Gamers.de: You aren’t the only famous name who reappears on the screen lately. Neal Hallford, who´s going to work with you on "Thorvalla", Chris Roberts, David Braben or the "Shadowgate"-Devs David Marsh and Karl Roelofs to name but a few. All of these respective projects have one in common. According to publishers, the chosen genres (all traditional PC-Genres) are all unprofitable in popular opinion. Do you personally see a change in the current industry? If yes, how do you judge/value it?

Guido Henkel: Let’s face it, most publishers wouldn’t know a good game when it bit them in the behind. I mean, your question already provides the answer — “unprofitable.” Well yes, if all you care about is the dollars, sure you need to stay away from it, but truth be told, I am glad they are not interested in what we are doing because they would just once again ruin the entire affair.

Fortunately there is a group of people who still care about games for their own sake and do not share the fat-cat Wall Street mentality that has possessed every publisher in the industry. Fortunately for all of us, they are on their way out, already becoming relics as the world moves on to creator-owned distribution, and I will not shed a single tear for them. They have been the bane of the industry for too long.

Gamers.de: A question about the battle system. Traditional turn-based combat or real time with pause? Or something completely different?

Guido Henkel: It is going to be something entirely different. While I know exactly how it is going to work, I do not want to talk too much about it right now, because we still have to thoroughly play test the system to make sure it works as desired. However, it is a strictly turn-based system that gives the player all the time in the world to make his move. In addition, there will be a major focus on tactics as opposed to rapid and continues hacking and slaying the opponent so that one carefully planned and executed strike will be a lot more effective than just running into things head over heels.

Gamers.de: Apropos Races. Will there be a wide range of character customization? Race, gender, class etc.? If so, what kind of game system are you going to use? (Maybe something like Open Game Content 3.5e, like the guys from Chaos Chronicles are going to use?)

Guido Henkel: The player begins with one character, who is by definition humanoid - the player will have the chance to make some selections there. This character will go through a regular character generation process where the player can customize the hero and determine things such as the class and the individual attributes. From there, the adventure begins and additional party members will be recruited as the story unfolds. However, recruited NPCs will be handled slightly differently than they have in other cRPGs. I do have a bit of a trick up my sleeve for this that I will reveal in time.

“Thorvalla’s” game system will be a custom rule set that we design in-house. It features familiar elements, of course, and the standard attribute system people are familiar with, but once again, I have been playing with a number of ideas how I can change the traditional game mechanics of cRPGs, and these changes fit in none of the existing game systems. Open Game Content 3.5e is great for people who don’t want to spend time on creating and balancing a system, but in our case, that is what Neal and I have been doing for many years, and we will use our experience to create something that hopefully feels fresh.​