting the mind of a human with the agility and strength of a wolf could create a new race, very well suited for serving his Dark purposes.

Dyagv
The Black Snake hates water, and he went everyday to the Great Lake to see the Spirits of the Lake. They were not afraid of him, united as they were in the clean waters of the lake. He hated them and so he created them bodies. This race became corporeal and they lost their powers in water and named themselves Dyagv. They are still serving Darkness, hoping that one day they will return to be spirits.

And there’ll be a third race, neutral: the Atlantis.

How does the level up system work?

Considering that there are no classes in the game, the level up system is a bit peculiar. Basically, every time you level up you get 5 points that you can spend to increase your character stats (strength, stamina, agility, intelligence and armor). Of course, their effectiveness depends on how you want to develop your character and what kind of skills you want to focus on. There are 210 different skills in Craft of Gods, divided into 14 schools: fire, berserk, psychic, demonology, wind, earth, necromancy, archer, melee, water, lightning, nature, defense, healing. By leveling up you earn points that you can spend in learning skills. Once you reach the cap (level 100) you’ll have enough points to learn 2 full schools and up to one half of a 3rd school.

Will Craft of Gods be free to play?

No, it will be pay to play, but we can assure you that the monthly fee will be extremely interesting. 😉

What is your favorite area of the game and why? May we have a screenshot?

It’s very difficult to pick just one, there are 24 maps each of them quite large and very peculiar. One of the areas I like the most is called Nameless Island. It’s a very curious and mysterious place, it’s a giant desert plan with strange buildings and artifacts. It reminds me of Mars, with its red sand all over the place.

Will Craft of Gods feature competitions and tournaments?

Craft of Gods is built around competitions between guilds and realms, so the obvious answer is yes. 🙂

But that’s not all: as I previously said we believe that community is an essential part of an online game and we want to support it the best we can and provide the best experience possible; so we will organize events, tournaments, competitions and whatever else we think will be interesting and fun!

What about mounts?

That’s one of the unique features of the game that we’re particularly proud of.

In Craft of Gods you can mount pretty much any creature. Tired of riding a horse? Try a bear! Or a scorpion! Or maybe a spider or a deer. Basically most of the creatures you’ll encounter in game will be tamable and you’ll be able to use them as a mount.

Is there a guild system in place?

Yes, guilds are a very important aspect of the game. To create a guild you need to buy a guild house and then have at least 10 players joining. There are several levels of authority in the Guild – and the highest is the Guild master, who can create different levels and change permissions for each level.

Guild masters can invite, kick and promote users; they can buy items for the Guild house; purchase another Guild house; purchase Guild bank; buy furniture for the Guild house, etc.

A Guild must be composed only of characters belonging to the same faction (Light or Darkness).

Where can players go to get signed up?

If you are not registered please go http://www.kalicanthus.com/signup_cog_nokey.php and we will send the Key to your e-mail address.

When will beta testing begin?

It has already begun. In fact we’re just about to open our third Open Beta event that will run from April 2nd to April 6th. This won’t be your last chance to try the game, though; and anyway once the game will be released we’ll have a trial offer in place anyway.

What are the system specifications to play the game?

Minimal:
Video Card GeForce 6600
CPU 2GHz
Memory 1GB RAM
Free space 10 GB HDD
Operative system Windows XP/Vista/7
Video driver DirectX 9.C

Recommended:
Video Card GeForce 9600
CPU 2×2.6GHz
Memory 2 GB RAM
Free space 10 GB HDD
Operative system Windows XP/Vista/7
Video driver DirectX 9.C

Please add anything else you wish!

Thank you very much for the interview and the interest shown in Craft of Gods! We’re doing our best to provide a good game and we hope that all the readers could join us, try the game and let us know what they think about it 🙂

THANK YOU! 🙂