Chances are that when you think of MMORPGs, elaborate, detailed polygonal charaters and backgrounds hack and slash their way into your thoughts. But, as Gamasutra‘s Brandon Sheffield discovered by kickin’ it with Yunjong Kim, director of Dungeon Fighter Online, that style of game isn’t the only option for the genre.
Gamasutra: I really like 2D games myself – but for you, why did you decide to make Dungeon Fighter 2D? Because certainly in the Western market, developers have turned away from it but sometimes consumers may think, now that 3D games are now the norm, that maybe 2D is kind of unique. I’m wondering what you think about 2D games as a viable medium.
Yunjong Kim: Well, there are three main reasons why we chose 2D. The first is, since it’s a side-scrolling action game, whether we make it in 2D or 3D wouldn’t really affect the gameplay much.
The second reasons is that when I began the project, I was looking at Dungeon Fighter as a character oriented game, but at the time I couldn’t find any 3D games that could capture the look and feel of the original illustrations of the characters. The last reason is that, at the tim within Neople, our strength was in 2D, not 3D. So I thought that if we made a bigger 2D game that it would be more successful.
Dungeon Fighter Online is Korean MMO that’s soon to enter closed-beta in the U.S. thanks to Neople and Nexon.You can check out more insights about its 2D design and other topics here.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey L. Wilson’s love of all things shiny/digital has led to jobs penning gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for 1UP, E-Gear, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, PC Magazine, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. Besides overseeing the editorial content at 2D-X.com, the Brooklyn College grad hosts New York City’s monthly Bits and Bytes video game media and public relations meetup. You can find him at a bar sampling foreign beers, or on Twitter doing twittery things.
