George Ziets opening a new RPG studio - Digimancy Entertainment

[G Ziets]

Opinion on 2D vs 3D?
Isometric or 2D. Mainly this is because 3D games lend themselves more to action combat systems IMO, while isometric or 2D encourage a more tactical, strategic perspective, which is what I prefer. (I know that’s not always the case, but I still prefer the overhead view.)

I'm free from Feb 2020 if you are looking for an artist. :D

Intriguing! We will talk on IM.

 

[deuxhero]

All this talk of Ravenloft and nothing about its spinoff Masque of Red Death (AKA Gothic Earth)?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Opinion on 2D vs 3D?
Isometric or 2D. Mainly this is because 3D games lend themselves more to action combat systems IMO, while isometric or 2D encourage a more tactical, strategic perspective, which is what I prefer. (I know that’s not always the case, but I still prefer the overhead view.)

I'm free from Feb 2020 if you are looking for an artist. :D

Need a bigger

Codex right now:

 

[hexer]

 

[Infinitron]

heh George should know who Pyke is - he helped inXile out with the Wasteland 3 prototype and concept art.

 

[Life of the Party]

Since we're talking art.

Spoiler

http://www.gods-rpg.com/

The artists working on GODS come from a variety of backgrounds: Wizards of the Coast, Marvel, Ubisoft, Dontnod, Tor Books and many other companies.

Under Bastien Lecouffe Deharme guidance as GODS’ art director, they are all working together to design the most impressive visual experience in the finest Dark Fantasy tradition.

Here is some of the artists that will join us to the Wildlands:

Blake Rottinger

John Tedrick

Pierre Raveneau

Sergey Vasnev

Anastasia Balakchina

Gary Jamroz-Palma

Pascal Quidault

Nekro

Spoiler

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ravenloft would be cool with a Diablo-like quiet atmosphere (with lot's of chiaroscuro) with this kind of music:



But considering the kind of game MoTB was maybe Planescape or Dark Sun would be better. Surrealist fantasy rather than some more conventional gothic horror.

 

[Life of the Party]

ArtStation is quite a place. You click on a random name and find something like this.

Spoiler

 

[ItsChon]

As far as I'm concerned, the 2D maps of the old IE games are some of the best art the genre has ever seen. As much as I love Underrail and Disco Elysiums graphics individually, there was something special about the shared aesthetic that all the IE games had when it came to their art. I'd prefer that kind of art to PoE or even any of the games done by The Brotherhood (Stasis, CAYNE, and Beautiful Desolation), especially if we're talking about a D&D based system. Maybe it's just the nostalgia, but I really feel like that kind of art captures the spirit of D&D the best.

 

[Jack]

I know Ravenloft would fit you like a glove, G Ziets, but if for some reason you can't use it then Dark Sun or just about any dying earth type of setting would be amazing.

 

[Egosphere]

ArtStation is quite a place. You click on a random name and find something like this.

Spoiler

The problem with artstation is that if you stare at it long enough, 90% of the art blends together and you realize that very few artists have a distinctive style

 

[getter77]

Dragon Kings Project would also be interesting if Dark Sun can't be wrangled for whatever reason---they DID always want to take a multimedia approach with it and I have to imagine would be welcoming of inquiries.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Opinion on 2D vs 3D?
Isometric or 2D. Mainly this is because 3D games lend themselves more to action combat systems IMO, while isometric or 2D encourage a more tactical, strategic perspective, which is what I prefer. (I know that’s not always the case, but I still prefer the overhead view.)

I'm free from Feb 2020 if you are looking for an artist. :D

Intriguing! We will talk on IM.

And this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

 

[Efe]

G Ziets
good luck with digimancy. i hope you give us many good games.
would you make a guess as to approximately when could we see the first announcement from you?
did you make a pitch for baldurs gate 3?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

The most wholesome thread on the Codex.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

The most wholesome thread on the Codex.

Mind Flayers porn incoming.

 

[DeepOcean]

Despite all this talk of Ravenloft, you guise just need to give us weird incline shit, do what the fuck you want, just take some LSD then let the creative juices flowing. Anything without dragons, elves or current year politics on it, please. I just want to play a game where I feel an intelligent person that know what is doing made it , that is pretty rare these days.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Current year anything i'd say (but yes, for the love God stay the hell away from politics. Fastest way to piss off everybody for no good reason).

One of the most grating things for me in RPGs set in alternative realities, time frames or what have you, is the way characters seem to act, think and even talk as if they came straight off our age.

One issue for instance is when characters in a given setting seem to possess attitudes that are not consonant with what one would expect from an individual actually living in that specific environment, but seem to reflect the point of view of a modern person looking at that age from the outside. For instance, in an historical medieval game people will act like they despise or distrust religion even though people in the middle ages absolutely believed in religion as well as miracles. So rather than make us experience the time period "as it was" we get to be exposed to modern prejudices towards the age which ruins the immersion completely.

I believe Avellone mentioned something like this once, where he addressed the issue of authors injecting their own biases instead of letting the setting speak for itself and be what it is, without commentary. He didn't put this way but i think he hinted at it. We saw this principle at work in Torment though.

 

[santino27]

Current year anything i'd say (but yes, for the love God stay the hell away from politics. Fastest way to piss off everybody for no good reason).

One of the most grating things for me in RPGs set in alternative realities, time frames or what have you, is the way characters seem to act, think and even talk as if they came straight off our age.

One issue for instance is when characters in a given setting seem to possess attitudes that are not consonant with what one would expect from an individual actually living in that specific environment, but seem to reflect the point of view of a modern person looking at that age from the outside. For instance, in an historical medieval game people will act like they despise or distrust religion even though people in the middle ages absolutely believed in religion as well as miracles. So rather than make us experience the time period "as it was" we get to be exposed to modern prejudices towards the age which ruins the immersion completely.

I believe Avellone mentioned something like this once, where he addressed the issue of authors injecting their own biases instead of letting the setting speak for itself and be what it is, without commentary. He didn't put this way but i think he hinted at it. We saw this principle at work in Torment though.

In addition to attitudes/belief systems, speech patterns are a thing that bears watching. Someone else cited in Deadfire the whole "I. Hate. Boats." line. Nothing wrong with the line or the thought, but the actual sentence structure might as well come from Twitter or a Whedon script (minus the 'squee'ing) and it definitely doesn't seem suitable for the setting. (Then you meet the southern hick priestess and realize the whole setting is fucked, but that's another thing entirely)

But I'm pretty sure Ziets knows all this.

 

[biggestboss]

I agree, I don't think you'll have to worry about any of that with Ziets at the helm.

 

[Jedi Exile]

G Ziets Thanks for answering our questions. As someone who has never heard of you, and is only vaguely familiar with some of the projects you've worked on (NVWN 2 MotB which has a fairly good reputation, and TToN which has a poor one), can you explain your general approach and idea when it comes to CRPGs? To focus the question in a little bit, what would you consider to be the most important aspects regarding CRPGs? Also, if we could get your opinion regarding these fairly vague but important questions, that'd be nice.

Opinion on RTwP versus TB?

Opinion on 2D vs 3D?

Isometric or bust?

Philosophy on game difficulty?

Target audience?

And finally, you answered Fluent's question regarding what kind of RPG you're trying to make with this post,

I’ve currently got a document full of RPG and RPG-hybrid pitches. We’ve started prototyping one of them – I can’t say much about it yet, except that it’s an original setting with a vibe you’d expect from us. Down the road, we’re planning to develop some concept art pieces and setting info that we can share.

but is there really nothing more you can tell us? Can we get some comparisons with other games, or perhaps some games you'd cite as inspiration?

Thanks.

In no particular order, here are some of my high-level preferences on RPGs:

Strong, branching narrative is critical for me. Preferably a narrative that focuses on the player. It’s very difficult to make players genuinely care about “save the world” plots, and I think they usually fall flat. As in real life, players can typically be relied upon to care about themselves (the player-character) and people they get to know over the course of the game (companions certainly, but sometimes also multi-dimensional, sympathetic NPCs, allies, or even villains).

Choices – especially the important ones - should have multiple consequences across multiple dimensions of the game. E.g., they should affect how NPCs react to me, what quests I receive and how they play out, what companions I unlock, the appearance of my character and/or other elements in the world, and systemic effects like traits and special abilities.

All aspects of a game (art, narrative, gameplay, sound, etc.) should reinforce one another and come together to create a unified experience. I’m not a fan of rulesets that are completely unrelated to the setting / story and make no effort to adapt themselves to the game as a whole. (A good example of gameplay and story playing well together are the tattoos as armor in Planescape Torment – they serve a systemic purpose while also reinforcing your character’s identity AND reflecting your accomplishments and choices.)

I like to take players to a setting they’ve never seen before and explore it alongside them. Ideally, I try to make the player a stranger in a strange land to set up as much mystery and unanswered questions as I can, and then gradually breadcrumb the answers over the course of the game (always dropping new questions as the initial ones are answered). This is why I set Mask of the Betrayer in Rashemen and Thay, for example, instead of the overused Sword Coast.

All characters – including villains – should have believable motivations for what they do. In real life, almost nobody thinks they’re evil - usually they’re trying to do what they think is right (even if their perceptions are warped), or at least they're able to justify their actions to themselves. “Evil” isn’t just brute psychopathy – it’s subtle and multidimensional and should be portrayed as such.

In response to your specific questions, again based on what I prefer as a player:

Opinion on RTwP versus TB?
Turn-based. I can play and enjoy RTwP games (e.g., Infinity Engine, Pathfinder), often by setting them up to pause on all the optional events, but I still enjoy turn-based systems better.

Opinion on 2D vs 3D?
Isometric or 2D. Mainly this is because 3D games lend themselves more to action combat systems IMO, while isometric or 2D encourage a more tactical, strategic perspective, which is what I prefer. (I know that’s not always the case, but I still prefer the overhead view.)

Philosophy on game difficulty?
I enjoy challenge in turn-based and strategic systems, but I’m terrible at twitchy combat (e.g., Souls games), so I don’t enjoy high-difficulty action games. That said, I’m in favor of including difficulty settings in RPGs so people can play as they like. “Story-mode” for people who just want the narrative and C&C / don’t want to deal with challenging combat doesn’t bother me, as long as it’s not forced on me.

Target audience?
Depends on the game, but I am a PC gamer first, with a preference for strategic (non-twitchy) combat and strong narrative, so making games for people with similar tastes is where my heart lies.

Is there really nothing more you can tell us? Can we get some comparisons with other games, or perhaps some games you'd cite as inspiration?
Not yet. We’re still in the prototyping phase, and we probably will be for a while.

Ziets knows how to say all the right things :D

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ego is that drives people to villany. For most people this translates in simple pettiness and greed, but for those whose evil runs deeper it becomes a question of obtaining greater and greater degrees of power, as the ego becomes more and more "absolute", thus becoming the only reality that matters hence the obsession with trying to brake away from its limits and make it ever more powerful, by whatever means necessary, and always under the illusion that all the power rests on you, and not on something greater outside and above yourself.

This is why the greater the evil, the more "impersonal" and esoteric the being becomes, since at this level the ego becomes a twisted counterfeit of the higher Self.

 

[fantadomat]

The most wholesome thread on the Codex.

Mind Flayers porn incoming.

Spoiler

 

[d1nolore]

What are your thoughts on Age of Decadence?

How would you rank; Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim?

What did you do on Lord of the Rings Online?

 

[Riddler]

The most wholesome thread on the Codex.

Mind Flayers porn incoming.

Spoiler

Is there any official word on whether mindflayers keep their genitalia?