The german magazin PC Games interviewed Kai Rosenkranz (KaiRo) and Carsten Edenfeld (Carsten) from Piranha Bytes. The interview was published in the edition of 07/2004. With friendly permission of the PC Games' editorial staff we are permitted to publish it here too.

KaiRo:

The problem of "complexity due to size" can only be prevented through a deliberated level design. Automatically designed landscapes or regions which recur because of the use of modularity are absolutely taboo if you want to offer quick orientation to players. Our main focus is therefore to design every corner as distinctive as possible. In real life people orient themselves also to locations with a high recognition factor. Another important point is that this huge world is arranged in several cohesive areas, for example the snowy mountain area Nordmar or the ample coastal region. These areas will delimit clearly from each other through their individual style but naturally you can move "boundlessly" through the whole world like in the predecessors.

KaiRo:

When choosing his tasks modesty would be a virtue for the conqueror of the sleeper, the preserver of balance and the one who "dances with dragons" that would be out of place. Just as interesting as the objective of the hero is the objective of Xardas who plays an obscure game after to ingratiate oneself with Beliar.

KaiRo:

Someone who is destined for something higher and who likes best to get into the act of the war of gods is presented a story that offers unequaled opportunities where epic and historical momentousness is concerned. It's seething in divine spheres and real adventurers can play a decisive role in the conflict between the gods Beliar, Innos and Adanos. Beneath all this heavenly hocus-pocus a very wealthy an detailed story won't miss out. A filigree network of quests and strands totally aside from epic will make that sure. Simultaneous with the adventures of our nameless hero on the island Khorinis a bitter war of humans against the orcs convulsed the continent. Now when the player reaches the big continent he will find the realm of King Rhobar II beaten and downfallen. But in the meantime the orcs seem to follow other objectives...

KaiRo:

Of course. The real kingdom is situated on the continent. The island Khorinis which has been the setting of the successors is only a kind of Alcatraz in XXL. Other than on Khorinis where landscapes like forest, jungle, canyon and urban area were more or less jumbled and clustered on narrowest space the assembly of the continent with it's snowy mountains, ample deserts and the former opalescent and green realm is orientated to genuine role models and so it looks more authentic.

KaiRo:

The term "guild" went like a thread through the game design of all previous Gothic parts. Naturally there will also be those fractions in the third part but the player is from time to time occupied with tasks that transcend wealthy concerns like this classification of the humans. A possible membership of the hero in a guild will have a less drastic effect.

KaiRo:

The player's actions are carefully analysed by the game engine and so many different ways of playing the game and also different strands will be the consequence. It is likely that various outros will arise but this question hasn't been resolved yet.

KaiRo:

Less freedom of movement? No way! Other mechanisms will have to serve as an "indirect guidance" into regions that don't ask too much of the players. While Gothic 2 was very easy and the add-on so difficult that even professionals had some problems the third part still has enough room for improvements to achieve the goal of a well-adjusted gameplay only by careful game-balancing. Besides we will get our bag of tricks in order to find a way to go into the strenghts and weaknesses of the players.

KaiRo:

Since we started the Gothic-series it has never been our objective to get named in one breath with the actual muscle man Doom 3 but non the less our engine has never been antiquated. The engine met our demands on visibility and an organic level construction excellently. Naturally we have the intention to keep the "look and feel" of the Gothic series and for this reason we make high demands on the engine of the third part. The thing is not to show the engine with the best straining for effect which is able to assert oneself against the current graphic wonders at the date of release. We rather place our main emphasis on putting our vision of the world appropriately into action. In Gothic 3 shader effects and other contemporary gadgetry will be put to use more than ever but as I said they are not in the center of attention.

Carsten:

The new architecture of the engine is based on DirectX 9. So we are able to use all shader versions available at the moment in order to realize complex lighting and postprocessing calculations. With that we will especially implement high-dynamic-range-rendering, normal- and specular-mapping as well as exact real-time shadows. Besides unusual material properties can also be simulated precisely with the Gothic 3 engine. And in relation to Gothic 2 the successor will show more than twice as much polygons. Generally you can expect a big step forward in matter of graphics.

KaiRo:

The nameless hero quite often had to submit to a restart of personality development in the course of his career. This time we want to spare the players this dirty trick. But that doesn't urgently mean that you can continue playing with the char you killed the undead dragon with. A few attributes will be well-trained and you will generally start on a higher level.

KaiRo:

What so far looked a bit rowdily will then resemble an act of problem solving expressed as a dance. The motions look absolutely pretty and the choreography seems to be much more developed and harmonious as in the predecessors. The system itself will will also be modified. The "fight-focus" we know from the predecessors will now work a bit different.

KaiRo:

With every crowd there are some key roles like smiths, guards, bakers and so on which take care for the well-being of the group. You can lend most of those special NPC's a hand or temporarily take on their work in case of a tragic passing.

KaiRo:

Yes. We won't try hard to reinvent the wheel so basic aspects of the game design will be based on proven things. But there will be many innovations around this established core which will give the Gothic-feeling a new touch.

KaiRo:

First of all there turned up a lot of ideas in the course of developing Gothic 2 and the add-on wich we finally are able to realize. Our own criticism on the predecessors and of course suggestions from players have been considered. A good example is the means of transport for long distances which has court the players' resentment. This point of criticism will be lacking despite of the vast landscapes.

KaiRo:

Too far to turn back but still not far enough to start with the final spurt.

KaiRo:

(laughing) Honestly? If someone would come to clean up my office I would owe him a favor. Comments like "Oh my god" or "Kai, it looks such a mess that you could nearly call it art" are order of day. I can assure you that here nobody would tidy up voluntarily.