Trial by Magic Remake Announced, Interview

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Written by BuckGB on March 25th, 2013

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DD: Trial By Magic is an RPG; a notoriously expensive genre to develop within. How are you going to ensure this game is competitive in the market despite working on an independent budget?

PT: The fact it's a remake helps a lot. Much of the design is already done. Of course it will be tweaked and improved, but things like level layouts, weapons lists, spell types, etc are already in the bag.

Also, the scope of the project is practical for a smaller developer. It's set in a dungeon, not an open sandbox world like Skyrim. The dungeon will still be huge and there will be a lot to explore, plenty of monsters to slay and tons of loot to collect but the aim is to make an underground adventure with a start and a finished, not a sprawling epic that never ends.

DD: Trial By Magic is a remake of an old DOS game. Firstly, we love DOS RPGs! Secondly, how are you updating the game for the modern audience?

PT: There are three main areas.

First, the controls. I've played the old Trial By Magic in a DOS emulator recently, and the control scheme and UI are hard work for the player. The whole area of Human Machine Interface has advanced a lot in the last 15 years, so how the player interacts with the game needs to be modernised.

Next is the production values. Obviously there have been advances in graphics technology since 1993 (like for example 3D graphics cards!). So instead of sprites, the game will be all 3D models, with modern lighting, particle effects, etc.

Then there are the game systems, like combat and magic. There is still a lot to do here, but the core RPG systems will get an overhaul. The intention is to update the systems to be modern whilst providing a "classic" RPG experience. One thing we are doing that I'm really excited about is switching to a classless system. You character will start off as a (blank slate), and the character you become will be based on your actions in the game, not an arbitrary choice made before you even start playing.

There are probably other changes, such as an improved and better integrated story, maybe some online features, but those are the main things.

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