Interview Dirk P. Hassinger – Reality Pump (english version)
Hi ! It’s been a while since we heard something about the Two Worlds Franchise ! Why did you come back with three add-ons instead of directly release Two Worlds III ?
During the concept development of Two Worlds III, the most team members have no tasks. It makes best sense to employ them with DLCs for Two Worlds II while another part of the team creates the concept for Two Worlds III. This also gives us the possibility to try out some ideas and features we have for the next full game and we can train some new people on the job.
Call of The Tenebrae seems to had a pretty long development and suffered from many reports, is the add-on more ambitious than it was planned ?
Yes. It was planned as a 3 month development, but it came out that it will bigger as planned and we needed to solve some technical issues. After 10 months we still do not have a save release date yet. On the other hand we have no obligation against a publisher to push it out.
It may be too soon to ask but, what will be the length of the add-on ?
This is – like always with an RPG – difficult to answer. Depending on the players way to play it, it should take between 6 and 20 hours to explore it. Maybe a bit more.
The communication about the project is quite quiet, is there a reason to this ?
We have no PR manager, but this will change soon. So far, our publishing partners have been responsible for communication, but all of them have bite the dust. Now we are doing everything by ourselves and we have to find the right people for tasks which have been handled by publishers and distributors before.
Will the solo add-on Call Of The Tenebrae and Shattered Embrace be a kind of link between Two Worlds II and Two Worlds III ? For example, Pirates of the Flying Fortress didn’t have any connection with the main scenario.
Different from Pirates of the Flying Fortress the new DLCs will continue the initial story line. You will meet Dar Pha again and some other charaters of the main game. But I would not name this a link between Two Worlds II and Two Worlds III.
Should we wait for new fonctionnalities in this add-on or is it an adding of more content ?
It depends what your mean with « new functionalities » . You can expect new RPG adventures, new enemies, weapons, items, main and side quests. The new locations have improved graphics with more hires textures and 3D models.
I read somewhere that the multiplayer add-on was on the way, will it come with a rebalance of the actual multiplayer content ?
We don’t see any reason for rebalancing the actual multiplayer content. We will add new adventures and maps, new enemies and items.
Now we know that Two Worlds II will have a new Xbox One version, what will be on this version except the vanilla game and Pirates of the Flying Fortress ?
Call Of The Tenebrae will be included and visual appeal will be better than on the last console generation.
I suppose that release a game on the curent generation open new doors, are you thinking about releasing the first Two Worlds which is still very appreciated by the gamers ?
No. Two Worlds I is in the backward compatibility program and will only be playable on Xbox One, but unchanged.
Is the french community can wait french subtitles for Call Of The Tenebrae in a more or less long periode of time ?
Unfortunatly not in an official release. The installed base of Two Worlds II in France is, due to the bad performance of the former french distributor, very small compared with all other territories. A french localization is too expensive compared with the expected revenue. Maybe some fans will translate it.
In March 2016, we learned that Two Worlds III was in pre-conception, is the project going well or is the priority on the adding for Two Worlds II ?
Pre-conception means work on story, features, sketches – this is going well, but needs time. As said, people working on a game concept are mostly not the same as the people working on DLCs. So the priority is eqal for both.
You may not decide it yet but which price can we expect for the Xbox One version of Two Worlds II, and if possible, have you got a windows release in mind ?
Xbox One pricing is not set by now. By now we only set the price for Two Worlds II – Call Of The Tenebrae to 9,99 $ / €
In the same vein, Call Of The Tenebrae looks to be at the end of its development, do you have a clearer idea more or less precise about when the game will come on ?
As said before we have no release date yet. But I estimate 2-3 months it will take from now. So mid /end of March 2017.
Will the add-on of Two Worlds II be able to be released on the old generation consoles or do you prefer to be concentrated on the computer and the actual generation ?
Hopefully yes, but we are not 100% sure now.
Can we expect new updates for Vendetta : Curse of the Raven’s Cry, and if possible, do you think about releasing the game on consoles ?
yes. After we bought back all rights, we are now able to do something. After we finished Call Of The Tenebrae we will keep an eye on it.
Is Sacrilegium still in project ?
Actually, Sacrilegium is on ice. But it is a great concept and maybe one day… we will continue it.
Can we hope the multiplayer cross play between the Xbox One‘s and computer’s version ?
Yes. (I suppose you mean Two Worlds II HD). We want to do it and it should work.
You talked about an SDK for Two Worlds II. You know how much modding on computer is important for the players, do you plan to make them accessible on Xbox One.
I am not sure if this will be approved by Microsoft, but we will ask for it.
Will the avaibilities of the Linux and Xbox One‘s version of Two Worlds II, the graphic update and Call Of The Tenebrae be realeased simultaneously.
PC yes, but Xbox One I do not know yet.
You talked about a season pass for Two Worlds II, is it still current ?
A season pass is basically a discounted subscription of all existing and upcomming DLCs and extras. So this depends more on the sales platform. On Steam that should not be a problem. But I cannot say how it will be on other sales platforms.
The script of Raven’s Cry really surprised me by its qualities (… especially because of all we heard about it), to me it still has a lot of potential. Was the script written by Octane Games or is this the work of Reality Pump ?
By Reality Pump. Only the rough scenario came from Octane.
I think it will be my last question, the development of Raven’s Cry seemed really intricate, can you explain why did the game take so long to born and why wasn’t it on early access first at it launch as it was planned ?
This had several reasons. First, there was a probem with Octane and Zuxxez. Zuxxez signed the project for a development budget. Then this budget and also the development time was increased two or 3 times and Reality Pump was hired to help with MoCap and animations. At a certain point Zuxxez came tot he conclution, that Octane underestimated the projet and will not be able to finish the game. At this time Reality Pump got the full project and the former team leader of Reality Pump estimated 9 – 12 months for completion. Based on this Zuxxez gave us a budget, but after the team leader left Reality Pump it came out that this project took two years more than initially estimated and budgeted. Of course this further delay and rise oft he costs caused tons of problems at Zuxxez and all their distribution partners. And somehow this project is cursed. Millions of players « know » that this game is crap. But only a few thousands ever purchased and played it. As you already mentioned, you have been suprised by the quality of the script while you played it. Maybe, if we fix the few bugs left and make some improvements the dirty raw diamond can become a brilliant or get at least a princess or emerald cut which makes him shining bright.
Well, thank you for answering my questions ! I hope that everything will go well for the development of all your future released and that we’ll be satisfied. Bye !
