Here you go. Thanks for the interest.

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First of all, how did the concept of The Age of Decadence emerge? Was it a single flash of inspiration or the ideas formed gradually?

Gradually. RPGs are less of “wow, I’ve got a great idea” and more of “these are my thoughts on game design”. So, once the design is set, you slowly build the rest and take your time to figure out which piece goes where.

For example, we wanted to have several non-combat paths through the game, which means that the game should have several non-combat endings (you don’t want to give the player non-combat skills and path, but force him to fight at the end; it kind of throws the entire non-combat design philosophy out of the window). Non-combat endings are a tricky thing. You can’t just throw in a “why can’t we all get along?” persuasion line and be done with it. It should be enabled by certain decisions and in-game pre-requisites, so you sort of work backwards – once you know the different ways to end the story, you go back and build the conditions and choices the player will make in order to be able to end the game a certain way.

And what are the reasons behind the choice of the setting? The thing is – it is rather unusual for the CRPG-genre where fantasy worlds with elves and dragons (sometimes sci-fi ones with force-fields and blasters) are almost traditional.

I hope we can agree that elves and dragons - and for that matter, stereotypical medieval fantasy - have been done to death and have become a cliche that should be avoided at all costs.

We wanted to do something different, to show the player something he hasn’t seen before, to take him into a different world with different rules.

We know that there is no place for magic in the game, but mysterious ‘energy’ may be used in some situations. Could you tell us more about what it is and probably give examples of how it works?

Think of the magic in the game as of techno-magic with an alternative power source. In our world we generate power by burning coal and gas, blocking rivers, harnessing the power of the sun and the wind, splitting atoms, etc. In the AoD world it was done via pentagrams. The harnessed power could be stored in tubes (an equivalent of a single-charge battery) and used to power up various ancient devices, like power armor or machines. If you need more power, you’d need to activate and calibrate a pentagram.

How does AoD ‘treat’ various paths of character development? Will it ‘punish’ for a ‘wrong’ choice of stats (like Oblivion did for non-combat skills)? Or will the walkthrough turn out to be a pleasant stroll in the park for characters of some certain type?

There are many different ways to go through the game and many different ways to fail. Our job is to provide multiple ways and make different builds viable, not to make sure that you’ll succeed no matter what you do.

Will the player’s actions affect the character’s abilities, give some distinctive features or perks? In Fallout, for example, you can get additional bonuses to attributes or even a perk for numerous adult encounters…

Yes. No bonuses to stats though.

Politics will play an important role in AoD, and how about religion? The sacred scrolls of the Imperial Library mention Gods of Chaos, so we’d like to know what place the religion has in the story. Is there something like a real-history struggle between paganism and Christianity?

No. An organized religion doesn’t exist it, but things are slowly getting there.

From the site:

Noble House Crassus - Withdrawing from war and politics, House Crassus dedicated itself to the sciences and arcane research, particularly in planes of existence. Consequently, they were instrumental in the Summoning, having constructed the portal and the many machines that powered it. Most Mages perished in the last days, depriving the House not only the generations of wisdom and research, but of clarity and focus. Today House Crassus calls for proper worship and the restoration of the gods.
..

Basically, ages ago House Crassus brought in "higher beings" to study and control (it's a long story). It really didn't work out on the long run (but that's even a longer story). The House was all but destroyed during the war and was rebuilt by those less gifted who knew of the House's history but didn't understand it or what the Summoning really was. Research was transformed into rituals. Understanding into blind faith. Dedication into zeal. House Crassus became a twisted image of what it once was.

If you side with House Crassus and raise in ranks, you’ll be one of the “founding fathers” of the new religion, and will be able to influence the first holy laws. It will become a tool and how you’ll use it is up to you.

In other interviews you’ve mentioned that the main strength of the game lies in the multiplicity of ways to solve every problem. Is it accomplished by means of text adventures?

Not necessarily. While multiple quests solutions can be enhanced by text adventure elements, they can be easily done without them. Fallout, Arcanum, Bloodlines, etc had quite a few multiple ways to handle quests and goals, if you recall.

Some questions about the game distribution. It was said that digital download is primary. Are you going to distribute AoD via your site or/and cooperate with other services like Steam?

We'll consider all options when we get to that point.

We know that Russian publishers Akella and Novii Disk were interested in the project. Given the amount of in-game text, localization would be really appreciated by many Russian gamers. Are there arrangements concerning that or plans you can tell us about?

No plans, no arrangements. As for text, there is a LOT of text in the game (one of the reasons it's taking so long). I can't see any publisher investing enough to translate it properly, without rushing or cutting corners.

There was a word about a physical media distribution possibility. Is there going to be DRM? And what is your attitude towards such systems?

No idea as we aren’t there yet. My attitude? I’ve never had any issues with any DRMs, so they don’t bother me personally. I’ve heard some horror stories about STEAM wiping off prized porn collections, but fortunately my porn stash is still safe.

At the same time I’ve never heard of a DRM that wasn’t cracked eventually. While “AAA” hyped titles may benefit from delaying the, um, inevitable by a week or two, I don’t think it will have the same effect on indie sales.

Are there plans for issuing post-release patches? Additional content?
Patches? Obviously. If the setting is well received, we can do an expansion or two.

And some questions to you as an RPG developer. What do you think about the contemporary situation in the genre? Is it as bad as some old-school gamers put it, claiming that modern RPGs are commercialised, lack creativity, atmosphere and soul?

Don’t they?

I think that skyrocketing development costs (from $100,000 to 50-80 mil in 15 years) have pushed (more like kicked, really) the RPG genre into a corner and created an atmosphere where you can’t take any risks whatsoever. If I were given a 50 mil budget, I too would be more concerned with “how do we sell enough copies to cover the investment and generate a nice return”, then with trying something interesting and see if it works.

Which RPGs released in the last 5 years you’d recommend?

The Mask of the Betrayer - http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=159
Dragon Age - http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=195
Mysteries of Westgate - http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=192
New Vegas - http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=57162

This question has become a standard, but we can’t help asking. Modern RPGs shift towards action (and it becomes difficult to find roleplay in them). Mr. Findley, who once worked for Interplay, in the recent interview said that ‘all those old turn-based games always wanted to be action games at their heart’. Is it really so and turn-based combat systems are technologically outdated?

I’m sure that Mr. Findley knows what he’s talking about. After all, his name is associated with such iconic turn-based RPGs as MDK2, Icewind Dale, and the new and much-improved Bard’s Tale.

As for whether or not TB is outdated, I’m sure you know the answer to this question.

The so called ‘dark fantasy’ has become overwhelmingly popular in RPGs today. Yes, there were Fallout, Gothic and Witcher, but they were ‘alone’, stood aside of the trend of the time. Why have gore, sex and violence become a ‘must-have’ for mainstream now?

Because they sell? Violence has always been the main feature of RPGs. I’ve been playing RPGs for more than twenty years and I’ve lost count of how many orcs, skeletons, bandits, spiders, and evildoers I put out of business. Sex and gore were always around too (Daggerfall had plenty of nudity), but better graphics more them more prominent. In unrelated news, there is nothing dark about Fallout, Gothic, and Witcher.

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