SG: SpellForce sounds like quite a departure, in complexity if nothing else, from previous games developed by Phenomic. What brought about the idea to do SpellForce as it is now; where did the inspiration come from?

P: When we started out, the RTS genre had become somewhat stale and we were looking into new ideas to spice it up again. With Settlers (Volker Wertich's main creation) we already had quite complex gameplay, but not a real RTS. SpellForce is a game that combines RPG with RTS gameplay and does so to a level which has never been achieved before. In times where both genres suffer from a lack of innovation SpellForce takes the tendencies of these two genres overlapping each other to its fullest consequence. The title SpellForce signifies this approach by combining magic, the arche-typical RPG element, with Force, signifying the RTs element of armies and forces wrestling for victory.