First off, I was fairly surprised (and honored) that GameSpot wanted us to do a Designer Diary on Disciples II. After all, we won the award for Best Game No One Played last year. But the feedback we received from our fans confirmed our belief that Disciples was a good game. Why a sequel? How would a new turn-based fantasy game be of interest to the tech-craving gamers out there? You'd be surprised...
Mad Doctors
The original game was inspired and influenced by many ideas and people. Our team had previously created two turn-based sci-fi games, and we decided to do one within a fantasy universe. A monster was born...
At first, the whole team threw in all its ideas, and I assembled them into the first Disciples design document. I have to admit, it was an ugly offspring. Then, we started to compare it to other games in the genre and tried to create our "own" game, with its own personal identity. That was tough! The main question we were faced with was how to create an original game without totally alienating the fans of the genre. After several brainstorming sessions, some features stayed, others were eliminated, but most were transformed... et voilą... Disciples: Sacred Lands was born. We were all very proud of the outcome.
"Jahortis tertius ducis jactum potens fulgur"
Many of the RPG elements were directly inspired from a small role-playing business I owned. About 90 people would assemble together in the woods, and we would role-play for the entire weekend. We fought with foam swords and magical spells, and we incarnated heroes and not-so-virtuous characters for the pleasure of all the players. I am sure many of them recognize themselves in the first game. Some of you may be questioning my sanity. No, I'm not insane... Those days created some of the most intense memories of role playing in my life.
The Return of the Disciple
After the release of the first game, the company decided to create a sequel. And again we fell into a chaotic succession of design meetings. After a while, we finally put our finger on the real question: "What is a sequel?" Is it more of the same? The same, but different? A new game within the same universe? And we all looked for Sun Tzu's, Art of the Sequel, with no success... After a while we agreed on what would be Disciples II: Develop the cool stuff and improve the weak points.
We wanted the new players to have an incredible gaming experience and the Disciples: Sacred Lands fans to have a new and even more dynamic game experience than the original. That is what we've done...
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What to Expect
Disciples II will be full of new features. We really focused on increasing the visuals, the gameplay, and the RPG elements in the game. All the artwork in the game has been reworked, and it looks fantastic. The art department has really taken advantage of the increased resolution.
We've also integrated a complex event system that can generate many surprises and interesting situations for the player. Imagine a Dragon joining your cause after you liberate him... This helps us increase the story elements and immerse the player even more within the game.
We've also given a "brain" to all the living creatures in Disciples II. This means that all the units on the map can move around the land, each with its own unique AI. All the units can gain experience and levels, even the neutral characters.
Tomorrow is another day. We're getting ready to put the elements together for an early demo. As soon as we have it ready, we will make sure to let GameSpot and all the Disciples fans know about the debut of... The Dark Prophecy.
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Disciples II: Dark Prophecy
