Riftrunner Interview with Marian Arnold
Myrthos, 2003-10-01

Marian Arnold is one of the persons responsible for the artwork and graphics in Riftrunner. To learn a bit more about him and his role in this game we asked him several questions.

RPGDot: What was the most difficult part in the creation of Riftrunner for you?

Marian: Since we are not completly finished I can't say for sure but there are two major tasks coming into my mind. The first was the creation of the heroes, the avatars for the player. The Modeling, texturing and together with Stijn the skinning and animating took very, very long, and we can't even tell for sure how many times we overworked the whole thing because of the huge complexity (all the different armors and weapons) until we considered it final.
The second one for me is obviously the cover of the Riftrunner-Box, which also consumed quite some weekends now. The difficulty here was to handle so many different opinions of the whole team and those involved in the distribution later and certainly the expected high quality of that artwork.

RPGDot: Which parts of Riftrunner were your responsibility?

Marian: Beside from the heroes, their weapons, Icons and the box artwork i did my usual job. Which means I sign responsibility for a big part of the monsters and NPCs (humans, the mysterious new race...) in the game, from the stage of conception to the final animated model, greatly supported by Steward and Alex. who btw. took care of the other creatures.
Beyond that you get normally in every phase of development an uncountable amount of minor tasks for every team member to finish. But to name all of them would for sure burst the frame here....

RPGDot: Some concern has risen on the forums related to the avatar, it's graphics quality and how it moved. Can you takes these concerns away?

Marian: We had a similar problem with Divinity 1. The screenshots somehow couldn't give the game justice. But when you started to see the game in motion the impression changed immediately. The Avatar has so many cool stuff to wear now and lot of new movements and animations that the difference is huge. So, wait for the demo? Beside that we are not fully happy with the light settings. Some changes might still come.

RPGDot: Some people would die for a job in the gaming industry. Is it in your opinion really this good or does it have it's downsides?

Marian: Well, its definitely the thing I always wanted to do since I started to make computer graphics. So you could say it is a fulfilled dream. But besides that it is often a nightmare too. I won't complain about the enormous amount of extra working hours a developer has to do often in order to catch the deadlines. You either bring the dedication with you or you shouldn't try. No, the major drawback of this industry is insecurance and often financial problems. A game developer sells his game usually one time, maybe two times when you count also the budget versions later. Only then the expenses for the last two or three years of hard work can be covered. What if it doesn't sell? As being an independent you always have this risk, in these times its even worse because of the many pirates.

RPGDot: How much work has the transition to 3D characters been? Was it more than you anticipated?

Marian: No, actually less. Once we had the system working the remodeling itself went quite smooth, except for the hero characters but thats also normal, I already mentioned their high complexity. I was working for quite some time with Virgin Lands on the upcoming Spellforce before Larian Studios started with riftrunner so I had quite some experience in producing low count polygon characters.

RPGDot: What is by far the best thing in Riftrunner for you?

Marian: I love the fact that you can play the deathknight. That's just so cool. >:-) And i like the new race. They are also pretty cool. Well...I guess you will find out later. Unfortunately I can't tell much about the gameplay until ...umm...later.

RPGDot: Has your work on Riftrunner finished now and if not, what are you working on?

Marian: There is still a lot of work, but mainly minor tasks. Right now for instance I'm polishing the box art. It's as good as done but there are still some minor issues here and there...

RPGDot: Will the weapons still be that large in the game or a bit more proportioned when the char has one in his hands (frankly, the axe is very huge, I'm talking about the imp world screenies)

Marian: Lar has choosen one of the biggest axes you can find for this screeshot. There will be also a lot of smaller weapons. But i think it looks impressive.

RPGDot: Will there be a DVD version of the game? Only CD-ROM? Both?

Marian: I doubt that there will be a DVD Version but I have to admit that I don't know it for sure.

RPGDot: As there was a mention of Easter eggs in the chat - could you give one example, please?

Marian: Most people who know me close enough get sometimes anoyed by me being such a big Indiana jones fan. Check the very special super exclusive home photograph of me in front of my beloved pinball machine for proof! I don't want to spoil it but you can expect a big easteregg in that direction.

RPGDot: The only thing about Raanar we know are those special gloves (weapon) - could you tell us a bit more about this race?

Marian: Sure, they are a warrior race, which inhabits the world in which you have been thrown. And they have nice Runes too! And if Lar stops pointing with that gun at my head I'll tell you everything else you want to know about them.

RPGDot: Will the runes be the same as in Div? Gullhornet runes or to make it a bit more difficult: Marian runes? Will the demon language be automatically translated once you have found the necessary books? If so, will there be optional quests/bonuses available for those who can figure the runes out themselves (ie not all runes get translated, such as maybe those inscribed on a monument, etc)?

Marian: Exactly. It will help you solving certain quests and you'll get additional hints. I don't know the details yet about the demonic language but the runes I used for Divinity don't really fit into Riftrunner. So you will have a much higher chance to find raanaar runic stuff.

Marian: Something similar is on my to-do-list but at the end it depends if we still have the time for it

RPGDot: will special combined/unique armours be more detailed than in Div? E.g. changing appearance/colour etc if complete?

Marian: There is for sure much higher details in ALL armors which you can see when you get close enough to your avatar. For the color changing thing I'd say technically the engine is capable of it but that's undoubtable a question for our programmers.

RPGDot: What about a large manual, including monster stats, weapons, hints about special persons, special items etc.?

Marian: Are you sure we talking about the manual? That kind of thing you call Hintbook, i'd say.

RPGDot: Do you have something to add? Some last words (atleast for this interview)?

Marian: Interesting. Normally i am full of stupid jokes but right now I can't think of one.
But thanx anyway for your patience.