Gothic - Don't Expect a Sequel/Remake Soon

@GamePressure they report on comments made by Piranha Bytes' Björn Pankratz. The studio has been considering a remake of the original games but doesn't have the manpower to do them.

We visited Piranha Bytes in Essen in order to play Elex, the upcoming RPG from the creators of Gothic and Risen series. A hands-on preview will be available soon. We also used that opportunity to ask about the next installment in the Gothic franchise or at least a remake of the original game. We brought up the question when talking to Björn Pankratz, game designer who has been working at Piranha Bytes from the very beginning.

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Gamepressure: What's the status of the Gothic franchise license right?

Björn Pankratz: The status is that we have the right to make another one. We have the rights of Gothic, but we don't do it yet, because we [don't] want to disappoint our fans. The expectations are very, very high. You ask five fans and you get ten opinions about what is the core thing that makes Gothic so special for them. And it's very difficult for us to see how this Gothic has to look like or to be, or the gameplay has to be, because you can't do the same thing the second time and bring it out and say: "That's the hot stuff now, play it". Many people would say "It's the same. I have the feeling I have played it before". We have to put in something completely new to make it work nowadays. We didn't have a vision yet to complete this mission. It was too weird and difficult to get a clear vision of what the next Gothic part could be. There are many opinions out there and we have many opinions in here, but not that thing, as we said, that is really good and we would make it and believe in that. That's the problem. In this one, Elex, we believe, because it's a complete restart, with a complete new setting. Never before have we made such a complex and huge world with very different kinds of weapon styles and stuff like that, and that's the thing we want to make now. I think that's the reason why it will be a good game in the end.

Gamepressure: What about doing remakes of Gothic? Is it possible on the licensing side and is there any point in making a remake?

Björn Pankratz: We often thought about that, but it has to be its own project and we are only 30 people and that's difficult.

Gamepressure: So to remake Gothic you would have to basically do everything from scratch, right?

Björn Pankratz: Yeah, because of the engine.

More information.

Eh, I think people who love(d) Gothics would most agree on what made those games special. Thing is, I'm not so sure they do.

Non-level scaled world.
Open-world with distinct, memorable and hand-crafted layout.
Hand-placed loot.
Hand-placed enemy encounters.
No 1-to-1 re-spawns. Excellent balance of too little/too much combat.
"Gated" areas where monsters were stronger and you had to come back later.
Involved factions that all provided their own story as well as styles of character development opportunities.
Armor was hard to come by and expensive.
Resource scavenging, money was scarce.
Dangerous enemies lurking in certain areas.
Dangerous places such as a deadly forest that is right next to the starting area town.
Character stats were very important and made a drastic difference in feeling of strength and progression.
Start out as a total nobody struggling in a strange, new place.
Plausible world.
Methodical character growth, eventually becoming a total bad-ass, but slowly.
Memorable characters who played important roles throughout the entire game.
Monsters felt plausible and somewhat realistic.
Some enemies often warned you before attacking.
Excellent lock-picking system with "static" locks.
Skills greatly matter in the game. Even getting a Sneak or Pickpocket skill led to great things.
Overall interesting new world to explore with mystery and intrigue.
Combat system that wasn't a push-over.
Combat could turn deadly quickly if you weren't well-prepared.

What am I missing?

One central, but charming "hub" like Khorinis. They ended up spreading themselves way too thin in Gothic III and last two Risens.
And bring back potato sack as starting armor.

Interesting locations and style of magic. That made Gothic for me. Putting DEPTH into some of their races. THe Gothic series was the first time for me Id experienced dealing with monsters as npcs and not as simple targets to kill.

It seems weird to say but one thing I really like about Gothic is the fact that for the first 2/3 of the game your character abilities and your gear are all sort of mundane. I think it is a great change of pace from most RPGs which try to be as epic as possible by giving you amazing abilities and powerful loot left and right. Gothic makes every little weapon and armor upgrade feel significant precisely because there are not awesome weapons and armor laying everywhere. I have always loved low level DnD for the same reason.

Mine crawler armour was cool !

Also fluent, you missed amazing companions that weren't full party members but had their own agenda however they end up helping you out too….
Gorn, Milten, Diego and Lester !

Was just playing uncharted 4 and during the large open island areas couldn't help thinking I would kill to get a gothic/risen 1 type of gameplay or remake with this level of environment and animation detail.

But due to their small team/budget I know this will never realistically happen.

I started PB games with Gothic 3 with community patch and loved it - for me a VERY flawed gem. Everyone constantly talks about how much better G 1 and 2 are. I have tried on several occasions to play the earlier Gothic 1 and 2 but the aged engine and clunky controls make me give up after a couple of hours each time.

Originally Posted by Fluent
What am I missing?

I solve:

- clunky controls?
- horrible UI?
- emotionally non-engaging narrative?
- twitchy combat?
- gratitious profanity?

Do I get a cookie now

Originally Posted by Sir_Brennus
I solve:

- clunky controls?
- horrible UI?
- emotionally non-engaging narrative?
- twitchy combat?
- gratitious profanity?

Do I get a cookie now

Blashpemy !!!
Burn !!!

Originally Posted by RogueCat
It seems weird to say but one thing I really like about Gothic is the fact that for the first 2/3 of the game your character abilities and your gear are all sort of mundane. I think it is a great change of pace from most RPGs which try to be as epic as possible by giving you amazing abilities and powerful loot left and right. Gothic makes every little weapon and armor upgrade feel significant precisely because there are not awesome weapons and armor laying everywhere. I have always loved low level DnD for the same reason.

Couldn't agree more. I think low-level gameplay is usually much more fun. I want to start out with a rusty sword, and have to deal with a nice goblin cave or ruined temple full of cultists. Then, after several hours, be really pleased to get a +1 sword so I can actually deal with the undead.

The biggest 'wow' for me, as far as i can remember, was that skills actually change the way the hero do stuff. Like when you got one handed weapon skill and he start fighting with one, not both arms. Also memorable characters. Also living world. Also missions when u run around the field giving water to people, becuase this is a fucking quest, serious buisness, much gold for that.
Gothic 3, sadly, sucks. Risen not so much but still not as good as Gothic 1 and 2.

It looks like their real reason is that they're simply not interested in making the same game again for the n-th time. Not surprising. At a certain point you get sick of doing the same thing over and over again.
A couple of years down the line they'll probably either remake the whole trilogy or reboot the franchise.

When sick and tired, you do the outsource move. Or when you run a company of just 30 people.

Sadly, the only company that IMO could do justice to Gothic games is currently developing their own IP (Cyberpunk2077). Why not someone else you might ask?
Rockstar is out of a question as their game would introduce helicopter racing in Gothic world and that's not what Gothic is.
Bethesda makes loadscreens on every cave/entrance, again that's not Gothic. Square Enix (note: still unknown how DX:MD will be designed) and Bioware also use engines with loadscreens on closepoint area transitions.
Ubi's and Konami's openworld engines cannot save the game anywhere.
And the engine that was so promising but the company died so it's basically forgotten, it's Radon Labs' Nebula Device can't do the trick here.

But that's just the current state with today's technology. I expect the remake/reboot in 2018. Maybe on VR, definetly not on phones.

Originally Posted by Fluent
What am I missing?

Plenty.

- Quality choices and consequences in role-playing decisions with distinct factions that have their own agendas, ranks and philosophies, emphasising replay value and strength of setting.
- Wonderfully atmospheric and memorable soundtracks courtesy of Kai Rosencranz.
- Fully Killable NPCs (none of this immortal nonsense)
- Combat that doesn't hold your hand; nor lets you be powerful from the outset.
- Rewarding exploration with both vertical (climbing) and swimming enriching the feeling of being in a highly dangerous world.
- Compelling lore and story
- Implacably dry wit of the "Nameless Hero".
- Emphasis on survivalist skills and "living off the land" via economy and bartering system.
- Unlimited inventory helps deepen the immersion.

If I want another Gothic experience, I'll simply replay the original games, a situation I'm more than happy with. For instance in Gothic 2+Night of the Raven, I never did try siding with Lee, so there's always that.

They're only 30 people? Blimey, that's almost indie these days!

Originally Posted by Maylander
They're only 30 people? Blimey, that's almost indie these days!

Actually that's their biggest head count ever (published). No wonder they outsource a lot of stuff.

At least they admit luckily hitting the bullseye with Gothic 1. Maybe the last time they truly thought creatively and uniquely for their game. The last Risen was also really nice, but mainly for the cutie women.

Well, good thing is that their Risen ship (sort of) flunked. So they have to, at this point, realize they're not winning any "casual" crowd over Witcher/TES and have to go back to Gothic roots.
Risen's problem is they tried to do both.