The PEOWW Conference: Mirek Dymek (Reality Pump).

Rich

To this day, PEOWW’s  biggest guilty gaming pleasure is Two Worlds.  An Oblivion-esque RPG romp that justifiably took a lot of criticism due to a whole host of technical problems.  It was released in a fairly shoddy state with a framerate that made EDF look silky, pop-up that seemed to spawn entire continents before your eyes and a crash rate that makes Burnout look a quiet sunday drive in the country. Despite the problems though there was a lot of fun to be had out of the game, especially if you had eight of you playing at once (and if you remembered to turn the grass textures off!) and while it wasn’t a patch on Oblivion, the game it most closely resembles), the item handling and combat were probably a little better in Two Worlds.  It’s not for everybody but a gang of you versus some giant trachidises made for a great gaming experience. A sequel, The Temptation, was announced some time ago and is one of our most keenly awaited games so we had a quick chat with Reality Pump’s CEO, Marik Dymek, to see what they have in store for us this time around.

PEOWW: Hi Mirek and thanks for talking to PEOWW.  Our online community had a lot of fun with Two Worlds and found it to be a very underrated game especially considering how good the multiplayer mode was. What was your reaction to the bad reviews that followed the release of the game?

Mirek: Two Worlds was our first big RPG project. Therefore we didn’t think of making everything perfect right from the beginning. Of course we have had to learn some things the hard way but this is ok. We take a lot of time to analyze the feedback from the press AND the fans. Thus we didn’t think about the bad reviews as negative but take it as an encouragement for the new project.

PEOWW: One of the contributing factors to the bad reviews was talk of Two Worlds being an ‘Oblivion killer’.  Was that description anything to do with yourselves?

No. We build up our information strategy on the game itself. We have enough good arguments for this way. The comparison to other RPG games is all sourced outside the company.

PEOWW: Looking at the positives.  Two Worlds had a huge and varied game world and an entertaining story.  What do you think is more important for games now: a well written andengaging single player story or well balanced mutiplayer experience?

We are going to implement them equally. I think in an up to date RPG both sides must be represented in a way that satisfies all kinds of players. Thanks to our experiences from the first part we can now concentrate on these very important game features much more. Therefore the realisation of a gripping SP story AND a fascinating MP part is within reach.

PEOWW: PEOWW does have a contingent of achievements fans.  The ‘find all locations’ one in Two Worlds caused me particular pain as it took an extra twenty hours to do after finishing the game.  Can we ask you to please, please, please don’t put the same achievement into the sequel!

Two Worlds was our first console project. Therefore we had to gain know-how in this section first. But be sure such things won’t happen in 2WII! We have learned much from our first console project and can act much more versed now.

PEOWW: That said, the achievement did take you to some great locations (the desert and glacier were both beautiful).  The overall graphic design was great on Two Worlds but hampered somewhat by the dodgy framerate and pop-up.  Did this cause any tension between the artists and the coders?  Can we expect a smoother experience in The Temptation?

We will definitely improve the framerate in 2WII. The developers learnt a lot from their first big RPG project and all this knowledge is now used for creating an even better gaming experience. All technical aspects of the game we will be totally new designed. We have even created a new engine which is much more powerful.

PEOWW: Two Worlds had a great special edition package.  What can we expect for TW2? A map, a shirt, soundtrack CD?  Maybe a figurine of the hero’s gothic sister?

Of course we will offer a great special edition package for TWII again. But I can’t tell you anything about the contents right now. Be sure that we will think about something very special to even top the “ingredients” of the first game!

PEOWW:

Yes, this feature will be in the new game too. But we will change some statistics and rules to fit this feature better into the balancing system. For example you have to learn a special skill now to be able to use the stacking system. The more you invest into this skill, the better the stacking will work.

PEOWW: A few things we’d like to see in the new game are; – Summoned creatures to be as powerful as they look!  More than one as well please! – For other magic classes to be as good as the necromancy one (the ‘poison cloud’ spell is by far the strongest in the game). – an easier to manage quest log and clearer map!

Whatever we can do 🙂

PEOWW: When can we expect The Temptation to arrive?  Will it come during the summer games drought or will it be bundled in with the big releases at the end of the year?

It’ll be later on this year. More information will follow soon!