rpgvaultarchive.ign.com 05/1999 07-26.05.1999 Week of May 2, 1999 Friday, May 7 Still More Plans For E3 Since Monday, we've had the pleasure to bring you information on what about two dozen of our friends in the game development community will be doing and what they're looking forward to seeing at E3. To finish the week, this is what some more people say they'll be up to: Gothic is a 3D fantasy RPG being developed by Germany's Piranha Bytes for publisher Egmont Interactive. Level Designer Tom Putzki doubles as their marketing man: We're showing our game together with our publisher, Egmont Interactive. They work together with an american agent called Octagon. Octagon made appointments with international publishers which are interested to distribute GOTHIC in several worldwide territories. Personally I will be at several of these publisher meetings, presenting the game. And of course I will show the press (print & online) the newest version of GOTHIC. Hope to meet some very cool people there; see some new and fascinating demos of games which I'm be waiting for, like Diablo 2, Ultima Ascension and stuff like that. While arriving on Tuesday in L.A., I will take the time and visit several workshops and conferences. Personally I hope not to loose my voice again like always on exhibitions... A second menber of the Gothic development team who will be at the show is Project Manager Stefan Nyul: I will be at most of the meetings in our booth. Workshops and conferences of course, esp. regarding Game Development. Further I will try to make a lot of contacts with other developers from all around the world because E3 is _the_ meeting point for all of us. Also joining them will be 3D Artist Alex Brüggemann: Having lots of fun, making party and having a look at all other games which will be shown there! Week of May 9, 1999 Saturday, May 15 E3 First Impression: Gothic This afternoon's last appointment provided us an opportunity to see Piranha Bytes' game in development, Gothic, and to speak with team members Tom Putski and Alex Bruggemans. The game is a 3D real-time fantasy-based game with some interesting design ideas. You begin having just arrived in a prison gameworld, and your ultimate goal is to escape. However, you must first learn to survive in that world. Quite early in the game, you have the opportunity to join groups within the prison community. Each group offers you the benefit of their specific area of expertise - warrior skills, spells, psionics, etc. Each group resides in a different camp/area on the surface of the prison, which wil also have about a dozen dungeon levels below. Graphically, the game was in a developmental state with a number of areas still having placeholder textures, others unpopulated, etc. Some of the artistic concepts are imaginative, there are some very nice effects, and the graphics engine overall performs at the level of many well-known game engines. As always, I emphasize that gameplay is difficult to judge from a demonstration, but certainly Gothic is worth watching as it develops. The team is currently aiming at releasing early next year. Week of May 16, 1999 Saturday, May 22 GA Source E3: Gothic A tip of the cap this morning to Fyre who spotted a report on Gothic at GA Source. The piece, which seems to be based on having seen the game at E3, includes these excerpts: Another interesting (and, I must admit, refreshing) aspect to NPC interaction is that they also initiate interaction and they have the same desire for items that you do. Remember Diablo, and dumping all your extra stuff by the fountain knowing no one would mess with it? Forget that in Gothic -- a dropped or placed item doesn't stay where you dropped it for more than a minute... and if it's a weapon, I'll guarantee it won't stay on the ground long enough for dust to settle on it. As to interacting with you, they'll react to not only your presence, but your state as well. If you come up to an NPC with no armor and no weapon, they'll be haughty or snide or condescending... but if you're packing a two-handed sword and some serious armor, they'll bow, snivel, grovel, or run in fear, depending on their basic attitude. They also react differently to a sheathed or drawn weapon, too, which has some interesting possibilities. To top all this off, there are going to be approximately 200 (that's right, two hundred) NPCs in the finished game. Perhaps I should say "at least 200," because Piranha Bytes is determined to include as many as space will permit. This one looks solid, and may just carve itself a niche between the 3rd-person adventure game and full-blown RPG. It has the depth without the complexity, and that's something I hadn't known I was missing until I found this one. Look for it to be released first quarter 2000. Gothic will be published in Germany by Egmont Interactive. Let's hope we hear about a North American publishing deal soon. For now, you can take in the rest of the preview at this link. Week of May 23, 1999 Wednesday, May 26 How Was E3? - Part 3 Again today, we have the pleasure of bringing the post-E3 impressions from some members of the RPG development community. Tom Putzki, who performs two roles on Piranha Bytes' Gothic, handling both level design and marketing, was a very busy man at the show: It was really great. During the 3 days of the show we had about 50 appointments with foreign publishers and the press at our booth... it was the hell, but also very successful and a lot of fun. I saw Xena (Lucy Lawless) and was very interested in her leather costume ;-) No, I was impressed by Outcast, Deus Ex which I saw presented by Warren Spector himself, Diablo II of course which I am waiting for, Age of Empires 2 looks like I would spend a lot of time on it; Urban Chaos, Vampires, C&C 3 and a lot more.