Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Interview

Our little RPG hermit, Ure, had a chance to catch up with Leonard Boyarsky, Co-Found of Troika and Lead Artist for Arcanum, and grill him a bit on the subject of their upcoming title, which successfully mixes fantasy and tech-oriented sci-fi elements into an exciting and fun-packed RPG experience. The game is currently in the BETA phase and should (hopefully) hit the stores by this summer.

ActionTrip: To begin with, tell us something more about Troika Studios and your plans besides developing RPG's? Are you going to focus on any other game genres?

Skeletons are attacking!!

Look at all those nice pipes and gadgets.

Leonard Boyarsky: We started Troika with one overriding concern - to make great games. RPGs are our first love when it comes to game making, but that doesn't mean we won't expand into other genres if we feel that we can do something creative and different within that genre.

AT: What inspired you to make Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura?

LB: Along with our focus on making great games, we also want to make stylistically innovative games that are unlike anything anyone else makes.

When we started toying with the idea of doing a fantasy game for our first project, we wanted to bring something to it that hadn't been done before. It wasn't enough for us to just make a great Fantasy RPG, it had to have something new about it.

AT: Tell us why you decided to mix the fantasy magical features with the more advanced techs of the 18th century? Why not stick to only one of these?

LB: We thought it would be exciting to contrast these different forms of power in a game, not only physically (through combat) but also psychologically (through characters' reactions in dialog, story, etc.)

We built this concept into the game engine itself, so that the magic/technological dichotomy would permeate the feel of the whole game. It won't be something that is tacked on through scripts as an afterthought.

AT: How far do you plan to go with character customization, will it be thorough like in Neverwinter Nights - changing skin color, clothes, armor, and so on?

LB: Character customization in Arcanum is all about gameplay, not about the visuals. Sure, when you put on different armor in the game it will change the way your character looks, but we put our efforts into being able to change your character where it really matters - are you intelligent? Charismatic? Beautiful? An elf? EVERY character building choice you make could potentially have ramifications in the game world.

AT: And then there's the way you actually play the game - are you going to kill everyone you meet? Steal everything that isn't nailed down? Be the most suave diplomat alive? Are you going to be a technologist or a magic user?

Typical Arcanum junkyard.

Kinda reminds me of the Ewok village in Star Wars.

One preview of Arcanum said we gave you the most character defining choices in any RPG ever. I don't know if this is true, but we definitely give you the ability to play this game ANY way you choose.

AT: Will gender choice affect gameplay in any way?

LB: Gender will affect some quests and some people's attitude towards you, but an even bigger issue is the race you choose to play, as there are inherent prejudices between the races in Arcanum. If I'm playing a dwarf and I need to search for something in the elven tree city, it's going to be a much different experience for me than if I were an elf.

AT: Up to how many characters will you be able to recruit during the game?

LB: Your follower limit is determined by your charisma. The upper limit of voluntary followers (as limited by charisma) is five, but that's not counting summoned creatures or mind-controlled characters...

When you have more than one character to manipulate, is it possible to focus on a secondary character that joined your group and leave your main character to take care of him(her)self using for some time? Further more will you be able to script your characters' behavior?

Our feeling has always been that we want you to identify with your character. If you are able to fully control everyone in your party, which character are you, really? We want the feel of our game to be that you are the hero. If you have full control of your whole party, then "your" character is the one that you have to keep alive so the game doesn't end - that is the only thing special about him. Consequently, he's usually in the back of the party cowering for his life.... This is not to say that you have no control over your followers - you can give them commands and you have full access to their inventories (as long as their personality is one that would listen to your orders and give you full access to their inventories). You cannot script your character's behavior - we felt that was our job, not the person buying the game. We want someone to be able to buy our game and jump right in and have a great experience, not have to start editing/writing scripts to get the optimum gaming experience. We are putting a lot of effort into our AI so that the need to script your own actions will hopefully not exist. We feel giving the end user access to that sort of thing (for the single player game) tends to lead to weaker AI in general.