Piranha Bytes Interview

The folks over at World of Risen have doled out a two-page interview with former Piranha Bytes designer Mathias Filler about a range of topics including the video game business as a whole, his current aspirations, the contributions he made to the Gothic and Risen series, and more. An excerpt from the section we care most about:
Has Risen 2 become the game you had planned it to become before? Or has something gone wrong? Wrong, it seems to be to many fans of Gothic... However, maybe the Piranhas have been very happy with the result... or not?

You shouldn't ask that question to me. I've always been one of our strongest critics myself I presume I've the right to do so because I'd been a member of the team that made the mistakes itself. I've never been absolutely satisfied with any of our games - maybe I've become more forgiving over the years. At every project there are things that work well and other things that work poor. Development of cutscenes of Risen 2 has worked very well and this is a part of the game at which I'm very happy with the result.

You'd been a member of the writer team of PB nearly from the very first, we can read your name next to the one of Piranha-founder Mike Hoge at the writers in the credits of Gothic 1. All fans of Gothic are deeply grateful about these dialogues!

Thank you! I'm happy to had been a part of this. Development of Gothic 1 has one of my nicest experiences.

Would you tell us how the situation at the team has changed during the years you'd been working there? Do the goals and attempts have changed over time? And if they have changed how far? Had there been more freedom and independence for you earlier? And by whom does that depend? On the head of the studio or on the publisher?

The point about freedom is nonsense. Everything has become more professional and naturally we all have changed, too. Over the years, old workmates have left the team and new ones have joined consistently and all of them have played their part in the development of our games. The spirit to make a good game had always been noticeable in our team.
Thanks, RPGWatch.