Interview Matt Chat 431: George Ziets on Alternative Settings and New Games

[Infinitron]

Tags: Digimancy Entertainment; George Ziets; Matt Barton

The first episode of Matt Barton's interview with George Ziets is a direct continuation of his Digimancy Entertainment announcement from two weeks ago. George said then that he wants his new company to make RPGs with unusual settings, and in the first part of the episode he goes over some of those settings - Arcanum (he finds the Journey to the Center of Arcanum sequel concept intriguing), Ravenloft, the LucasArts adventure game Loom(!), and of course Planescape. In the second part of the episode, George shares his thoughts about a few new games, namely Disco Elysium, The Outer Worlds, and the upcoming Baldur's Gate III. It turns out that when Obsidian were trying to pitch their own BG3 back in 2008, there were a few people in the studio who tried in vain to make it turn-based. George believes that Larian's game will be turn-based, but he has no inside information about the project.

​

At the end of the episode George talks a bit about how he got his start in the gaming industry at Westwood, where he worked on cancelled MMO Earth & Beyond. Apparently he got an interview invitation from BioWare shortly after he started working there and had to turn them down - quite a life-changing decision. According to Matt, there will be at least three more episodes with George.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Ziets looks like he could be a female NPC in The Outer Worlds.

 

[Xeon]

Will be great if he could do a sequel to Arcanum but I think Activision has the rights or something and I am not sure they let people work on their IPs.

 

[Ivan]

Ziets looks like he could be a female NPC in The Outer Worlds.

almost choked on a grape reading this

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Ravenloft storyfag crpg from George Ziets, when?

Also got a chubby looking at George Ziets video. Totally not homo.

 

[hexer]

Thank God there's a developer out there who gets that fantasy isn't just elves and orcs.
Cool how he mentions Loom, I replayed it a few months ago

 

[MurkyShadow]

Ziets looks like he could be a female NPC in The Outer Worlds.

Hrmm.. With a little work you might mod your PC to look like Ziets.
Explore The Outer Worlds as George Ziets.

Will be great if he could do a sequel to Arcanum but I think Activision has the rights or something and I am not sure they let people work on their IPs.

This seems to be the state of things as of late. If the Activision behemoth should ever decide
to let people work on their Arcanum IP or auction it away, I'd still vote for it going to Drog
for an Arcanum sequel. Maybe Drog and Ziets could team up. Though that might be as
wild a dream as Barkley 2 ever emerging from the vaporware void.

Still, a glittering gem of hatred can dream.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Huh, guy's pretty articulate.

 

[Bohrain]

How old is Ziets? Seems like he stopped aging at late 20's or something.

 

[Kalin]

Is it just me or did he mention Imoen romance?

 

[StaticSpine]

Ziets looks like he could be a female NPC in The Outer Worlds.

 

[RegionalHobo]

i want to believe

 

[Roguey]

How old is Ziets? Seems like he stopped aging at late 20's or something.

45.

 

[Kaivokz]

Ziets looks like he could be a female NPC in The Outer Worlds.

George Ziets is far too attractive of a fella to be an Outer Worlds NPC.

 

[Zed]

looks of a 20yo; wisdom of a 120yo

 

[l3loodAngel]

Meh every time I hear PST I get upset. To even try making a similar game you should have a serious and I mean a serious lore already in place to build upon. No one is that smart and no one would be able to gather a team that good to think of all the things on the fly. Now it's like a buzzword like in the markets "china", "disruptive", "innovative", "cripto", "decentralisation" etc. Sounds good, means nothing and guarantees disappointment.

 

[Darkforge]

I want Dragonlance or Ravenloft. I am completely burnt out on FR at this point.