Two Worlds: The Temptation developer interview.

Exclusive Two Worlds: The Temptation interview with James Seaman, Managing Director of TopWare Interactive.

Q: Firstly, can you explain why The Temptation is no longer an expansion and a separate game altogether?

It's actually a pretty simple explanation. We had all of our plans for what we could feasibly accomplish with The Temptation laid out, and we realized that we were creating a game that was just as large, if not bigger, than the original. Once we saw that, we decided that The Temptation deserved to be a full game.

Q: Are you using an entirely new game engine for The Temptation, or is it a revised engine from the first game?

At its core it's an entirely new engine, though it does use some tech from the original game's engine.

Q: How long has The Temptation been in development?

Hmm, it's hard to give an easy answer to that question. The new game engine was being created long before The Temptation was underway, and some of the material that's going into The Temptation was conceptualized in the creation of Two Worlds. But I guess you could say that our entire team started working on the game about a week after we finished up Two Worlds.

Q: How many people are working on the game, and do you have a separate team for multiplayer?

All told, we're just over 150 people strong. We do have a separate team working on the multiplayer portion of The Temptation, which is something we didn't have for Two Worlds, so it's exciting for us to have people dedicated to making the online multiplayer portion of the game amazing.

Q: Roughly how many hours of gameplay can we expect from this title?

Like the original, it depends on how much you get into the side quests. If you were to just focus on the main quest and do nothing else, you could probably get through it in 20 hours. However, completing every quest in the game and finding all the hidden locales would be more along the lines of 100 hours of gameplay.

Q: Two Worlds was released with a number of bugs and some game breaking glitches, how will you ensure that The Temptation does not contain similar problems? Do you have a large team of game testers working around the clock?

In many ways, Two Worlds was a learning experience for this team. It was the largest and most ambitious game we'd ever created to that point. It was also our first role-playing game, and the first title we brought to console. Many of the problems in Two Worlds were results of these growing pains. We've learned a lot, and have vastly improved as a team (and improved our testing process), so all the problems that plagued Two Worlds will not be present in The Temptation.

Q: How have you improved the horse riding, can you give us a little more detail on this?

We're reworking how the horse reacts to the world around it, so it will ignore (and not get stuck on) smaller objects in the world, and will veer away from or jump over larger objects. So horses will have a lot less sudden stops as they did in Two Worlds. Mounted combat is getting completely reworked for The Temptation, and it will be much easier to attack others from a horse.

Q: Oblivion set the benchmark for a fully explorable 3D world, on Xbox 360, do you think gamers have made too many comparisons between Oblivion and Two Worlds? How different will The Temptation be?

Since Oblivion set that benchmark, we knew that comparisons were going to be inevitable, but I do feel that Two Worlds was at times unfairly put against it. On the surface they sound the same, but beyond basics they're quite different. Other than it being an open-world, role-playing game with a fantasy setting, I think Two Worlds was a completely different game than Oblivion. Therefore, The Temptation is also a different game.

Q: You've mentioned that missions will be more intricate, can you give us an example of how the new missions will work?

We're doing everything possible to avoid fetch quests (though I'll admit that there are times where you just need to get an item to advance the story), and we're taking a different approach to how NPCs react to you. For example, we assume that people in the same town get word from each other fast, so even though you may have to talk to someone specific to get a quest underway, once the rest of the town knows you're working on the mission, they'll offer you up new information or maybe try to woo you into performing other dangerous tasks.

Q: Have you employed any new voice over artists for The Temptation?

We have. We're employing a very prestigious voice acting studio that's worked on dozens of high profile game titles to do the work. On top of that, we're also having the script written by professionals, so both the dialogue and the readings should sound much more natural.

Q: Will there be any differences between the Xbox 360 and PC versions?

Other than controls and graphics, no.

Q: Have any improvements or additions been made to the online multiplayer?

Absolutely, but sadly I can't talk about any of the major changes we're making yet.

Q: In terms of the size of the game world, how big is it compared to the original - how long would it take to ride from one end of of the map to the other on horseback for example?

The world map in The Temptation is actually bigger than that in Two Worlds. We're expanding the world of Antaloor to the east, revealing the lands to the east of the Drak'ar Desert. As for how long it would take to ride from one end of the other. Hmm, at least 30 minutes.

Q: Can you tell us a little about any new enemies we're likely to encounter?

I can't reveal any new enemies yet, but I will say that we're continuing our tradition of stepping outside the box when we're creating our monsters. You may have an idea of what a gargoyle would look like, for example, but we make sure ours looks like no other.

Q: How many side missions will feature and will we be able to explore random dungeons and such like?

We're incorporating more side missions than before, and making them more obviously separate from the main quest. We found that some people really only want to finish the main quest, so we're making that a completely viable option for that type. And yes, there will be non-quest related dungeons to explore.

Q: Have you added many new weapons and what improvements have you made to the combat?

We're adding a ton of new weapons, and by default that expands our equipment melding that was a big hit in the first game. We're also making combat less about button mashing, and more along the lines of the great action games of our time. By popular demand, we're adding in active blocking so players will be in complete control.

Q: What is the relation to Two Worlds? Can gamers use the same profile from Two World's or will they have to start over?

You won't be able to carry your character over because it's a completely new main character. However, the events in The Temptation take place very shortly after the ending of Two Worlds, so those who played the original will get to see the repercussions of their previous actions.

Q: If gamers start a fresh game will they be able to choose a female lead this time round if they choose?

There's going to be many more females in the game this time around, but the main character will be male. Like the first, it's a story issue more than anything else.

Q: PC users have received a free download with Tainted Blood, whereas Xbox 360 owners have had to pay 600 points for the expansion. Are you planning on offering any additional downloads (free or otherwise) for The Temptation?

We hope so, but first things first; we have to finish The Temptation!

We'd like to thank you for taking the time to answer our questions

You can find more details about the game by clicking here.

Posted By: Robert Cram

Date: 2008-06-05