Black Desert Mobile has returned a long way since its introduction to more than 220 countries a long way. Already at the start a content-rich MMO, it has greatly benefited from fast, extensive updates, which at the same time brought the experience closer to its great brother Black Desert online at the same time and at the same time reaffirmed the idea that Black Desert Mobile can be his own thing.

As Lead Producer at BDM Yongmin Cho has a great impact on long-term live service support and the overall design of the game. I talked to him about how the game has improved since the start and where he believes it will be in another 100 days.

After the soft-launch of Black Desert Mobile on 24 October last year, a lot has happened. We have updated the game with two new regions (Southern and North Mediah), added two world bosses (Karanda and Nouver) and introduced important PVP modes such as Knot and Covering War .

Apart from that, we also introduced the new classes Sorceress and Dark Knight and introduced an ascension system, with which player can experience the currently available 7 classes in a completely different way. Each of the classes now has an alternative fighting style, which offers the players more tactical choice. In terms of content, we were very busy.

The service site was quite a rollercoaster ride. Thanks to our players, we have exceeded the global milestone of 20 million downloads in more than 220 countries. It is not surprising that the team had to scales quickly in terms of localization, server infrastructure and customer support to achieve this.

One could expect the race to start the content parity with Black Desert online, though Yongmin tells me that it is a bit more complicated. Black Desert Online and Black Desert Mobile are only two different games. If you both have played, you will understand that you share the same universe, but differ sharply in terms of game systems, general gameplay and content.

We have developed the mobile version specifically for this platform. Therefore, experience between PC, console and mobile versions is very different. Unlike Black Desert on the console, which was a port, Black Desert Mobile was completely grounded to use the mobile platform in the best possible way .

Since we have their own proprietary engine, we could not just create a simple port. We had to create many custom designs for combat, gameplay systems, user interface, and of course the control. We also felt that we had to redesign many of the quests and life expertise systems (collecting, fishing and crafting) so that it feels appealing on the phone.

But Black Desert Online is not the only comparison that fans have made. There is also the Asian version of Mobile.

The basic contents between the two versions is more or less the same, but we distinguish the content and / or the content update cycles to take into account specific regions. For the global version we had the luxury to have a lot of content on the shelf. And we could prioritize certain updates that the Western audience responds more.

To call an example: We have updated the global version with our Ascension system much faster than in the Asian schedule. This has been done so that our audience can experience stronger battles with its classes. Another big advantage of the global build is that most critical errors have already been resolved, which ensures a much smoother experience .

Community feedback and inquiries also employ the team. Yongmin tells me that although a comprehensive optimization has been performed before the start, further optimization of the device compatibility has been quickly necessary. Finally, Black Desert Mobile is one of the most demanding cell phone games in the market, but Pearl Abyss was decided to make the experience accessible as many players as possible. The adaptation of the game to certain devices, the available internet bandwidth and the support of external storage were just some of the possibilities with which the team has achieved this.

Now that millions of players were attracted, the challenge changes as they can play further. Recently we saw the arrival of the Dark Knight class.

She is a seductive, but deadly female class with a very pronounced game style that seems to address many players. It combines close combat with highly effective AOE attacks in the middle area, which can be very efficient depending on the style of play. For Black Desert Mobil, we still have to see how your popularity develops in the long run. But since the update, the Dark Knight class has proven to be very popular.

The other classes are more balanced in terms of distribution among the players. After a class update, you can often see that the entire community jumps on this character to see if you like him. Outstanding are currently the classes Dark Knight and Sorceress Players in the West definitely like their AOE to grinding MOBS efficiently. After the ascension update, the alternative class styles of Huntress, Archmage and Raven proved to be very popular with global players.

Yongmin also notes that the popularity of certain in-game events, especially seasonal offers, depending on territory and culture is considerably different.

The team currently has many content in work, including world bosses, character classes and regions. A new management system called World Management is also in development, and the extension of the large desert, which includes two new areas in the Valencia region, is in preparation. Yongmin teases that the tower of the test is considered a springboard for some of the upcoming things.

While Shadow Arena mode has now been separated from Black Desert online, there is still hope for those who want Battle Royale in BDM.

Yongmin tells me that Shadow Arena was removed because it did not contribute to the core gameplay that should offer MMORPGS, which expands its character. The Battle Royale Genre contradicts this idea when you reset the playing field every time a match begins, but we try to find the right way to get a Battle Royale feature in the game .

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