Piranha Bytes 15-Year Anniversary Interview and Retrospective

With Piranha Bytes celebrating fifteen years of existence, Gamers.de has slapped up a four-page interview that quizzes the company about their development history and some of the great and unfortunate design decisions that were made along the way:
Gamers.de: A time of change, you had a daring experiment. How you value yourself the result of it? I personally have "Gothic III" always liked and found the conceptual idea awesome. But apparently, the devil is indeed in the details. In retrospect, would you have liked to have done anything differently? Or liked more time?

Piranha Bytes: In retrospect we should have done differently and we certainly much too long engaged in, at which time we can have something better. Eventually, however, we have decided to look forward and to let it be good. Ultimately, "Gothic III" in many ways a valuable experience for us and we have grown it clearly. Organizational especially today we are definitely better prepared. We tend to still want to have any good idea to wander into the game, but not at any price. "Gothic III" has also been our greatest success.

Gamers.de: A lot was going on between the release of "Gothic III" and "Risen" by. Band broke up, new forged. A lost license was turned back and suddenly it is everywhere more grog. Were you satisfied with the new, the old ways are you dealt with "Risen"?

Piranha Bytes: Absolutely, we have taken the opportunity again to do anything else can. Of course we did not want to remove too much from what we are good, so we have to "Risen" a game developed that provides a rich setting and allow our old strengths.

Additionally, PCGamesHardware.de has a retrospective feature that takes us through the company's founding, the development of the Gothic series, and the circumstances that led to the Risen series:
Why Gothic in March 2001 by storm in the heart of the RPG community, but there are probably several reasons. In art, it was not in any case. Gothic was in fact neither especially bugarm still modest in its hardware requirements. This deficiency, however, was wiped out by the overwhelming atmosphere. Even the main plot was solidly in which he transported over the player in a shielded by magic penal colony. Those colony played a crucial role in the campaign against invading Orkarmeen. The endemic and magic ore had in fact very special characteristics - and workers there could be ego is never enough of impending defeat. It was clear that the hero was leaving the field dungeon in the fastest way again. Before we got into this position, you had to first work your althergebracht. These were the main and side quests ready in three different camps. Each with its own ideology. Much more interesting than the actual tasks but was the presentation of quests, NPCs with their own individual who lectured, mostly traditional stories. Not only workers sprayed it a rough Ruhrpott charm that would basically act totally out of place - and yet as chalk and cheese fit into the grafter and warhorse setting.

Off the quest through the characters realistic schedules. Say: They were fighting together after work at the campfire, went to bed, getting up complaining about the hard work and not otherwise stingy to truisms. All the mutated with a picturesque Soundtrack composed by Kai Rosenkranz an atmosphere to fall in love. Convincing the time was also the skill system. Instead of dry, wishful click Tables it offered the player a straightforward yet sophisticated model, where he gained his experience through learning points. The objective was then in matching teachers to use. Together with a portion of ore were so heart's content increase talents as a warrior, hunter, alchemist, mage or thief. Equally unique was the high density of the quest but sufficiently large, but never sprawling game world. Repeatedly was staggered the player to familiar places. This made the area appear much more alive than it ever new loading zones ever could. Speaking of loading zones: there were only Gothic between the outside world and larger dungeons. Who came after a questline back to familiar territory, could also account for small to large changes in the environment. Thus nested about a group musicians in the old camp - the sounds of none other than the medieval band In Extremo come.

Thanks, RPGWatch.