Lionheart Designer Diary #2

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.

"It's pretty cool to talk to young Bill Shakespeare."-Doug Avery, Black Isle Studios

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.

No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Now that that's out of the way, let's get on to the stuff you really care about, or at least the stuff you should care about, since you've bothered to read this far. Currently, we are going back over the magic system in the game. Certain aspects of it just didn't seem to work well, so we're trying to streamline it. Magic-wielding characters were getting the short end of the stick. Now things are more even between them and their martial counterparts. The magic system is very unique, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite aspects of the game. Being able to put in my two cents is also fun.

The current version of the game has temporary placeholder sounds in for almost all characters, and we recently received our first music sketch for Nueva Barcelona. Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal music composer Inon Zur has done a tremendous job in capturing exactly the mood we want for the game. The sketch sounded right on, even though it was rough. We've been working on casting the lines and finalizing our voice-over scripts, and recording the voice-over will follow that.

Interplay's audio department is working tirelessly to get the sound effects done, and we're meeting with them on a weekly basis so everyone knows what the others are working on. We're also meeting with our marketing and public relations folks weekly to go over which directions we want our ad campaigns to go and what materials they require from us. As always, communication is the key.

"I can't wait to see what the guys will put in next."-Doug Avery, Black Isle Studios

On Fridays, Chris and I make our weekly pilgrimage to Reflexive to visit with the guys, pick up the latest version of the game, and see what new changes have been made. Last week, the team was focused primarily on making the game more stable so we could have our QA teams begin their preliminary testing. We have our internal QA testers looking at the latest build of the game and getting familiar with the documentation so they'll be ready to go when we get a more-stable version of the game for testing. Right now, saving and loading of the game is in and working, and that is making testing an actual possibility.

I can't wait to see what the guys will put in next. Currently, I have been playing through the game as a demokin character and exploring Nueva Barcelona. It's pretty cool to talk to young Bill Shakespeare, and there is a very intriguing fellow from China who has some nice items. There are also very strict laws there regarding the use of magic and violence. Let's just say that the city guards and the Inquisition frown upon such acts inside the city walls.

Well, that's about it for me. If you would like to find out more about Lionheart or get in on some of the riveting discussions, please come visit us at the official Lionheart Web site and stop by the message boards.