Fatherdale: The Guardians of Asgard is an intricate RPG/Adventure for the PC where the battle between the Gods and their eternal enemy unfolds in the true medieval world of AD 1072. As one of the few immortal Heroes who protect the ancient artifacts of knowledge, you take on the reins of a warlord in a secluded northern valley of Fatherdale just days before it becomes the Battlefield of Fate to experience a story-driven multi-genre gameplay focused around RPG, RTS and Adventure. With over hundred and fifty unique characters, thrice that much in hand-crafted inventory items, more than sixty locations in steppes, woods and swamps, on plains, river banks and even inside the wooden Keeps of the Guardians, you have a whole world to explore, protect and die for -- and seven full-fledged Episodes to play through a number of styles and genres before you face your real Enemy.

Sergei Klimov, lead designer for Fatherdale gives us his views on things with this series of development diaries. Note that this second edition was originally featured on eUniverse, which no longer exists, and is presented here to get a complete set of Fatherdale development diaries.

Halo again,

After a trip to Milia (the French games show that, surprisingly, this year was better than ECTS and even more useful than E3), the second issue of Fatherdale Journal is here. As promised, this time it's different -- and your comments are welcome. There have been some exceptional replies to the last issue and I'll follow them up in the next story -- meanwhile, let's get down to the question of global publishing. Despite the way it sounds, it has to do with the RPG's. Really ;))).

"The Global RPG"
Hunters, Coopers, Charred Logs -- all those design exercises are the core of games development. But remember that studio where I have invited you to, the table, the chair and the tea? Well, the other side of developer's life is that to keep working on your game, you have to cover the rent, pay for the tea and from time to time get new tables and chairs :).

To be a strong developer free to try new things that surprise your players, you need to produce titles that sell. Sell like in "sold through", not like in "crowned with critical acclaim that guarantees great sales" (critics don't buy the games, they get them for free -- and then your publisher has to pay for the shipping! :) or "sold into the channels" (the channels have an awful habit of returning unsold stock -- which they, like a proper RPG players, also call "inventory" :).

At the end of the day, the budget you spend to create your next RPG doesn't come from a publisher or from a private investor -- it comes from your players. And, naturally, they don't bring it milestone payments -- they rather pile up in form of those small but dear commitments of $34.99. Simple truth that gets you going.

Throughout the last week me and Chandra Schanz, Snowball's Licensing Director, were meeting our potential publishing partners at Milia -- showing Fatherdale, listening to their strategies, exchanging tons of information, but mostly trying to get into their shoes to see all the local markets from the inside.

To offer your players an RPG with exceptional voiceovers (those studio costs!), immersive cutscenes (those render farm costs!) and all the bells and whistles, you need to have a certain budget that is available only if you publish globally. For Fatherdale, this means German, Russian, two English, French, Spanish, two Chinese, Italian, Korean, Polish and Czech versions. Plus one for Netherlands and one for Portugal. Hmmm. Sounds like Around The World In Eighty Days ;)))..

Publishing globally also means that the releases should be simultaneous. It's a lesson to learn since just a few years ago you would see publishers, even the global ones, concentrating on one or two markets with the rest of the world catered whenever their export managers had extra time.

US market is the definite leader in terms of PR, all true -- but financially Europe contributes more, and then there's Australasia to think of... A good lesson indeed, since this means that all the players around the world would see more good games brought to their own shelves. I think that all TBS fans in the US wouldn't have minded playing Spellcross, one of the best turn-based strategies ever -- yet it didn't make it across the ocean (blame it on SCi! :))). However, we'll see less and less of that kind of accidents in the seasons to come as even investors of public companies start to understand there's something missing when a game is released only in one -- no matter how huge -- country (maybe it's their profit? :))).

Another great thing that becomes more and more obvious with the global trend gaining momentum is that the traditional stereotype of your regular publisher as a suit with about zero knowledge in games can be still popular with the die-hard developers, but no longer defines landscape of this industry.

Where distribution once meant everything (remember that ***'s Sales Director who said he can shift 20.000 boxes of any crap his developers roll out? :))), real publishing comes to power -- publishing that is all about acquiring a really good game, ensuring there are no bugs and typos, delaying release to make the game better rather than shipping beta to reach peak turnover, checking that the ads tell the truth and carry real screenshots, that the playable demos rather than TV ads spread the word around, and understanding that a press-party -- no matter how nice -- doesn't really increase the enjoyment your players would receive from the game. I'm happy to say that over the last week we've met a lot of real publishers -- people whose business is not shifting boxes, but delivering good games. Italian, Polish, German, Spanish and Scandinavian -- passionate publishers who help developers make their games global.

After all these years of local miracles and country-by-country success stories, things are looking brighter and brighter for the players all the way around the globe -- a good RPG will be a global RPG, and you won't have to worry about the mail-order that may or may not make it across the ocean ;).

Also, keep in mind that the RPG you are playing at home is -- or soon will be -- available online, where with all the global things going on in the business department you can count on meeting some very interesting characters. They speak different languages -- how will you trade? They have different values -- how will you make up a party together? But above it all, they bring you new and way different experiences -- and this one is exciting, as for the first time a stranger in a strange land would really mean a stranger... The global RPG's reach much further than your screen.

Sergei Klimov
MD/Snowball Interactive