The Fall – Last Days of Gaia Diary #1

RPGVault has begun a new set of designer diaries for Silver Style’s upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG, The Fall – Last Days of Gaia. In the first installment, lead designer and Silver Style CEO Carsten Strehse provides an introduction to the game and the studio behind its creation. An excerpt:

In late 2001, Silver Style was still working on Soldiers of Anarchy (SOA), a tactical, squad-based game. Of course, as we came closer to the finalization of the title, we had to discuss about what kind of game we would develop next. We knew we wanted to go for an RPG; the decision to be made was about the setting. It became pretty clear within no time though that all of us found a post-apocalyptic, futuristic background more interesting than a medieval fantasy scenario.

The team also agreed that it should be a party-based rather than a single-character RPG. Having access to several characters not only increases the replay value, it also adds a lot more tactical options to the combat aspect. And while we’re on the battle system, real-time that can be paused manually or automatically was favoured since I found fully turn-based to be too time-consuming for the kind of game The Fall is supposed to be. However, we also worked a simulated turn-based (STB) approach into the game, which I’m going to cover in the next diary entry.