As graphics in massively multiplayer online games push ahead year after year, a few developers are taking a different approach to these games, some with a stylized 2-D look. "Different" is an understatement when it comes to Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online -- a blending of an MMO with an old-school arcade game which Massively previewed at E3 2009.
Although the side-scrolling action is reminiscent of games like Street Fighter, Dungeon Fighter Online will have classes and subclasses, skills, and a level-based system of advancement as with the majority of MMO titles. The game has done very well for itself in Korea (where it's known as Dungeon & Fighter) and is coming to North America, with a closed beta on the way.
Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield gives us some more perspective on this game through his recent interview with Neople's Yunjong Kim, director of Dungeon Fighter Online. (Neople developed Dungeon & Fighter and was recently acquired by Nexon.) They discuss the choice to embrace 2-D as a medium, Kim's overall outlook on entering the North American market, and how Neople went from being a company that made alarm clocks to a very successful games company in Korea. If you like stories about underdogs, people who do creative, innovative things in ways the large companies rarely seem to, you'll enjoy the Gamasutra interview with Dungeon Fighter Online's Yunjong Kim.
