Troika's Unannounced Post-Apocalyptic RPG Interview
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GB: Are there any specific ideas or features you always wanted to include in the Fallout franchise that you now have the resources to add in this new post-apoc title? Also, are there any ideas you're trying to stay away from in order to differentiate the game from the previous Fallout titles? Leon: There are quite a few ideas we've tossed around over the years for this type of game (ever since we finished Arcanum, actually) that we'd like to try. They were never really Fallout specific, just things that we think would be great for this style of RPG. We haven't made any design/conceptual decisions about how close or far away from the style of Fallout this game will end up being yet. The strange thing about this is that the feel/environment/style of Fallout is basically our conceptual vision, unedited straight from our gut instincts, so if we were to do anything similar to Fallout in those ways we'd have to be very self conscious to keep from seeming too much like Fallout.
GB: What do you think the fascination is with the gritty war-torn world a post-apocalyptic game portrays? Do you think this type of environment belongs in any genre other than RPG?
Leon: I don't know where the appeal comes from, maybe it's a wild west frontier type of thing the feel of being on your own in a hostile environment with no law but your gun (okay, now we're getting into the cheese). Speaking for me personally, I think I like it so much because I saw the Road Warrior hundreds of times when I was a young, idealistic artist (and not the crotchety, bitter old man I am today).
I think the post apocalyptic genre would be great for any game FPS, strategy, adventure, side scroller (okay, maybe not the last one).
GB: We understand that Troika was very interested in obtaining the rights to Fallout 3. Did you actively seek to obtain the rights from Interplay, or did they approach you to continue the franchise? Looking back, what do you feel were the primary circumstances that led to Bethesda securing the rights to the game instead?
Leon: All I can legally divulge is that Interplay was interested in us doing the game for them at one point in time. It was kind of a mutual thing, we were starting to think about approaching them right at about the time they dropped the hint that they'd be interested in talking about it. For many reasons, I can't go into the details of what we were pursuing with Interplay, but I can say it had seemed dead in the water for a few months when they announced the deal with Bethesda. It wasn't really a matter of Bethesda securing the rights versus Troika securing the rights, the approach we were taking was totally different from the deal they eventually struck with Bethesda. Unfortunately, that's about all I can say about it.
GB: Fallout Online, the MMORPG. Complete stupidity or fantastic idea?
Leon: Sometimes it seems like both. It really all depends on the design, I don't think you can say it's either just on the basis of the idea of doing an MMO Fallout. I think the biggest obstacle with an MMORPG in the Fallout universe is that it's supposed to be a fairly deserted wasteland of a world, and there'd be thousands upon thousands of people running around.
GB: This one's off subject a bit, but is there any chance we may ever see a continuation of either Arcanum or Temple of Elemental Evil? It seems such an intricately prepared world like Arcanum would make for another great game, and I know that Tim was interested in doing a game based on the AD&D module Against the Giants - at least at one time.
Leon: You'd have to talk to the publishers about that. From Troika's point of view, we'd be very interested in continuing either of these, especially Arcanum. However, there's no interest from Sierra or Atari to do either of these projects as far as we can tell.
GB: What's this we hear about four different projects under development at the Troika headquarters? Can we assume that any unannounced titles will be in the RPG genre and most likely be for the PC? Any other subtle hints you can provide us about your upcoming titles?
Leon: As much as we love RPGs, we've always wanted to spread out a bit into other types of games as well, whether they're RPG hybrids or completely other genres. However, RPGs will always be the base of Troika. Each of the four that you're talking about vary in terms of how (hardcore) they are, but each has a lot of Troika RPG elements in them. Some of the proposed projects are PC only, but some are cross platform proposals as well.
We'd like to issue our thanks to Leonard for taking the time to answer our questions!
