Drakensang - Wins German Developer Award

dtp sent out this press release announcing Drakensang the winner of Best RPG in the 2008 German Developer Awards. I'm not sure what the competition was like but it sounds promising for those of us waiting for the English version:

The Dark Eye: Drakensang Takes Home “Best RPG 2008” at German Developer Awards

Hamburg/Essen, Germany, December 05th, 2008 – Wednesday, The Dark Eye: Drakensang was awarded “Best RPG 2008” at the German Developer Awards hosted in Essen.
Not only did The Dark Eye: Drakensang take home “Best German RPG 2008”, it was also awarded “Best Story” and “Best In-game Soundtrack”. Both Radon Labs and dtp Entertainment were very honoured with the accolades presented on the evening.
The Dark Eye: Drakensang was originally published in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in August of 2008 and saw a shining debut in the top 3 rankings. Internationally, The Darke Eye: Drakensang will be released in several languages in quarter one, 2009.
Building on the foundation of The Dark Eye (TDE) pen & paper role playing game, The Dark Eye: Drakensang brings a new dimension to the classic PnP RPG that so many Europeans have loved to played for over twenty five years.
The Dark Eye: Drakensang’s story was written by the original TDE authors, which ensures The Dark Eye: Drakensang authenticity within the TDE universe.
RPG players that are not familiar with TDE will be immersed in a medieval world that has a distinct Central Europe feel. Visit bustling cities, hunt down dangerous monsters in dark and mysterious woods, discover hidden treasures in long forgotten castles and climb the bergs of Kosh; where the Drakensang takes place.
Radon Labs breathes life into the world of Aventuria with modern computer technology. Stunning 3D graphics, tactical turn-based combat, classic RPG gameplay along with an in depth story that will keep you in suspense throughout.

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More information.

It's the all-german games award. It's difficult to say. There are not that much german developers that could compete on international level. Legend also won that award the year before, Gothic 3 got game of the year award and even worse games are nominated. In fact there is also quite some crap. But in some way it also reflects the german game sales. Usually the most successful games get that award. This year there was Crysis on that list, won 3 awards. Sacred 2 got 2 awards. The interesting thing for Drakensang I think is the player's choice award for best RPG.

Drakensang also won a couple of other awards. Sound track and story / game world I think. The last two were industry awards, Best RPG an audience award.

The contestants for best RPG were:
Bestes deutsches Rollenspiel
Das Schwarze Auge: Verschwörung in Ferdok (PC) (Chromatrix GmbH - Chromatrix GmbH)
Drakensang (PC) (Radon Labs GmbH - dtp entertainment AG)
Fragoria (Browser) (Bigpoint GmbH - Bigpoint GmbH)
Gothic 3 - The Beginning (Mobile) (Handy Games GmbH - Handy Games GmbH)
Gronenland (Browser: Flash) (enjoy games Ltd. - enjoy games Ltd.)
PiratesAssault (Browser) (RedMoon Studios GmbH & Co. KG - RedMoon Studios GmbH & Co. KG)
The West (Browser) (InnoGames GmbH - Julian Bock)
Uniteria (Browser) (Vadim Schwarz und Andreas Janzen GbR - Vadim Schwarz und Andreas Janzen GbR)
Windchaser (PC) (Chimera Entertainment - dtp entertainment)

Not much competition, really. It's notable that Sacred 2 was not nominated in this category. They won Best German Action Game.

And for adventure fans: The big winner of the day was Edna & Harvey: The Escape. Daedalic's retro adventure was nominated for Best Game of the Year (industry!) (against Crysis, Sacred 2, Drakensang, Secret Files 2 and The Settlers) and won one of the other catgories against a truck load of other adventures. Furthermore the Harvey character was a guest star in the presentation and stole the show.


The Gothic 3 conversion won the Best Mobile Game award. Acceptance speech: ... This must have been the first Gothic which was bug free ...
(The ceremony was only 1.5 km away from Piranha Bytes' office. They were certainly there.)

Avantenor said:

It's the all-german games award. It's difficult to say. There are not that much german developers that could compete on international level. Legend also won that award the year before, Gothic 3 got game of the year award and even worse games are nominated. In fact there is also quite some crap. But in some way it also reflects the german game sales. Usually the most successful games get that award. This year there was Crysis on that list, won 3 awards. Sacred 2 got 2 awards. The interesting thing for Drakensang I think is the player's choice award for best RPG.

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All correct. They're still trying to find their place with these awards. It gets better though.

The only relevant categories on an international level are adventure, cell phone, browser games and to some extend RPG, although the latter is a little thin.

If I understand the devs' site correctly, the first game on the list (DSA Ferdok Conspiracy) will be available in English in 1Q09 as a browser game. What is it, has anyone played it?

I'm working on a little text for dhruin and the news. I played it. I'm going to write a description.

Nikus said:

If I understand the devs' site correctly, the first game on the list (DSA Ferdok Conspiracy) will be available in English in 1Q09 as a browser game. What is it, has anyone played it?

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Updated conversions from cell phone to browser, I think. Slightly better graphics, more comfort functions. All in all they got the rights back to ca. 15 games.

I was a visitor at the awards show. It was a little bit tiresome ... I'm sure next time they will introduce a new category, called "Best Crytek 2009" ... and the winner is ... well, you know. Crytek was a sponsor of the award - and I eat my hat if they didn't make that new category, "Best Studio", just to please them.
Drakensang won "Best Story Gameworld", whatever that means, and by all means - Drakensang isn't a bad game per se, but story AND gameworld really aren't anything special. To be precise, the story is very cliché-ridden and didn't have any surprises, and the world mainly consists of forests and dungeons, which all look alike. They are atmospheric, right, but IMHO it really isn't anything for an award.

Avantenor said:

It's the all-german games award. It's difficult to say. There are not that much german developers that could compete on international level. Legend also won that award the year before, Gothic 3 got game of the year award and even worse games are nominated. In fact there is also quite some crap. But in some way it also reflects the german game sales. Usually the most successful games get that award. This year there was Crysis on that list, won 3 awards. Sacred 2 got 2 awards. The interesting thing for Drakensang I think is the player's choice award for best RPG.

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I sorta disagree about German developers not being able to compete. Nobody has really been putting out great RPGs. Still, It seems the best or at least better RPGS of recent years are coming from that neck of the woods. (Gothic, Sacred, Two Worlds, Witcher-yeah I know not all German). But other than Fallout 3, I can't think of a decent RPG from our shores in years. (Morrowwind)

Drakensang s a good, classic RPG

The award means nothing, but Drakensang is still a good game, though not a true highlight. a lot of it will remind you of the older, classic RPGs. Stats, attack and save rolls, a party, pausable real-time turn based combat (like the Infinity Engine games or NWN), a very traditional setting, a story with dragons, undead, Gods etc. So if you are into this kind of stuff, you are going to enjoy this a lot. Graphics and sound are also very nice, and the game runs even on weaker computers. It also hit the shelves pretty bug free.

There are a few things that I miss about the game, though. They make the game feel classic in a more negative sense. There are no NPC shedules, no day/night cycle, very little choices to make within a quest, and the dialogue is written for a classic "lawful good/ neutral good" character who respects the Gods. So there is little space for roleplaying, and should you want to play an elf or a pirate, the dialogue will be quite inappropriate for your character. I ended up restarting the game with a mage since it was no fun playing it with a rogue.

Apart from that big flaw, the dialogues are quite nice btw. Good NPCs.

The Ferdok Conspiracy was/is indeed an browser game. Part 1 free, part 2 commercial.

It ties in with Drakensang.

Could be that it has been ported, but I have no information about that.

Grandor Dragon said:

and the dialogue is written for a classic "lawful good/ neutral good" character who respects the Gods.

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There has been a *lot* disciussion about this, and the fact is really that *officially* there is no evil alignment like in D&D.

The *official* setting is that ALL characters in Aventuria are "Heroes", and this in principle defines their deeds.

This is basically what the game defines.

Apart from that, it seems to be possible to play some kind of "evil" character in Aventuria, but that only to a certain degree, since too evil characters more or less *automatically* become so-called "Meisterpersonen" = "[Game] Master's Persons" (NPCs).

However, I don't know how far it is possible to play *really* evil characters in Drakensang, but I heard that if you try to do, then there are no in-game consequences - which reduces *real* role-playing, and the credibility of the in-game world.

TDE just doesn't set evil characters to be there, officially. That's just what you've got to live with.
And I do know from *many* users at the official forum who just can't understand this. They just go on criticizing and moaning abouzt that it *should* be possible without realizing that the game is NOT intended to have evil PCs.

It's just as if people can't cope with the fact that they've got to have a special diet (for example) because of various reasons.

I played Drakensang as a dwarf. And it was really, really, really strange how other dwarves, especially those in Murolosch (the city of the dwarves), treated me. I think that's a design error, as I tried to be in character, but was thrown out of it very often.
VTM:Bloodlines showed that it's possible to offer a (wide) choice of characters WITH different dialogue lines WITH (nearly) full spoken dialogues ...

The game world is a mixed bag. On the one hand it has a realistic medieval feel. Really one of most beautiful worlds ever. But on the other hand it's lacking in AI behaviour. Add a healthy dose of Gothic and you would have a superb world.
That's one of the key points which prevent Drakensang from reaching the top.

Roleplaying in Drakensang

Alrik,

As someone who played The Dark Eye for more than a decade, I know what you are talking about. However, there are many shades of white in the pen&paper, and some are even grey. I can play someone who blieves in the 12 Gods, or someone who prays to Rastullah, or an elf who believes in neither. I can play someone who is loyal to authority, or someone who is more of an anarchist, etc.

The fact that no matter whether I play a human mage from a "white" academy, a dwarf, an elf, a rogue or a pirate, my dialogue always depicts me as someone who respects authority and the law, believes in the 12 Gods and is a nice person most of the time is a significantly flaw. If I have to start a new game with a new character so that I can feel that the dialogue fits to her, there's a problem.

Hello,

I know what you mean.

It's just that ... well, I'm biased, I think ("finally he admits it !!!"), and I prefer to be rather lighthearted, "good" types of characters, than dark ones.

I still don't know why. It's just as if I couldn't due to some contraints within my psyche.
I think I would be an interesting field for a Psychologist to examine.

Today, i wondered whether it would be possible for a "Schwarzmagier" to keep a skeleton as a servant in his house, castle or whatever. I think this would something a charactzer I'd play would find handy. No more paying money for servants ... I wouldn't call this "evil", because this skeleton would act just as tool.
However, I don't know how far this is feasible within the TDE rules system. And of course it would be against Boron, too.

And of course I know about the "Bannstrahgler" and their rather rigid policy towards users of magic - especially witches ! Even one of the "Priesterkaiser" in the great town of Gareth became evil ! Something that Praios wouldn've tolerated at all !

I do know of the many shades of grey - yet I don't want to play them. Real life offers me far too much of this ...

I just want to relax with playing a game. Adding darker hues would remove this element of "relaxing from the real world" for me by adding too many real-world elements into the game.

All in all, playing games is kind of an "Escapism" to me.

Roleplaying in TDE

Ah, I miss TDE so much

I like to play greyish, often rogue-ish characters. I think as long as you have some motivation to fight evil, it works fine in TDE. Not respecting the 12 Gods 100% also works. I once played a Novadi (desert nomad) for a quite a while - he did not believe in the Gods, however I never had problems with that in any campaign, even with official modules.

I played the Borbarad campaign with a Tulamidian jester who turned very dark grey after Borbarad stole a couple of years from his life. So this once happy guy basically turned into an assassin. And yet I had no problem fighting evil.

A friend of mine played a mage from one of the black academies. The character was a conjurer of demons. Yet, again, someone who fought evil. One of her great moments was when she summoned a demon to protect the city of Greifenfurt.

Best,

Surkan of Kunchom