Please introduce yourself.
I’m Oliver, or Ole as I use as my online alias; I’m co-owner and creator of Ichumon and Palawind, and also own Solar VPS. I’m 19, live in sunny England (haha) and studying Computer Science at University. One day I’d like to be a published author and work on web-games at home.
1. Your statements indicate Palawind will have a scope larger than the standard pet site. What sort of site will Palawind be?
Well it’s going to be something completely different than any other site out there in our small community. The main idea behind it is collecting creatures called Pali, instead of just owning three or four like most other virtual pet sites out there. Everything revolves around posting on the forums; we really wanted to create a game that focused on communicating. By posting on the forums, you have the chance to find Pali and capture them. It was important for us to spread out the Pali you can collect; otherwise it would be very linear in terms of playing. Users have an active SoulStone, which attract certain Pali. You can obtain other SoulStones via posting on the forums and also doing other site events. Also, some Pali only come out at Night and some only come out at day. So if you wanted to collect all the Pali, it’s going to require some effort on your part- which should make it fun!
The other main part of the site is the Story. I think most stories on VPS are an optional read- i.e. you go to an NPC page and you read who they are, what they do etc. On Palawind, each user follows a story which progresses them through the game. Each user starts on Chapter 1, which will give a task to the user to complete (such as completing a quest, bringing back an item, capturing a Pali, battling Pali). Once you complete a task, you go onto the next chapter. Gradually, as you complete the chapters, you will learn more about the features on Palawind and open up more of them. Each user starts on the Beginner Island, and to get to the second Island, you will need to complete your Story chapters. You can work together with your friends, or do it solo.
2. Many sites promise a lot while in development, but fail to deliver on it when they open. What can users expect from Palawind day one?
We hope to deliver a complete game. It’ll be somewhat like World Of Warcraft- in terms of how they deliver content. On December 21st, we plan to push the first season of the game, titled: The Legend Of Eo, where you can collect #201 Pali, travel to three Islands and complete around 30~40 chapters. Once we have released the game, we will make little updates here and there, such as adding new items(wearables, battle abilities, quest items etc), new features that help users play the game better, adding flash games and creating user-contests, improving the site performance and fixing bugs & glitches.
Then, behind the scenes, the staff will be working on the second season. This will introduce a new storyline and add another bunch of Pali for users to collect. They’ll be new Islands to travel to, new features and games to play. It’ll be like an expansion pack for the site- and you won’t have to pay a penny to use it.
3. How has your previous experience running Ichumon influenced development of Palawind?
A massive amount. I don’t think I’d be able to create a site like Palawind without the experience of Ichumon. I’ve learned a tremendous amount of running and creating an online game. I know how to code things better and make them more optimised; I’m very paranoid of queries and caching data. When I first began Ichumon, my main idea was to just push as many features and ideas onto the site as I could. Now I realise this was a mistake; lots of those features are now dead and really need tidying up. A lot of the pages on Ichumon need revamping; every page on Palawind is so neat and tidy and very pretty to look at. On Ichumon I used to put out a page within ten minutes- now I take a lot more time in coding the interface and how things look. And maybe that’s because Palawind isn’t open yet- so there really isn’t any pressure to get new content out, which I was probably guilty of doing for Ichumon. I felt a lot of the time that if we didn’t have an update every single day, then the users would get bored and leave. I think some of them feel like that now- but I’ll leave that for the next question, haha.
4. Do you feel that working on Palawind and Ichumon simultaneously has negatively impacted the development of either?
More so Ichumon. When I started Palawind, it was Summer and I had three months(before University started) to get it going and create a base for it. I could still work on Ichumon too, as I didn’t have a real life job or anything else to eat up my time. When Uni restarted, all that free-time got eaten up and the only spare time I did have was used on doing small things for Palawind. So, a lot of updates for Ichumon got eaten up and a lot of stuff was left to gather dust. But me and ST decided to start hiring some other programmers to help get more content on there and fix some of the current crap that is already on it.
If I didn’t have Uni I would still be spending an equal amount of time on both sites, which will be the case in December as I have 4~5 weeks off again. But I do think Ichumon will benefit from Palawind- both sites will be able to promote each other; especially as Palawind will bring in a different crowd than what Ichumon is currently used to. I still plan on making Ichumon one of the best sites out there, but it is hard and a little boring at times when there are so many similar sites out there.
5. What initially prompted you to develop Palawind?
Well I had been thinking of creating a new site for a while; putting all your eggs in one basket isn’t the best of ideas, especially when something can go completely wrong and then you’ve lost everything. A lot of Ichumon users really didn’t like me changing things up on the site, so instead of incorporating the ideas of Palawind into Ichumon, I decided to just make a brand new site. I think this is really the better option; if users want to play a generic petsite, they’ll have Ichumon. If they want to try something new, they’ll have Palawind.
6. Who is working on Palawind?
In terms of programming its just me. But James does all the legal, boring crap; hiring artists, registering the company, trademarks, etc. He does do a few updates on Palawind, like changing the html on certain pages, which I usually end up overwriting anyway (muaha). We have two main Pali artists, Becca(romance) and Anya(misticcookie). Then we have another artist from Deviantart who does our Palitant characters, TenaciousMug. Vintage is our main graphic designer( who is probably the best in our VPS community). We then have a few artists who have just recently joined our team; they do items, icons, a few Pali and other misc things.
7. Your latest preview states that certain Pali will be available via means only possible if one pays actual money. What sort of disadvantage is a user who does not pay money looking at versus one who does?
I think at the start, it’ll be an immediate thing. Users who have money to spend will be able to get some things quicker than others- but as Cash Shop items are tradable, users can save up Rubies(in-game currency) and purchase Cash Shop items from other players.
Most of the Cash Shop items, we hope, won’t affect the game play too much. The main things you can buy in the cash shop are things which make your account stand out. Customising usernames on Ichumon was a big thing, so we went one step further with Palawind and allow users to buy “labels” for their username, which changes the font, colour and give you a nice border around your username. You can also buy items which change day to night, allow you to rename your Pali and other things like that. Users can also buy a User Board, which allows them to create their own forum specifically for a certain group of users. We haven’t quite figure out the details for this, but it should allow users to set their own rules for their own board.
8. Do you feel that your efforts to incorporate various elements rather than just make a pure pet site will alienate some of the typical pet site base who may feel alienated by the differences from a conventional pet site?
I don’t think this will be too much of a big deal. I think the VPS community have been crying for a new unique site- for the last couple of years its been the same clone type sites (Ichumon included), with nothing too unique to set them apart. With Palawind, there are elements of VPS in them (such as inventory, mailing, user-profiles, flash games) but it is really quite different from any other VPS to date. It’ll be a site users will have to get used to; everyone is used to virtual pet sites because every site is practically the same in setup. But I think the features and the way the site works, has really gotten people excited. It’s not too complicated and it looks really good in terms of art quality.
9. Why the name Palawind?
Well this was one thing we spent a good deal of time over. I realllllllly liked the name Paladin, and I was writing a story which had a city called Skywind in it. When the idea for Palawind first came around, it was just me and Becca. I kept on throwing names at her with the word Pala in front, like: Palakins, Palaheroes, Palasin etc. Then I opened up my notepad one day, saw the word Skywind, stuck wind in front of Pala, 1...2...3! Palawind was born. I loved that name, I’m not quite sure Becca liked it as much as I did, but it grew on her and I think we now both love it the same.
10. Finally, on a lighter note, and to pry into your psyche a bit, what do you put on your hot dogs?
Ketchup and onions; very boring I know- but we don’t eat too many hotdogs here in the UK. Well, at least I don’t.
I’m Oliver, or Ole as I use as my online alias; I’m co-owner and creator of Ichumon and Palawind, and also own Solar VPS. I’m 19, live in sunny England (haha) and studying Computer Science at University. One day I’d like to be a published author and work on web-games at home.
1. Your statements indicate Palawind will have a scope larger than the standard pet site. What sort of site will Palawind be?
Well it’s going to be something completely different than any other site out there in our small community. The main idea behind it is collecting creatures called Pali, instead of just owning three or four like most other virtual pet sites out there. Everything revolves around posting on the forums; we really wanted to create a game that focused on communicating. By posting on the forums, you have the chance to find Pali and capture them. It was important for us to spread out the Pali you can collect; otherwise it would be very linear in terms of playing. Users have an active SoulStone, which attract certain Pali. You can obtain other SoulStones via posting on the forums and also doing other site events. Also, some Pali only come out at Night and some only come out at day. So if you wanted to collect all the Pali, it’s going to require some effort on your part- which should make it fun!
The other main part of the site is the Story. I think most stories on VPS are an optional read- i.e. you go to an NPC page and you read who they are, what they do etc. On Palawind, each user follows a story which progresses them through the game. Each user starts on Chapter 1, which will give a task to the user to complete (such as completing a quest, bringing back an item, capturing a Pali, battling Pali). Once you complete a task, you go onto the next chapter. Gradually, as you complete the chapters, you will learn more about the features on Palawind and open up more of them. Each user starts on the Beginner Island, and to get to the second Island, you will need to complete your Story chapters. You can work together with your friends, or do it solo.
2. Many sites promise a lot while in development, but fail to deliver on it when they open. What can users expect from Palawind day one?
We hope to deliver a complete game. It’ll be somewhat like World Of Warcraft- in terms of how they deliver content. On December 21st, we plan to push the first season of the game, titled: The Legend Of Eo, where you can collect #201 Pali, travel to three Islands and complete around 30~40 chapters. Once we have released the game, we will make little updates here and there, such as adding new items(wearables, battle abilities, quest items etc), new features that help users play the game better, adding flash games and creating user-contests, improving the site performance and fixing bugs & glitches.
Then, behind the scenes, the staff will be working on the second season. This will introduce a new storyline and add another bunch of Pali for users to collect. They’ll be new Islands to travel to, new features and games to play. It’ll be like an expansion pack for the site- and you won’t have to pay a penny to use it.
3. How has your previous experience running Ichumon influenced development of Palawind?
A massive amount. I don’t think I’d be able to create a site like Palawind without the experience of Ichumon. I’ve learned a tremendous amount of running and creating an online game. I know how to code things better and make them more optimised; I’m very paranoid of queries and caching data. When I first began Ichumon, my main idea was to just push as many features and ideas onto the site as I could. Now I realise this was a mistake; lots of those features are now dead and really need tidying up. A lot of the pages on Ichumon need revamping; every page on Palawind is so neat and tidy and very pretty to look at. On Ichumon I used to put out a page within ten minutes- now I take a lot more time in coding the interface and how things look. And maybe that’s because Palawind isn’t open yet- so there really isn’t any pressure to get new content out, which I was probably guilty of doing for Ichumon. I felt a lot of the time that if we didn’t have an update every single day, then the users would get bored and leave. I think some of them feel like that now- but I’ll leave that for the next question, haha.
4. Do you feel that working on Palawind and Ichumon simultaneously has negatively impacted the development of either?
More so Ichumon. When I started Palawind, it was Summer and I had three months(before University started) to get it going and create a base for it. I could still work on Ichumon too, as I didn’t have a real life job or anything else to eat up my time. When Uni restarted, all that free-time got eaten up and the only spare time I did have was used on doing small things for Palawind. So, a lot of updates for Ichumon got eaten up and a lot of stuff was left to gather dust. But me and ST decided to start hiring some other programmers to help get more content on there and fix some of the current crap that is already on it.
If I didn’t have Uni I would still be spending an equal amount of time on both sites, which will be the case in December as I have 4~5 weeks off again. But I do think Ichumon will benefit from Palawind- both sites will be able to promote each other; especially as Palawind will bring in a different crowd than what Ichumon is currently used to. I still plan on making Ichumon one of the best sites out there, but it is hard and a little boring at times when there are so many similar sites out there.
5. What initially prompted you to develop Palawind?
Well I had been thinking of creating a new site for a while; putting all your eggs in one basket isn’t the best of ideas, especially when something can go completely wrong and then you’ve lost everything. A lot of Ichumon users really didn’t like me changing things up on the site, so instead of incorporating the ideas of Palawind into Ichumon, I decided to just make a brand new site. I think this is really the better option; if users want to play a generic petsite, they’ll have Ichumon. If they want to try something new, they’ll have Palawind.
6. Who is working on Palawind?
In terms of programming its just me. But James does all the legal, boring crap; hiring artists, registering the company, trademarks, etc. He does do a few updates on Palawind, like changing the html on certain pages, which I usually end up overwriting anyway (muaha). We have two main Pali artists, Becca(romance) and Anya(misticcookie). Then we have another artist from Deviantart who does our Palitant characters, TenaciousMug. Vintage is our main graphic designer( who is probably the best in our VPS community). We then have a few artists who have just recently joined our team; they do items, icons, a few Pali and other misc things.
7. Your latest preview states that certain Pali will be available via means only possible if one pays actual money. What sort of disadvantage is a user who does not pay money looking at versus one who does?
I think at the start, it’ll be an immediate thing. Users who have money to spend will be able to get some things quicker than others- but as Cash Shop items are tradable, users can save up Rubies(in-game currency) and purchase Cash Shop items from other players.
Most of the Cash Shop items, we hope, won’t affect the game play too much. The main things you can buy in the cash shop are things which make your account stand out. Customising usernames on Ichumon was a big thing, so we went one step further with Palawind and allow users to buy “labels” for their username, which changes the font, colour and give you a nice border around your username. You can also buy items which change day to night, allow you to rename your Pali and other things like that. Users can also buy a User Board, which allows them to create their own forum specifically for a certain group of users. We haven’t quite figure out the details for this, but it should allow users to set their own rules for their own board.
8. Do you feel that your efforts to incorporate various elements rather than just make a pure pet site will alienate some of the typical pet site base who may feel alienated by the differences from a conventional pet site?
I don’t think this will be too much of a big deal. I think the VPS community have been crying for a new unique site- for the last couple of years its been the same clone type sites (Ichumon included), with nothing too unique to set them apart. With Palawind, there are elements of VPS in them (such as inventory, mailing, user-profiles, flash games) but it is really quite different from any other VPS to date. It’ll be a site users will have to get used to; everyone is used to virtual pet sites because every site is practically the same in setup. But I think the features and the way the site works, has really gotten people excited. It’s not too complicated and it looks really good in terms of art quality.
9. Why the name Palawind?
Well this was one thing we spent a good deal of time over. I realllllllly liked the name Paladin, and I was writing a story which had a city called Skywind in it. When the idea for Palawind first came around, it was just me and Becca. I kept on throwing names at her with the word Pala in front, like: Palakins, Palaheroes, Palasin etc. Then I opened up my notepad one day, saw the word Skywind, stuck wind in front of Pala, 1...2...3! Palawind was born. I loved that name, I’m not quite sure Becca liked it as much as I did, but it grew on her and I think we now both love it the same.
10. Finally, on a lighter note, and to pry into your psyche a bit, what do you put on your hot dogs?
Ketchup and onions; very boring I know- but we don’t eat too many hotdogs here in the UK. Well, at least I don’t.
