Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Gothic Gothic remake from THQ Nordic

Joined
Oct 15, 2018
Messages
862
Location
Ali Ghaylān
Steam page already.



With new screenshots (with less-saturated colors) and feature list (promising a faithful remake and combat based on the original).

ss_43f5aa3bf2cd6acbdc62e548abe606820badc9bc.1920x1080.jpg


At least they're listening to the fans. That's always a positive. The color palette is greatly improved. Hopefully they fix the other things as well.


Sent from my Nokia 3210 using Tapatalk
 
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Messages
2,261
Location
Milan, Italy
Complaints about matching some arbitrary ideal standard for light saturation and color always strike me as borderline autistic, anyway.
Even more in a world where every frigging retard will come up with his own custom (and usually fucking ugly) reshade setup two days after launch.

There were lots of problems with the demo, but visuals were mostly on the ok side (except for the obscene amount of post processing) and sure as hell I'm not going to hang on the "colors" as one of my main worries.
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
There were lots of problems with the demo, but visuals were mostly on the ok side (except for the obscene amount of post processing) and sure as hell I'm not going to hang on the "colors" as one of my main worries.
Which doesn’t have a fucking thing to do with the alleged problem of being “too colorful”.
"it's too shiny and bright" may very well be one of the stupidest.
It is too shiny and bright though. It's like that Oblivion shining/glowing NPC thing, but instead it's everything:
WoHrf17.jpg
LhtDoeN.jpg
 
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Messages
2,261
Location
Milan, Italy
It's not like repeating it over and over makes it a stronger point.
I'll stand my opinion that colors aren't really an issue.

And it's not like Gothic 1 and 2 ever tried to be purposefully bleak in terms of color scheme.
The whole aesthetic was rather cartoony with plenty of colorful elements.
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
It's not like repeating it over and over makes it a stronger point.
I'll stand my opinion that colors aren't really an issue.
There's no "point" to be made here. Just a basic test of if you're not literally fucking blind if you see nothing wrong there.

Btw. both videos you posted on the Steam forums regarding the "Teaser Demo" make the very same (obvious) "point", the first in the "Atmosphere" section @41 minutes in, the other in the Visuals section @5 minutes: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1297900/discussions/0/4917340730758493594/



And it's not like Gothic 1 and 2 ever tried to be purposefully bleak in terms of color scheme.
The whole aesthetic was rather cartoony with plenty of colorful elements.
Yes it did. No it wasn't. There were a few, but not many. The prison colony you're thrown into was supposed to be bleak. Once again it's just a test as to whether you have well-functioning eyesight, since you can watch a Playthrough on YouTube at any time.
Regarding too colorful, that's another thing entirely and not what you first said, but I can also see it as a complaint, since it sets an entirely different mood while the Original Gothic had more of a gloomy/dreary and bleak mood set both by the somewhat faded colors and the music, and the Remake does indeed feel more colorful and happy, you don't get the same feeling of having been gut-punched and thrown down a hole to be left to die:

This isn't about having "your opinion", you're just wrong.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Messages
2,261
Location
Milan, Italy
There's no "point" to be made here. Just a basic test of if you're not literally fucking blind if
Yeah, look, you can fuck right off with this mongoloid condescending bullshit.

And just because I posted a video I more or less agree with, it doesn't mean I have to adhere to 100% of what it bitches about or think every single point it makes is equally relevant.
"Colors" for sure are not.
 

Laz Sundays

Educated
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
119
It's still possible to see a good remake. Can't wait to see more posts from this Alkimia studio, if they deliver I'll be shilling it religiously.
 

Dodo1610

Arcane
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
2,155
Location
Germany
So if I understand correctly they handed the remake off to a different dev that understands it should actually be a faithful remake instead of whatever the previous devs did?

No, it's still the same studio(Though they barely had any devs at the time when making this) but what they released was only a prototype made within a couple of months which wasn't even originally planned to be a Gothic Remake. But THQN told them to turn it into a Gothic Remake. Then they released this prototype to the public to see how many would be interested. Now they have to use the things they learned from prototype when making the actual game.
 
Last edited:

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I watched that 1 hour video of the demo feedback, he did a good job listing everything wrong without being toxic. I am not familiar with the developer at all being new studio and all, and after that depending on how much the developers push back against modern game design pitfall it could be at least a decent project.

Who knows if it successful and done decently we can finally get gothic 3 remake, which imo a game full of potential if they scaled back a little bit of the repetitiveness, encounter amount and the busy works.
 

typical user

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 30, 2015
Messages
957
I can imagine a system where LMB is for standard attack/combos and A/D modify them to be directional with different hitboxes. Die by the Sword has similar solution (simplified layout, the complicated one requires full use of numpad keys). Whatever they settle on, it needs to be precise to have fair challenge against enemies which should one-shot our character without good armor. If they copy damage/crit damage/armor formulae then it will be 50% of work done.
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
One wants to be hopeful, but until we see something real I'll assume "different combat system" is a lateral change and not a vertical one.
 

TomParker

Novice
Joined
Dec 7, 2020
Messages
13
So an interview with Reinhard Pollice (a dev at Alkima) was recently posted on the World of Gothic forums. Here it is:

WorldofGothic: Thank you very much for finding time for us. Do you remember how you became aware of Gothic back then?

Pollice: As if it were yesterday! Back then I always spent a lot of time with my neighbors gambling. In addition to gaming, we always kept ourselves informed about new games and so we came across a preview article for Gothic 2. Since we mainly spent time with RPGs, that sounded pretty interesting and so we got Gothic 1 first (it was available for 9.99 at the time, if I can remember correctly) and didn't get away from it that quickly.

WorldofGothic:I think I can vaguely remember that you started gothic modding back then as part of a team. But as with so many ambitious mod teams, nothing came of it. Do you remember what your mod project was about?

Pollice: Oh yes, I even look at the backups of this mod project at regular intervals. At that time we planned a gigantic world and implemented the world almost completely. We also gave them to closed alpha testers. I would estimate the world was about as big as Gothic 3. At some point we all realized that we could never fill the world with content and so the project unfortunately died over time.

But what I would like to say at this point: It is terrific that there is such an active modding community for Gothic - and that even after 20 years. I also hope that modding will bring more people to enjoy game development.

WorldofGothic: What is your favorite part of the Gothic series and what do you particularly like about it?

Pollice:For me personally Gothic 2, because it had the highest gameplay density and was very mature. But I can also understand players who prefer the uniquely dark / depressing atmosphere of Gothic 1. For me, however, the entire Gothic series is associated with an incredible number of great memories and emotions. At that time, the piranhas laid an absolute milestone in the role-playing game genre, which in turn inspired many other series and developers, such as Witcher.

WorldofGothic: What is the charm of Gothic for you, what are the reasons for you that make it a special game? Is there a lot of nostalgia because it was just the game at the right time, or does it have lasting innovations or successful implementation of features that make it special to this day?

Pollice: I think the latter. Gothic is still competitive today with its feature set. In Gothic there are some conscious game design decisions that make the game very immersive and believable. I'm only thinking of the skill system or the natural delimitation of the game world in the form of insurmountable challenges (but we all know: nothing is insurmountable and every game can be tricked).

WorldofGothic: Your career path was from a game fan to a professional in the industry, in which you have already got around quite a bit. In the final phase of the publisher JoWooD you were there, how did you perceive the company back then, what was your impression?

Pollice: That is difficult to answer - the company wanted to land a really big hit with ArcaniA and there were also many Gothic fans there. In the course of development, however, there were many situations that stood in the way of the goal of landing a really big hit. When I got there, the project had a very tight time frame and only limited resources.

WorldofGothic:Was it your goal to work at JoWood, the publisher of the Gothic series? After all, you were a fan of the Gothic series ... Or was it more of a coincidence and the circumstances?

Pollice: That was a coincidence. At that time I had just completed a year at EA Phenomic and after various restructurings I was no longer happy with the prospect in the studio. There were then a few options at other German studios, but I decided to go back to Austria and do a degree first. A friend then asked me if I could support him in the project management of ArcaniA.

WorldofGothic:Fans were surprised when Piranha Bytes sold the brand and studio to THQ Nordic AB in May 2019. Many assumed that Piranha Bytes' DNA also included complete independence. But times change. That you decided to do a remake when you acquired the trademark rights - who came up with the idea? Was it following a long-cherished plan or could the moment simply be used?

Pollice:We always had the idea of doing something with Gothic. However, Piranha Bytes convinced us that ELEX is the more sensible project for them and us and so we started working together, which then led to the takeover. During these discussions it quickly became clear that Piranha Bytes saw their future in other projects and that they would be open to Gothic projects from other teams. We then presented the idea of the remake and the playable teaser and were able to put this plan into action. In the survey on the playable teaser, a large majority voted in favor of a remake as the starting shot for new Gothic projects, and so things took their course. Carrying out this survey and subsequently also publishing the raw data completely and unfiltered was certainly a unique and very unusual step. We want to do justice to the ambition to interact openly and directly with the community.

WorldofGothic: How is work on the remake going ? Office work is currently not that easy in the Covid situation, but as a developer you are certainly relatively independent of office structures as long as you have the IT infrastructure for your work.

Pollice:We're currently in Barcelona with 5-10 people in our new office every day, working hard on all aspects of the remake. In addition, there are over 20 people who work from home on the remake. Fortunately, we are all in good health. Building a studio during the pandemic was an added challenge. Our plan was to get started at the end of March 2020, but the problem: We could no longer complete the last steps to register our company because all notaries were in lockdown. At the end of April 2020 that improved and we could really get started on May 1st, 2020.

WorldofGothic: Is your team in good shape ? On the side of your development team, the same positions have been advertised as open for a long time. It seems as if there are still many vacancies.

Pollice: Our team is 90% up. The vacancies are still advertised because we are always interested in talented developers in all disciplines. For certain positions, we can also imagine team members who work remotely. So we are also looking for a community manager.

WorldofGothic: How close do you really want to stick to the original with the remake? The announcement in the GameStar podcast last summer that they would just think about reusing all the original audio would mean that there would be no changes at all to NPC and dialogues. This was generally seen by the community as being too slavish to the original. Many expect useful additions, especially since old fans will find it less attractive to play through again if “only” the graphics had changed.

Pollice: Using original audios doesn't mean that you can't expand the game anyway - old friends would then have the original audio tracks and any new content would be set to new music
15.gif
. We have a lot of exciting ideas. Some of them are logical, some may seem unusual, but are all the more exciting.

WorldofGothic: Are you planning any changes? For example, what about the meshes of the Orc City and the Abandoned Mine that are not used in the original game (including the associated discarded story components)? That would be other areas that - newly created - could definitely find their way into the remake.

Pollice: As I said in the last question: We have a lot of ideas and thoughts. But I hope you understand if I don't want to reveal any details just yet.

WorldofGothic:And how do you want to incorporate the female slaves into the game? Although their existence throws a very illuminating spotlight on the conditions in the colony, the way they were presented in Gothic 20 years ago (lascivious animations, fetish clothes, just the same dialogue over and over again) is certainly no longer acceptable today.

Pollice: Believe it or not: We have a very high proportion of women in the studio (over 35%, the highest of all THQ Nordic studios) and that's of course a topic that we also discuss a lot internally. We definitely want to expand and expand the short and one-dimensional representation of women.

WorldofGothic:Or what about the game's obvious weaknesses such as the rather rustic combat system or the lack of quests in the second half of the game apart from the main quest?

Pollice: In my opinion, the system behind the fight is not wrong at all, even when applied to today's standards. The controls and animations were rather rustic back then. Our goal is to offer a contemporary combat system without serving up something undemanding and poor in innovation.

WorldofGothic: Do you have a plan when you want to introduce more of the Gothic Remake to the public? For example at E3 in spring, at any PAX or at Gamescom in summer? Whereby more European industry meetings certainly make more sense with the previous target group.

Pollice: We don't have a fixed plan for this yet. However, we want to communicate frequently and directly with the community about the project - but only when we are ready. In the current phase of development, a lot of the basics are first created - we only partially take over graphic assets from the playable teaser. If we can present and show specific content, we rely fully on community feedback.

WorldofGothic:How do you rate the target group at all - or to put it another way: For whom is the remake interesting? Is it more something that the old Gothic fans should serve or is it mainly about the current generation of players? Depending on the situation, completely different implementations are necessary. A control system that the old gamers find charming because old-school is more likely to meet with rejection from current gamers. In general, the development of the remake should quickly become quite difficult with such considerations, because you can never bring all expectations under one roof.

Pollice:Primarily we want to offer Gothic fans a game that fully meets their expectations. That is the top priority, even if it means that not every mass market player can do something with our project.

WorldofGothic: Are there any special efforts to make the Gothic Remake popular on the American market?

Pollice: A good game will take care of that on its own. We are an international company with sister companies in America too. As a result, we will plow the market there accordingly.

WorldofGothic: What happened to the old JoWooD forum, in which there was a lot of unique content? Is there still a backup of it or is it completely lost?

Pollice: Do you know the story of Lazarus?
15.gif
 
Last edited by a moderator:

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
WorldofGothic: Are there any special efforts to make the Gothic Remake popular on the American market?

Pollice: A good game will take care of that on its own. We are an international company with sister companies in America too. As a result, we will plow the market there accordingly.
:popamole:
 

Wunderbar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Messages
8,809
WorldofGothic: Are there any special efforts to make the Gothic Remake popular on the American market?

Pollice: We will plow the market there accordingly.
homosexual romances.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
WorldofGothic:And how do you want to incorporate the female slaves into the game? Although their existence throws a very illuminating spotlight on the conditions in the colony, the way they were presented in Gothic 20 years ago (lascivious animations, fetish clothes, just the same dialogue over and over again) is certainly no longer acceptable today.

Pollice: Believe it or not: We have a very high proportion of women in the studio (over 35%, the highest of all THQ Nordic studios) and that's of course a topic that we also discuss a lot internally. We definitely want to expand and expand the short and one-dimensional representation of women.

interest level is zero
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom