Piranha Bytes RPB - Concept Art @ Tiscali

Tiscali has nine pieces of concept art from Piranha Bytes' Project RPB - most of which we've seen from the Christmas Advent Calendar but there are two that are new to me as best I can recall.
More information.

Great stuff PB!

Since sunday there are 4 new concept artworks.
In tradition with some Easter customs, the Piranhas hid four new concept artworks in relatively recent postings of themselves in the dicussion-forum of WorlofPiranhas.
Easteregg1#
Easteregg #2
Easteregg #3
Easteregg #4

I can't wait to see their next game. Gothic 2 was such a great game. I wish that more companies would look at it and copy the design principles of that game.

If this wasn't so far off, I'd be very excited.

After G3, it seems PB will be going back to their roots, with a less ambitious but more coherent experience.

I predict good things coming from them, but this kind of pre-hype is too early for me

It´s probably not that far off. If they haven´t changed their plans it´s quite possible they finish it this year.

My guess would be a Christmas release in Germany. RPB is a safe #1 hit. They have no reason to avoid the competition.

We´ll know more after the E3.

Originally Posted by Gorath
It´s probably not that far off. If they haven´t changed their plans it will probably be finished this year.

I'll eat any number of hats if that's true and it actually works upon release.

I´ve edited my post.

The source was rather soft: The art director - the guy who communicates with the community almost daily - said he would be disappointed if he was still working on RPB in 2009.
It´s confirmed that the combat system is finished, the world finished but more or less empty and that certain parts are playable. And of course they´re on schedule.

I have only one thing to say and that is that these concepts art screen looks amazing Carry on now, Piranha Bytes…

I was surprised to hear the combat system is done, considering that Ralph says PB now need an extra 3D creature/character animator for RPB.

There are many different shades of "finished".

I didn´t know about the position. Anyway, I wouldn´t expect Ralf to say the absolute truth about the project status. Even though he is very good at making his posts sound personal and sometimes casual, it´s clear everything is coordinated with the DS marketing. He certainly bends the truth a little bit here and there, and simply wouldn´t be allowed to say it if they were behind schedule.

I very rarely get excited about games before knowing a lot about them, but in this particular case I simply can't wait!

Despite being a huge Gothic fan I must say I'm not terribly excited about these screens. For one thing, they are very vague, and I've heard nothing regarding a story. - The impression I get from screens of this nature is "yeah, we got some ideas being tossed around," and indicate nothing remotely close to being accomplished in tangible game design.

…again, that's just the feeling they speak to me.

If there are actually playable sections of the world and combat is finished as Gorath says, why have we not seen any real screenshots??

I'm not deliberately being negative or picking on anyone's info, but isn't that a fair question?

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
If there are actually playable sections of the world and combat is finished as Gorath says, why have we not seen any real screenshots??

I guess because their marketing plan says the game will be revealed at the E3.

I'm not deliberately being negative or picking on anyone's info, but isn't that a fair question?

Sure. The artworks alone only tells us that whoever made them knows his job, and that they have a nice atmosphere. The forum posts include the real infos.

Okay, I didn't realize the plan was to reveal more stuff at E3… I mean, obviously that's every game designer's plan, but the details offered on this thread didn't seem to match up with the (thus far released) viewable content. I understand now.