RPG Italia: Do you think Risen sold well? Was community feedback useful? How much will fan suggestions impact the development of the sequel?
Björn Pankratz: We (PB) are really satisfied with Risen 1. The response of the community and our own have assured us that our decision to focus on our strenghts and the things which made Gothic 1 and 2 popular was right. We've always had a special bond with our community since our debut, ten years ago, and we welcome their ideas and suggestions for Risen 2.
RPG Italia: What can you tell us about the setting and plot of Risen 2?
Björn Pankratz: Risen 2 will have a realistic background like all our games.
Several years after the end of Risen, furious titans have ravaged the world and brought humanity on the brink of extinction. Later, monstrous creatures have risen from the deep ocean, and marine activity has been abruptly interrupted. Our hero, now member of the Inquisition, has the quest to stop the chaos created by the sea creatures. His mission begins when rumors are heard that the only people who know how to stop the monsters and their reign of terror once and for all are the pirates of the southern isles.
We believe the pirate setting and its atmosphere and realistic world works perfectly with Piranha Bytes' style. We already explored the theme in our older titles, Gothic 2: Night Of The Raven and Risen. This time we decided to devote an entire game to the theme.
RPG Italia: There's a good number of devoted Piranha Bytes fans in Italy and other countries. What is the origin of this phenomenon?
Björn Pankratz: It's always good to hear our fans like our games. As I already said, we always had a special bond with our public - most of them have been following us since our debut. I think we did something great with Gothic 1 and since then we have evolved without losing what made that title so appreciated.
RPG Italia: Did movies, books or other games inspire the plot of Risen? How much did your past experiences affect your current project?
Björn Pankratz: Of course movies and games have inspired us, for example The Lord Of the Rings movies and books. We also took a look at old games like Monkey Island or more recent ones like Mass Effect 2, which had an influence on our design choices. If somebody in our team likes elements of other games, we discuss wether they would adapt in our world.
RPG Italia: Ten years have passed since Gothic was released. Technology has evolved and so did public expectations. Did your approach to development evolve as well or do you work the same way you always did?
Björn Pankratz: A lot of things are going better now when compared to our first ten years of activity. We drastically improved our skillset and organization. A lot of talented people have joined us through the years. What works well in a small team is often less efficient for a larger team. Right now we are small compared to big international teams, but we manage to develop competitive titles without speding nights at the office (which used to happen years ago). We also have better tools, which helps a lot. Some things didn't change at all, like our flexible hierarchy and the informal way we work with each other.
RPG Italia: What aspects do you focus on when making a RPG?
Björn Pankratz:
- To be as realistic as possible when assessing resources and objectives.
- The project will always end up bigger than expected.
- To develop something you will love to play yourself.
- To create a world with real conflicts and authentic characters.
- To find a good balance between different gameplay aspects - exploration, combat, dialogue and puzzles.
- If something doesn't work 100%, we remove it.
- A RPG is like a painting for a painter, you could add content forever but you have to wrap up at some point.
RPG Italia: Gothic 3 was your first attempt at a larger world compared to the predecessors. Will there be a second chance or do you believe it is better to focus on small, very detailed worlds?
Björn Pankratz: From our point of view, dimensions and density aren't mutually exclusive. We created a smaller world than Gothic 3 in Risen and it worked well. With Risen 2 we want to go a step further, and create a large world again. With careful planification, we managed to fill this larger world with the same density of Risen. Of course we try to get better with every project. There are many things we would have done differently, when we think of Gothic 3. Knowing what didn't work helps us make Risen 2 as good of a game as possible.
RPG Italia: How many people there are in your team right now? Did you hire new members for this project?
Björn Pankratz: At the moment we are 25 people working on Risen 2. Most of them are veterans but there are also a couple new faces.
Naturally, if you count external members as well, there are more than 100 people working on this project.
RPG Italia: How important is it to you to confront the competitition? Which features of recent RPGs impressed your team the most?
Björn Pankratz: There isn't an easy answer because each member of the team has his own perspective. A programmer will be impressed by some technology, a modeller by facial animations, and a writer by the way a story is told. But that doesn't apply to everyone.
RPG Italia: Risen was often criticized for its resemblance with Gothic. Will you try to renew your gameplay in the future or are there just some things you consider essential?
Björn Pankratz: After Gothic 3 many of our fans wanted us to go back to what made our games popular, and so we did with Risen 1. We are ready for the next step with Risen 2.
We dedicated a lot of time to storytelling. For Risen 2, we created something that we call "the pearl principle". Risen 1 had a bulky first chapter while the later chapters had less content. We changed approach in Risen 2, the game starting with a limited environment which becomes larger and larger as you progress further. The plot is like a chain of pearls which breaks at some points but rejoins later. This will help avoid a small last chapter.
We also considered negative feedback of Risen 1 - and improved the criticized elements. Looking at what we did so far we can say we worked on all of them.
The setting is more original, the plot has more unique locations and characters and great care has been dedicated to creating monsters. Women will also be more natural in Risen 2 and the combat system has been redone completely. But we also kept what we already did right like an open, living world, charismatic characters and different ways to complete quests. The hardest moment when starting to work on a new game is to understand which elements should be changed and which ones shouldn't. Our fans will tell us if we made the right decisions soon.