Eschalon: Book I Interview

If you’ve been playing PC role-playing games for more than a decade, then you’ve certainly noticed a massive shift in the way mainstream CRPGs play over the years.  Turn-based combat has been brushed aside in favor of real-time (with pause!), interesting and well-written dialogue trees have been replaced with short, meaningless responses, and every quest or puzzle has been fine-tuned to ensure that your average chimpanzee can conquer the game without breaking a sweat.

All is not lost, however. It’s because of this shift that independent CRPG developers have started to become much more prominent. Basilisk Games is one such developer, where a very small team of programmers, artists, and designers have taken it upon themselves to develop a trilogy of games that mimics much of the gameplay we would have expected from an RPG twenty years ago. If that sounds like a welcome change to you, then you’ll want to hear what lead programmer Thomas Riegsecker had to say about the first game in the series, Eschalon: Book I…

GB: For those visitors who are unfamiliar with Eschalon: Book I, can you give us a brief summary of the game’s development history and what sort of style and play experience you’re hoping to achieve with the game?

Thomas: The game has been in a conceptual stage for many years but didn’t start actual development until early 2005. Since then our design goal for this project has been to create a classic role-playing experience similar to the types of RPGs produced for computers during the 80’s and early 90’s. We are drawing a lot of inspiration from the early Ultima series, Might & Magic series, and Wizardry series.

GB: How many people are actually working on the game? Do you feel that you’ll be in a position to release the game by the end of the year?

Thomas: Our core team is three guys, but right now I personally put most of the work in the game day to day, being the only true full-time developer on the project. The other two guys have contributed to the overall design and testing from the start and we’ve had numerous donations of game assets over the past 2 years, so it’s hard to give an exact number of people who have contributed to the game.

As for when we’ll be done, I certainly hope it’ll be completed before the end of the year! In fact I have been forecasting completion sometime later this summer, but I have slipped on almost every date I have ever set for the game so I refuse to give a solid release date. However things are looking really good right now and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

GB: Eschalon: Book I is described as drawing its inspiration from “great role-playing games of the past.” What is it about the current crop of role-playing games that made you decide to go for a “classic” experience? Why do you think the larger developers and publishers have shyed away from anything other than action-oriented RPGs?

Thomas: Well, I think the biggest problem with the current crop of RPGs is that publishers are continually looking to get bigger returns on their investments, and to do so developers must make a game that is going to attract the largest possible customer base. To achieve this, RPGs have become simpler and more action-oriented over the years. Today’s RPGs must compete for market share with first-person shooters and third-person adventure games, and they do this by eliminating most of the complexity inherent to the genre. Publishers don’t seem to care that the hard-core RPGers who gave birth to the role-playing genre are the very customers they are squeezing out of their sales. These RPG enthusiasts are looking for a true role-playing experience, not a medieval version of Halo.

GB: Take us through the game’s character creation system. How much customization will players have at their disposal while creating their character? Also, what effect will the player’s Origin and Axiom choices have during the course of their adventure?

Thomas: We tried to make the character creator as close to a pen-and-paper experience as possible. We want the player to feel as if they are crafting a brand new character rather than having to select from a prefabricated stereotype. To that end you have full control over skill selection, point distribution, character attributes and more.

Your character’s Origin is simply a personal trait identifying his homeland, which grants him certain attribute bonuses similar to a racial selection in other RPGs. The Axiom stat is very similar to the Alignment stat from D&D, though we tried to make it more practical and less restrictive. Basically, it grants one beneficial trait and one negative trait based on your character’s personal belief system. For example, if you select the Atheistic Axiom, then your character chooses to not believe in superstitions or divinity of any kind, and so he is immune to curses. However, this also makes him immune to the beneficial effects of blessings or healing via a priest.

Thomas: The spell system has been separated into two realms of magic: Elemental and Divination. Elemental spells cover anything that is a manipulation of the physical world: earth, air, water, and fire. Divination spells cover the spiritual, metaphysical and organic realms. Every spell can be cast at one of 6 power levels, so spells acquired early on can grow with your character and remain useful throughout the game. The selections of spells available from both realms of magic cover the entire gamut of classic RPG magical effects, from generating fireballs to charming your enemies to curing diseases.

The Alchemy system is simple but very useful. Each potion is made from a combination of Reagents and Reactants, which you can find or purchase throughout the game world. Your skill level in Alchemy determines the power of the potion you can create, with more advanced potions like Invisibility requiring more skill to create than, say, a basic healing elixir. When your skill is advanced enough you can also apply certain mixtures to weapons and armor to imbue them with additional strength or effects. Recipes for potions can be found throughout the game and we expect people will start to trade recipes online once new combinations are discovered.

GB: Will our character only have access to a set number of skills or can we potentially become at least somewhat proficient in all of the game’s skills? Will we be allocating a specific number of skill points when our character levels up or can we become more proficient in a skill simply by using it enough?

Thomas: You can utilize any skill that you want while developing your character; there is no class limitation to the skills you can possess. The system we use is decisively old-school: when you level, you are given points to (spend) on skills, either raising the skills you currently possess or purchasing new ones. Actually using these skills though game play does not raise your proficiency in them; only through manual point allocation does the skill improve.

GB: Will there be any sort of synergy between skills of a like nature? For example, will a master of short bladed weapons automatically possess at least some skill with long bladed weapons?

Thomas: There are no synergies between skills as you have described, but there are synergies between skills and attributes. In the example you mentioned, being a master of short-bladed weapons will not grant you any skill with a Long Sword, however the same attributes that contribute to your mastery of the short blade (Strength, Speed and Concentration) also mean that you can be somewhat proficient with a Long Sword even if you do not possess that skill. Along that same idea, Rogues who develop their Dexterity in order to pick locks better will also tend to have better-than-average proficiency with a bow, even if they are not actually skilled in the use of bows.

GB: Tell us a bit about how inventory management will work in the game. Will there be a limit to the number of items we can carry, regardless of our current encumbrance?

Thomas: We calculate the weight of your inventory as your main limitation, not necessarily the volume of what you are carrying. I think there are close to 100 item slots in your inventory so it is more likely that you will hit your encumbrance limit before you fill up your backpack, since all items are represented by a single icon and take up just one slot.

Once you near the point of encumbrance, you begin to suffer penalties to your combative and defensive abilities. At 100% encumbrance your character can no longer move and you’ll be forced to drop items. Excess items can be stored in empty containers (chests, coffins, etc.) for players who’d rather horde items rather then sell their surplus.

Thomas: Most of the containers in the game pay out random loot, but of course we hand place quest items or when we want specific pay outs, like making sure the chest in the alchemist’s shop contains only reagents and not weapons.

Since every item in the game is hand crafted, magical enhancements to items are well controlled. However, there is a bonus randomizer for weapons and armor so that 1 out of every 20 items has a plus enhancement to it. So for example you may find a Long Sword +2 or Steel Gauntlets +1, with these bonuses either enhancing the base damage of weapons or the protection rating of armor.

{loadposition content_adsense250}GB: What can we expect from the game’s quest system? Will there be multiple ways to complete each quest (such as combat and non-combat approaches) and is there some type of journal that keeps track of what steps we’ve completed for each quest?

Thomas: Each quest has a specific goal, but it is often up to you how to best achieve that goal. If you are told that you need to enter a specific location but there is a locked door in your way, it is up to you to determine the best method for your character to open that door. Bash it down? Pick the lock? Cast a spell to melt the lock? Search for the key? That part of the quest is up to you.

There is a quest journal that tracks what quests you have been given. In the journal contains a brief description of what you need to do to complete the quest, but that is all you are given. There is no arrow pointing you to your destination. We don’t hold the player’s hand and direct them to their goal; we want players to explore and discover on their own.

GB: Are you still planning on developing a trilogy of Eschalon games? If so, will all three games share a similar look, feature set, and storyline?

Thomas: Definitely! We are already excited about Book II because of all the great ideas that we didn’t have time to get into Book I. The big question is whether we want to use this engine for the next game or go with a new engine altogether. Either way we’ll try to keep the look as similar as possible between all three games.

The series will share the same game world and rule set. The storyline for all three games are loosely connected through global events; it’s important that you don’t have to be familiar with Book I to enjoy Book II or III. For that reason Book II will not be a direct continuation of Book I’s storyline but rather a tangent of it based on the events that transpire in the first game. We are planning to allow character imports from the first game to the second.

GB: Once Book I is finished, what are your plans for distributing the game and supporting it over the long-term?

Thomas: Primarily we are going to distribute the game ourselves via digital download, as well as offer a limited edition CD version that we will ship directly ourselves. Other options are being looked into and we have received several offers for retail distribution and other online portals, but so far none of these offers have been very appealing to us. If this changes, we’ll let everyone know.

As for supporting it, of course we’ll be here to respond to tech issues and patch up any problems that slip through beta testing. This is a trilogy that we are excited to see mature over the next several years, culminating into the release of all the tools that we used to make the games.

Thanks Thomas! We’re definitely looking forward to beginning the trilogy later this year.