Interview Matt Chat 218: Guido Henkel on Manuals, Books and Realms of Arkania 1+2

[Infinitron]

Tags: Attic Entertainment; G3 Studios; Guido Henkel; Matt Barton; Realms of Arkania; Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny; Realms of Arkania: Star Trail; Sir-Tech

In the latest episode of his show, Matt Barton continues his interview with Guido Henkel. This time, the conversation revolves around the topic of Attic Entertainment's Realms of Arkania series, that Guido helped produce in the 1990s. However, there's plenty of time spent discussing topics such as Attic's early history, the lost art of game manual writing and Guido's writing career (the lack of success of which he is remarkably frank about).

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The actual Realms of Arkania discussion starts at about 16:48, and focuses on the first two games in the series, describing their inspirations and origins in the German The Dark Eye pen-and-paper roleplaying game. The most interesting part is when Guido describes how the publisher, Sir-Tech Software, convinced Attic to dumb down streamline the sequel for American audiences, a move with which he seems to generally approve of.

 

[:Flash:]

So Sir-Tech made Attic take out the overland travel?
Cleve wasn't just right about SoA, he was right about Sir-Tech.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Errr what, the english Blade of Destiny version is completely different from the german one?
In what way?
I always thought the english version was nearly identical to the german CD version, only with that silly x50 multiplier for experience points and some added bugs.
And I believe some flavor text about the McGuffin you're searching for was added in the english version on entering residential houses but I'm not sure about that part.
Completely different ...
Now I'm confused.

And what the heck does adding comfort functions like equipment filters and highlighting usable stuff have to do with being less hardcore? Was only to be able to shoot in 2 directions hardcore too?
Star Trail is just an overall better game, it's not less hardcore than Blade of Destiny, quite the opposite actually.
The first game is a cake walk compared to the dungeons and fights in part 2

 

[Infinitron]

Errr what, the english Blade of Destiny version is completely different from the german one?
In what way?

Where did he say it was different? The changes were made for Star Trail, not for the English version of BoD.

EDIT: Derp

 

[NotAGolfer]

Errr what, the english Blade of Destiny version is completely different from the german one?
In what way?

Where did he say it was different? The changes were made for Star Trail, not for the English version of BoD.

The relevant part starts around min 23:10. The statement I quoted is at 23:52.
He's refering to Blade of Destiny the whole time.

 

[Infinitron]

Errr what, the english Blade of Destiny version is completely different from the german one?
In what way?

Where did he say it was different? The changes were made for Star Trail, not for the English version of BoD.

The relevant part starts around min 23:10. The statement I quoted is at 23:52.
He's refering to Blade of Destiny the whole time.

Derp. Dunno how I missed that.

Well, you can try to ask him.

 

[NotAGolfer]

I would, but I don't like him.

Seriously, I love the Attic games to death but Guido is just not my type.

 

[theSavant]

 

[NotAGolfer]

Anyway, I wish him luck for his blobber thingy. Don't know why that appeals to him but ok.
Seems like they are getting a bit of attention at last, even if it's probably too late to still meet the goal.

One problem with Guido is that nobody really seems to know or want to say how much influence he had on the PS:T development. (in before Roguey digs sth out again)
He sure has an intact ego which is always healthy I guess.

 

[:Flash:]

Anyway, I wish him luck for his blobber thingy. Don't know why that appeals to him but ok.
Seems like they are getting a bit of attention at last, even if it's probably too late to still meet the goal.

One problem with Guido is that nobody really seems to know or want to say how much influence he had on the PS:T development. (in before Roguey digs sth out again)
He sure has an intact ego which is always healthy I guess.

Well he has basically admitted himself that he did not have that much influence on the content of PS:T. Interplay made him a producer (which he never wanted to be), so he had to do the organization, keep the costs under control and meet the deadlines. He even had to cut parts of the game. He had some input on the creative part, but not too much.

 

[tuluse]

Cutting things from a game is input and influence. He was deciding what got cut.

 

[flabbyjack]

Long lost twins?

 

[jiujitsu]

I always just skip to the beer part...

 

[Lady_Error]

Anyway, I wish him luck for his blobber thingy. Don't know why that appeals to him but ok.
Seems like they are getting a bit of attention at last, even if it's probably too late to still meet the goal.

One problem with Guido is that nobody really seems to know or want to say how much influence he had on the PS:T development. (in before Roguey digs sth out again)
He sure has an intact ego which is always healthy I guess.

Well he has basically admitted himself that he did not have that much influence on the content of PS:T. Interplay made him a producer (which he never wanted to be), so he had to do the organization, keep the costs under control and meet the deadlines. He even had to cut parts of the game. He had some input on the creative part, but not too much.

Uh, actually he said quite the opposite - that most people underestimate how much input (including creative) he had in PST.

 

[Infinitron]

Anyway, I wish him luck for his blobber thingy. Don't know why that appeals to him but ok.
Seems like they are getting a bit of attention at last, even if it's probably too late to still meet the goal.

One problem with Guido is that nobody really seems to know or want to say how much influence he had on the PS:T development. (in before Roguey digs sth out again)
He sure has an intact ego which is always healthy I guess.

Well he has basically admitted himself that he did not have that much influence on the content of PS:T. Interplay made him a producer (which he never wanted to be), so he had to do the organization, keep the costs under control and meet the deadlines. He even had to cut parts of the game. He had some input on the creative part, but not too much.

Uh, actually he said quite the opposite - that most people underestimate how much input (including creative) he had in PST.

Not really. Here's Guido's butthurt interview from earlier this year which is a big reason why lots of people think he's kind of a wet blanket: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...re-kickstarter-live.81204/page-2#post-2556765

Little did I know then that I would have so little influence over the actual development of the story. Had I known, I would probably have picked the job offered to me by another Irvine-based company instead. It still puzzles me to this day, why I was ultimately courted, when the company was not at all interested in my creative experience and skills.

Yeah, he'd rather have gone to work for fucking Blizzard than be a producer on PS:T, because they didn't let him be KREEATIV. What the hell.

 

[tuluse]

Working for a fabulously wealthy company that has only made hits or a struggling AA company with management problems that was closed down within 5 years.

 

[Lady_Error]

Uh, actually he said quite the opposite - that most people underestimate how much input (including creative) he had in PST.

Not really. Here's Guido's butthurt interview from earlier this year which is a big reason why lots of people think he's kind of a wet blanket: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...re-kickstarter-live.81204/page-2#post-2556765

Little did I know then that I would have so little influence over the actual development of the story. Had I known, I would probably have picked the job offered to me by another Irvine-based company instead. It still puzzles me to this day, why I was ultimately courted, when the company was not at all interested in my creative experience and skills.

Yeah, he'd rather have gone to work for fucking Blizzard than be a producer on PS:T, because they didn't let him be KREEATIV. What the hell.

Development of the story is just a part of the development. He said that he had much more influence on design and even story decisions than most people realize. He came up with the Planescape UI with circular elements, for example. Though in the case of story development, his influence was indeed mostly about what gets developed and what gets cut.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Geedo Hinkel

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Not really. Here's Guido's butthurt interview from earlier this year which is a big reason why lots of people think he's kind of a wet blanket: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...re-kickstarter-live.81204/page-2#post-2556765



Yeah, he'd rather have gone to work for fucking Blizzard than be a producer on PS:T, because they didn't let him be KREEATIV. What the hell.

Isn't being creative the only redeeming quality of job of a computer game developer?