Class is in session for the latest roundtable podcast video for Fantastic Pixel Castle’s Project Ghost MMO. Or rather, class discussion and new class previews is in session, but that doesn’t quite roll off of the tongue as neatly, even if it is a more appropriate synopsis of what this latest hour of talking offers viewers and listeners.

The big news included in this video were the showcases of two newly launched classes to the game, the Songbird and the Tempest. The Songbird, as Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street describes it, isn’t a bard but a class that heals with its voice; it’s a purely heal-focused class option that utilizes the power of song to heal allies, either with longer-casting steady spells or quick-hitting bigger heals. The devs appear to be keen to mirror the steady “chorus” and more intense moments of music and rhythm as a design guide, at least thematically speaking.

As for the Tempest, that’s a new magic-based damage dealer, which uses the power of dance and movement to build up and expel powerful lightning attacks. The devs liken this class to a sort of turbine, spinning up energy and then unleashing it at enemies.

The majority of the video otherwise talks about classes in a more general sense. Here are a few of those highlights:

• The stated goal of having 30 classes at launch now feels more feasible thanks to some workflow changes, such as having shared animations or visuals for some of the more common abilities and effects like buffing.
• Balancing the game doesn’t appear to be a particularly hard issue even with the number of classes being aimed for in Ghost, mostly because there isn’t a great deal of concern about absolute perfect PvP balance. That said, there is care to balance over-homogenized design against ensuring everyone brings something to the table in group play.
• Dovetailing from that, general design ethos is deeply focused on answering how to make classes mechanically unique instead of being too similar to one another; thematic changes are easy, but making too many builder/spender classes can feel boring and is a consideration among FPC’s devs.
• Finally on the subject of mechanics – specifically complexity – most of that complexity seems to be more directed at good character positioning over having a complex rotation of buttons. Again, there’s a line the devs want to toe to make sure classes are easy to pick up and play but have enough depth that makes things satisfying.

The full video below awaits, with discussions about the Songbird and Tempest at minute markers 22:24 and 43:14 respectively, while another video from streamer and YouTuber JoCat features some gameplay footage of the Tempest in action, along with some impressions and thoughts about Ghost’s current design.