Spellbound to Develop Gothic 4: Genesis!

[Gorath]

Today JoWooD let the cat out of the bag: The next Gothic game will be named Gothic 4: Revelation. Responsible for the development will be experienced German studio Spellbound Entertainment (Desperados, Robin Hood, Airline Tycoon).
Here is the press release minus the corporate stuff:
Liezen, Austria 23rd of August: JoWooD Productions Software AG is proud to present Spellbound Entertainment AG as the official developing team for Gothic 4.

One of the most convincing and central arguments for choosing Spellbound was the scope of RPG experience brought in by Spellbound team member Jochen Hamma, who was involved in creating the legendary "Nordlang [sic!] Trilogy" based upon the Pen&Paper RPG "Das Schwarze Auge". [Released in English as Realms of Arkania series; ed.]
Furthermore, Spellbound has created own tools for archieving exceptional standards in quality and quality assurance. Both parties are confident to produce a game of highest quality and Spellbound intnds [sic!] to focus on the traditional strenghts of the brand, setting new standards in the original, authentic Gothic essentials.

At the Gamces [sic!] Convention 2007 in Leipzig, Mr. Jochen Hamma, Spellbounds [sic!] Executive Producer, is showing the first facts and plans to curious fans and special interest media, outlining which stenghts [sic!] are essnetially [sic!] to be intensified and which weaknesses are tagged for elemination [sic!].

Gothic 4 is being developed for PC and Current Gen console systems, a release date will be announced in the comming weeks.
More information. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=6096)

[danutz_plusplus]

So is the sub-title of the game Genesis, or Revelation? Both are mentioned in the news post.

About the new dev, I hope they are up to the challenge. I've only played Desperados, which was really nice. But very different from Gothic. Hope they got what it takes, and I hope they won't change Gothic's strong-points.

[Gorath]

Genesis. I got interrupted while typing the news.

[aimbago]

Quote:
"One of the most convincing and central arguments for choosing Spellbound was the scope of RPG experience".
It would rather seem that the most suitable team for developing a Gothic 4 would have been Piranha Bytes. They have clearly the best Gothic-RPG experience, they made the first three. Could it be that the publisher wants to have a bigger share, but ultimately the game will suffer. I doubt I will play a Gothic 4 if it wasn't made by the Piranha guys.

cheers
Alunda Imbago

[JDR13]

Gothic 4: Genesis huh?

Does it take place in the Land of Confusion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBdUz_IJ4VA&mode=related&search=)?

[Chekote]

You missed a [sic!] =0P

focus on the traditional strenghts of the brand

[Gorath]

Correct, I only caught that one in the next paragraph. :biggrin:
Every Gothic related JoWooD PR since the split is in such a shape ...

[Moriendor]

Cool. I wish them all the best :) .
A developer change doesn't have to but it can work out as e.g. C&C, Tomb Raider or F.E.A.R Extraction Point have proven. And if Mr. Hamma remembers some of his old attic Entertainment virtues from the 90s then Gothic 4 should at least become a very atmospheric RPG. This might work out. Looking forward to more details.

[Gorath]

Yes, Spellbound is pretty good choice. Now let´s hope they are funded appropriately.

[rooroosta]

Indeed, hope the obligatory post release patches go well too.

[Agathul]

Traditional strenghts... BAH. Reminds me of Thief 3, pagans going woodsiewoodsie, those mystical captions from holy texts between the missions turned blatant and overshot. "Focus" can only mean exaggerating the sarcastic humor and other trademarks. Maybe I'm shooting it down too early, time will tell...

...that aping stuff others came up with never works out.

[Moriendor]

BTW, there is an article (http://www.pcgames.de/aid,610771/Gothic_4_-_Es_ist_offiziell_Update_mit_Video/) at PC Games on the new game. An interesting side note: It looks like Spellbound has been instructed to provide support for Gothic 3. They want to work with the community patch team in order to deliver more patches for Gothic 3 ("possibly" so it's not set in stone yet that there will be more patches). Hamma also said that they are in contact with some members of PB who are offering support/advice on certain issues.

[JonNik]

Now these are interesting news (both the studio choise and the patch).

A good Move (the patch) from Jowood if they follow through and its not
only PR to complement (sweeten) the G4 announcement...

[Gorath]

It´s interesting the articles on PC Games and Gamestar include different infos. GS says Spellbound intends to ask PB if the problems are too big - not that they are already in contact.
G4 will use the Vision engine. It´s available for most major platforms.

[Moriendor]

A bit more info from that PC Games article for you English folks:

- Graphics and sound: Spellbound want to use Gothic 3 as a benchmark. They want to achieve a technically competitive product with audio (including voice-overs) and visuals at least as good as Gothic 3.

- Story and gameworld: They want to stick with the theme in the previous games, i.e. a European setting, gruffy characters, and they want to return to dividing up the story in chapters.

- RPG elements: The skill system is supposed to be greatly improved compared to Gothic 3.

- Interface: Same as PB did for Gothic 3. They want to further improve the accessibility for people new to the series while offering fans of the original games options to achieve maximum "backwards compatibility".

- Community: They (and JoWooD) are planning on active community support throughout the entire dev cycle. The plans include regular community Q&As and a higher degree of forums activity. The feedback is supposed to have a great amount of influence on the game design (yeah, right ;) ). They also want to invite members from the community in regular intervals so they can test-play the game. A first community meeting of that kind could be happening in mid 2008.

- Motivated team: Hamma said that in his ~20 years of working in game development, he's never had such a motivated team. They are certain that they will achieve a quality result.

- Release date and platforms: Release date is unknown. Plans are to port the game to X360 and PS3. They already got the dev kits for consoles. The PC version will be released first.

[Moriendor]

It´s interesting the articles on PC Games and Gamestar include different infos. GS says Spellbound intends to ask PB if the problems are too big - not that they are already in contact.

Yes but Hamma says in the video interview on PC Games that they are indeed in contact with PB. Gamestar is once again full of shit! :biggrin:

[kalniel]

(You also missed the 'archieving' typo)

Furthermore, Spellbound has created own tools for archieving exceptional standards in quality and quality assurance Lets hope these QA tools work better than for the press release.. :p

[elikal]

I must say, as a Gothic series fan, I was of course unhappy with the events of the split of PB and Jowood, and the letdown with G3. Now, this may be to the benefit of the players, when we get two good RPGs, instead of one mediocre, when both PB and Jowood go seperate ways.

I have great faith in Spellbound, some of them are really those who made the "Nordland Trilogy", since it was one of my fav RPGs. Ok, I admit I played "Das Schwarze Auge" pen and paper game for almost 25 years heh, but still, I liked it a lot.

So we gonna see, when we get some more details.

[JDR13]

They already got the dev kits for consoles. The PC version will be released first.


That's definitely the best news about it so far.

[nameless hero]

Genesis!?
So they gonna mix Resident Evil with Gothic now.
The nameless hero will have BFG's at his disposal and will have to make his way through hordes and hordes of zombies and orcs.

[Dez]

It sure is an intresting dev-choise and I'm eager but to see their vision of gothic and a new patch is more than welcome. The split was a sad thing, but maybe this way we'll get two good rpgs.

[JanusKopf]

This press release is borderline comedy! There's more typos in those few lines than in the whole Gothic3 surce code. And that means something!

I just hope Jowood will stay out f this as much as possible. Withut too much outside interference Spellbound might pull it off.

[mudsling3]

Sounds like a prequel... I will keep my eyes on it and my fingers crossed.

[JanusKopf]

This press release is borderline comedy! There's more typos in those few lines than in the whole Gothic3 surce code. And that means something!

I just hope Jowood will stay out f this as much as possible. Withut too much outside interference Spellbound might pull it off.

Reading my post again, I guess I should join the Jowod PR team...

[Maylander]

Isn't it typical Janus? You try to comment someones' typos and you end up doing the same yourself. Aaah, the sweet irony in life. :D

[titus]

A prequel? that seems interesting, but than will you still play the nameless hero, before the resurection of the barrier, or will you play in the barrier? or a whole new land? and if so Where?
I will definitely keep my eye on G4 and the new PB game

[aries100]

I hope this means that we will get as good a Gothic 4 game as the previous 3 ones.
Jowood seems to have found a worthy successor to Piranha Bytes in Spellbound Games, it seems.

It will be interesting to follow development of this game, indeed :)

[txa1265]

Isn't it typical Janus? You try to comment someones' typos and you end up doing the same yourself. Aaah, the sweet irony in life. :D

That is why it is never good form to play grammer police, because of that whole 'what goes around' thing.

[woges]

It's grammar where I come from.

[txa1265]

It's grammar where I come from.

See what I mean :D

[Moriendor]

A prequel? that seems interesting, but than will you still play the nameless hero, before the resurection of the barrier, or will you play in the barrier? or a whole new land? and if so Where?
I will definitely keep my eye on G4 and the new PB game

Jochen Hamma of Spellbound said that the title of the game should not be interpreted as it being a prequel to the previous Gothic games :) . Which doesn't mean that it isn't a prequel, of course. They could just be saying that to keep it a secret for a little while longer.

[Ragon der Magier]

You know what?
Think of that:

1.) dtp/Anaconda reviving the TDE universe for the PC with "Drakensang" soon.

2.) With dtp also signing Larian Studios and their "Divinity 2", the former co-developer of the official NLT-successor gets closer back to the TDE-universe than they had ever thought (or feared ;) - remember "LMK"! :evilgrin: ) including former "Shadows over Riva" graphics artist Marian.

3.) Spellbound winning the Gothic-Series for the next and fourth installement will put Jochen Hamma behind the steering wheel of the other big German RPG franchise after he had been already involved in all three titles of the first one, the "Northland"-Trilogy, for "Riva" even as Executive Producer back then. There might be also more former "Attics" in the team, who knows. :)

After all it looks as if the next wave of German RPGs will ride high on good old NLT legacy, which had for long been presumed dead.

One could also put this more poetically by adapting a well known popular phrase:
"The (TDE) Force is strong within the (German RPG) family."
:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:


Ragon, the TDE Mage

P.S.: 1.) and 2.) - what an in-house competition! *LOL*

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Well put, Ragon. :D

All your base are belong to us ! :biggrin:

[Corwin]

Oh, I just have to post (http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/video1_view.shtml) the link (http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/video2.shtml)Alrik, it's your fault!! :)

This one (http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/video3_view.shtml) is very clever too!!

[Rendelius]

Gothic shouldn't change the developer but the publisher.