Piranha Bytes Interview

RPGWatch is pointing to a translated interview with Piranha Bytes art director Ralf Marcinczik on World of Risen that was originally posted (in German) on a website called Pirahna Club. There isn't much about Risen or Gothic, but it's worth a read nonetheless:
10. What is your inspiration during you work? Are there different things in different works that give you an inspiration?

Absolutely. With "WEISSE LÃœGEN" (translation: "white lies") it was the imagination to live in a time where things that are commonly available to us (like music) were not to get as easy as the push of a button. But where someone had to really sit down to work it out.

In the works for Risen I often search for inspiration in old fotographic travel books.

And for cartoons, I get my inspiration from events in the real world or from the news.