Danny Belanger, Lead Designer at Strategy First, has written the latest installment of the Disciples 2 Designer Diary at Gamespot. The game is in the finishing stages now, and this is what Danny has to say about that:
In these final weeks, I'm working on the campaigns, which I consider the soul of the game. Creating quests, stories, and characters also gives the world a history, a feeling, and thus a soul. As many of you probably know, there are four races in the game, and each of the four factions has a unique story that follows the same timeline. What I find unique and interesting about Disciples II is that the whole story can be completely understood only if you play all of the campaigns. The four campaigns "happen" at around the same time, but each one is a unique story. In one campaign, you may succeed in destroying a character from another race, which means that it's the end for that race's story in your campaign; but in another campaign, you can do the exact opposite. Sound confusing? Well, it's very straightforward in each campaign, but the big picture is a little more subtle.
After spending more than two years on the same project, it has become difficult to have an objective view of every aspect of the game. Do we have clear feedback on this feature, does this attack make sense, and are the item statistics appropriate? This is where the quality assurance team comes in handy. They usually have a "fresh" look at the game, and they provide us with concise and important feedback. All the members of the team must be professional enough to accept their criticism, and they sometimes must take time to explain why a certain aspect works the way it does. For the most part, the QA team has done a great job of improving the game. We, in many ways, think of our QA department as our first client, and if they aren't excited about playing your game, there is probably something wrong with it. |
Disciples 2 Designer Diary at Gamespot
