Eschalon interview at GameBanshee
Eschalon interview at GameBanshee
Interview - posted by Elwro on Mon 26 November 2007, 23:09:26
Tags: Eschalon: Book IGameBanshee has an interview with Thomas Riegsecker, lead programmer on Eschalon: Book One. The topic is of course the recently released game and its continuation. Here are some snippets:
GB: Would you say that the game's main plot is a little cliché?
Thomas: I think you are referring to the “amnesia hook” that we use to start the game off with. While that bit is not too original, we definitely take the story in a fresh direction after that. What surprises me is that we managed to stay away from the “savior of the world” plot unlike what every single commercial RPG still uses, and people still comment that our amnesia hook is overused. All I can say to the critics is: play the game and then comment on it. Saying a story is weak when you’ve only read the first page isn’t very fair.True, but I think an answer to this might be to provide a big fat demo containing not only the "first page" of the plot. A new indie developer might consider it risky to expect that people will buy the full version just out of hope the game will get better in the later stages.
And for those who think the game is too short:
(...) I can say that our plans are to make Book II about 3 times larger than Book I. The rule system used in Book I is really trimmed down from what I had designed, and so Book II will feature a much more complete version of this system. It will also feature gender selection and multiple racial choices for your character.
The only thing else I can tell you for certain is that we have no intention of changing our design philosophy: we’re going to continue to model our RPGs after single-player, old-school classics. We are happy to support this neglected corner of the market.
Read the whole thing here.
Thanks, Vault Dweller!
GB: Would you say that the game's main plot is a little cliché?
Thomas: I think you are referring to the “amnesia hook” that we use to start the game off with. While that bit is not too original, we definitely take the story in a fresh direction after that. What surprises me is that we managed to stay away from the “savior of the world” plot unlike what every single commercial RPG still uses, and people still comment that our amnesia hook is overused. All I can say to the critics is: play the game and then comment on it. Saying a story is weak when you’ve only read the first page isn’t very fair.
And for those who think the game is too short:
(...) I can say that our plans are to make Book II about 3 times larger than Book I. The rule system used in Book I is really trimmed down from what I had designed, and so Book II will feature a much more complete version of this system. It will also feature gender selection and multiple racial choices for your character.
The only thing else I can tell you for certain is that we have no intention of changing our design philosophy: we’re going to continue to model our RPGs after single-player, old-school classics. We are happy to support this neglected corner of the market.
Read the whole thing here.
Thanks, Vault Dweller!
