Interview The Broken Hourglass interview at Game Banshee

[Elwro]

Tags: Planewalker Games; The Broken Hourglass

<a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/">Game Banshee</a> has an extensive <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/static/EkpEZlZlyAgtnIQjoT.php">interview</a> with Jason Compton of <a href="http://www.planewalkergames.com/">Planewalker Games</a>, the developers of The Broken Hourglass. The <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/static/EkpEZlZlyAgtnIQjoT.php">piece</a> has quite a lot of info on character creation, mentioning also a character conversion utility:<blockquote>[W]e've also commissioned a flexible little outside character conversion tool. Right now it only supports a few games, and makes only a tentative effort to really balance the resulting characters, but it was just too tempting. The tool is cross-platform and the conversion scripts are written in Python, so if we do go ahead with releasing it, it should be fairly easy for a sufficiently dedicated enthusiast to whip up importers for Wizardry or Dink Smallwood or Zelda or... just about anything, really. The free point-buy system makes this less than truly necessary, of course, but again--it just seemed like it would be a lot of fun.</blockquote>Does that mean new adventures await all our carefully crafted Nerevarines? Sweet! And there'll be two additional gameplay modes:<blockquote>You can start an Infinite Dungeon or Arena game with the same character you started a Broken Hourglass game with, or define new characters just for those game sessions.
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Arena mode is a simple "Can my guys beat up your guys?" test of power and skill. You must start an Arena game with at least one character, but from the Arena screen you can add characters and creatures from the game to your team, and build an opposing team from the same list. You are dropped into a special combat zone, given a gaggle of equipment in party inventory, and then combat begins. Simple stuff, really, but it seemed like a fun way to blow off steam.
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(...) Infinite Dungeon mode is a little different, although like Arena mode it's basically just an excuse to have a lot of combat challenges. The premise for ID mode is taken from old roguelikes and their early PC offshoots like Sword of Fargoal—you are after the Object of Great Desire and, after you hack your way through X number of maps consisting of increasing levels of difficulty, you may find it and win the game. The maps are simply taken from The Broken Hourglass, but rather than leading to city neighborhoods, they are connected with one another in completely random fashion, and instead of being populated with our carefully-crafted townspeople and guards and dancers and so forth, are instead full of hostiles, as well as randomly placed traps and loot. As mentioned, there's still a little finishing work to be done on ID mode, but that's the upshot.</blockquote>Unfortunately, Jason is reluctant to say anything about the game's release date.
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Read the whole thing <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/static/EkpEZlZlyAgtnIQjoT.php">here</a>.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.gamebanshee.com/">Game Banshee</A>

 

[cardtrick]

Hey, cool interview. I will definitely buy and play The Broken Hourglass when it comes out. In recent news, it's seemed like the team is straying more from the BG2 formula than I had originally expected, which is a good thing. I like the character creation system that he described quite a bit -- it seems both simple and deep, which is nice.

The screenshots are quite pretty for the most part. Makes me wonder what the hell Vogel is going to do when AoD and TBH are released . . . I almost feel sorry for him. At first I liked the dialog screenshot pretty well -- the writing was solid, and there were several quite different options. However, after thinking about it a bit more I actually find it the most discouraging part of the interview. First, it seems that those options don't necessarily rely on character skills. More worryingly, I suspect that all of those options have exactly the same result. (I might be wrong -- maybe the last option actually does let you kill the NPC -- but I doubt it.) Worst of all, there's no way to back down in the dialog or to accept what the NPC has said, and you seem to have no choice but to try to extort the gsumina. I really dislike such obvious railroading.

Still, overall the game seems like it will be fun, with a good character system. Evidently the combat must be fairly decent/challenging if they think it's worth adding two game modes that are all about combat, so that's cool. I doubt it will be a big improvement on BG2, but I think it will be fun and I'm certainly interested in hearing more.

 

[RampantCoyote]

I think Vogel is smart enough to avoid getting into a pissing contest over graphics. That doesn't mean he won't push for higher quality, but his business plan has centered around being able to re-use two-thirds of his content between sequels. He's got a model that's worked for him so far, and it's allowed him to crank more than a game per year, on multiple platforms.

Maybe once his two current series are complete (it looks like there's only one more game left in both), he'll raise the bar a little bit. But still - the guy's gotta play to his strengths.

The Broken Hourglass is definitely on my most highly-anticipated list. But then, it's a short list - TBH, Age of Decadence, the PC version of Avernum V, *cough*Frayed Knights*cough*... those are the big ones I'm expecting to hit my hard drive this year. Oh, and isn't there a rumor of an Eschalon: Book 1 expansion? This'll be another good year for RPGs, assuming they all get released in the next 11 months (a big assumption, naturally).

 

[jcompton]

First, it seems that those options don't necessarily rely on character
skills.

Can you explain why you feel that is the case?

For the record...

begin priyanka
say ~"I know Priyanka and I have a pretty good idea what she would do with gsumina and I don't think it is anything I should be getting involved with."~
reply ~"Is that a firm moral objection, or a 'make me an offer' objection?"~ ?(_haggling 3) goto cost_250 : goto cost_500
reply ~"You would be helping your friend, and I would keep your name out of it. Is that not enough for you?"~ ?(_diplomacy 3) goto diplo_yes : goto diplo_no
reply ~"I suppose I will just have to tell the garrison that I know about an elf trying to use her job in a brewery to poison casks of beer, then."~ ?(_manipulation 3) goto diplo_yes : goto diplo_no
reply ~"I could just kill you and take it, if you continue to be menacingly stupid about this."~ goto killme
end

(translation: Only the outright violent threat line is not skill-dependent. The "make me an offer" line gets you an offer, and how appealing it is depends on your Haggling skill. The "help a friend" line works, or doesn't, based on your Diplomacy skill, and the manipulative line... well, depends on your Manipulation skill.)

More worryingly, I suspect that all of those options have exactly the same result.

They tend to have the same results in that "either you get the stuff, or you don't." If you don't, your options include taking a different tack, killing her, pickpocketing her, or looking for the other source of gsumina in town which may be available to you if you were particularly helpful to a particular someone.

(I might be wrong -- maybe the last option actually does let you kill the NPC -- but I doubt it.)

Yeah, we actually let you kill her. If you're a big meanie.

 

[cardtrick]

First, it seems that those options don't necessarily rely on character
skills.

Can you explain why you feel that is the case?

For the record...

It was just a suspicion based on the heavy Bioware/BG2 influences you guys seem to have, and the general trend in recent games. I had expected that, as in most recent Bioware/Obsidian games, if skills were being used this would have been indicated explicitly (e.g., "[Haggling] Is that a firm moral objection, or a 'make me an offer' objection"). I'm really pleased to discover I was wrong!

They tend to have the same results in that "either you get the stuff, or you don't." If you don't, your options include taking a different tack, killing her, pickpocketing her, or looking for the other source of gsumina in town which may be available to you if you were particularly helpful to a particular someone.

This sounds great! I've gone from "very interested" to "eagerly anticipating."

I do still think that there should be a fifth dialog option there allowing you to accept Rajani's (quite reasonable, it seems) decision not to give you the gsumina and simply apologize and leave. Without that, it looks from the screenshot like railroading. All of my negative impressions of that screenshot came from realizing that there was no way not to try to get the gsumina from her, and based on that making the assumption that the choices were just there for flavor, and carried no consequences or skill requirements.

Regardless, I think I came off sounding more negative than I really meant to -- I've actually been following The Broken Hourglass for quite some time, and actually first discovered the Codex by following a link from your website to the indie RPG roundtable interview posted here. Anyway, thanks for stopping by and addressing my concerns. You're doing a great job with TBH and I'm looking forward to buying it.

 

[jcompton]

It was just a suspicion based on the heavy Bioware/BG2 influences you guys seem to have, and the general trend in recent games. I had expected that, as in most recent Bioware/Obsidian games, if skills were being used this would have been indicated explicitly (e.g., "[Haggling] Is that a firm moral objection, or a 'make me an offer' objection"). I'm really pleased to discover I was wrong!

I know there is a school of thought which says that, yes, you should clearly indicate on-screen when a dialogue skill can/will be put in use. "I put my character points into your dialogue skills on faith that they would be more useful in the long run than putting them into the sword-swinging skills, so reward me by at least telling me when I'm getting my money's worth!" goes the argument. I've had this argument with some of our designers.

But...

1. Because (as in this example) we often give you "The Diplomatic Option" whether or not you will have sufficient skill to say it in "convincing" fashion, coloring it blue or putting a prefix on it only tells you that the skill will be used, not that its presence probably means you're "getting something extra." So are you really better off? You can, I suppose, make an educated guess based on knowing that you have more points in Diplo than Manip and tend to take the Diplo options, but not all situations will be like this where the required skill level is the same--some people may respond better to one than the other, meaning that even if your Manipulation skill is higher, the Diplomacy one may be the "better" choice, or vice-versa.

2. It just feels too much like saying "Pick me! Pick me, please!" to call out options like that. All things being equal you would never not choose a specially-tagged dialogue option. I'm not even going to pretend for a second that there aren't plenty of places where certain options are going to look Definitely More Winning than others, but I am very reluctant to exacerbate the problem with blinking lights.

Without that, it looks from the screenshot like railroading. All of my negative impressions of that screenshot came from realizing that there was no way not to try to get the gsumina from her, and based on that making the assumption that the choices were just there for flavor, and carried no consequences or skill requirements.

I understand what you're saying, but at some point we have to start making the assumption that, no, really, you want to do this quest. It's probably the kind of thing which simply feels more natural when you're in the natural flow of the gameplay vs. seeing a single dialogue state in isolation.

My view is that you've already spoken to the two people who have set you down this poisoning path, you've started dialogue with Rajani, you didn't take the quick option to bail out of the dialogue before talking to her about gsumina, and you've already said "Priyanka sent me." Adding a cold-feet option might better simulate the range of human options, but from a gameplaying-convention standpoint, I feel pretty good about assuming that, yeah, <charname> is pretty sure <pro_heshe> wants to acquire this stuff.

(From an ever-so-slightly metagaming perspective, we pretty much always allow you to say "I don't have that much/I won't pay that price" when you end up negotiating over money with people, so in this case, you can still back out by talking money and then rejecting her price. Not exactly what you asked for, I realize.)

 

[cardtrick]

All very reasonable. I was certainly not complaining about not tagging skill-influenced dialog options -- as long as the game's consistent, I don't care at all one way or another. Your dialog options are well written, and now that I know that skills are important in dialog, which any player would know while playing the game, it is quite clear what skills will be checked for each choice.

I still disagree with you about adding the option to walk away. I just think it makes sense for the player to allow his character to be convinced by Rajani to forget about the gsumina. Why bother having Rajani state her case if the player can't choose to agree with her? But still, you're the designer, and it's certainly not a big issue.

 

[RK47]

can i break containers instead of relying on lockpicking?

 

[Naked Ninja]

Looking really good Jason.

 

[jcompton]

can i break containers instead of relying on lockpicking?

We considered it but elected against the ability to brute-force locked doors and containers. Having that work would have skewed the value of Strength vs. Agility too far for our balance comfort. (We're not keeping the cost/benefit of the four primary attributes equal, but we did try to keep any one from being too far of an outlier, too much higher or lower than the rest of the pack.)

Yes, I know Magnus ver Magnusson makes a wonderful door-opening addition to any party, but we don't feel too guilty about this overall, because...

1. Locks & Traps is a fairly cheap skill and good value for money (as it does both Locks, and Traps!)
2. L&T inherits bonuses from both Agility and Judgment.
3. L&T is a group skill.

 

[Section8]

Sounds and looks good as always. I like the idea of the peripheral game modes too. I spent a lot of time with randomly generated campaigns in Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games, and the Infinite Dungeon concept sounds similar. Nice bit of icing on the cake.

 

[Kingston]

Looking good. I like the idea of balancing negative and positive traits, something I found very enjoyable in Daggerfall.

 

[denizsi]

We considered it but elected against the ability to brute-force locked doors and containers. Having that work would have skewed the value of Strength vs. Agility too far for our balance comfort.

Still, you could have possible to definite negative effects for breaking locks, eg. making a noise and attracting attention (a NPC or a few popping up nearby to check what's going on, perhaps), a general penalty on sneaking for having alarmed the NPCs in the area, possibility to damage the weapon used to break the lock, possibility to hurt self trying to break the lock, another possibility of NPCs being alarmed (and perhaps nullifying any bonus of surprise/sneak attacks you may have) for discovering a broken lock after a while and depending on the location, reinforcement NPCs arriving at the scene. Potential might be there without breaking balance.