GamesRelay: The amount of detail put into the starships is very impressive, how much work did it take to create these vessels?
Craig Zinkievich: We've got a team of artists who work almost exclusively on ship designs. They put a ton of work into making sure each ship is faithful to the way it looked in the TV series or movie.
What I think is most impressive, though, is how great the unique ships they've created look. Their design comes from within the team, though they're inspired by the other ships of Star Trek. It just amazes me what they can come up with in a short amount of time.
GamesRelay: Was there a single defining moment in the development of Star Trek online that you felt most proud of?
Craig Zinkievich: It's probably easier to say now what moment I was most proud of during the development process than during the actual process. When we were working it was hard to step back and say wow I'm really glad we got that in because the truth is we were in such "go, go, go" mode that I didn't really have time to take that moment.
Now, looking back I would say I was really proud of getting both space and ground into the game. You don't see a lot of games that have both of those styles of game into one game. Usually it's one or the other. So I would say that is one of the highlights of the development process. I would also have to say I'm just extremely proud of my team for working as a group and doing what we did in the time we were given.
GamesRelay: It’s amazing to think that Star Trek started out as a low-budget science-fiction television series back in the '60s, and has since grown and evolved so unrecognisably over the decades since, with multiple releases in every form of media imaginable, so that we're now playing a Star Trek MMORPG at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st Century. What do you think gives Star Trek such longevity to transcend generations and maintain such appeal?
Craig Zinkievich: I think what gives Star Trek such lasting appeal is that it's set in a universe where there are almost endless possibilities. It appeals to the human nature that we are explorers and it holds a vision of what we could be as people. It's a place where we're out exploring our universe, meeting new civilizations and trying to make the universe a better a place. That alone makes it interesting, but then you throw in this cool factor of their flying these huge starships, and then add in some human/alien drama and some really cool combat. It makes for a pretty enticing franchise.
I think also one of the things that give it such lasting appeal is that Star Trek is so flexible. The TV shows, movies, books and video games are all different yet they are all Star Trek. Star Trek fans can argue about what TV series, episode, ship or character is their favorite and that is really cool. Then a lot of people said the Star Trek franchise was losing its appeal, then you have someone like JJ Abrams come in and he does his vision of Star Trek and it totally brings Star Trek back into the mainstream again. So I don't see Star Trek going anywhere for a long, long time.
GamesRelay: What are your aims for Star Trek Online going forward?
Craig Zinkievich: We want the game to continue to grow and give the community what they want. You want more diplomacy and first contact missions. Let's get it in there. You want more ship interiors and functionality in those ships. Let's get it in there. We aim to be flexible and responsive to our community. We think we have a lot of things going right with Star Trek Online and we can only make it better. So we want to constantly get new updates and new content out to our players.
Our thanks go to Craig Zinkievich over at Cryptic Studios for taking the time to do the interview with us.
