We could finally make it:
Briberies, surveillance cameras, agents and Romeos weren't successful, but Meditate could finally make it with endless patience. We were able to gather some news from the Piranhas and even to filch a picture out of the paper bin in an unseen moment.
We enjoy presenting this interview to the Gothic fans out there.
Meditate interviewed the three Piranha Bytes members Kai Rosenkranz, Mike Hoge and Michael Rüve, while some WoG people whispered questions into her ears. |
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World of Gothic:
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Hi KaiRo, since our last interview almost one year has passed. Can we be a bit curious?
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KaiRo:
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You are curious anyway, even if you aren't allowed to :-).
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World of Gothic:
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How far are you? As we could read on your homepage, there will be no further add-on. So you put all your effort to develop Gothic 3?
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KaiRo:
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Yes exactly. There won't be a further add-on and the work on Gothic III was meanwhile so captivating that anyone will restrain us now :-).
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World of Gothic:
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Are you still the same troop or were there any changes in the staff?
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KaiRo:
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Nothing has changed.
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World of Gothic:
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Is the story finished or do search still inspiration for it?
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KaiRo:
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The story hasn't been completed yet, though the basic thought is existing. Story and game design go hand in hand, and concerning game design we make big steps forward at the moment. Inspiration for individual strings of the story is surely reasonable later on, when the task is to fill the made-up frame with content. Until then, there will be some more time passing by.
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Mike:
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What Kai wants to say by that is: We first handle the setting (the world) and then the story.
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World of Gothic:
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There is again and again some inspiration occurring in the community that you should integrate extremely difficult dungeons, which aren't part of the storyline, is there anything planned?
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KaiRo:
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We haven't decided yet. It isn't possible to answer such concrete statement to the content at the moment, anyway. We could still change everything and don't want to give any empty promises.
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World of Gothic:
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Can you give any comments to the size of the playable world in relation to the world of Gothic II?
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KaiRo:
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Bigger. Approximately soooo big.
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World of Gothic:
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Do you still think about integrating animals, which can be ridden or is the technical realization to complicated and therefore improbable?
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KaiRo:
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Such animals are, if you want to integrate them in an appropriate way into the story, a complex topic. We will see if makes sense technically or logically.
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World of Gothic:
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There is a statement of Mike Hoge existing (correct me if I am wrong) that the hero in Gothic III doesn't have to start as a completely weak character and must relearn everything. Can you give any (even if they are vague) statements about that? |
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KaiRo:
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Because vague statements are allowed I gladly accept this proposal. It is right that the hero doesn't begin the adventure as a complete weak person. Who hopes that the character begins as a big super hero will also be undeceived. The player has a certain degree of reputation and can defend himself. To complete his given task, he should still work a bit on his abilities :-).
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World of Gothic:
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Will the skill system of the previous Gothic titles adapted or will there be a completely new ability system?
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KaiRo:
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Few things will be 100% like in Gothic I or II. Almost in every fields will be differences and changes, also in the character development. We won't change the transparency and the restrained use with numbers and statistics.
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World of Gothic:
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Everywhere is speculated about the engine. The favorite of most of the people is the graphic-engine of Far Cry. Can you say something about that? There is no statement from you, what engine Gothic III will use.
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KaiRo:
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Big parts of the engine we will create by ourselves, because the requirements to the technology are this specific, that a standard engine isn't able to satisfy these wishes. So it is rather unimportant which of the candidates partially is used to enrich our engine, because they aren't recognizable in the final game anyway.
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World of Gothic:
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Is the engine, used in Gothic III, completely certified or are there only parts of purchased engines? How much is self-made, how much work from others?
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KaiRo:
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There are certified components but the lion's share we develop by ourselves.
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World of Gothic:
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Did you know that there is a Renaissance of Gothic 1? Because there is a lack of alternative games to Gothic, the fans play again more Gothic 1. How about a little add-on for Gothic 1?
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KaiRo:
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We are pleased that the fans play the predecessor to shorten the waiting time for Gothic III! After all there are many other games on the market. In my opinion there is few sense spending this much time for producing an add-on for a two-years-old game. Instead of this we can concentrate on Gothic III. Due to these thoughts we denied making another add-on for Gothic II, and this is the same case for Gothic 1.
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World of Gothic:
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If one restarts playing Gothic 2 or also Gothic 1 is surprised about the enormous recognition effect of the music. Are you going to continue that?
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KaiRo:
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Thank you. Concerning the music, what is my contribution to the game, there are a lot of promising things coming, which could even top the "continuation of the well-tried". If I can realize my vision of the music, many things will change respectively improve in this field. The recognition effect should stay of course, and also the original Gothic 1 main theme will be recycled :-).
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World of Gothic:
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It would be perhaps a good and also an unusual idea to enclose a soundtrack-CD with the music of the game. Have you ever thought about that?
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KaiRo:
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We will decide, when it's foreseeable, if the music has the demanded quality for a soundtrack-CD. There is another question if this CD should be included to the game. The production of such a CD brings many additional expenses and because the music is pertaining to experience finished very late, I cannot afford this extra effort in the hot release phase.
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Michael Rüve:
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The topic has indeed always been present and I went on Kai's nerves more than once because of it. For the so called "Special Edition" already occurred a little soundtrack-CD. To produce more than in this Special Edition was technically not possible. Now we have this completely new technology as a basis...
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World of Gothic:
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For sure one of question which burns on the tongues of most old-school RPG gamer: Will there be a cloth map? (in memory to good old Ultima times...)
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KaiRo:
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We must clear that first with JoWood. Measured by the hugeness of the playable world, the card would have the size of a sheet and wouldn't fit in a package :-). Seriously: That isn't certain yet.
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World of Gothic:
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After the release of Gothic II, some people criticized the main story, because it was orientated at the principle of the chosen one standing between the good and the bad gods, which has been used already in the meantime in hundreds of other games. It wasn't so extreme in Gothic 1, there was namely also mentioned a chosen one, but this fact stood in the background. In Gothic II one was confronted with this already at the beginning, only a man chosen by Innos was able to bear the amulet. So there was already clear that the chosen one was the player.
Two questions to this: Will Gothic III follow this way and develop it or can we looking forward to a surprising changing?
If this isn't the case, will we be clarified of the precise motivation of the "dark" site? For example we couldn't work out, why the dragons wanted to destroy everything.
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Mike:
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"The solution of the precise motivation of the gods" - nice - it's fundamentally THE topic of Gothic III. Why do the gods fight against each other? What is this shit all about, anyway? In the foreground are of course earthly things, like the invasion of the orcs. There will be unforeseeable turns in the story.
By the way, has anyone already thought about that Xardas could have restrained information? (We don't want to speak of "lies" in this connection...)
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World of Gothic:
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Degree of difficulty to low, to high - The reactions to Gothic II and the add-on were different. Can you make a prediction, if the player can eat some pizza besides killing monsters or if he should get an extra portion tissues for the adventure, to wipe away some tears of frustration?
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Mike:
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We've already begun working out some concepts for an adjustable degree of difficulty, else we can't satisfy everyone (that is impossible anyway, but you know what I mean...) |
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World of Gothic:
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One of the distinctive marks of the game is the unbelievably detailed and above all living world. It just makes fun, to walk over an idyllic meadow and to regard a crowd of wolves tearing up a scavenger. Will we be able to enjoy this special feeling in Gothic III, too? Will the world be even more detailed?
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KaiRo:
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Finally a question, that we can answer definitely, and namely with a clear "yes"! The world full of life has been, as you already said, one of the most important things in the game, and that will not change in the future.
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Mike:
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The "animated world" is in our opinion the main feature of Gothic. Everything we work on, flows into this design point.
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World of Gothic:
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In Gothic I and II there were no real differences between swords, axes or maces, besides some values. Could that change in the successor? And another question or inspiration: Could one enhance the guild specific weapon with regular utilization to force the player to use this specific weapon? It was hard to play a mage, when the weapons were so much more effective.
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KaiRo:
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Such a thing is indeed planned, but not exactly in the form you mentioned, because the expression "guild" will get another (and less binding) meaning. The advantages of certain weapons will be highlighted in reasonable relations.
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World of Gothic:
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In our forum, there are again and again threads occurring, asking about the equality of the names of the Esteban in the game and our moderator Don-Esteban. Can you give your opinion to this matter? Has this brutal robber anything to do with our extremely soft and understanding moderator?
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KaiRo:
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Your suggestive question almost shouts to a "No, of course there is no connection between Esteban and the nickname of this moderator." Therefore our answer is: "No, of course there is no connection between Esteban and the nickname of this moderator." :-).
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World of Gothic:
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What do you think about the mods, which are accessible on World of Gothic? "Die Bedrohung" and "Dicurric"? Have you played it?
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KaiRo:
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If we've played it? Hey, is it dark at night? We are so overwhelmed of it, what is happening in the field of modding, that we put many hours into the development of mod-kits. We also have an open ear for everyone, who needs help at the realization of an own modification. Of course, there is no official "support", we have no time for this, but some hints leave regularly our mailbox.
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Michael Rüve:
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In few days, there will be downloadable a completely new mod-kit for Gothic II and "The Night of The Raven" (as soon as our lawyer has read through the license text).
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World of Gothic:
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A little tasting out of the new game? A sentence? A word? A picture?
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KaiRo:
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Here's a word out of the story-document: "and". :-)
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Mike:
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Uh, here's a minuscule view into our character design (temporary version of a scout of the orc killer of Nordmar...)
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World of Gothic:
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Thank you for the Interview.
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