Risen - GC Presentation Video

Dhruin

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World of Risen posted a summary of another presentation. Heavy spoilers ahead:

An event commonly known as "The Dark Wave" swept over the lands,
unleashing magical storms and other dangers that lay whole cities to waste.
With most of the worlds cities in ruins, people are forced to live in Enclaves,
the last safe retreats on the planet.

The king then founded an organization called the "Inquisition" and sent
a fleet to investigate the cause of those problems.
They arrive at a distant island and take over the command there,
forcing people to stay in the city and calling the island "forbidden" to them
(thus the forbidden island).
People are recruited by force to assist the Inquisition.

The hero gets washed ashore after his ship got destroyed by a storm.
There is a faction which opposes the Inquisition and which lives in a hideout in the wilderness.
One of those outlaws is the first person the hero meets.
He tells him if the Inquisition catches him running around,
they will throw him into the temple where he will face brainwashing and "recruitment by force".
He also offers him to escape that fate by joining the outlaws.
From here on its up to the player if he follows him to the outlaw hideout
or if he stumbles into the Inquisition.

The fighting system has a mouse and keyboard input,
you can strike in different directions using the cursor keys.

Q&A:

Q: Is the ship from the trailer the ship that the hero was on ?
A: Yes.

Q: I read the line "Release 2009" on the screen - can you tell us anything more about that ?
A: We will release the game when we feel it is ready, not before it is completely done.

Q: Will the monsters level with the player like in Oblivion ?
A: It has been like that in G3, but we dont do that anymore - everything will be handmade,
from monster levels to the content of chests...we will insert it by ourself.

Q: How will the hardware requirements be ?
A: The engine isnt completely done yet, so we cannot specify that just yet.

Q: If I join the Outlaws and if I will be captured by the Inquistors later in the game, how will that play out ?
A: We arent telling you yet. :p

Q: How are the dungeons done ?
A: We put way more work into the dungeons - traps, riddles etc. will be included.
Most dungeons take not that much time to clear, but there are some bigger ones which can keep
you occupied for an hour.

Q: How will the experience system work ? Do you keep the old system or... ?
A: We kept the character system, we wont use a lot of stats but focus more on combat skills.

Q: Will the hero have a name ?
A: It is not decided yet.

Q: How will the difficulty be ?
A: We will implement different difficulty settings to offer all players a good challenge without frustration.
On the "normal" setting it will already be a challenge, because the combat system rewards skill and you will need to play it out right to beat the game.
(note on my side: it was confirmed that with improved combat skill your animations in
combat look more skilled and swift, also that certain weapon types have bonuses against
certain monsters. Kinda like the hammer against the golem from G2.)

Q: How far are you with the games production ?
A: We still have a lot of work ahead of us.
But we improved our organization on the project and do parallel works now at a much faster pace than on our previous projects.

Q: Will characters or monsters from the old Gothics appear in Risen ?
A: No. We did a lot of new monster designs to give everything a new distinct look.

Q: What do you think about the Gothic 3 addon that is being produced by a low-budget developer in India ?
A: No comment.

Q: How is the mage guild coming along ?
A: Good. (note on my side: that was a trick question and the PB fell for it, the crowd cheering)

The presentation in the newsbit added that combat will be handled with a mouse + keyboard combo system similar to the first two Gothics.
Swimming and diving won´t be possible, something else though which is much cooler but they will keep quiet about it for now.
Climbing is not only possible, it´s necessary. They´re going for a more classic dungeon design, away from the dungeon tubes which are standard nowadays. Traps and other tricky things require the occasional climbing session.
Monsters will be more like animals, not demons.
Game length: ca 50 hours.

The things they said about story (chapters), guilds, decisions, character development, UI (reduced, -> feedback rather through dialogs than UI), in-game maps and NPCs aren´t that interesting. What they didn´t say but what it sounded like is that they are doing an improved Gothic in a world the size of G2. The focus is on story, decisions and depth. Mike explicitly said something along the lines of "Depth is more important than size for us."
It remains to be seen how much of these nice things makes it into the game though. The PBs aren´t stupid, they know what their fan base wants to hear. It´s possible PB will remember the core Gothic gameplay a little bit differently than their fans. ;)
 
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Sounds great! Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to see the video, but I will as soon as I get home from work.
 
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There´s nothing to see. They show the teaser, talk for 7 minutes and then have 10 minutes Q&A.
 
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When I read the info Gorath posted here, I must say I'm impressed. 2009 will be a good year (if the game releases that year -> quite used to see it getting postphoned)
It will certainly come out in 2009. I´m pretty sure they want to ship before Gothic 4.
 
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World of Risen posted a summary of another presentation. Heavy spoilers ahead:



The presentation in the newsbit added that combat will be handled with a mouse + keyboard combo system similar to the first two Gothics.
Swimming and diving won´t be possible, something else though which is much cooler but they will keep quiet about it for now.
Climbing is not only possible, it´s necessary. They´re going for a more classic dungeon design, away from the dungeon tubes which are standard nowadays. Traps and other tricky things require the occasional climbing session.
Monsters will be more like animals, not demons.
Game length: ca 50 hours.

The things they said about story (chapters), guilds, decisions, character development, UI (reduced, -> feedback rather through dialogs than UI), in-game maps and NPCs aren´t that interesting. What they didn´t say but what it sounded like is that they are doing an improved Gothic in a world the size of G2. The focus is on story, decisions and depth. Mike explicitly said something along the lines of "Depth is more important than size for us."
It remains to be seen how much of these nice things makes it into the game though. The PBs aren´t stupid, they know what their fan base wants to hear. It´s possible PB will remember the core Gothic gameplay a little bit differently than their fans. ;)

Sounds GOOD. I'll keep an eye on this one. I was very disappointed with G3... So I hope Risen will be much more better...
 
It will certainly come out in 2009.
I highly doubt it, seeing that not even the gfx engine is completed as of yet.

Unless they intend to publish something utterly bug-ridden, as usual...
 
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My old check list for Risen (22.07.2007)

00) making choices with consequences
01) character development / many stats with an impact on the game
02) finding / buying / selling lots of different equipment (unique items, rare items)
03) a good nonlinear story - interesting, intriguing main quest
04) great challenging dungeons / locked doors / chests / traps
05) riddles / hard too find secrets, items / mysteries
06) lots of fun, humor
07) cool spells
08) lots of conversation, conversation options to solve quests and avoid combat
09) interesting challenging combat with many options
10) interesting NPCs with a background
11) NPCs with a schedule
12) fantasy world with conflicts to solve
13) different races (groups, guilds) with various occupations
14) chance of winning prizes, medals, houses, ranks ...
15) deadly cool arch-enemies
16) making weapons, items and spells / alchemy
17) many (not necessary) side-quests
18) much world interaction / manipulation
19) eastereggs
20) free world, setting borders with harder to beat enemies and hard to find items (keys), only.
21) good (non breakable) economy model
22) many different groups with different goals -> choose your friends and enemies
23) for party crpgs: interesting (funny) dialogs with your partners
24) surprises and twists, more than one story path

other than that:

25) no bugs
26) scantly clad vixens !

some things have been implemented ;)
 
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I think I must be one of the very few fans of the Gothic games that actually liked the combat in Gothic 3. My hand eye coordination is not that great so I had a very difficult time clicking on the monsters with my mouse while aiming at them with the curser keys. I hope I at least can change this to the wsad keys? as this seems to go well in other games I play.

I like the story so far :)
 
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"I think I must be one of the very few fans of the Gothic games that actually liked the combat in Gothic 3."

It had its problems but I thought it was fine. Same with 1 & 2 and every other game. G3 was fun all the way to the end.
 
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My old check list for Risen (22.07.2007)

A great checklist for any rpg.
Add originality to it and then any game that would fulfill all those criteria would be the best rpg ever :).

As for the Risen, those newsbits sound very promising gameplaywise, hopefully the story won´t be that clichéd as it seems so far.
 
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My cold cash is here, come and get it PB.
 
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1H melee combat was the only real problem in G3. Spellcasting, ranged combat and 2H combat worked was actually a lot of fun, but unfortunately, everyone starts out with a 1H, and that ends up being the first impression.
 
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It will certainly come out in 2009. I´m pretty sure they want to ship before Gothic 4.

If it does, it'll be a huge disappointment.

I find it unlikely they'll be able to deliver it at all in 2009, and impossible minus epsilon that they'll be able to deliver a good Risen in 2009.

Producing a game at this scale in less than two years would be a tremendous achievement even for a company with rock-solid technique, production, and development processes. G3 made it pretty clear that PB is not such a company. While I'm sure they've learned from their mistakes, you don't develop that kind of capability in one year either.

I hate to be a doomsayer, but IMO the most likely outcome is that (1) Risen will not come out in 2009, and consequently (2) PB will run out of money to develop it and go out of business.
 
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If it does, it'll be a huge disappointment.

I find it unlikely they'll be able to deliver it at all in 2009, and impossible minus epsilon that they'll be able to deliver a good Risen in 2009.

Actually, Ralf from PB (the art guy who is doing a lot of community relations at World of Risen) said a few months ago that he'd be severely disappointed if they were still working on Risen by 2009. In other words he must have been totally convinced back then that they'd make a 2008 release date. I don't think that they will delay the game for over a year. It will most likely ship in the first half of 2009. Deep Silver's resources and patience can not be infinite.
What I'm seriously wondering about though is how they ever got the idea to get the game finished in 2008? They aren't newb devs anymore. Shouldn't they be able to nail down at least somewhat realistic dates by now? And why did they (Ralf that is) keep saying until recently that they were actually running ahead of schedule, finishing milestones before the deadlines? That does not compute with the delay and the 2008 quote. They must have gotten a generous extension at some point.

Producing a game at this scale in less than two years...

Scale is indeed the keyword here. With a world the size of Gothic 2, I think that they might be able to pull it off.

I hate to be a doomsayer, but IMO the most likely outcome is that (1) Risen will not come out in 2009, and consequently (2) PB will run out of money to develop it and go out of business.

I think if we consider doom-type stuff then the more likley scenario is that Deep Silver will force them to wrap up whatever they got at one point and that they will then ship the incomplete mess but, hey, how about a little optimism instead of this doomsaying biz? :)
 
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Walp, this is one of the rare cases where I'd be delighted to be proven wrong. Let me put it this way: if it does come out in 2009, I hereby promise to buy it the day it's available. :)
 
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Actually, Ralf from PB (the art guy who is doing a lot of community relations at World of Risen) said a few months ago that he'd be severely disappointed if they were still working on Risen by 2009. In other words he must have been totally convinced back then that they'd make a 2008 release date. I don't think that they will delay the game for over a year. It will most likely ship in the first half of 2009. Deep Silver's resources and patience can not be infinite.
What I'm seriously wondering about though is how they ever got the idea to get the game finished in 2008? They aren't newb devs anymore. Shouldn't they be able to nail down at least somewhat realistic dates by now? And why did they (Ralf that is) keep saying until recently that they were actually running ahead of schedule, finishing milestones before the deadlines? That does not compute with the delay and the 2008 quote. They must have gotten a generous extension at some point.
Good to see you made exactly the same mistake I made at some point. ;)
Ralf didn´t say "they", he said "I". He will have finished his work on Risen this year. Then he will concentrate on something else. My prediction: Marketing material and community work. He is the perfect choice for the former and has proven his qualities in the latter. Plus it´s quite clever to have somebody work on annoying external stuff who you know and trust but who is not a part of the core team.
AFAIR he said they are on time (what else should he say? ;) ) and well over the middle of the project.

I find it unlikely they'll be able to deliver it at all in 2009, and impossible minus epsilon that they'll be able to deliver a good Risen in 2009.

Producing a game at this scale in less than two years would be a tremendous achievement even for a company with rock-solid technique, production, and development processes. G3 made it pretty clear that PB is not such a company. While I'm sure they've learned from their mistakes, you don't develop that kind of capability in one year either.
Doesn´t convince me. The project is much smaller than G3. 50 hours playing time and a world the size of G2 - that´s ca. 1/3rd of what G3 had. Plus their team is slightly bigger, they´re more experienced and they´re basically doing a remake, although they will of course deny this. The time they needed for G2 was "a year" (officially) or rather 15 months (really). G2A took 8-9 months minus some resources for G2 loca and patches.
I hate to be a doomsayer, but IMO the most likely outcome is that (1) Risen will not come out in 2009, and consequently (2) PB will run out of money to develop it and go out of business.
Run out of Deep Silver's money? Risen is a Koch Media brand. Every PB RPG is a safe no.1 hit in Germany. They would have to completely fuck it up for Koch to cancel it. Koch is known to be very pragmatic though. There are quite a few examples in which they have given developers more time. But of course I wouldn´t exclude the possibility that they might also have some suggestions on how the additional time can be put to good use. :plotting:
 
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