Exclusive interview with NEVERDIE about Next Island

It was with great enthusiasm NEVERDIE accepted our offer to take part in an interview where he would try and answer some of the many questions asked by the EU community about one of his upcoming projects in The Entropia Universe, Planet Next Island. NEVERDIE, who made headlines around the world after buying the worlds first virtual night-club branded ClubNEVERDIE, nowadays spends his time designing two new planets; Next Island and ROCKtropia. The design and development of these planets is done under the name of NEVERDIE Studios.

Hi NEVERDIE. Thank you for taking the time to answer our readers questions. Perhaps first you could give us a brief introduction to the team at NEVERDIE studios? How many of you are there, which backgrounds do your people have, and which roles do they fulfill?

NEVERDIE Studios is based in the heart of Hollywood, but we are actually in the process of moving to a new bigger studio in the next 6 weeks. We have been operating very lean and mean for the first year. We are currently hiring and I anticipate a minimium of 30 full time staff by the end of january 2010. Currently the team is a mix of recent graduates from Game Design colleges and guys with 2 -3 years experience in the field.

We handle everything from game design, level design, concept art, character modelling, environment art, animation etc. For now Mindark do all the coding for the platform. The owner of the planet is Next Island Inc. It is a New York based company founded by David Post, who has a background in News Media. NEVERDIE Studios is the contracted developer. We play a very creative role and will do our best to steer things in the right direction after launch. We are not currently responsible for the community relations and marketing.

How long has the Next Island planet been in development?

Next island has been in Production Since August of 2008.

Could you share with us exactly how much Next Island relates to Planet Calypso? I.e. are you just "renting" hardware from MindArk to run a completely separate eco-system on, or are you subjected to the whole codebase that ties together
the Entropia Universe?

Next Island utilizes the EU platform. This means we have to use all existing Entropia systems and fit them into a time travel-related theme. it is tied entirely to the existing codebase.

To which extent will you be able to develop content (items, mobs, skills, clothing, etc) and methods (for instance professions or leisure activities) that are unique to Next Island? Where are the artistic boundaries on your contract with MindArk?

I dont think there are artistic boundaries really, we can push the limits in that respect. We can create all our own content and be creative with the existing sytems, but we cannot code. However, in the future, each planet may getto introduce some unique systems that Mindark may customize in the code especially.

If or when you come up with new ideas for content, will your studio be able to implement this for your planet only, or will you have to go through MindArk who will build it and then make it available to your planets?

We build it all, but mindark have the final word on the economic balancing.

What are your thoughts on offering new colonists a learning experience? Will you take a quest-like approach? Will you offer in-game guides? Extensive tutorials?How will new people who never walked the ground of Calypso before be prepared for the rollercoaster that is Next Island?

Well, this is a huge question and we are still awaiting the completion of the quest system before I can answer fully. I can say that we have plenty more work to do to make it easier to get started. We will definitely be creating incentives for the community to become very active in helping colonists and visitors.

When colonists from other planets travel to Next Island, will they start with their existing skills and items, start from scratch, or some hybrid form between these two? Could you motivate why this decision was taken, and what your thoughts are on this?

All skills will be in place. I think that we all want the freedom to move our avatars between worlds and not have to keep starting over like in traditional video games or MMOS. Perhaps some worlds will require you to develop new skills for certain things.

The one question we are sure is on everybody's minds is whether Next Island will be able to determine their own "loot" return rate, or is that superimposed by MindArk?

I believe Mindark will handle the loot balancing. However, we will be able to balance the kind of items in the loot and nurture the market on our planets for those items. Our goal will be to create a healthy market by any means neccesary.

~~~ Continues in next post ~~~~

~~~ Continued from the above post ~~~


When colonists flock to the new planets, what is the role you foresee for Club NEVERDIE? Will CND be the space hub to travel from Calypso to other planets, or will there be other ways of travelling back and forth?

I hope CND will be a launch point from Calypso, but I don’t know how central the asteroid will be in the entire universe. I will be doing what i can to expand the Club NEVERDIE brand and open more destinations throughout the universe.

On Next Island, you have incorporated time travel. Does this mean that in the old ages, colonists will be forced to run, while in the future they can use advanced vehicles, or are there “fast travel” possibilities for everyone, regardless of which time period one resides in?

There will be no tanks in the Stone Age, but you can take your axe to the future :)

About the time travelling, on the Next Island website, you mention a Time Travel Game Card. Could you lift a tip of the veil on what that is, how to use it, and the cost of it?

This is something that the live and marketing team will talk about later, I really only want to focus on the stuff I’m handling as the developer.

How does Next Island’s history tie in to Calypso/Entropia Universe? Gamers typically are very open to extensive lore and history behind their worlds to give things a matter of authenticity, and as ability to rate planning effort. How does Next Island handle these matters? Where did the planet “suddenly” come from? How does time travel fit into the general story?

The origins of Next Island will have to be discovered mostly through exploring the Island, I was able to get my hands on some interesting fragments from the Journal of a 19th century british explorer by the name of William Rayne. He accidently discovered Next island through a time warp over a hundred years ago, but I guess he never managed to find a way back to his own time because his journals were left on the Island. He did a lot of research on the origins, and I think some people believe that the Island was created as an experiment to enable all the great minds of history to escape their time and enter a parallel reality. Others believe it was accidently created by hackers trying to use cheat codes to enter god-mode. All I know is that it is a Virtual World that exists in a universe parallel to our own. But Im getting really confused as to what is real anymore. Last week I was sitting on the toilet and I accidently teleported to Paris, France. My wife had to Fed Ex me my passport before I could get back into the United states. Do you know if anyone else who has an avatar in Entropia universe is having these kinds of problems?

On the Next Island website, the generic descriptions seem to match what is available on Calypso. Will Next Island offer unique professions or money-making mechanisms for colonists?

Yes, I believe there will be some very unique new economic opportunities, but they will be founded on mostly existing skill based professions. Eventually we hope to have Mindark code
some skills for the time travelling Profession however.

Will Next Island be a compliment or a competitor to Calypso? Will you be catering to the “Calypso crowd”, or new people altogether?

All marketing will be totally aimed at newcomers, but I think the Calypso crowd will enjoy the change of scenery.

Will Next Island mimic the public communications and support model of MindArk/First Planet Company, or will it have one of its own?

Not my department actually...

Will Next Island have a dedicated forum of its own?

I believe Next Island Inc are still discussing this.

You recently commented that when MindArk is ready to add new planets, planets are ready. Is there an ETA on the Next Island planet?

Soon, it’s almost ready for launch :)

Bonus question: What happened to the egg?

I'm still sitting on the EGG, it hasn’t hatched yet, maybe Im not keeping it warm enough....?

- But that is something we find hard to believe - it is still VERY hot wherever NEVERDIE goes!

Thanks again, NEVERDIE, for taking your time to answer all these questions for the community on EntropiaPlanets.com.

VERY nice you guys ... really enjoyed reading it.

That's how I read it, too.

Until now, I was under the impression that the planets would act as completely seperate systems, where the planetpartner was able to design their own world, including such parameters as loot, etc.

Maybe we should create a seperate thread for such a discussion, though, to keep this thread focussed on the Next Island interview.

Please use this thread for follow-up discussions :)

Follow-up on NEVERDIEs interview about Next Island

Nice interview. Can you do another one for Rocktropia :)

Hey George :)

We are already preparing that. If you have any questions or other things, Please ask NEVERDIE here:

http://www.entropiaplanets.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1938#post1938

And we also have an upcoming interview with See, so if you have any questions for them, you can list them here.