- Who are you ?
My name is Björn Pankratz and i am Lead Game-Designer, Projectplanner and Storywriter at Piranha Bytes.
- Is Risen the sequel of Gothic's story ?
Risen is another adventure with its own story but many analogies. The people who made the Risen series are nearly the same like the one who made Gothic and we love rough open worlds with funny dialogues and beautiful handcrafted landscapes. So maybe you can find some elements in both games.
- Can we hope a real return of the open worlds for the upcoming Pirahna Bytes' RPGs ?
Risen 3 is much more open world than its forerunner. But our own demand is high.
- To reassure me, is the cow from Piranha Bytes' logo alright ?
Seeing it being devoured again and again, I fear it won't appear anymore ! Maybe we will find an answer if we ever make a game with PEGI 18.
- Do you intend to work only with Deep Silver, or do you consider working with other, more ambitious, publishers ? Maybe it would allow you to take it to the next level, with more means ?
We ever had the possibility to make game, we wanted to play by ourselves and the cooperation with Deep Silver works well. But what the future will bring, we will see.
- I believe remembering that you intend to get into the development of other genres of games. Could we have more accurate informations on this topic ?
We don't know anything about this rumors. We're really successful in making RPG's and like it, so you could say "Never change a running system". Of course you should never say never, but there is no other genre planned at the moment.
- Risen 3 seems to intend to be much closer to the first opus than to Risen 2. Is it a personal choice from the developers, or are you following the community's reclamations ?
Both of it. With Risen 2 we we wanted to develop a real pirate RPG, so we went too strong into one direction. With Risen 3 we wanted to use all of our forces and of course had a look at what our fans wanted to see, so we made a mixture of fantasy and caribbean setting with a huge world, more choices and interactions
- You say you're intending to emulate all the good sides that made first Gothic games successes. Do you miss these games ? Is a new sequel planned ?
Of course we could imagine making it. But the requirements are really high. If you ask 3 people to tell their opinions about what is Gothic all about, you get 5 answers. That makes it very difficult to make, what the costumers expect from a new Gothic title.
- The last island is purely action-oriented. Why is there such a change of rythm, knowing that everything before the Crow Island is mostly RPG-oriented ?
It is usual to raise the tempo at the end of a game. The player can now use all the skills he got before and feel strong.
- The final boss is very difficult, even in the easiest difficulty. Is that intended to offer a real challenge to the player ?
To master the last boss fight, you have to do everything, you have learned in the game so far. So it might be the hardest fight. But the more quests
- A final world for our readers ?
Thank you very much for your interest. We hope you'll have much fun with Risen 3 and we'll meet again!
- Thanks a lot for this interview.
http://www.rpgfrance.com/dossier-10279-1-interview-pyranha-bytes