Our Drakensang interview
Our Drakensang interview
Interview - posted by Vault Dweller on Wed 8 November 2006, 17:31:07
Tags: DrakensangI ran into Jan Lechner and Bernd Beyreuther the other day, and asked them a few questions about Drakensang:
2. In several interviews you've described Drakensang as "something like Baldur's Gate in 3D". I'm curious, why Baldur's Gate? Why not "another DSA game!" or "something like the well loved and influental Realms of Arkania games"?
Bernd Beyreuther: When we arrived at the description “Baldur’s Gate in 3Dâ€, this was at the end of a long and intensive game design process. At no time, did we think “we’re gonna make a clone of this or that gameâ€. In fact, we spent several months, collecting and reviewing the game design aspects for – what we consider – a *proper* role-playing game. We asked fans and gamers for their opinions and played many different RPGs.
We found a number of features that were – and still are – very important to us: a party, dynamic combat with a round-based ruleset, a certain complexity in skills, strong and memorable characters, dynamic dialogues and a whole bunch more.
The old RoA games were not homogeneous in terms of the gameplay, which was a consequence of the technical restrictions of the time: We moved through 3D-cities that were bereft of people. Everything was displayed from the first-person perspective, but you never got to see your party. For combat, it switched over to a rigid isometric perspective etc.
Therefore our objective can hardly be described as “Realms of Arkania in 3Dâ€. Our project is just better described as a “Baldur’s Gate in 3Dâ€. But this does not mean, that we took more inspiration from one than the other.Click here to read the rest
2. In several interviews you've described Drakensang as "something like Baldur's Gate in 3D". I'm curious, why Baldur's Gate? Why not "another DSA game!" or "something like the well loved and influental Realms of Arkania games"?
Bernd Beyreuther: When we arrived at the description “Baldur’s Gate in 3Dâ€, this was at the end of a long and intensive game design process. At no time, did we think “we’re gonna make a clone of this or that gameâ€. In fact, we spent several months, collecting and reviewing the game design aspects for – what we consider – a *proper* role-playing game. We asked fans and gamers for their opinions and played many different RPGs.
We found a number of features that were – and still are – very important to us: a party, dynamic combat with a round-based ruleset, a certain complexity in skills, strong and memorable characters, dynamic dialogues and a whole bunch more.
The old RoA games were not homogeneous in terms of the gameplay, which was a consequence of the technical restrictions of the time: We moved through 3D-cities that were bereft of people. Everything was displayed from the first-person perspective, but you never got to see your party. For combat, it switched over to a rigid isometric perspective etc.
Therefore our objective can hardly be described as “Realms of Arkania in 3Dâ€. Our project is just better described as a “Baldur’s Gate in 3Dâ€. But this does not mean, that we took more inspiration from one than the other.
