PST:EE Project Lead's interview with PCInvasion

JuliusBorisov

Welcome back, chief!

Alex Tomovic has given an interview on PST:EE:

https://www.pcinvasion.com/planescape-torment-enhanced-edition-interview-qa

Several snippets (read full interview at PCInvasion):

"PCI: When working with the older code, what was the most challenging new feature to implement?

AT: Planescape: Torment featured a number of unique spells with amazing visuals that were often linked to in-game cinematic sequences. Porting that spell system over to the new engine was definitively the most challenging part of the process and we are very satisfied with the end result."

"PCI: Is there anything you wanted to include as a feature but were unable to do so?

AT: We didn’t have access to the source art for the original animated portraits and movies. Had that been the case, we would have loved to include higher resolution versions of both in the Enhanced Edition."

"PCI: You were able to work with Chris Avellone on this release; do you recall any particular bugs or nagging gameplay issues that he was especially eager to fix after all this time?

AT: Chris requested to personally proofread all the text from the original game. This was something that he wanted to do for a long time and we were happy to oblige."

"PCI: Was there any temptation, as you have done in the past with Enhanced Editions, to try to add new characters to Torment?

AT: None whatsoever. As the Project Lead of the Enhanced Edition, I felt that it would have been impossible to add new content to the game without changing its unique atmosphere and tone. I firmly believe that the story of Planescape: Torment stands strong on its own, which is why I focused the team’s efforts on making improvements to the technology behind the game, rather than making any changes to its content."

Buttercheese

AT: Speaking purely for myself, I would love to work on something akin to the Gothic game series by Piranha Bytes.

Augh, right in the childhood nostalgia!
Are these games even really known outside of Germany tho?

AlexT

Buttercheese said:

Are these games even really known outside of Germany tho?

I think the Gothic games were reasonably popular in the rest of Europe as well.

My language skills were decent enough that I could play them in the the original, German version so I never bothered with the international releases.

Vallmyr

I had a friend who adored the Gothic games, never played them myself, though.

Buttercheese

The first Gothic is what introduced me to Folk Metal, so that's a thing.
It where simpler times, back then

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ebgjk0vtzY

agris

Gothic 1 and 2 are great games, all the modern TES releases pale in comparison.

GenderNihilismGirdle

@Buttercheese I'm from the west coat of Canada and I played all the Gothic games pretty close to when they launched here, I know lots of RPG gamers here and in the U.S. who have played the series and have opinions on it (some like it some don't, I loved the first two).

smeagolheart

AlexT won me over with the Rogue Rebalancing mod back in the day. It stood out to me for what it was and what it sought to correct within the framework of the IE games. I liked his simple AI scripts too - getting rogues to search for traps and things while not in combat is a great simple non-intrusive addition.

IWDEE was a very solid fairly bug free affair. Hearing that he led the project on PSTEE is encouraging.