During E3 2006 we had a chance to talk to Akella about their upcoming
Disciples III. For those of you new to the series, it's in the same
genre as the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Large scale strategic
choices combined with small scale tactical battles.
We're doing this interview in cooperation with our affiliate Tacticular
Cancer, and we thank them for providing us with most of the questions.
We'd also like to thank Akella for taking the time to talk to us, and
answering the most important questions fans had.
First of all, can you tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Alexander, and I'm the associate
producer of Disciples III series in Akella. I'm responsible for the
cooperation between Akella (worldwide publisher), Strategy First
(North-American publisher) and .dat (developer). I'm mainly doing the
stuff that is being distributed between the partners. Akella has
several in-house producers, and I’m responsible looking after the
license for Akella. I'm responsible for beta testing here, and English
beta testing being done by Strategy First or partners.
Will you have a public beta test?
We will probably have a public beta, but not yet.
We haven't developed the schedule yet, but we’ll be starting a beta
test somewhere around fall. We'll also have competitions and the likes
to attract the hardcore gamers and fans.
What do you think are the core features of the earlier games, and how will you improve on them?
First of all it was turn-based strategy. It's a
very interesting genre, and very popular amongst certain gamers. We're
not planning to destroy the genre, or even revolutionize it. We're
planning to do a very good game in the genre that will please the fans.
For us the important strategy for developing Disciples III is to create
a game that can be recognized on the basic principles of Disciples I
and II, but we want to enlarge the game. You can do everything you
could do in Disciples II for instance, but there will be more options.
More spells, more units and more features. We also want to expand on
the graphics, to get more realistic environments, as you can see in the
trailer. For the units there are very detailed models that feature
thousands of polygons, up to 20 000 for some of them. This is something
that is usually not seen in the strategy genre, but is more common in
for instance the cRPG genre. You'll be able to control how your units
advance.
Will the graphics engine be a resource hog then?
Yes, we have some 160 models in the game. They,
especially the leaders, will be very detailed. You can swap the
equipment for the heroes, and it will be displayed on the model itself.
When you switch helmets in any RPG for instance, you'll see the change
in the game. For units that are not exactly lordlike, meaning those
that are not heroes but normal creatures, you will see the change in
armour and weaponry.
Disciples 3's races are the Empire, the Damned, and the Elves. What happened to the Dwarves and the Undead?
The races are not gone - they were not deleted
from the lore, they are still in the game. What we talk about in the
press release is that there will be 3 playable races. We have several
leaders that will be available from other races in certain missions.
We'll also have creatures from those races at the map sometimes,
depending on the mission.
How will these races differ from each other? How will they differ from previous games?
In a way we are not trying to change the whole
look of the game, though we are of course changing some parts. If we
are talking about the empire and the demonic legions for instance, they
will remain close to how the previous lore portrayed them. The Empire
moved on to become a little more military church / state. The ruler of
the Empire...no, I can't say more about the plot now. It will be
slightly different. For the elves for instance, we're trying to make
them a little more like in cRPGs. A little sexier, a little more
different from the Empire, as wasn't seen in the previous games.
What sort of unit upgrade paths will we see (i.e. Squire into Witch-Hunter or Knight, etc)?
We've taken the entire Disciples II allocation
and upgrade model for Disciples III. This is partly due to the limited
time we have for the project, and partly due to the coming beta test.
Then, during beta testing (since we improved the game somewhat) we'll
make changes and balance things to come up with our model. What
abilities will change, what models will change and so on. So yes, the
paths will be the same, but we will alter and balance it to suit our
game.
Will city building work the same as before? What structures can be built and what do they do?
Yes, they will be working as they did previously,
though now all the buildings are three dimensional structures. They are
very good models, so even if you zoom close you'll see very beautiful
models. We also have very good textures and animations for everything
that's around. This will give you the impression that this is real, and
not just a picture or artwork.
How will the city sieges play out?
(Laughs) Eh, we haven't decided yet, so you may
just as well skip the issue. We're currently testing how the combat,
initiative and movement work, so we need to determine that before we
implement the siege equipment and scenarios.
Lords can now use magic on the battlefields as well as on the maps. Why the change?
We felt that using certain spells during combat
would add a dimension to the battles. Certain spells should have been
used in combat in the previous Disciples games. In Disciples II there
were some spells that affected combat only. There were summoning spells
that affected the strategic map only, but there were also several
spells that damaged or hurt enemy units, or gave some benefit to your
units. They should have been used in battle, as there were no reasons
for them to be used outside combat.
Will the spells used on the strategic maps be the same as the ones used on the battlefields? What sort of spells will there be?
It's hard to expand on this issue at the moment.
Of course there will be changes. We've taken all the spells that were
there previously, and redesigned some of them because there were some
spells that were never ever used. Either because they were only useful
in very special situations or because there were better spells all
together.
So you are trying to make all spells count now?
Yes, we want all spells to be viable for different situations - different weapons or different creatures.
How about the difference between factions?
Well, they certainly will focus on different sorts of magic.
You've mentioned the use of a timer-based system in
combat, even in singe-player. Why did you implement this and how will
it work? How does initiative fit into this?
(Editors note: The timer-based system was just a
misunderstanding. Disciples III will use a normal turn-based system
with initiative, somewhat similar to the Heroes 5 system) Yeah, it's a
turn-based system where initiative is the parameter that determines the
order.
So it's fairly similar to the system Heroes 5 use then?
Yeah, in a way, because this sort of system is
taken from Japanese RPGs. I already told you that there were an
initiative system in Disciples II that could enable a creature with
lower initiative to act first in some cases. This was rarely seen by
the player however, and we want it to be clear and understandable in
Disciples III.
Do you think that a turn-based strategy game is still viable in today's market?
Yes, for many reasons. First of all, they are
very good looking and interesting. They are not fast paced, so people
can enjoy a turn here and there, without the problem of having to play
long sessions. Secondly, the game structure is very well balanced and
easily played. We're not talking about 20 hour game play, but games
that can take maybe a couple of hours, or duels where you just fight
between certain groups of units. We're trying to improve on the genre
by introducing lots of very good looking models and graphics. We're
trying to keep the style of Disciples II, that gloomy dark style of
Renaissance, picturesque art. It's not like the fantasy that's done in
Heroes 5, where you see just colourful picture, but dark and very
dramatic.
Do
you think there's a difference of how well turn-based games sell in
different regions of the world? (e.g. turn-based games sell well in
Russia)
Well, the Russian market is very similar to the
European market. It's more reliant on PC than on consoles, and
turn-based strategy games are an important part of it. We're pretty
much sure it's a good thing to have several quality brands on the
market - games like Disciples III, Heroes V and Civilization 4. Adult
audiences play these games, and they sell very well - especially if
they are well balanced. We're making this game for the adult audience
that likes these games.
Heroes of Might and Magic V, an extremely
anticipated game, is due to be released soon. How will you compete
against it? What advantages will Disciples 3 have over it?
Well, since Heroes 5 will be released soon, it's
about the timing really. I do hope that Heroes 5 will sell well,
because Nival are Russians even if they are our competitor. The games
have a somewhat similar audience, but Disciples III will be released
later in the year and aim at a slightly different part of the audience.
We're planning on doing the game slightly different from the previous
Disciples and Heroes 5. We'll focus more on the RPG elements, and make
you more attached to the creatures. There will be much more growth for
the heroes and creatures than seen in the Heroes games. The Heroes
games have taken the classical approach, the paperdoll model and so on.
In Disciples III you'll see the changes when using different gear.
We've evaluating a possibility to create a random item generator, where
there will be a staggeringly huge number of items available.
So we can conclude that if Heroes 5 sells well, this is good for Disciples?
Yeah, we believe so. The games can be compared,
even if they focus on slightly different segments of the market. The
Disciples series is for a little more adult audience if I can say that.
You will get a stronger attachment to your hero, as you follow the same
hero much of the way. In Disciples II for instance, you played the same
hero all the way through the campaign. Not just that, you could also
play them by exporting the hero to single and multiplayer missions. In
the Heroes games you can't do that, and there's no reason to call your
hero by name like you would in an MMO for instance. In Disciples III
you can play with your hero for many months after you finish the
campaign if you wish, or create different builds of him. You can keep
the progress in the exported hero, but change him. This is what we want
to introduce into the genre.
How far along is the development?
We're doing technical testing now. We're also
creating missions to test the balance and so on. The schedule for this
is being set up, but first we'll do in-house testing. After the beta
test we might do a public beta test, depending on the schedule and how
the testing goes. The marketing campaigns will accompany beta-testing
so that we can get different players into it. We want the hardcore
players to help find bugs, balance issues and exploits. We also want
casual players to produce different sorts of questions, like how easy
it is to get into and so on.
So you're aiming at a Q4 (October-December) 2006 release?
Yeah, that's right. We need to do at least two
months of beta testing prior to the release, so therefore we aim for a
Q4 release.
I can also add to the previous question that we'll have to closely
cooperate with Strategy First for the beta test. We don't want only
Russian language beta testers. There are large fan communities in other
countries as well, so we want to beta test it in several countries. We
don't want anyone to feel alienated from the testing.
Speaking of language, do you have good translators for other languages like English?
Yeah, we have Russia's largest localization team.
We've been awarded for that two years in a row at our developers
conference in Moscow. We're doing localization for many other games,
both Russian to English and wise versa. We are currently busy doing
localization for Everquest and have successfully launched Russian
version of the critically - acclaimed Planetside from Sony Online.
Plus, they are planning, as far as I know, to have a French version of
the game.
What's the relationship between Akella, Strategy First, and .dat in the development process? In other words, who does what?
.dat is the development team. They are
responsible for all artwork, information and so on that we need for
marketing. Akella is the world wide publisher, except for the
North-American territories. There are several producers at Akella that
oversee the progress and development at .dat, and oversee and get
approval with the license holder Strategy First. There is a close
cooperation between the three partners, and there are different
information flows between them. .dat often discusses things with
Strategy First that we don't really need to know about, like gameplay
issues and such. While here for instance (at E3), we're presenting the
game and a video to the media and publishers as the company that will
do the worldwide publishing.
How large is the developer team at .dat?
The present number of employees working on the
game is 22 people. Most people work for them in-house, but there is
also some outsourced work, like music.
Speaking of .dat, why use the relatively untested Virtual Dream engine for such a high-profile project?
I'm not sure I can tell much about the engine, as
I haven't been involved with it before - I hadn't seen it before we
started working on Disciples III. For us it is looking pretty good, and
we don't have any problems with it. .dat knows this engine well, and
can work efficiently and flexibly with it. It would be more trouble to
use some sort of middleware engine for them. Right now they can do
anything they want with the engine as long as it's good for the game.
Have you listened to any fan input on this? What's their reaction so far to the project?
Yeah, we did. We're checking the forums, and the
response from the development team was very fast after we announced the
game. Both Akella's forums and different strategy forums around the
web. The response was very quick after the video hit the Internet, and
we're reading it. The fans were very concerned with some issues like
movement on the maps, especially the combat maps. It wasn’t previously
in Disciples. We'll have both in Disciples III, so you can choose
between how it was in Disciples II and movement in combat. The fans was
concerned that combat wasn't dynamic, and we're addressing that.
Strategy First already gathered a huge document for us on Disciples
III, with feedback from fans through their own website and mail after
it was announced. There was little direct feedback on Disciples III
before it was announced, because no one knew it was in development.
How about feedback of what people liked and disliked in Disciples II?
The lead programmer and lead artist of Disciples
III are huge fans of the Disciples series, and they really wanted to do
the next game in the series along with the rest of the development
team. They know all the exploits, drawbacks and so on of the previous
games. They showed us lots of things we didn't know of, lots of
balancing issues and exploits of the previous games we didn’t know of
as a publisher - things that the fans discovered after playing the
games for a long time. So yes, we're using the fan feedback, and that's
the reason we're changing some features as I've spoken of earlier.
We'll also get lots of information during the beta test, and we're
getting lots of information from Strategy First.
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Latest Comments
Posted by Slaughter 15 Jun 2006 - 9:49pm
Posted by baby arm 2 Jun 2006 - 3:26pm
Posted by Slaughter 2 Jun 2006 - 1:17pm
Well, I'm glad to see them keeping that straight as I'm sure we've all had more than enough of the customary black and white, clear-cut, fantasy archetypes.
::
However (and nice as the adoption of a 3D engine might be) I'm probably still going to miss the lavish, hand-drawn art outlook, present in Disciples II...
Posted by Thorondor 2 Jun 2006 - 11:20am