Visit to DTP, day 5: interview about Dungeon Lords, etc.
Gorath, 2004-08-06

Our last feature about our visit to DTP´s office in Hamburg is an interview. We´ll talk, in this order, about DTP´s work as a publisher, Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring, The Moment of Silence and Dungeon Lords. The different segments are separated by three screenshots from the game which is being talked about in the next segment.

RPGDot: Would you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: My name is Christopher Kellner, I'm the PR Manager of dtp, and I'm 28 years old. Before working with dtp I worked as a journalist for the dpa (German Press Agency).

RPGDot: DTP is probably largely unknown to our international readers. Where do you see your core competence as a publisher?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: We are one of the biggest publishers and distributors in the German-speaking area (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and we are specialized in adventures - I would dare to say we have the pole position in adventures in our area. We cooperate with different partners in foreign countries, like GMX and Digital Jesters in UK or Focus in France. Therefore we offer real devotion to adventures (something the major companies lack in my opinion) and a broad network of international companies, so we can offer international contracts too.

RPGDot: Which new RPGs and adventures are in the pipeline?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: As you know our biggest projects this fall and winter are The Moment of Silence, Dungeon Lords and Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring. Before them, we will publish enhanced special editions of Runaway and The Mystery of the Druids, which is the first opus of House of Tales, the team behind The Moment of Silence. We got two new adventures just before the signing now which I can`t reveal yet, but we`ll announce them at the GC in Leipzig. Furthermore, we are negotiating about several titles for the next year, in which we will publish Runaway 2.

RPGDot: I assume you have a booth at the GC 2004. Which games will you show and which of them will be playable? [The Games Convention in Leipzig/Germany is Europe´s most important game show. It had 92.000 visitors last year. Ed.]

Christopher Kellner, DTP: We have a booth at the GC, but only in the restricted Business Center (Hall 2, D20-D26). To get in there you`ll have to be a games-journalist or a developer or trader, and the tickets are around 40 Euros instead of 30 for the public area. We`ll show all of the titles mentioned above.

RPGDot: What do you think about the importance of localizations? Other publishers seem to consider them relatively unimportant.

Christopher Kellner, DTP: Well, then it`s a bad mistake they make. As you can read in any games-magazine a first-class localization is the crux of any adventure in the German-speaking areas. I know that it is very expensive and costs much effort and time, but it`s definitely worth it, as our sales figures and the ratings in the magazines show, compared to other adventures. For example: Black Mirror, which we localized with the German voice of Johnny Depp for the main role, sold TEN WEEKS AFTER RELEASE better than Syberia II in its second week... not to mention the ratings, although Black Mirror is about two years older considering the graphics.

I can only recommend to any developer of adventures and/or rpgs to consider going to a relatively small, specialized publisher as we are. We`ll put effort, money and time into it as if it was a triple-A title. Major publishers definitely don`t, as adventures are not AAA for them and a high-quality localization is - in their opinion - not profitable.

RPGDot: Sherlock Holmes is more an interactive detective story than a typical adventure. Could tell us a bit more about how the gameplay differs to a standard adventure like, for example, Runaway?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: Unlike in other adventures you won`t often have to solve typical riddles like combining items. The gameplay is more about asking questions and getting evidence.

RPGDot: What about action or stealth elements. I remember a dev mentioned at least the latter. What´s the current status?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: As I knwo there are some stealth elements in the game.

RPGDot: How long is Sherlock Holmes?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: It will take an average player around 30 hours.

RPGDot: Will there be a German demo and if so, when?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: There will be a German demo shortly before the German release, which is now scheduled for 20th November.

RPGDot: Please tell our readers a few more things about the gameplay. Did House of Tales include action sequences, sneaking or box moving puzzles? Can the player die?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: There are no action, sneaking or box moving parts - we know that adventure-fans hate them. You only have classic adventure gameplay. There is much action in the game, but only in the cutscenes, which have a total length of around 30 minutes. The player can`t die.

RPGDot: On which sort of puzzles do you set the focus? I understand at least one location -the oil platform- was inspired by Myst. This sort of contradicts my impression that The Moment of Silence is a classic point & click adventure. How much Myst is in it?

Christopher Kellner, DTP:  There`s not much Myst in it. There will be some logic-riddles in the game, but most of the riddles are dialogue-, inventory- and item-based.

RPGDot: What would you say is TMoS´s killer feature. The one thing which makes it stand out of the crowd?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: I would say there are three killer features: Spectacular cutscenes, wonderful graphics, epic story.

RPGDot: What can you tell us about release date, box, goodies, DVD or CD and a demo?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: The game will be out in the German-speaking areas on 1st October. It will have a very nice mini-box or digi-pack, we don`t know yet. And it will be definitely DVD-only, as there would be around 5-6 CDs otherwise. And almost everyone has got an DVD-player in the PC right now.

RPGDot: Please tell us something about the game world. How big will Dungeon Lords be compared to Morrowind or Gothic 2? And how detailed and interactive will it be?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: DL will be between Morrowind and Gothic 2. Gothic 2 was limited considering the game world, but very detailled. DL is bigger and will be as detailled as Gothic 2, but it`s not so vast as Morrowind, which therefore lacked details in some areas.

RPGDot: Is a quick transportation system planned?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: We don´t know yet how this will be handled in the final version of the game. But as it is a very huge game there will be some kind of quick transportation system.

RPGDot: How many NPCs will Dungeon Lords have and of what quality will they be?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: I don`t know the exact number of NPCs, but I know that all dialogues will be spoken in the German version. No NPC will look like the other, so the NPCs will be very detailled. You can hire a lot of them, but eventually get problems, because if you hire a thief he might steal an important item out of a chest you want him to open...

RPGDot: What makes Dungeon Lords attractive for a hardcore RPGer ... ?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: DL has everything a hardcore RPGer desires: A vast and interesting game world, an epic and twisted story, which alone takes around 40 hours to solve, dozens of side-quests, a detailled character-building - you can put any xp at any time where you like to and make a unique character - and around 800-1000 items, some of them very powerful and unique, and a combat system which is action-orientated, but requires ever-changing tactics, as the AI is excellent.

RPGDot: ... and what for a player who prefers instant action and doesn´t want to bother with number crunching?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: DL gives players like him the opportunity to let the game put all the xp in the attributes and skills he needs for his favourite character. One click on the class-button is enough. But you don`t have to stick to this method from the beginning to the end of the game. For example, you can just click on the "Ninja"-Button in the first ten hours of game, and the game distributes the xp to the attributes and skills which the Ninja needs. Then you decide to learn a little bit more about magic and just change your method!

RPGDot: How flexible is the character development system? Can the player build the perfect character or is specialization inevitable?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: The character development system is, as I have already described, very flexible. You can always change directions. Some of the enemies respawn, so you won`t have cleared out the world and can`t get any xp. But as it is in every RPG, you`ll have problems if you don`t specialize - the game will be harder. The good thing about it is that you can always change your strategy and your are not stuck in a certain path as it is in other RPGs.

RPGDot: Can each class learn all skills or are some skills exclusive?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: There are some exclusive skills for each class.

RPGDot: How does the magic system work? How many schools of magic are there? DW Bradley hinted that magic abilities are not necessarily permanent.

Christopher Kellner, DTP: I don`t know about this, but there are around 80 spells from the schools of Nether, Arkane, Divine and Rune. Nether works with ingredients you buy or find and mix to the spell you want. You`ll buy, find or the formulas as a reward. Arkane has a lot of powerful elemental spells, Divine is more protective. Rune magic works via...runes! And there are magic crystals which unload when you use them, but refresh slowly.

RPGDot: Do you include things like (generated ?) unique items? Is item placement constant or random?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: Both. Some items are unique and always in the same place. The items dropped by respawning monsters and smaller monsters are random.

RPGDot: What are your plans for the localization? I´ve heard two contradicting statements. One said all lines in all dialogs will be spoken. The other source said only the most important dialogs will have full voice acting while secondary dialogs will only have a voice acted first sentence.

Christopher Kellner, DTP: For the German version we plan to have ALL lines in the dialogues spoken. I heard that in the English version, only the first lines and the most important dialogues are spoken, the rest is read only. So I would recommend to German-speaking players to buy the German version. I know that many of them are suspicious, because the German versions of big RPGs tend to be badly translated and spoken. But we have proven with our adventures like The Westerner, Black Mirror etc. to be experts in that, so DL will have an excellent translation and localization.

RPGDot: Current German release date is October 15th. Are you sure this is realistic?

Christopher Kellner, DTP: As far as we know the game will be out worldwide by the end of October. David is working full throttle on finishing the game. Maybe we will slip into November or December, but I think DL will definitely lie under the Christmas trees.

RPGDot: Thank you very much for this interview!