Legends of Eisenwald - Interview

Strategy Informer interviews Alexander Dergay to see what it is that makes his game Legends of Eisenwald a unique offering.

Strategy Informer: Can you tell us in your own words what Legends of Eisenwald is all about?

Alexander Dergay: It’s a mix of RPG and strategy, with a focus on the RPG side of things. The game centres on a rich story and features tactical turn-based combat, exploration, and some simple economic elements. We drew inspiration from games like Disciples 2 – how the units level up, how the world map is explored and the well-designed story-driven campaigns.

We wanted to create a medieval setting which was a grittier and a more real fantasy world; a place where superstitions of historic ages come to life. We don’t have the typical overblown fantastical things like fireballs, elves and orcs. Instead of that, the game is based on real-world folklore; things which people believed in medieval times like werewolves, vampires, witches, herbal healing, and so on.

Strategy Informer: What has been the biggest challenge design-wise?

Alexander Dergay: Well one thing is that we don’t have a single game designer; pretty much everyone in our company participates in the game design. We have two major schools of thought in our company which have conflicted with each other. One is a group of very serious gamers, and then there are people like me who like things not to be quite so hardcore and fun to play. So a big challenge has been reconciling and bringing together those two ways of thinking and finding a compromise between them. In the end I think that everyone is happy with how things are turning out.