14 DAY TRIAL // Runemaster is an unusual project for the Paradox Development Studio and we have an exclusive interview about some of the core elements of the game with Sara Wendel-Ortqvist, the senior lore developer at Paradox Development Studio.
Softpedia: How did the core ideas for Runemaster first appear and why did it take so long, about three years, to officially announce a game built around them?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: Well, we at Paradox Development Studio have always loved games that offer you as a player the freedom to create your own story. Every gamer that has played our games Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV know that we want you to make choices and want every one of your choices has consequences.
We at PDS are a bunch of passionate history nerds who also love Norse mythology and games of all kinds that explore storytelling. Crusader Kings II is a fine example of that as a strategy/RPG. Though we have been focused on the historical strategy games which we love to play, we also play role-playing games and have tried to incorporate elements from them into some of our games.
What we are doing with Runemaster is building the RPG with elements of emergent storytelling, so our goal is that the choices you make will have a direct impact on the quests you embark on. The game’s procedural quest system will take note of your deeds and challenge you accordingly. The way you act determines not only what type of person you are, but what personal traits you develop and what quests you get in future, because that kind of replayability is the core of our games.
We felt it was time to focus some of our attention on a RPG of our own and I say “focus some of our attention” because PDS have several teams who are working on different projects at the moment and the Runemaster team is only one of them. Our Project Lead, Olof Björk, has been working on other projects while also working on Runemaster, so he was actually a one-man team until we found more programmers and could start working on Runemaster full-time. That is why Runemaster has been in development for a while; however the game did not have a full, dedicated team until recently.
Softpedia: Does the current design emphasize the role-playing aspect or the turn-based side of the experience?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: Both, I would say. The design of Runemaster is very focused on quests at the moment and they will be the most important aspect of the game insofar as creating a vivid saga for you as a player. However our battles will be fun and very strategic and you'll have full control of your troops and their abilities.
We won't have side quests in Runemaster. Every quest will count towards the goal of the game, either preventing Ragnarök from happening or pushing it forward. Since every quest matters somehow, even if you might not realize it, the game mechanics will make sure that no quest is made in vain.
When in battle, you will be moved from the world map and into a battlefield when you encounter enemies. The battles of Runemaster will be turn-based, tactical battles based on a hex grid system made up of different terrains and contains height differences. Your hero will join the army and take active part in combat as a unit on the battlefield and the battles you fight will be tied to quests and their outcome will matter to your story.
Softpedia: How much Norse mythology is incorporated into the game world and do players need to be already acquainted with it to make sense of the story?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: We are delving deep into the mythology to craft the world, aiming at creating something very close to real myths and beliefs of Norse Mythology. There are too few games out there that tap into the mythology of Scandinavia, and none to the extent that we want Runemaster to do. As a Swedish development studio, we felt that this was a tale we wanted to tell.
We will have a tome of knowledge which will contain all the lore of the game, and possibly explain it more thoroughly than the dialogue or the quests might do. So if the game mentions Odin, the tome of knowledge will update with more information about him. Bosses and unique units are based on beings from Norse mythology and we remain as true as we can to what we know about them. Norse mythology has been interpreted and reinterpreted time and again, so we have come up with our own original contribution and perspective. This is what I find the most fun!
There are some things we won't change, the names of the gods or their nature, for example, but we've had to concoct a lot of things that we normally do not have to think about for our grand strategy games. For example, what kinds of units do Humans have? Or Lightelfs? How are they dressed, what do they fight with, what are their strong points/weak points? Still, the core of Runemaster is familiar Norse mythology, and we try to make the game feel like it.
Softpedia: Given the popularity of the Thor character from the Avengers comic book universe, how do you plan to deal with the fact that many see allegiance to Loki as siding with evil, even if the mythology does not actually support this?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: That is a very Christian thing, this idea that Loki is evil. The Norse mythology paints him as a troublemaker, a trickster, the chaos god that can both help the gods but also put them in difficult positions. I'd rather not talk about Good and Evil while talking about Runemaster and Ragnarök, because I see it as Change versus Stability. If Ragnarök occurs, the old world will be destroyed but a new world will arise. Change is not necessarily evil; change can be both bad and good. Same with Stability. Stability is accepting the old world and doing nothing to change it. This struggle between Change and Stability is one of the main themes of the game.
The three races that, from the beginning, side with Loki: Trolls, Darkelfs and Giants. They are not treated fairly by the gods or the other races, and a new world would perhaps mean that they are no longer confined to the dark places. So they see Loki as a way to a fairer universe, or at least vengeance on the those they see as oppressors.
Softpedia: What games have provided inspiration for the turn-based hex battles?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: Kings Bounty - The Legend and its expansions have been a great inspiration, as well as the early Heroes of Might and Magic games. I personally love those games, and I even remember the old cheat for getting five Black Dragons in your hero's army in HoMM II: 32167.
However the storytelling of Runemaster is more inspired by games such as Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republic.
Softpedia: Will gamers have to directly control all combat or is auto-resolve an option?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: We want the battles to be interesting enough that no one will want to skip them. So we’ll see if we’ll implement an auto resolve feature later. We’ll do what feels best for the game.
Softpedia: What is Runemaster’s piece of mechanics that the team is proudest of at the moment?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: The battles and the quests. Since I work with the quests and coordinate the writers and keep track on the lore, I know I should really say the quests, since I am horribly proud of them and I feel confident that quests will be one of the greatest parts of Runemaster. But I really love Runemaster's battles as well, they are so fun and challenging that I find myself eagerly awaiting each new battle!
Softpedia: How much of the game world is random and how much stays the same for each new playthrough?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: You will freely explore the six worlds of Runemaster, each of which is based on one of six of the worlds of Norse mythology. Each time you start a new campaign, the world is procedurally generated to ensure each adventure is a venture into the unknown. The six worlds will have the same environment and atmosphere – that is, Jotunheim will always be a snow covered wasteland with lots of mountains, snow and ice, while Midgard will have forests, meadows, some mountains and a summer “look” to it.
However each world will be randomly generated for each new game, and even if you do end up with the same regions as last time, they won't look the same. Take a harbor area for example. You might stumble upon it every time you start a new game, but it will look different each time. The shape of the region, the number of ships moored at the jetties, the buildings and the people working there will never be exactly the same.
Softpedia: Are there any plans to use the Clausewitz engine for other entirely new intellectual properties in the near future?
Sara Wendel-Ortqvist: Runemaster uses same the Clausewitz engine shared by PDS strategy games, such as Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV. The Clausewitz engine is developed internally and we've added a lot visual features and performance optimizations to meet the increased demands set by Runemaster.
I can’t talk about the next Clausewitz games quite yet, but we are full of ideas of how we can use it and since we have a dedicated engine programmer, there's practically nothing we cannot make with the Clausewitz engine if we choose to. Who knew we could make such a beautiful game as Runemaster based on the engine used for strategy games? Well, we at Paradox Development Studio knew of course, but who else? And as we continue to develop great games and our great engine, who knows what is next for us and Clausewitz? We do, but we are not going to tell ;)