Interview Leon talks to GameBanshee

[Ellester]

I would be curious if any of the three stay in the gaming industry. It would have to be very hard to go from a co-owner of a development company back to a designer/programmer or whatever. It would seem like a demotion. Of course I would like them to, but it would have to be emotionally hard.

 

[obediah]

I dunno. When did RPGs become a niche market? Was a time when they were considered mainstream like RTS and FPS games. Now, publishers wont touch them for fear of poor revenues. Is it because gamers don't want to play complex games, or because the development cycle on RPGs is longer than the average FPS?

In the isolated world of video games, RPG sales #'s haven't kept up with other genres over the past 20 years. So while back in the day a good RPG might have sold as many games as a good sports or action title, that isn't the case anymore. RPG's aren't any cheaper to produce than other games (if anything probably more expensive). So a mediocre selling sports game probably has a better chance at making money than a good selling rpg. So the publishers still doing rpgs are

1) making them more actiony to increase the number of sales
2) lowering development costs (shorter cycle or cheaper labor) to decrease the number of sales needed to make a profit.

 

[Shinan]

Yes, it was. The pnp SW scheme is based on d20 rules which is exactly why it does play exactly like a dumbed down NWN. Bioware didn't even try to recreate the SW pnp rules as it has tons of classes, races, feats, and skills.

R00fles!

I remember back in the good old days when there was a real SW PnP game out there for grabs. None of the d20 crap. Didn't even White Wolf do a d20 version of the World of Darkness games? I know there was a GURPS version back in the days but that one was discontinued (apparently because all the info needed fit into two books where White Wolf themselves had had five hundred rule and sourcebooks...).

 

[dojoteef]

What's a free way?

I'll take it that you actually don't know what a freeway is, especially since Shagnak's explanation is quite lacking. The damned drunk.

Freeway is another name for highway. As in people drive their cars on the freeway. (Just in case you don't know what a highway is. :D)

 

[Deathboy]

Oh a road.....

Is it an american thing?

 

[Volourn]

"Oh a road.....

Is it an american thing?"

Thats' right. Only Amerika has roads.

 

[Deathboy]

We have roads, I was curious about "the word freeway"

Speaking of roads they replaced our set of trafic lights with a roundabout seems to work a better.

 

[dojoteef]

Well a freeway isn't just a road. It's more akin to the autobahn, if you know what that is. In otherwords it's a high speed roadway for traveling great distances. Other similar synonyms in the US for it are expressway, highway, throughway, or interstate.

 

[FireWolf]

Are there as many RPG players/consumers out there as their used to be? If not, why not. Why arn't there more?

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Because the mass market hates to think and use their brains for something other than constructing elaborate sexual fantasies.

 

[Fez]

It's because they have a cull every so often to keep the numbers down to an amount the environment can support

 

[EEVIAC]

I meant: could a d20-based CRPG get made without paying for the license?

Prairie Games is trying to do Minions Of Mirth as d20 (system wise, not name wise) under the OGL. I'm not sure how successfull they'll be though.

 

[Fintilgin]

I doubt it will happen, but I'd still like to see the remains of Troika making games and self-publishing on the internet. They obviously would have to be a lot simpler graphically (but still a step up from say, Spiderweb) but I really think they could make money this way.

They'd make all the money from each sale instead of a pittance, and it would be okay if it sold slow and steady instead of in the first few weeks.

Oh well, a fellow can dream.

 

[Deathboy]

Well a freeway isn't just a road. It's more akin to the autobahn, if you know what that is. In otherwords it's a high speed roadway for traveling great distances. Other similar synonyms in the US for it are expressway, highway, throughway, or interstate.

Cheers, I get the picture. A wide road with a lot of lanes.

 

[Talorc]

I would be curious if any of the three stay in the gaming industry. It would have to be very hard to go from a co-owner of a development company back to a designer/programmer or whatever. It would seem like a demotion. Of course I would like them to, but it would have to be emotionally hard.

I dont know about that - they would go from having to worry about payroll, salaries, council rates, property insurance, getting the staff canteen fridge fixed, hiring new artists, hiring programmers, making product pitches to producers, negotating with producers, approving annual leave, getting the books audited, paying the rent, having to make staff cuts etc etc etc

to just -

"Leon - here is the broad outline of the game we are making. Its set in X licence, in Y time period. We have X funding. We will be using X engine. Now we want you to lead the design team, and get the detailed desing docs done, then move on to implementation. Dont worry about the art assets, Jim down the hall has them going fine. Harry will be the lead progammer."

Could be a more than welcome change of pace, to be able to just be a "peon" again and focus on the fun stuff.

The skillsets required to be a good BUSINESS MANAGER would seem to be totally different than the skillsets required to be a good Game Designer or Programmer or Artist.

 

[Briosafreak]

Leon just made a correction answering to a mail by Kharn from NMA:

There were two different demos - the one you've seen was using our own engine. We did another one with the HL2 engine (using the same avatar and robot but with a Vampire 1st/third person camera) where we took the Gargoyle's AI from Vamp and gave it to the robot so you could fight him.

 

[Ellester]

@Talorc, Yea, it would be easier with a lot less stress. But it would be less pay and a lower job. I’m sure they made out well financially. I would think it would have to hurt to start back at square one in a gaming company. I think it would be easier on them (emotionally) if they could get a publisher to fund Troika for another project, than jumping to another company. At least that’s my take.

 

[gromit]

That fourth screenshot in the article really through me off for a minute; I thought it might be a shot from some other mysterious project. I'd never have recognized it for Arcanum had I not checked its filename... looks like they changed quite a bit going from concept to game.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Thats from the techno-city that was buried in the desert. It may be from a video clip a transition screen for loading, I'm not sure.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Slight spoiler ahead:






That shot is from the technologically advanced city of Vendigroth, which was, as Greatatlantic put it, buried beneath the Vendigroth Wastes. That screen in particular is achieved, if I recall correctly, by returning to Arcanum from the Void (basically finishing the game) with Arronax in the party and not killing Nasrudin. Both of them will restore Vendigroth to its former glory and you'll see this endslide as you get summaries of your actions in the game's locations.

 

[Jora]

SPOILERS


Nasrudin was dead when Arronax returned to Arcanum. After burying his father Arronax "single-handedly raised the city from the ruins it had become".

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Oh. Had forgotten about that.

 

[MarFish]

The OGL license does not apply to computer games - you can not make a d20 based games without paying license fees.

 

[gromit]

Well, that explains that, then. Perfect explanation for why the art style is so dead-on, but the technology level completely beyond what we saw in-game.