Seven Dragon Saga - Interview @ RPG Codex

​There were early speculations of Seven Dragon Saga becoming another crowdfunded title, but you recently confirmed that the game will be publisher/investor-backed. Could you provide any details about the financial workings? For instance, what kind of budget will you be working with – something like the average Kickstarter? Also, could this partnership exclude a DRM-free distribution option?

Until recently we wished to keep our options open between the two models, but now we have chosen to go the crowdfunding route, seeking funds similar in scale to comparable titles. We definitely intend to be DRM-free on release.​

Birthed from the concept of “stretch-goals” in crowdfunding campaigns, many recent or upcoming RPGs feature guest writers, artists and musicians. With Unity in mind, there has also been some sharing of tech solutions (rendering, conversation systems, et cetera) and other collaborative efforts between studios. Are these types of guest appearances and collaborations anything you would be open to, even though you've decided on not crowdfunding?

We welcome opportunities for feature guests to act as collaborators, though we have no specifics to announce at this time. When key personnel have a previous relationship from working closely together on past projects, such as inXile and Obsidian, there's a connection both with the people and the IP. That allows for a closer collaboration between different studios. In our case, we're fortunate to have our peers provide a great deal of support around our efforts. ​

Developers seem very optimistic when it comes to their development time and milestones. InXile said Wasteland 2 would be done in one-and-a-half years, but it took them an additional year to wrap up the release candidate. You've said that you want to see Seven Dragon Saga in the first quarter of 2016. Do you think that's enough time to create a complex RPG – one like Seven Dragon Saga?

We don't have a hard deadline we have to hit. Obviously, things changes during game development and what's important is shipping a product that everybody can be proud of. Like any other project we do have to work within the constraints of our production budget. When you look at something like Wasteland 2 or Pillars of Eternity there's the base game and then you factor in stretch goals and the final working budget. What everybody really wants is to ship a game when it is ready.​

Where do you see TSI heading after Seven Dragon Saga? Will you continue to feed the old-school nostalgiacs and deliver more GoldBox throwbacks? What are your hopes for the company, games, and market?

We love the Gold Box games and we're inspired by all the support we've received since forming the company. Big publishers had shied away from making these types of games but we know there's an audience. Right now we're definitely focused on creating RPG's that allow you to PLAY YOUR WAY. That means allowing full customization and control over the party and tailoring things to your style of play. Ultimately, we'd like to do a blend of original and licensed IP. Game development today shouldn't be done in isolation away from the community. Going forward, we'll be able to engage our audience to shape the direction of our work and with the proper level of support we'll be able to do it for years to come.​

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