T
hethingwewere
worriedaboutwith
ourclosedalphawas
whetherornotpeople
wouldactuallykeep
playing overnight,”Wilsonrecalls.
“This wasbasicallyusinvitingour
friends andfamilytoplay,and
they’d playforafewhoursto
humour us.Butifthispersonwas
willing tocallinsickthenextday
and not gotoworkbecausehe
could be thenumberoneplayerin
the worldinthisupcoming
action-RPG,whichwashisgoal,
thenwehadsomething.”backthenPathofExilefizzledoutin
theprisonsequenceofactone.now,
severalyearsoffreeexpansionslater,
it’soneofthebestvaluepCgames
around.thatinitialplayervigil
turnedouttobethefirstactof
worshipforafanbasethatnowplays
theaction-rpginthehundredsof
thousands.but Wilson and his teamalmostdidn’tmakeit.successnearly
killedPathofExile.
liketheexilesarrivingin
Wraeclast,grindinggeargameshad
tobringaboutorderwheretherewas
none.thehandfulofestablished
studiosthatexistedinnewZealand
atthetimewerenotincontactwith
thefivefriendsworkingoutof
Wilson’sgarage.potentialhires
wouldarriveinsuits,andbewalked
pasttheembarrassedteam’slaundry
fortheirinterviews.therewasa
budget,butitwastighterthanthe
tighty-whities.
“ourgoalwastobesmart,”
Wilsonsays.“Wewantedfromthe
beginningtowritecodethatcoulddomytwoco-foundersplayingDiablo
IIonline,”Wilsonsays.“there had
been no Diablo game for six years
at that stage, no sign of anything
onthehorizon.”hardcoreaction-rPG
When Diablo III was announced, it
wasacauseforalarm–butWilson
andhisteamfoundsolacein
humongousshoulderpads.that
WorldofWarcraft-liketouchto
blizzard’sbarbarianclassreassured
grindinggearthatitschiefrivalwas
takingthegenre-dominatingseries
inamoreaccessibledirection.in
doingso,blizzardhadunknowingly
leftspaceforagothic,hardcore
action-rpgfromnewZealand.it
wasthefirstpotentiallyfatalblow
PathofExilehaddodged.
“iftheyhadmadeDiabloIIIasa
verydirectDiabloIIsequel,isuspect
thetimelinewouldhavegonequite
differently,”Wilsonsays.“but
thankfully, that differentiation meantThere was a
budgeT, buT iT
was TighTer
Than The
TighTy-whiTies
BOTTOM: There’s a
reason they don’t
make armour out of
gold, but what a
status symbol!the work, rather than put people on it. We planned, for
every asset we made, to use it five different ways. We
made sure that we leaned heavily on random item
generationandmonsterproperties.Wewantedtowrite
ournetworkingcodeonceandgetitright.”
frugalityshapedtheinitialversionofPathofExile.
meanwhile,inCalifornia,anotherteamwasworkingona
rival action-rpg with a far larger budget.“i met one ofPath ofExile
FEaturE