The Agency developer interview

The team behind online action-shooter The Agency on PlayStation 3 speaks to eu.playstation.com.

What was the inspiration behind The Agency and its two warring factions?
When we were looking at possible genres for a new action Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG), the world of spies and espionage pretty much jumped out at us. It's popular in movies, TV, and other kinds of games. In fact, it's so well accepted and understood that there are even parodies of it. I guess our inspiration was the last half century of pop culture.

Once we had the image of the super spy in mind, the opposition faction came together very naturally. Where UNITE is polished, ParaGON is rough. One's more about ideology; the other is more about profit. The spies tend to be more subtle, the mercs a little more... explosive.

ParaGON and UNITE aren't really enemies, though. It's more of a friendly rivalry, with occasional bloodshed.

Is it a challenge ensuring the factions are balanced, considering their very different styles?
The balance and tuning process is still ongoing. It is challenging, but it's not as difficult as you might think. The stylistic differences between the factions are very apparent in art, story, and gameplay, but in the end they are both putting teams of shooters and sneaks into the field. We are really trying to keep them equal in abilities, with the differences in the style of play.

How would you describe The Agency's art style?
We really wanted The Agency to be a fun take on the spy and espionage genre, and the art style plays to that. Instead of delivering a grim world that you want to escape, The Agency's world is one we want players to run towards. The art style is driven by a fun and exciting take on exotic locations, with larger than life heroes and supervillains. We'll always avoid an ultra-realistic art style in favour of something more fun and expressive. It should give players something completely different in this space.

What considerations did you make in building a console MMO?
Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay. You really can't just port over a traditional MMO and expect it to work on a console. We needed to reconsider everything from input devices, to communication systems, to style of play.

Traditional turn-based MMOs are not geared for the console audience, who want action and want it now! This is one of the core reasons we chose the action genre as the main play style for The Agency. We're concentrating on building a great action mechanic with shooting, inside a simple interface, while still maintaining the persistent elements that people expect from MMOs.

Keeping it simple and fun is the primary consideration for the console audience. 

What are the challenges in being the first to bring an MMO to PS3?
There are many. For starters, no one has tackled doing big, modern MMO style content patches to a network of consoles. We'll be pioneering that on PSN.

From the player's perspective, we need to bring the player-to-player communication tools that they are used to on PC over to the console. That's everything from emotes, to friends lists, to voice and text chat. Making that all work with the Wireless Controller is a challenge for sure.

Bringing one of the first MMOs to hit PS3 makes for a big list of challenges, but we are really excited to be working through all of them with the other PlayStation teams.

Which classes can you play as and what are their strengths?
In The Agency, we use the term role instead of class. A class is usually permanent, a decision that defines your character, while in The Agency you can change your role when you wish. Just hit the locker room, pick a new role, and get back into the action!

The three basic roles are: Combat, which specialises in tackling groups of enemies; Stealth, that has the best sneaky skills, with abilities that do high damage to single targets; and Support, which is about repair and healing abilities, plus deployable items and other tricks.

Each role has some specialist branches to choose from. For example, the Support role will eventually offer you the ability to emphasise healing or repair, though you'll always be able to do both.

How do Operatives work in the game?
Operatives are essentially collectible NPCs. There will be hundreds in the game, each with their own stories, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Some will be restricted to UNITE or ParaGON agents, while others can be found by anyone. You use Operatives in two ways.

First, you can send them out on assignments to do things for you. That means harvesting resources, researching and building gear, recruiting other Ops, and unlocking new missions. They may even alter the game world: maybe you used a hacker Op to disable an alarm system before infiltrating the supervillain's lair.

This is represented in a cool interface that shows you the assignment's progress, including health and morale hits that the Op takes along the way. If your Op is in over his head, you can elect to pull him out - he might even contact you via email or SMS, asking for help.

Operatives can also help you during missions from behind the scenes. Put an Op on speed dial before you start the mission, and he is on call to give you a hand. For example, if you find the turret control system for the enemy base, give your hacker a call and she might be able to shut it down or turn it on your enemies. Or maybe you'll find a place outside for a Stealth Op to set up a sniper perch. Secure that area and give him a call. He'll dig in and cover you.

How big is the playing areas and how can players get around?
Some of our urban areas are pretty large, but we're not going to make you leg it all over the world. Before you get tired of running from one place to another you should have found travel options that will take you to another map. Our spaces vary in size from cosy to cavernous. It just depends on the space's purpose. 

Are you including functionality for setting up and joining guilds and clans?
Yes. One of our goals is to let you build your own Agency. Your Operatives will be part of that, and so will your friends if you wish. Sony Online Entertainment has always had great guild support and we expect to take advantage of that in The Agency.

What aspect of The Agency are you most proud of?
It would have to be the world we created. The enemy and ally factions are all pretty interesting, and I love finding ways to tell the player about them in the game. We have cool NPCs, including great villains with global ambitions, and great art that ties it all together. It's fantastic to be in the middle of that process.