Lionheart Designer Diary #2
Associate producer Doug Avery talks about the upcoming role-playing game in development at Reflexive Entertainment and Black Isle Studios.
Entry #2 - 12/13/02
By Doug Avery,
Black Isle Studios
Lionheart will be an unusual fantasy-themed role-playing game that's notable for a number of reasons. The game will make use of the SPECIAL (strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, luck) character-attribute system that was originally featured in Interplay's classic 1997 RPG Fallout. In fact, like Fallout, Lionheart will let you play as a lone adventurer and recruit different companions who will have their own motivations for joining you, as well as their own personal inventories for carrying weapons and armor. And Lionheart will take place in an alternate version of medieval Europe--one in which the epic medieval campaigns known as the Crusades ended in the cataclysmic release of powerful and mysterious sorcery into the world of humankind.
But sorcery isn't the only thing that's new to the world of Lionheart. Since the conclusion of the Crusades, dark, monstrous creatures have appeared in the world. While Lionheart won't have any Tolkien-esque orcs, it will feature a number of challenges, including dangerous monsters and the watchful eye of the Inquisition. The touch of sorcery has even given rise to alternate races that you may choose to play as, but you'll need to choose wisely, since the presence of magic is frowned upon or even condemned by many of the game's superstitious political factions. This unusual setting is being brought to life by developer Reflexive Studios, with input from veteran RPG developer Black Isle Studios, which is also publishing the game. In this designer diary, producer Doug Avery, whose previous work includes Black Isle's recent Icewind Dale series, discusses the progress of Lionheart's development, putting together the game's audio, and some of the interesting characters players will meet in the game.
Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste. Wait, no I'm not. I possess neither of those particular traits. What I do possess is the ability to talk about the latest project that I am working on: A new role-playing game from Reflexive Entertainment and Black Isle Studios called Lionheart.
My name is Doug Avery, and I am an associate producer for Black Isle Studios. I have been in the industry since early 1996, when I applied for and got a position in Interplay's quality assurance department. I then worked my way out of QA and into the more mainstream game development side of things. I have been with Black Isle since before the company was even called that. I originally came over to work as a line producer on a game called Stonekeep II. Unfortunately, my services were not really needed on that title [Editor's note: The game was eventually canceled.], so I was put to work on what was then a little-known role-playing game called Baldur's Gate. The rest is history. Now I am working again with Black Isle Studios producer Chris Parker on Lionheart. He and I have worked together on the best of the best out-of-house PC titles that Black Isle has produced over the years, and Lionheart will be no exception.
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader Quick Links
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- Interplay
- Reflexive Ent.
- Computer Role-Playing
- Release: Aug 13, 2003 »
- ESRB: Teen
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