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
. 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?
