Silent Dreams, a still young developing team from Germany, wants to not only create a good, story-intensive RPG, but also invent a whole new genre with Grotesque. What will await us with this game and whether Grotesque could take away the genre-throne from Oblivion, The Witcher and Gothic 3, this you'll see in our interview. And for the eye-candy we have 5 world-exclusive first screenshots of the new graphics engine. Have fun!
Hello Rayk, thanks for taking the time to answer our annoying questions. Introduce yourself to our readers first, please.
Greetings, as you can easily see from my photo I am Rayk "DeadPoet" Kerstan, a bearded feary and at the same time creative director and one of the founders of the developing team Silent Dreams, whose crypt lies in Düsseldorf, Germany. My tasks are manifold: quest design, dialogues, story - but also the coordination and leadership of the team and other minor things...
Grotesque is supposed to be an absolutely good recommendation in the category RPGs made in Germany. Through which feature is the game most different from the competition, in your opinion?
Grotesque - Heroes Hunted is a SRPG: Social Role Playing Game. So we took the humble task of creating a whole new RPG-subgenre.
So you say you wanna create a whole new genre? Just like Blizzard did with the ARPGs? Sounds cool! But what exactly is an SRPG?
Well, the market has focused and specialized more and more on action, items and character development. Sure, this is partly depending on Blizzard's success, where every other developer tries to swim with the stream; other hits like Sacred or Titan Quests just add some more to this trend.
But even the classic RPGs go this way - best example: Two Worlds. Features like a REALLY good story or interesting NPCs usually get put aside or just can't be included into this concept in a meaningful way.
And there we come into play, we swim against the stream. Grotesque puts the social gameplay-factors into the focus. Our most important special ingredients of a SRPG lie in the adventure-elements, which can go beyond the standard niveau of quests like "Hey, bring me 10 GEZ formulars from rattling skeleton-officers with internet-PCs and then go and kill 10 lazy rats". The quests are intensively tied in with the story. The main character has a pre-defined personality, a charismatic and a bit clumsy adventure-hero so to say, which sometimes leads to him making some comments that have to do with our present time and diverse RPG clichés.
Also, characters play a huge role in Grotesque. You don't just shortly meet most NPCs, no, in this ominous Social RPG some NPCs can become real friends, you will deeply hate some other NPCs and then there are still the romances: Female NPCs who can get into deep relationships with Roger. Hear, hear...
The conversations with NPCs are also more intensive than in similar RPGs and your character can influence the conversations a bit more by his dialogue choices. Additionally, it can be that you have to solve riddles during dialogues. There you can show your conversation partners the so-called quest items. Those are items in Grotesque which are made especially for the quests, but also for the riddles. [My comment: As I see it, this sounds like something similar to the riddles of adventure games like Monkey Island, where you combine items and give them to NPCs and such stuff. Sounds interesting.]
All those ideas came out of a feeling that in most other RPGs something was missing. That always the same principles in too many products get boring one day and that's the reason why we think many roleplayers will find Grotesque interesting. Grotesque simply has its own face and its own style but still includes all those RPG elements that the players love.
Tell us something about how you came to the idea.
The idea for Grotesque exists since my mod for Neverwinter Nights a long time ago. It was called Alwayssummer Days and was a quite successful mix that gained even some international fans. The idea to bring Lucas Arts style adventure elements into an RPG was just a unique feeling. We want to include this feeling into Grotesque in an even more athmospheric way.
SRPG can surly mean Story-RPG, too. You say that the story in Grotesque is pretty intensive. That's good, because there have rarely been RPGs with a good story lately, especially The Witcher comes to my mind. Tell us a bit about it.
What would you do if you suddenly appeared in another world one day?
And what would you do if you wouldn't create a character for this, but just play yourself? Roger Sun also asks himself this question, a young man from our world who likes RPGs and is the guitarist of a Heavy Metal band. Roger suddenly gets sucked through a mysterious mirror in his house and gets thrown right into a battle between goblins and royal soldiers, together with his furniture.
High Priestess Aiko is the magically adept leader of the soldiers and beholds the strange man who just fell from the sky. She firmly believes that Roger must be the chosen one, because the world of Grotesque is in some trouble and is eagerly waiting for a "Chosen One". Many factions, for example the high elves and wood elves, are divided, former heroes like the Holy Avatar have become lazy and arrogant and thus it's easy for the servants of darkness to conquer large parts of the world of Grotesque.
The slightly french-inspired vampire couple Solithaire & Dawnclaude is slaughtering in the best "Natural Born Killers" way through the lands and have also found a liking on our chosen one and aren't the only ones in that...
Chosen One? That sounds pretty unspectacular for an RPG.
Sure, that might be because the idea is included in every second RPG. Roger Sun also has lost his memory, and as he is a roleplayer he immediately knows: AHAA! I must be a chosen one. Every chosen one has amnesia!!!
That's the special thing in Grotesque, we play with RPG clichés and emotions. The things which the players might think during the game will be representatively expressed by Roger... the humor will go into a discreet direction, though.
Humor is truly an uncommon thing in a "real" RPG. Now I can just think about Planescape Torment for an RPG with a dose of humor.
Just like in Planescape Torment our world is logically built up and we take care HOW the humor is used. That's why our main character will sometimes say stuff that has some references to our world, but a character living in the world of Grotesque would never do that. The humor of our game can be compared to the humor of movies like American Beauty, Fight Club or Pirates of the Carribean. Those movies have a serious story but are open for all kinds of emotions, be it positive [humor, friendship] or negative [anger, sadness].
Not without reason does the German voice of Kevin Spacey tell the intro story of the game, he's the perfect teller of a story with an ironic undertone. I love this voice...
RPGs often have the problem that the world should be complex for one part, but may also not become monotonous and boring. What way do you take in the development? Do you want either a big gameworld or rather a small map with many details?
Absolutely the latter. In our philosophy it is extremely important to put lots of content into a rather small world instead of first building a whole universe and then thinking how to place the NPCs in there.
Just look at Gothic 2, that game manages to convince with only one single city!
I think it's important that the player gets to know most of the NPCs, their backgrounds, their motives, their strengths and weaknesses. That doesn't work with more than thousands of NPCs... in the end it's a good thing for every player who wants to interact intensively with a story and its NPCs.
The first pics we saw of the game looked better than Angelina Jolie in her Tomb Raider outfit. The new screenshots - world-exclusive for daddelnews.de - can even compare to the top-titles of the genre. Is it true your graphic-engine is basing on the one from Desperados 2? Will it support DirectX10 on release and what are the best things of this engine?
Yes, Desperados 2 from Spellbound, who are working on Gothic 4 right now. The Vision Engine has many strong points, for example multiplatform-compatiblity and a real-time editor. That's why it's also planned to be released on XBox360. Of course we're DirectX 9/10 compatible. But we'll only support special features when Bill Gates finally gives me his private phone number so I can always tell him about our game, I hope THIS puts him under pressure.
In other words, if there's something special in DirectX10, we'll do it. The Vision engine gets constantly updated, new things can always happen. The only negative side is that the older screenshots will always become obsolete. That's also the reason why I brought you only a few screens.
Talking about graphics, the gaming community is asking themselves how 3D-modeller are working, especially when working on female characters. Do you build the women-models completely naked first and let your sick sexual fantasies run wild before you give them clothes, or do you model them completely clothed already?
Isn't it that even heavily armed warrioresses wear such few that it barely makes a difference if they're naked or clothed? Do women not have to upgrade their breats and legs first when they have levelled up? That's an important topic, also in Grotesque. Yep, we're also talking about society-critical topics that are overlooked by most other games.
Do you also want your game to be attractive for female gamers?
Sure, especially a Social RPG should be interesting to female gamers. It's not because everything's cuteyly-colorful and everyone in Grotesque loves each other. No, it's totally different, and many publishers underestimate the female players completely in such things.
The thing that is important is that the player can interact with the world in more different ways than in a hack and slash game.
Now let's get it straight. Which game did inspire you the most? And don't tell me you don't take any features from the competition.
No, I don't say that at all. Nowadays it's important to know every RPG and MMORPG and what other games there are. The user interface is clearly inspired by World of Warcraft. But that game has stolen it from other games, and they from Asian games. And in the end they will steal features from us again, the circle will be closed.
We simply wanted a system and control scheme that is well-known, is fun, and user-friendly. In the content we have been inspired by RPGs like Planescape Torment, Gothic 1 and 2, and even some console titles like Final Fantasy 7 and 8. We're also trying to appeal to fans of such RPGs.
So the combat system is similar to World of Warcraft and Guild Wars?
In principle, yes, but we bring some improvements, content-wise. During combat we have the new "Fighting Arts System". The special thing is that the player learns fighting styles from the NPCs in the world and can use them strategically after he learned them. So it is possible that you are dueling a goblin in a non-lethal duel, and after the fight the goblin is so impressed that he teaches you a combat technique he likes to use himself. Some of them are good in offensive or defensive ways, some are good against certain enemies, and some of them just look cool.
Of course we have some more combat feaures, so the player can include party members who mostly have their very own views and beliefs in the world of Grotesque. So you should never be too sure with your party members. Because Roger likes animals, he can also fight together with a pet. You can give orders to your party-member NPCs and intelligently use their abilities. That's why the fighting system is very flexible and strategical.
Your developing team of Silent Dreams is working partly decentrally. That means you don't sit everyday in your offices but are scattered over many places. Is this rather a bad thing, or a good thing that can lead to surprisingly better results?
Let's say it like this, from its philosophy it's not very wide-spread yet, but there are some well-known companies working this way, too [my comment: yep, Iron Tower studios for example, heh] That's called outsourcing. The positive thing is that we're flexible and have a good ratio of price and accomplishment, what we need to be able to compete with the big developers. There are companies, like Troika who made Vampire: Bloodlines, that had to close because they had too many fixed team members and that's especially a problem during times when there are no projects. The reaction time of some publishers regarding new investions should be seen like the reaction time of the Ents in Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers. Until a publisher is convinced that the project will throw out enough money, most of the team members will already be starved to death. That's especially sad when it happens to a team that so many RPG fans loved. [My comment: Indeed... rest in peace, Troika]
Another positive aspect is that we are working with people with whom others would love to work together... With us there are many RPG veterans, like from Sacred 2, Legend, Gothic or Gothic 2 and even Gothic 3... one day maybe even Gothic 5 and Gothic 6, but no people from Gothic 4, because that one's made by other people, as we know. Still, some things have to be done centrally. The programming for example is mostly done centrally. A big part of the planning for the game is coming out of my brain, which is also working centrally.
In some communities it is known that you are a fan of the regional league football team Wuppertaler SV. Can we hope for an easter egg about your love for football?
In what kind of taverns do you hear such rumors? First the football team should go up one league, but they've gone into the winter pause as best team in their league already and will now also kick Bayern München in the battle about the DFB Pokal out of the game. Maybe Silent Dreams will one day be their trikot-parner, gotta talk with the team president and his friend Rudi Assauer about that. But then I'd also pledge for more RPG fans in the stadion...
Well, we're going off topic. Of course there will be quite a few easter eggs in Grotesque. We're working with a lot of love for details, and when there's still time left we can build in some hidden riddles and gags. In our forums there's a popular thread where people suggest what pcharacters from other RPGs we should parodize in Grotesque. There every RPG fan can bring some suggestions.
What does the everyday life of a game developer look like? Are you still looking for some team-members?
Well, I still remember how I underestimated the effort you need for the development of a game, when I was still a gamer not a developer. I guess it's like that with many people. But in general the development of a game is quite a hard job, especially since it's pretty hard to earn money in the beginning. Help and support are seldomly there.
Then imagine you're even making a game that should be able to compete with the top dogs. Actually, this is megalomaniac, actually...
When we take up a new team-member, we first let him wait four days in front of our door and then say "Go away!" When he or she still doesn't go away after that, maybe he is someone for us, then, if he has some other qualities too... sarcasm aside, we would be stupid if we wouldn't constantly be on the lookout. There are many talented people out there. Right now we're still looking after programmers and graphic designers. We also gladly take rich uncles into our team.
Have there been any weird situations and funny bugs in the development already? If yes, go on and don't leave anything out!
During the days of sorrow and tears there are also moments of joy sometimes, yes. Funny bugs are especially those bugs with which you don't reckon at all. There's for example a high elven general running besides you, who should acutally talk to you in a cutscene, and he's chased by a horde of goblins who should actually surprise you in an ambush. In this case they surprised somebody else... well, typical for Elves...
When could we except a release of Grotesque, and remember that the answer "When it's done" can lead to something bad!
But you'll have to know that a developer may never say the real date, because then they can't announce some "surprising" delays which should give the games some additional appetite towards the game.
But really, an accurate release date will be told next year. First we want to clear up the thing with the publishers.
Talking about publishers, you guys have worked without a publisher until now. How does that look like?
We've got some contracts with publishers in the east of the world. This has also helped in bringing the quality of Grotesque to a high level. For other territories we're still in negotiations, but that's taking its time... well, you know... Ents.
The publishers must really be blind if they don't see the potential in our game. We have some really good conversations with interesting partners. I think we'll find a publisher soon enough. It's about time, anyways!
Last but not least we want to thank you for your time and want to give you the possibility to tell our readers what you always wanted to tell them. We'll also publish flirt-requests and love-confessions!
Uhm yes, because of Grotesque I'm used to do flirting only by multiple-choice dialogues. Generally I'm happy when we're appealing to many RPG fans with Grotesque. Even though we don't have a lot to show yet I invite everyone to join our community in World of Players. [my comment: that's a German community, so he doesn't mean you non-German speakers] Besides World of Gothic, Piranha Bytes and some other well-known forums you'll also find some team-members of Grotesque working there. Our lovely community-aunt Fighting Faith will talk with you there and always has an open ear for you.
Well, that's it. Some interesting things he says about the game, seems like a mix between adventure and RPG, with a huge dose of humor. Let's hope the humor won't make the whole game silly, but it's certain that it won't be able to reach the level of silliness that Fallout 3 provides with its mini-nukes, especially since this one here doesn't seem to take itself too serious from the beginning. I like what he says about the gameplay mechanics and the focus on story and conversations, but it also seems a bit *too* humor-dependant. What's your opinion on it, guys?
