Knights of the Chalice 2 Interview

Heroic Fantasy Games’ Pierre Begue recently had a little chat with RPG Codex, talking about his upcoming cRPG Knights of the Chalice II, the game’s content, visuals, encounter design, Kickstarter campaign, and more. As with most things RPG Codex, the interview is fairly detailed and informative, so if you’re interested in Knights of the Chalice II, you should check it out. A few sample questions:

1) Let’s start with a question people ask time and again. And then again. When will KotC1 be released on Steam/GOG/EPIC Games store/insert other game store of your choice?

As soon as possible. Several people have said that I should get KotC 1 on Steam and GOG before launching a Kickstarter campaign. I’ve just finished making a trailer for KotC 2. Now I want to make a trailer for KotC 1 and a few extra videos for KotC 2. I need a good KotC 1 trailer in order to make a proper release on the game stores. Also, I’d like to fix a number of small errors in the KotC 1 code. And I know that for Steam, some extra code needs to be added.

2) Taking a look at the KotC2 FAQ and seeing the sheer number of classes, feats and spells listed, it’s obvious the game is significantly more complex than KotC1. Great complexity usually goes hand in hand with a propensity for bugs. How do you tackle this challenge? Do you have any plans for an extended beta period, perhaps within the Steam Early Access framework after the Kickstarter is done?

Yes, it’s true that complexity goes hand in hand with bugs. But I’ve already spent a long time fixing bugs in KotC 2, based on the principle that ‘I fix it as soon as I see it’. So I think that the game is quite stable now. I expect that most of the remaining bugs will be associated with spells and psionic powers that I’ve not been able to test sufficiently so far. I’ll fix all the remaining bugs once I get bug reports after the end of the Kickstarter campaign. After that, we can have a proper launch of KotC 2 Augury of Chaos on Steam. Steam Early Access is probably not needed in this case.

3) Unlike KotC1 the new game will feature skills, including social skills, a substantial amount of them actually. How important are those skills gameplay-wise? Where do they find application?

Skills are important as they give you access to more dialogue options. These extra dialogue options often grant benefits to the player’s party. For example, with the [Nature] skill, you may be able to identify monster tracks, allowing the party to avoid being surprised when the monsters attack. You may also be able to collect herbs that allow the party members to recover Hit Points or their daily spells and psionic powers. With the [Mantis Light Sleep] skill, you may avoid a surprise attack taking place when the party is resting. At one point in the game, a Coven of Witches demands some blood from the party. Gameplay-wise, it means losing some Hit Points permanently. But if you have the [Bard Perform] skill, you can use it to avoid losing Hit Points. The party will not get blocked if it lacks any particular skill, but having more skills may make the experience more enjoyable.

4) Will the Augury of Chaos module be as rich an adventure as the first Knights of the Chalice, or is it more of a demo for the modding tools?

Augury of Chaos is as substantial an adventure as KotC 1, featuring many hours of gameplay. While there are fewer locations in Augury of Chaos than in KotC 1, areas in Augury of Chaos are packed with more content than areas in KotC 1. Combat encounters in Augury of Chaos typically take more time than in KotC 1 because enemies often come in waves. You cannot assess the difficulty of a battle simply by looking at the opponents that the party is facing in the first round, because more enemies may appear in subsequent rounds. More so than in KotC 1, in Augury of Chaos certain decisions taken by the player may have a large impact on how the rest of the adventure unfolds. You start thinking ‘What would happen if I did things differently?’, which gives a reason for playing the game again with a different party making different choices. Also, while KotC 1 only has a few puzzles, Augury of Chaos is packed with non-combat challenges. There are secret messages for the player to decode, riddles to answer and various other puzzles and non-combat situations to resolve.