RPGWatch - Legends of Eisenwald Interview

[Couchpotato]

Hello everyone and welcome to my next interview for the new year with the CEO of Aterdux Entertainment, Alexander Dergay. He shares his opinion on the games industry, lessons he has learned with crowd-funding, and the current state of his new game.

Couchpotato: Thank you for agreeing to answer a few of my questions for RPGWatch, and to get started let me ask if you can give a brief introduction of yourself.

Alexander Dergay: Thank you for your interest in our game. I am Alexander, head of Aterdux Entertainment, the studio responsible for Legends of Eisenwald for over five years now. When I discovered Discord Times, the first title of our studio, I was very impressed with how the game turned out and it became my favorite game for many years to come. I considered myself the biggest fan of the game and decided to find the funds and reassemble the team to start working on a spiritual successor.

More information.

 

[Couchpotato]

Well I hope you all enjoy reading the interview, and look forward to Fluent's Gothic II retrospective on Wednesday. I also have another interview ready for this week.

 

[Morrandir]

Thanks, Couch! I've enjoyed reading it.

 

[Pladio]

Potato, good interview.

I have a few questions

Questions:

Alexander mentions money issues. Does this mean the kickstarter and the new money coming has not been enough ?
How does this affect production of the game ? Are developers leaving Aterdux because of it ?

Alexander also mentions wanting game journalists to play the game for 40-50 hours. This is unlikely to happen for most big-time game journalists.
Have they thought of sending out review copies to Let's Play channels (who play TBS games) like Quill18 or Arumba ?

Thank you Potato and Alex.

 

[Aterdux]

Pladio, we don't have money issues now, we will make the game to the full release. Moreover, we found some money for marketing. However, the future after the release is a bit uncertain right now. We have to pay off our investors, few debts and need enough money moving forward. Kickstarter and Early Access money was enough but still got tight since we didn't anticipate delays. No developers are leaving thank God So, all in all - much depends on the release.

The entire campaign in the game takes about 40 hours. If someone is determined to play it fast with no side quests, maybe it can be done in 25-30. I could probably do it 30 now because I know the story. In the first play through it took me 55 or 60, don't remember exactly. So, yes, we realize it's an issue for press but we will try to help them. For example, we can give a save file to play from the beginning of the unreleased content, which is from Windfeld. It doesn't shorten much though, it can take 10-12-15 hours off the total time needed. Hard to make game for players and not for press

We will send review copies to anyone we can. Thanks for mentioning these two channels, I am aware of Quill18 but haven't heard of Arumba.

 

[Pladio]

Thanks for the quick answers.

I hope you do well. These types of TBS/RPGs a la HOMM and KB are quite rare and any new ones usually end up being fun.

Even Discord Times, which I got with the Kickstarter was fun, albeit very difficult

I didn't finish the game, but that's mostly because I felt that there was only one "correct" way to play.

I wish you all the best.

 

[Aterdux]

Thank you. Yes, Discord Times is hard and fun. The only one "correct" way to play you are referring to - is it related to combat or how the story unfolds? Legends of Eisenwald is definitely more varied in both these aspects, we tried really hard to learn from some of the mistakes made there

 

[Ron Obvious]

I love Disciples 2, don't know how many weeks and months i spent playing it when i was a kid. Despite it's somewhat simplistic combat it was still challenging because it was greatly balanced as you progressed through the campaign. This game looks more complex and combat looks more tactical and strategic and i really look forward to playing it.

 

[Aterdux]

Yes, Disciples 2 is really something. When I met Nikolay and Denis for the first time, they told me that game was their greatest inspiration. And I remember it playing for the first time sometime in 2007 but I chose not the saga, but a scenario. It was boring as hell to me (still is) but when I played campaign a week later, it really blew me away. So, back then I became the conscious fan of story-based games

And since then I knew what kind of a game I want to make and luckily both Nikolay and Denis ideas were along the same lines which made working together with them really easy.

 

[Ron Obvious]

I love these type of games but as Pladio already said there aren't many of them so i really
hope LoE does well as it looks very promising. All the best to you guys.

 

[wolfing]

Thanks for the interview, looking forward to playing the game soon (I backed it but I don't play betas).
As for future plans, if you make a new game will you use LoE's engine? I would think that if you do another kickstarter (or however else you decide to fund it), since you now have working engine you should keep using it for new projects and just create new assets like art, music, etc. What other games do you think your engine would adapt easily to? Full fantasy? Space? Steampunk? Oriental? Vikings?

 

[Aterdux]

wolfing, we haven't thought yet about a new game - we have quite a few ideas what to make with this game. Ports will come first but in parallel we will work on new content for an expansion, maybe add more fun features. And as I said, it is a bit hard to plan right now as many things will depend on the release. I think the game should do well but let's wait on the English beta testers opinion, the closed beta for them will start tomorrow...

 

[Dragonx]

I brought the game early access when it was 50% off, its really worth the $10, the graphics is very good and i am mostly hoping the storyline and strategy is top notch, i perfer my games challenging, but only if my hero is allowed to free roam and build up levels and units to come back to fight a hard spot later on. I dislike games that are just hard and theres nothing to make your hero stronger and you must play by the designers rules for each engagement. Games like that i usually give up and toss in the bin.

 

[wolfing]

I brought the game early access when it was 50% off, its really worth the $10, the graphics is very good and i am mostly hoping the storyline and strategy is top notch, i perfer my games challenging, but only if my hero is allowed to free roam and build up levels and units to come back to fight a hard spot later on. I dislike games that are just hard and theres nothing to make your hero stronger and you must play by the designers rules for each engagement. Games like that i usually give up and toss in the bin.

We're opposite in that aspect. I don't like leaving enemies 'for later'. When I move from an area I like to clean it first and never come back (probably one of the things I don't like about Lords of Xulima). Make the battles hard but doable, especially if 'doable' is done via strategy and not grinding.

 

[Aterdux]

Dragonx, we are certainly the first kind of game where you are allowed to free roam in most cases. In a few instances like when you are on the run, you won't have a lot of time on that particular map. In our single scenario Cursed Castle that's a strategy you have to use - run from the big enemies in the beginning, grow your army and fight them when you are ready.

Some players complained though they were wiped out in the first 5 minutes. So we made tutorial for newcomers a mandatory thing

 

[HiddenX]

Thanks for the interview - Legends of Eisenwald is a game I'm really looking forward to play.

 

[Dragonx]

We're opposite in that aspect. I don't like leaving enemies 'for later'. When I move from an area I like to clean it first and never come back (probably one of the things I don't like about Lords of Xulima). Make the battles hard but doable, especially if 'doable' is done via strategy and not grinding.

Revisiting a strong enemy later on is like going back to a dirty woman, i dont mind one bit But your a clean guy so i understand. hehe

 

[Dragonx]

Dragonx, we are certainly the first kind of game where you are allowed to free roam in most cases. In a few instances like when you are on the run, you won't have a lot of time on that particular map. In our single scenario Cursed Castle that's a strategy you have to use - run from the big enemies in the beginning, grow your army and fight them when you are ready.

Some players complained though they were wiped out in the first 5 minutes. So we made tutorial for newcomers a mandatory thing

Actually thats great, i think overall i perfer a combination of both game designs. Just more 60% towards the free roaming part is my cup of tea. I hope your game does well, i pretty much only play turned base rpgs only, starting with Ultima 6 and then everything else later on. My current Faves are Xenonauts, Wasteland 2, realms of arkania hd remastered, expedition conquistador are the current ones im playing and have yet to finish, i tend to jump back and forth between my games but will finish them eventually. I hope your game is released soon i usually perfer my first playthrough to be the full release. I think Legends of Eisenwald is the more complex game design besides Xenonauts and the graphics is probably on par with wasteland 2 which had a much higher budget, so heres hoping you sell a million copies in the future=]

 

[Aterdux]

Actually thats great, i think overall i perfer a combination of both game designs. Just more 60% towards the free roaming part is my cup of tea. I hope your game does well, i pretty much only play turned base rpgs only, starting with Ultima 6 and then everything else later on. My current Faves are Xenonauts, Wasteland 2, realms of arkania hd remastered, expedition conquistador are the current ones im playing and have yet to finish, i tend to jump back and forth between my games but will finish them eventually. I hope your game is released soon i usually perfer my first playthrough to be the full release. I think Legends of Eisenwald is the more complex game design besides Xenonauts and the graphics is probably on par with wasteland 2 which had a much higher budget, so heres hoping you sell a million copies in the future=]

Thanks for complimenting ou graphics Nikolay, our technical director is promising improvements, so keeping fingers crossed. We played too much with the shaders and the look of the game and the current shaders while not bad, are still not the best.

I prefer turn based games with a story. It's a huge pity that combat in Kings Bounty games got so boring after several years, that's the game I really liked and our combat design is influenced by it a lot. We not only want the combat being fun, we don't want to bore people with it in the long term.

And sales will depend not only on the game but on press too. We will see. I was rather upset in the summer with our delays in development, sales were dropping, money was getting tight, and still there was no end in sight. Now not only the content is done, we already started to polish the game, and it looks better with each patch. So, 0.99 version is for a reason there. A few more patches and we are done!

 

[Gilliatt]

Thank you both for the interview. Looking forward to the game.

I tried the Discord Times demo a few years ago. I almost bought it, but was turned away by the bad translation. If that problem is solved in LoE, I don't see how I could not love it.