Game News New Piranha Bytes game details

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Piranha Bytes

<a href=http://www.rpgwatch.com>RPG Watch</a> has posted the first details about Piranha Bytes <a href=http://rpb.deepsilver.com/>new game</a>:
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<blockquote>As stated yesterday, the game is set on a volcanic and «forbidden» island. All character animations will be made anew, the game will have dungeons, traps, secret doorways and riddles. The developers are known for maintaining close contact to their fanbase and took up some suggestions like increasing the effectiveness of certain weapons when fighting particular foes, like a hammer for golems. Instead of having a myriad of items in virtually indistinguishable variations, the game will concentrate on fewer but clearly recognisable weapons, armour sets and items.
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The new game is again made for a single player and the PC. At the moment no other platform is in development. Whether the game will be made for DirectX9 oder DirectX10 is still undecided. The graphics engine will consist of some licensed components but most of it is being developed by Piranha Bytes itself.</blockquote>Also, Moriendor translated some RPB-related forum posts by the developers:
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<blockquote>- Just as previous PB games, the game will feature a large, open world and a lot of dialog. It's supposed to be become a "typical PB game" according to Mike Hoge (from PB).
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- There will be a volcano island that is called "The Forbidden Island".
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- The story/theme: The Gods have disappeared from the world and a new power has taken their place. The player will be confronted with this new power.</blockquote>And here is an unofficial fact sheet:
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<blockquote>General
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- The game will be set in a fantasy world including the RPG-typical monsters, magic, alchemists, smiths, hunters and fighters.
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- Any references to Gothic will be left out due to legal reasons.
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- There will be a pre-defined hero. No character generation.
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- The world will be approximately of Gothic 1/2 size. Definitely smaller than Gothic 3.
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- There will be different zones of vegetation as well as dynamic weather and day/night cycles.
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- No loading screens.
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- There will be interesting dungeons and caves.
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- More emphasis will be put on riddles/puzzles.
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- There will be several cities/camps.
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- The game will be divided up in chapters.
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- The game will not be related to Gothic and it will also not be a Gothic 1 remake.
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- The graphics will be slightly improved over Gothic 3.
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- There will be more women than in Gothic 3 and they will not all have supermodel shapes either.
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- There will be shields.
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Development
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- The graphics engine will be self-made again but it won't be the Gothic 3 engine.
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- Everything will be modelled by hand. Items and loot will be distributed by hand.
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- The max poly limit of the armor models is at around the 6K mark.
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- Some programs that are used in development are 3D Studio Max, Photoshop and ZBrush.
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- SpeedTree will once again be used to render the trees.
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Misc
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- There will be a demo of the game.
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- The game will be published in German and English language versions.
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- The game will not be released in 2007.</blockquote>It would be interesting to see what PB can come up with and compare their new game, which sounds like Gothic Reimagined, to Gothic 4.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPG Watch</A>

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Sounds interesting enough so far. I like volcanic.

 

[sqeecoo]

So, an epic battle between JoWood and PB?

Go PB go, go PB go!

 

[Vault Dweller]

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I'm a bit concerned. Seems they are getting excited about dungeons, caves, weapons and monsters..... yes they can talk about dialogue as much as they want but I for one like a bit more from my RPGs than just kewl loot.

 

[thesheeep]

If your remove every point that refers to the game not being a sequel to Gothic 3 or a copy of Gothic 1, it sounds exactly like a description of Gothic 4....

 

[Jora]

I'm a bit concerned. Seems they are getting excited about dungeons, caves, weapons and monsters..... yes they can talk about dialogue as much as they want but I for one like a bit more from my RPGs than just kewl loot.

Based on my indepth knowledge of RPG fans, I'd guess the focus on irrelevant things comes from the fans who interview the developers. "Wow, a new game from the makers of Gothic? My first question, sir, is will there be shields?! I must know if there will be shields in the game! What abut barrels? Lol wouldn't it be cool to do a barrel roll in the game?"

 

[sabishii]

There was basically no dialogue in the past Gothic games, were there? So it is kind of interesting that they say this game will have lots of dialog.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

Depends what their definition of dialogue is, if Bethesda would say such a sentence, we would know whats up.

 

[cuthbert]

It sounds good and hopefully PB has learned from there mistakes from gothic 3 and we'll get only the normal amount of bugs we're used to.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

- The game will be set in a fantasy world including the RPG-typical monsters, magic, alchemists, smiths, hunters and fighters.

Uhhhhhh, why can't they just jump out a bit?

- Any references to Gothic will be left out due to legal reasons.

Just like "all" references to Fallout were left out of Arcanum.....

- There will be a pre-defined hero. No character generation.

Not like Gothic at all.....

- There will be different zones of vegetation as well as dynamic weather and day/night cycles.

So freaking important it's not funny!

- There will be interesting dungeons and caves.

Define interesting....

- More emphasis will be put on riddles/puzzles.

Because this screams RPG.....

- There will be several cities/camps.

Huh...camps? Very Gothic....

- The game will not be related to Gothic and it will also not be a Gothic 1 remake.

Wink, wink.

- There will be more women than in Gothic 3 and they will not all have supermodel shapes either.

This promise will be broken.....by throwing elves in. The allure of elf breasts is too large.

- SpeedTree will once again be used to render the trees.

I know it's middleware....but still....

- There will be a demo of the game.

That's nice to hear.

 

[Monolith]

If they provide something similar to Gothic or Gothic 2 or even Gothic 3 I'm sold.

 

[dragonfk]

There was basically no dialogue in the past Gothic games, were there? So it is kind of interesting that they say this game will have lots of dialog.

Was I playing some different Gothic than you did?

 

[mondblut]

- There will be more women than in Gothic 3 and they will not all have supermodel shapes either.

Bleh. Do we need ugly women? Nay, I say.

 

[sabishii]

- There will be more women than in Gothic 3 and they will not all have supermodel shapes either.

Bleh. Do we need ugly women? Nay, I say.

Yeh, and teh swords must be KEWL and turn into dragonz! Fuck raelism.

 

[Jora]

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/814/814188p1.html

Jonric: Since you haven't released any information about Project RPB until now, what kind of game will it be, and what type of play experience are you designing it to provide?

Michael Hoge: Project RPB will be a fantasy action RPG with a strong emphasis on a complex storyline, which takes place in a believable setting. To achieve this goal, we have been working on a setting for quite some time now, before we even started to design the actual characters, creatures and levels. Thus we have a very strong background to fit everything in, and there will be very few quests or characters that do not have anything to do with the bigger picture.

Everything builds upon certain points in the story, where the main events and turning points take place, and so, we are able to create a dense atmosphere. In addition, we are trying to top it off with some riddles, traps, an easy to understand skill system, and various player interactions like forging a sword or writing a magical scroll.

 

[VonVentrue]

Sounds very interesting. PB have proven that they are capable of creating a beautiful, living, breathing world and a good story.
Gothic 3 was a slight disappointment, mainly due to the vastness of the world...It seems that they are trying to redeem themselves.

And frankly, I do not consider similarities to Gothic series a bad thing... Quite the contrary.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Gothic 3 was a slight disappointment, mainly due to the vastness of the world...It seems that they are trying to redeem themselves.

I disagree. The only disappointments I had in Gothic 3 were to do with the performance and the combat. Everything else I really liked, especially the vastness of the world. Put it this way, I'm about 20 hours in, slowly completing every sidequest in every city, and I haven't even touched the main quest yet. I still haven't bothered to find Xardas. There's just so much to do. You only really get that with a large gameworld.

 

[Nedrah]

What does the size of the landmass have to do with the amount of content that can be enjoyed before touching the mainquest? I loved the size of G2. Enough to get a bit lost in the beginning, but small enough to feel familiar after a long playtime. I'm looking forward to the game, PB is my favorite developer - too bad I'll have to get a new pc to play.

 

[Hazelnut]

- The graphics engine will be self-made again but it won't be the Gothic 3 engine.

:shock: I find that surprising.

They poured a shed-load of effort into the genome engine and I thought they still owned it and could build on that base for their next game. I sincerely hope that this is less a reflection of reality and more of a distancing themselves from the reputation G3 created for genome. (PR in other words) If they don't use a lot of what they did before then they're wasting money for no good reason, which is not the best business plan for a small dev house.

 

[Higher Game]

So far this sound ok. Hand placed loot and ditching the Gothic 3 engine so far are the best things I see there. I hope this is a solid new series that goes the distance, since it looks like Gothic is going the way of Arkania.

 

[hiciacit]

Bah, color me unimpressed. They could at least tried a more original approach. This sounds like 'Gothic 3 - The Way It Was Meant To Be' in every aspect.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Not a bad thing, imo.

 

[hiciacit]

I guess it's not. I was just hoping that they'd go for something different now, instead of reiterating on a similar setting. Also, a lot of the stuff just sound like marginal improvements, disregarding the bigger picture (shields are in, yaay!), but then again, most of it sounds like comments to fans' questions.
However the game might turn out, I was just hoping they would try something more original.

 

[VonVentrue]

I disagree. The only disappointments I had in Gothic 3 were to do with the performance and the combat. Everything else I really liked, especially the vastness of the world. Put it this way, I'm about 20 hours in, slowly completing every sidequest in every city, and I haven't even touched the main quest yet. I still haven't bothered to find Xardas. There's just so much to do. You only really get that with a large gameworld.

As far as the combat system is concerned, I am inclined to agree.
However, the vastness of the world was the game's biggest drawback since PB obviously did not manage to make it as detailed and well thought out as they had originally envisioned...
The quests were pretty generic and repetitive, there were few interesting places or items to be found in the wilderness... Most of the places (main quest-related in particular) the Nameless hero visited lacked...soul. Do You remember the Temple of the Sleeper? The Halls of Irdorath? The Monastery? The ruined Valley of Mines?
In addition, the main quest lacked...direction.
There was a lot of wasted potential in this game.