Drakensang Interview: From Fable to Fallout

Drakensang Interview – Molyneux and The Classics

bt: The story is very linear, right? There’s the main quest and there are side-quests, but are there different paths? How much do your stats and choices change the gameplay?

CW: The storyline is originally a very linear, very straight one. At certain points however you get the chance to go around it in one way or the other and these decisions have a fairly big effect on how the world appears and what you’ll experience.

For example, at one point you have to decide if you want to side with an army of Witches or with a group of Naturals. Depend on how you decide, your environment will change. If you’re with the Witches then the people of the world start to get a lot more hostile and aggressive.

bt: Do you think gamers have certain expectations these days in terms of wanting an open world and multiple paths? Were you affected at all by that?


BA: Well, I can only really talk for the German players and what we’ve seen on the forums after the initial release. There are people who want a world simulation where everything is super realistic and super-reactive, which is what Peter Molyneux is trying with Fable 2. I can’t tell if someone who might like Fable 2 might like Drakensang because it’s such a different style of gameplay, y’know? Just because I play one style of RPG doesn’t mean I don’t play another style because people have different tastes. Personally, if it’s an RPG then I’ll play it – though I do have favourites.

bt: What are your favourites?

BA: Well, the Baldur’s Gate series, of course. I’m an older guy though and what I really liked was the Fallout games. They had some frustrating bits when you couldn’t meet the timeline to get the waterchip, but they were still great.

It’s a bit of a mix-up. When you start working on a game like this people tell you to go play the old stuff because it’s so great and you need to research it. Objectively though, nostalgia plays tricks on us all. If you play your old stuff today then you sometimes don’t love them as much as you did.

bt: And, like those games, Drakensang is PC only?


CW: Yeah, right. At the moment we’re a pretty small publisher, pretty small developer and so to start with decided to be PC only, but that has nothing to say for the future. We’re investigating all the possibilities.

bt: You mentioned Peter Molyneux and there’s a very definite trend right now in the industry to try and appeal to the casual audience and the largest possible crowd. How much pressure are you under to include an element of that, rather than focusing for the hardcore crowd?

CW:. Um...I think when you do something for the gamers then they’ll fall in love with it. The pressure isn’t very high...or rather, you shouldn’t try to please everyone. It shouldn’t always be that granny can come along and play the game as well. You should target a group and stick to it and for us that group is role-players. They especially don’t want to be drowned in casual game stuff.

bt: So, what are your feelings on Peter Molyneux's plea for reviewers to get non-gamers to play a game because of the casual, non-gamer appeal?

CW: I think whenever you play a game then all you should really need is an intention to sit down and play the game. You shouldn’t have to try to pretend that you’re in a different mood – especially when you’re a journalist. You guys see so many games every day and he really shouldn’t be telling you how to see a game. You should feel it as you play it, for yourself.

Drakensang is already out in Germany and is due for release in other territories soon as a PC exclusive. If you want to know more about the game, or just want to respond to some of the answers above then drop your comments in the forum.