XCN ci ha passato una interessante intervista a Daniel Oberlerchner, International Brand Manager di Deep Silver: ve la proponiamo di seguito, in inglese.

• Thanks for talking to us. Firstly, can you give us a brief introduction to the story? What was the inspiration behind it?

The story of Risen revolves around a small island called Faranga where you (the player) were washed ashore after your ship sunk. You has to reveal the secret of this very island and deal with all the different factions which are on the island and are following their own goals. I don’t want to spoil the story that much, but you can imagine that you are the one selected to get behind the secret of the island and the reason for all bad things happening to its inhabitants.

• You've chosen a more tropical location that that of most RPGs, what inspired that choice? Do you think the location has a big influence on the feel of the game? Are you pleased with your decision?
  
  

The choice of the setting did influence the game heavily as all games from Piranha Bytes have their major strength in the immersion of the player. The island of Faranga is a mix of influences from the tropic and mediterranean environments which adds to the familiarity of the setting. Overall we are very pleased with this choice since it allowed Risen to stand out as a fresh title amongst all the fantasy RPGs out there.

• How big is the island of Faranga, including all the underground section? In fact, how big is the whole map?
  
  We didn’t really measure it, but I can give you an answer in terms of game play hours and that would be roughly between 50 and 80 hours depending on how much you stick to the main quest line. Besides that we didn’t measure the island in its size, I also think that judging a game from its size is like comparing movies by their count of actors. If the movie rocks, there is no one asking you about the size of the cast ;-)

• How long roughly will a playthrough of the game be? We're talking completionist here, every tomb ransacked, every quest done!
  
  It will be around 80 hours although I know that some people already spent over 100 hours in the world of Risen. It’s just a question how thorough you are and some people do not leave any stones unturned.
  

• Tell us about the AI. We've seen enemies going about their daily routines in the trailers, so how do you handle that part of the game that simulates the NPC's lives outside of player interaction?
  
  Every NPC (including Monsters) have their own daily routine which varies by job and environment. This means that the blacksmith has another cycle than the alchemist etc. Creatures are also asleep at night (except the undead) so you might sneak through the forest at night and reach areas which are heavily guarded at day to get exceptionally better items for your player character. Risen also features a Town AI where every action of you is monitored. So if you enter someone’s room, you will be asked to leave if it is not a public room. NPCs in Risen are very suspicious about your actions when they don’t know you. Sleeping in other people’s beds is frowned upon and don’t try to steal or you shall see the consequences. If you’re caught murdering another person red handed, people will hunt you down and kill you.

• What about the weather effects? Are they something your particularly proud of? Do they influence the gameplay or storyline at all?
  
  The weather effects add a lot of emotional effects to the game since Risen knows more than some shades of grey. The game features advanced color tinting which was e.g. used in the Lord of the Ring movies or the movie 300 to increase the effectiveness of color situations and reaches new heights in lighting techniques. If you combine this with a big thunderstorm like in the beginning of the game, you get a pretty good feeling of what Risen is all about.
  

• Andy Serkis isn't new to games, did he help in other ways that with voice-acting?
  
  Not directly in the development, but he certainly did help in the sense that we now also know more clearly what an actor of his caliber can add to the production and awareness of a title. We were very pleased with the voice acting as well as the reactions of the fans when we announced that Andy was part of the project.

• Traditionally you're a PC developer, so has it been hard working on Xbox 360?  What was it like mapping the controls to joysticks & D-pad rather than a full keyboard?
  
  Piranha Bytes did receive a lot of help dealing with the adaptation of Risen from the French developer WizarBox who is specialized on technology transfers. Risen was the first Piranha Bytes game for a console and mapping those keys on the D-pad was a very creative puzzle which was solved in many nightshifts. The biggest achievement from my perspective is that Risen does feel like a console game although its roots are on the PC platform.
  

• The other great thing in your pedigree of course is the fantastic Gothic series! Is Risen the spiritual successor to that? Was it difficult starting from scratch or did you take a lot of lessons learned from Gothic?
  
  Risen is a game that goes directly into the footsteps of the Gothic series. It was of course very hard to start from scratch because you have to deal with all the heritage from previous titles but the lessons learned from Gothic were also vital to the creation of Risen.

• A good RPG is a rare event, especially compared to busy genres like FPS! One good result of this though is that the games tend to feel more unique. What would you say makes your game individual, what makes it stand out from the crowd?
  
  The atmosphere in Risen is outstanding and so are the possibilities the player can take to succeed. Every action has a consequence in the fantasy world of Risen and another strength of the title is its unique style. You don’t get the feeling that you play another Warhammer, Lord of the Rings or Dungeon & Dragon game because Risen has its own rules and universe which helps the game to be even fresh for seasoned RPG gamers.
  

• Let's talk music – we loved the Nightwish trailer! What's the rest of the score like? What made you choose to go in that direction?
  
  The game score is very different to the Nightwish score we used for the trailer and there is a good reason for that. Risen is a game which will take you many hours to complete and you would be quite stressed out if you would be bombarded by heavy metal scores all the time. Kai Rosenkranz, who composed all the ingame scores and was also doing the sound effects was part of the Gothic series from the beginning and he also delivered new compositions to create the incredible atmosphere in Risen. His style is very suitable for background music which you don’t grow tired of even after many hours of playtime and was the best way to go. The reason why we decided to go for the Nightwish track for our trailer was clearly that we know that many of our Gothic and Risen fans dig this kind of music and once you’ve realized that you have to go for the best.

• We were pretty worried when we heard that the console version was going to be delayed till next year, and very relieved when we found out that it was only delayed in the US! What happened with that, why was it delayed?
  
  The US market is very difficult at this time of the year. The financial crisis as well as the huge Christmas lineup from other publishers made us realize that Risen shouldn’t be “burned” on the market just because the retailers are having tough choices. So we gave the US version a bit more time to prepare for a great release. I would also like to add that the Games for Windows version is not affected by that and will be released for PC in the US as planned.  
  

• How do you feel about being banned in Australia, and would you consider editing the game down to allow release there?

The ruling that Risen was banned in Australia shocked us, no question but we are not going to do a watered down version of the game. The reason why Risen is a great game is its authenticity and even if authorities do not like the fact that brothels existed in the middle ages or that people like adult content, this will not cease to exist. I doubt however that this prohibition will last for very long until someone realizes that there are other urgent problems which need to be solved in this world.

 

• Finally, what's next for the world of Risen? Have you any plans for downloadable content? What about a sequel, is the story told in this game part of a longer story arc?

I would love to tell you but I really can’t because this information is still highly confidential.