Eschalon Trilogy - Basilisk Games Q&A

Dean Moses of Spring Creek Sun has interviewed Thomas Riegsecker of Basilik games: - a snippet:

What games will you be playing this summer? Most likely it will be a blockbuster title from a developer backed by a big-budget publisher, who has—undoubtedly—hurled many thousands of dollars into its creation. But does a train really run better on a track made of dollar bills? Moreover, does it run smoother than the rest of the engines in the yard? Lower budgets do not correspond to bad games. Independent developers are not only making games with lower budgets—they are also creating great ones.

One such studio is Basilisk Games, the developers behind the Eschalon Trilogy. The Spring Creek Sun (SCS) talked to the company’s founder, Thomas Riegsecker about forming an independent company, life in creating games and advice on how to make your own games.

Spring Creek Sun: What motivated you to start up Basilisk Games and become an independent developer?

Thomas Riegsecker: Childhood obsession. Like many kids growing up in the 80’s, I was at the forefront of the video game revolution with the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and the first wave of home computers. Video games were an important part of my life and always have been. Then, sometime around 2005, I found myself jobless and decided it was time to follow my dream of making an RPG (Role Playing Game). It never occurred to me to try to get a job in the game industry. From the beginning, I always knew that the only way I was going to be happy was to start my own game studio, so that I could do what I wanted.

SCS: What were the inspirations behind the Eschalon Trilogy and how did you make it stand out from other RPGs?

TR: I was heavily inspired by the Ultima series of games. You’ll need to be in the 30-and-over crowd to remember those games, but back in the 80’s the greatest computer RPG series in existence was Ultima 1-5. It was a transcending experience to explore the massive, open world of Britannia. That kind of RPG was lost through the years as actionRPGs and MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) took over, and so with Eschalon I wanted to recapture some of that feeling. (...)

Spotted by Couchpotato - Thanks!