Similarities to SC

FS: Kingdom Under Fire has a great many similarities with WarCraft II and StarCraft. Why did you pattern your game after Blizzard's? Why not make a game with more of a C&C, Homeworld or Total Annihilation bent?

Kim: We wanted to build more advanced WarCraft style game. The reason why we took WarCraft features is because they can give more tension in a short time compared to C&C or Total Annihilation.

The resources are limited and it makes the gamer more busy with managing the game. Korean people always prefer fast games with full of tension.

Time for a little scouting

The tech tree grows

FS: Quick followup on that question: How quick do you plan these games to be? How long would a typical match last? Is the early rush effective?

Kim: Typically it takes 20-40 minutes and sometimes a match could be completed within 5 minutes in rush style using basic units. For people who want to fight against lots of players, a shorter play time is more effective. For example, Korean salary men enjoy lunchtime match games. [Yes, we call office workers 'salary men', sorry it's Korean style english]

FS: Are you worried about a possible hostile reaction from Blizzard fans who might feel that KUF is just a StarCraft ripoff?

Kim: No not at all, we have confirmed that from StarCraft fans. Starcraft has been sold over 1 million copies in Korea. According to StarCraft fans' opinions, KUF is a more advanced style RTS compared to StarCraft.

Most KUF beta testers are StarCraft fans at the same time, if KUF has no original features, I think they will not invest their time to play KUF. We have over 2000 registered beta testers in Korea, with many advanced features not yet shown in the press demo. When these features come out, RTS fans will think that KUF is very unique RTS. We think that RTS gamers will follow a good game, not a brand with high reputation.

Outnumbered and slain, but the soul still burns!

Hail to the suicide scout

FS: How have you tried to improve on SC and WC2?

Kim: We have input various strategies in KUF. In SC there are 150 strategies and in KUF there are over 200 strategies. And we took many efforts to make realistic and smooth animation, because it enables more dynamic action feeling. KUF has 24 animation frames per second. Compared to Diablo II it has ten times the animated frames. For simple walking motion, at least 15-20 animation frames has been input for each character.

We also think that SC and WarCraft are lacking in story. We have a more profound storyline in KUF. There's an RPG mode in the single campaign: seven hero characters' detail storylines will be revealed in RPG mode too. And we put some RPG features in the RTS style as well, like level-up.

We are trying our best to make the best RTS in every aspect. Some good pro gamers as beta testers are helping us a lot to make better balance.

The first real battle

SimCity?