If you've been paying attention to my column at all over the past few months, you've probably noticed quite a few references to Illfonic's upcoming MMORPG Revival. I kicked things off with a brief overview of the game's mechanics early on before eventually following that up with a major article detailing why the game is on my radar.

It was only a matter of time before I eventually got my hands on one of the key developers and really dug into the core mechanics of the game. You can check out that three part interview with Adam Maxwell (the game's Lead Systems Designer) by clicking through this link, if you want to read that first. Still though, that wasn't enough.

Illfonic Studio Roadtrip

I'd heard enough, and talked about the game enough to know that I definitely needed to pack up a few things and drive out to Denver to see the project first-hand. While the development team has done a great job giving us previews by streaming from their own Twitch channel - as well as providing tons of information and insight on their official website... none of that makes it quite as tangible as seeing it with my own eyes.

Finding My Way Around

As familiar as I am with downtown Denver - it still took me a little while to find the correct location and grab myself some parking. Once done I went inside the massive downtown tower their offices are located in and rode the elevator all the way up to the 25th floor. I met up with the Studio's lovely receptionist Cindy and she got to work tracking down Chris, Adam, Kedhrin and some of the other team members I'd be chatting with throughout the afternoon.

After a few initial greetings and a short chat with Adam and Chris in the main conference room, Kedhrin finally managed to pull himself away from work to start showing me around the Studio. There were a lot more employees than I was expecting, and there were tons of workstations packed into the team's office space.

I got to see several different groups working on various projects, with one of the more notable ones being Star Citizen. Ultimately though, it was all about Revival, and when I finally reached the small corner office that held about seven different workstations - I eagerly shook hands with all the different team members. Everyone was working on something different, but they were all equally neck-deep in different components of Revival - many of which are projects and systems the developers have been talking about the past few weeks.

Concept art, props, housing, and of course: the estates, were all projects I saw open on the different monitors. I got a few moments to chat with some of the artists and designers and talk about what they were working on before I finally left them alone so they could resume working. That was when I headed back to the conference room to set up shop and start doing some one on one interviews.

Developer Interviews on Revival

I managed to get five solid interviews out of the team, all with very different responsibilities and realms of influence. You can catch the full recordings of those interviews below or by jumping directly over to our official YouTube channel. There are quite a few nuggets between the five of them, especially for those who haven't been closely following the forums and developer IRC.

Creative Director Kedhrin Gonzalez

Lead Content Designer Chris Holtorf

Lead Systems Designer Adam Maxwell

3D Artist & Designer Cliff Shonewill

Web/Graphic/UI Designer Michael Scala

Final Farewells

After all that it was well after 5PM, so I finally started packing up my electronics and saying my goodbyes to all the different team members. I was fortunate that I didn't wind up with a parking ticket, since I ended up rolling 45 minutes expired on my parking meter downstairs. It was a memorable experience and the team there was very polite, pleasant, and hospitable. I'm looking forward to returning in the future to check up on Illfonic again - especially in regards to Revival.

Like Illfonic itself, the game has loads of untapped potential and could usher in a new age of MMORPG gaming - not to mention a new style of game-development itself. Of all the unique things about Revival - nothing is quite as intriguing as the phased deployment and development cycle. The team is wisely focusing on quality above quantity - which tends to be prioritized in the opposite order by other developers - most of which have put out arguably hollow and superficial games.

I'm looking forward to seeing Revival progress and Illfonic continue to grow and mature as a powerful development force in the Industry. It's far too early to call them the next Riot Games, but they certainly have that kind of potential. More than anything, I'm just glad to see a studio finally step out on a limb and take some real risks for the sake of innovation.

[For more articles and information about Revival and Illfonic - you should definitely check out our Revival game page here on TenTonHammer where I have been keeping tabs on this title over the past several weeks. Additionally, if you're really interested in this game, you should check out my Revivalcast talkshow that airs every Sunday at 1PM Pacific on TheoryForge's Twitch channel, or check out the replays on their official YouTube Channel.]