Chris Taylor explains the current focus of his realtime-strategy studio. Dungeon Siege started its life with Gas Powered Games, the first title created by Chris Taylor's then-new design house. Even though Gas Powered no longer works on the series, Dungeon Siege holds a special place in Taylor's heart. Here's why Taylor and the Gas Powered gang are no longer making action-RPGs.
GamePro: Why isn't Gas Powered developing Dungeon Siege 3?
Chris Taylor: Ah, jeepers. We decided we were going to focus our company on RTS games, to "say what you mean and mean what you say." When we started the company, we had no idea how incredibly difficult it was to make RPG games. It took four years to make the first. We then switched to an RTS game. The company got its focus split—people didn't know if we were a RPG company or an RTS company. We made the decision we were a RTS company.
Look at the industry, the Epics or the ids; you see them focusing on one kind of game. There are exceptions—the Blizzards—but you usually see lots of success from companies focusing on one kind of game. Something we realized [is that there are] some sacrifices in doing that. When Square and Obsidian came along, we figured it was a great situation. They are experts in RPGs. If you're going to put your baby up for adoption, you want it to go to great parents.
GP: When did you decide to focus on RTS games?
CT: The decision to focus [on RTSes] was, gosh, as early as...it was probably right after we finished Space Siege [in 2008]. We had this realization we can't keep doing this, going into different directions. Demigod was fine; it stayed within context of RTS and turned out much better for us.
GP: What's your role with Dungeon Siege 3?
CT: I'm kinda this...oh, gosh, what do you say? I'm a consultant. I basically work with the team at Obsidian, more closely at the beginning [as we worked on the] backstory of the world. I read through the documentation. Call it a design lawyer.
GP: What's your take on Obsidian's approach?
CT: I think there's a shift, if you look at the games— Knights of the Old Republic, games Obisidan has worked on—[there is a] trend toward this style, and I think this is the right way to go. The art of the RPG keeps evolving. I'm jealous of BioWare games; they did such a great job on the stories. It sounds obvisous, but they're brilliant, and they really get it. We were more clumsy about mechanics and about dialogue in the early days—we were very tech-focused.
GP: What does Dungeon Siege mean to you?
CT: Let's continue with a child metaphor...think of it as a teenager leaving the house. You still love them. Emotional attachment is huge; it's big. It's the first game we did at Gas Powered Games, and we put everything we had in our heart and our mind into it, pushed every limit. It means it was our first, massive accomplishment as an independent games company. I remember working seven days a week; we went from 12 to 16 hours a day during the last six months because we had to. When you put that much effort into something, you just don't turn and walk away. It's in good hands. That's what makes this process of having Square and Obsidian take the franchise [easier]. Otherwise, it would be a terrible thing if we didn't have such great or talented people working on it
Source: Daily News from GamePro.com
Wednesday, January 12, 2011