Interview Lionheart Q&A thingies at RPG Vault

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

<A href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/">RPG Vault</a> has posted another <A href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/390/390695p1.html">shotgun style interview</a> with the boys over at <a href="Http://www.reflexive.net">Reflexive</a> about <a href="http://lionheart.blackisle.com">Lionheart</a>. Here's a taste:
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<blockquote><b>Jonric: With Lionheart approaching completion, what are a couple of things that stand out in your mind with respect to your personal work on and contributions to the game?
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Ion Hardie
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Co-Producer and Lead Designer and, Reflexive Entertainment</b>
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Ha! Where to begin?! This game has challenged me in just about every way I can imagine in the game making process, and Lionheart has become a better game because of it. The most important thing that I have learned during the course of this game is that, no matter how overwhelming the task, you can achieve your "pie in the sky" objectives with a can-do attitude and lots of hard work. I wrote a list of 10 things on my white board many months ago, describing in quick bullet points what I needed to accomplish with this game to bring it to completion. These 10 things represented all of what I needed to do to get the game ready to ship. Such little things as "Get all spells working as designed" and "Get all dialogue completed, scripted, and in the game" are on this list, and at the time, all 10 tasks seemed overwhelming when taken in one large dose.
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Now, there are only two things not completed on this list, and both bullet points are not completed because of stuff I am waiting on from other people. The programmers have one thing, and the people making our sound effects have the other.</blockquote>
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Well, you now have four more months, so add <i>low intelligence dialogue/quests</i> and <i>turn based combat</i> to that list!
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Thanks to <b>Trash</b> for the heads up!

 

[Azael]

Well, turnbased combat won't happen, but I would like some low intelligence dialogue/quests as well.

Still, it's good to hear that they put an effort towards giving alternative (and non-violent) ways to solve some of the quests and that race isn't just something that affects your stats. If they can pull off the feeling of being a part of an alive gameworld, this game could be a lot of fun.

 

[Psilon]

Now, if they could just put in one line of dialogue for me: "He's from Barcelona. We're training him."

 

[Ausir]

I don't think there are going to be any changes in the game. The Reflexive team has already finished their work on the project (except for searching for some bugs), and now there's only BIS with voice recording. The delay is probably because they want to promote the game a little more before it ships, not because of development reasons.

 

[triCritical]

I don't think there are going to be any changes in the game. The Reflexive team has already finished their work on the project (except for searching for some bugs), and now there's only BIS with voice recording. The delay is probably because they want to promote the game a little more before it ships, not because of development reasons.

This is exactly right. I just read on the IPLY boards somewhere from the E3 tidbits is that they delayed the game to market it a little more.

 

[Section8]

So, why didn't they start marketing it earlier, in anticipation of it's release? If they couldn't afford advertising without the sale of the Hunter license, they're in SERIOUS trouble.

 

[Jed]

Hopefully they'll be smart and finish their internationalization before they go gold so as to cut down on piracy; come to think of it, they'd better not go gold too soon before release or they'll lose to a lot of domestic piracy...somehow if they're not spending time improving or polishing the game, spending an extra four months on marketing seems ridiculous. Why can't they release the game and market at the same time? I'll never understand the minds of marketing execs...

J

 

[Ausir]

As for internationalization, all i know for certain is that CD Projekt, the Polish IPLY's publisher, hasn't received any files for translation from IPLY yet.

 

[Psilon]

I'll never understand why marketing departments are given that much control. Hopefully these aren't the same specific nincompoops who destroyed, well, the Fallout franchise, Descent 3, FreeSpace 2, and arguably Icewind Dale 2. (Though the glut of Infinity Engine titles contributed to that last one.)

 

[Spazmo]

A bad engine combined with a half-assed design philosophy ruined Icewind Dale II.

 

[Psilon]

True, but they didn't really promote IWD2 as much as they did the first one.

People will buy crap if it's hyped enough; look at Neverwinter.

 

[Spazmo]

<--Bought Neverwinter Nights because of the hype.

Oh, the shame...

Even if IWD2 had been adequately hyped, it was still a combat focused RPG, which just isn't as good as the real kind. IWD2 isn't that bad, though, engine aside. It is massively combat focused, but there's some creative dungeon design in there, as well as a surprising amount of encounters in which a high diplomacy, bluff, or intimidate will get you through what would otherwise be a tough combat encounter. However, there was still enough combat that I got tired of IWD2 shortly before the end (that is, about five indentical huge fights), so I just cheated my way through the end. Basically, if that's what JE and Avellone can do with a self-professed combat game, then I must admit I have some hope for a real RPG from BIS.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

IceWind Dale 2 was well hyped, it's just no one really cared. It had Neverwinter Nights to compete with, which sounded a hell of a lot more ambitious and just plain better than IWD2. After all, IWD2 was the fifth new title using the Infinity engine, which has been around for five years. It used 3E, but who really cares if the game play is fundamentally the same?