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In Barcelona our David Caballero got chained up with studio head Reinhard Pollice and lead game designer Javier Untoria to get an update on Gothic Remake and its progress since the demo we got to play at Gamescom, which left us wanting to learn more about aspects such as player choice, dialogue, or combat.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, we are in this Gothic environment to talk about Gothic Remake, which we played at Gamescom, and I'm here joined by a couple of members of the studio, and first of all I wanted to ask you as a studio head, what was the feedback you gathered at Gamescom with the demo you brought there?
I don't know if it's the same demo people are playing here."
"So it's a similar demo, it's the same content but it's updated.
So we worked especially on all the feedback to address it.
So feedback is very important for us, we try to analyze it and understand where it comes from.
We had a lot of conversations also with players at Gamescom to try to understand, for example, there was feedback about the combat, right?
And for us it was like, okay, so what do you mean exactly about the combat is, for example, not reactive enough?
And via that we came to the root cause of the problem, and I think we updated it in a great way, and we have an updated demo here that we are showing here for the first time, which addresses a lot of the feedback that players are giving at Gamescom."
"All right, and one big thing about this game is choice for players.
So what can you tell me has been the progress so far in that specific aspect that is so vital to the game's success?
So we want to give the player all the possible choices."
"So we keep with the story, the player has choices for almost everything.
I mean, they can solve the quest as they want, they can, in dialogue, in the story, everything is done already, so we are policing, we are getting there because the game is in very good progress."
"So our idea is to get that.
Also for the way of playing, we want to add and give choices for the player.
Like, they can play as they want, so we improve the combat, the magic, and all the ranged combat.
So our idea is, okay, this is an action RPG in an open world, so the player can go wherever, talk whenever, all the decisions make matters in the game."
"So this is the state.
Like, we are going in that direction to give the most variety of options to the players.
And also what happened in between Gamescom and now is that we have done all the voice recordings, which we are integrating now and making sure that all the reactions the player does in the game properly also have a reaction from the NPCs and have a proper voice."
"And to this, that it really feels like very natural.
And the two things you mentioned, choices and voice recording, take me to dialogue.
So specifically, because you can make choices in the game not only from dialogue, but of course dialogue is important and branching dialogue and conversations."
"So how do you work on this specific aspect? Who wants to answer this?
On the writing to make sense, on the different branching options, and how deep do you go into the rabbit hole?
Okay, when we start with a decision for the player, what we do is think about, okay, how many options we want, how many ways to solve the problem we have in mind, because always the player will find new ones."
"But you can go by, for example, you can go by a dialogue way, or you can go by lying to the people.
We give the player all the options.
The idea is like, we have many, many routes for that.
So the idea is, once we have this, we go with the writings, and always thinking about the character of the players."
"Because it's super important, it's one of the things that we are having here, like you feel they are in a penal colony, so the people are not nice to you, the people can lie to you.
So that's the idea."
"Everything is able to the player, and we want to give all the choices.
We have to skip the rabbit hole and not go to that point, because it's a danger there.
But the idea is always to give the most possibilities."
"And always, with the QA, we have even new opportunities.
And when I met Dani in Malaga for Gamelab, we talked a little bit about the Baroque inspiration, and the way you wanted to work with light, etc."
"I know this is more to be talked with him, but now that we are closer to release, do you think you achieved that sort of style, in the way you guys use graphics, light, etc.?
I think in general, yes."
"I think we are still fine-tuning a lot of the details, and trying to improve even further on a lot of the details, on the fine, smaller effects, to make it look very good.
But I think in general, you can see that, for example, our night in the game is really dark."
"You will see nothing if you don't use a torch.
But if you use a torch, it's very rewarding, because you will feel like, oh, my torch really has an impact.
And for us, it's important that it's not just stopping there, because you can also put the torch in the ground, so you can illuminate different areas."
"And the final one is for you.
We are, as I said, closer and closer to release.
If I'm correct, is it still going to be early next year?
We don't have a date set in stone."
"No date announced, but early means in the first Q1, on PC and PlayStation and Xbox.
We are working hard to optimize it really well on all formats, even on the Xbox Series S."
"Even the Xbox Series S?
So it would make sense to bring it to the Switch 2 as well?
I don't think so.
Switch 2 is a great console, but I think you have to have a different development approach."
"We are trying to push the limits for the current generation of consoles, and I think the Switch 2 is not at that level, unfortunately.
Fantastic. Looking forward to playing a little bit of this.
You got me in chains, so you got me hooked to the game."
"Good luck with the project, good luck with release, and enjoy the show.
Thank you."
