Eragon Details from Game Producer Tim Ramage

Eragon game producer Tim Ramage was interviewed by GameZone and they talked about development issues and went over some gameplay details. The interview gets a bit lengthy, so if you guys just want the meat of it, here are some of the bits that stand out more.

When asked about the difficulty involved in developing a game inspired from an unfinished trilogy, Ramage says that the game is actually based on just the movie, which according to him, is only about the first novel. So they didn’t have much trouble with the storyline. He does add that they hope that they would be able to make follow up games based on The Eldest.

They didn’t get to work closely with Christopher Paolini as they worked more with the creative personnel from the movie (the product they have rights to), but they were able to get some feedback from Christopher on some of the book-based levels in the Microsoft Xbox 360 version of the game. As far as transition goes, Ramage said that their goal was to close the gap between the book version and the movie version of the tale.

When asked about the flow of the game and the challenges involved with linear plots, Ramage wonders why “linear” is considered a bad word in gaming…he adds that it is a very narrow point of view. He claims that with linear path games, it is what you do in the path that makes the game shine. Here’s exactly what he said:

Eragon, at its core, is a hack-and-slash action adventure… with this very cool dragon flight mechanic. So as you progress through the story, itÂ’s the action within the context of the story that makes or breaks the game.

Okay so now the meta-game stuff is over with, we can now focus more on the game-play side. Ramage says that next gen versions of the game will have two unique levels that are drawn from locales in the book as well as a new enemy character – the Kull.

Spellcasting in the game was problematic for them, as the story actually specifies that using too much magic can kill a caster. They can’t just have the character die from using spells, so their workaround was this: Eragon cannot simply use magic any time he wants, as the story dictates, he has to make judicious use of it. So they work with that concept and apply it to game language.

When you start the game the “recharge rate” for casting is slow as molasses. It does get faster as the game progresses though, and the effects of each cast are “worth” the casting time. Don’t expect spell-slinging action here. Eragon will be released on November 14 for the Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, PSP, DS, mobile, and PC.

Buy: [Eragon for PSP]
Buy: [Eragon for Xbox 360]
Buy: [Eragon for DS]
Buy: [Eragon for PC]

Via GameZone

Eragon game producer Tim Ramage was interviewed by GameZone and they talked about development issues and went over some gameplay details. The interview gets a bit lengthy, so if you guys just want the meat of it, here are some of the bits that stand out more.

When asked about the difficulty involved in developing a game inspired from an unfinished trilogy, Ramage says that the game is actually based on just the movie, which according to him, is only about the first novel. So they didn’t have much trouble with the storyline. He does add that they hope that they would be able to make follow up games based on The Eldest.

They didn’t get to work closely with Christopher Paolini as they worked more with the creative personnel from the movie (the product they have rights to), but they were able to get some feedback from Christopher on some of the book-based levels in the Microsoft Xbox 360 version of the game. As far as transition goes, Ramage said that their goal was to close the gap between the book version and the movie version of the tale.

When asked about the flow of the game and the challenges involved with linear plots, Ramage wonders why “linear” is considered a bad word in gaming…he adds that it is a very narrow point of view. He claims that with linear path games, it is what you do in the path that makes the game shine. Here’s exactly what he said:

Eragon, at its core, is a hack-and-slash action adventure… with this very cool dragon flight mechanic. So as you progress through the story, itÂ’s the action within the context of the story that makes or breaks the game.

Okay so now the meta-game stuff is over with, we can now focus more on the game-play side. Ramage says that next gen versions of the game will have two unique levels that are drawn from locales in the book as well as a new enemy character – the Kull.

Spellcasting in the game was problematic for them, as the story actually specifies that using too much magic can kill a caster. They can’t just have the character die from using spells, so their workaround was this: Eragon cannot simply use magic any time he wants, as the story dictates, he has to make judicious use of it. So they work with that concept and apply it to game language.

When you start the game the “recharge rate” for casting is slow as molasses. It does get faster as the game progresses though, and the effects of each cast are “worth” the casting time. Don’t expect spell-slinging action here. Eragon will be released on November 14 for the Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, PSP, DS, mobile, and PC.

Buy: [Eragon for PSP]
Buy: [Eragon for Xbox 360]
Buy: [Eragon for DS]
Buy: [Eragon for PC]

Via GameZone