The Banner Saga Interview
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The Banner Saga will blend tactical, turn-based combat with BioWare-like cinematic dialogue sequences and RPG elements, all wrapped in a mini-series based on Vikings. "One of our major goals for The Banner Saga was the opportunity to do a mature game for adults in the vein of Game of Thrones or The Black Company," Thomas said. "When we say it's a mature story, we want the player to understand it's about cultural intrigue and the relationships between the characters, not sex, swearing and violence. It's also not about high fantasy and dragons and magic, and it's not about black and white, good versus evil."
Most of us can agree that Vikings are a great choice of focus, and I asked Thomas how that was decided. "We really love the visual themes, history and mood of their culture and (pre-Skyrim) it was rare to see them in games, especially the role-playing variety," Thomas said. "We knew we wanted a fantasy setting, but desperately wanted to avoid the very overdone 'elves, dwarves and orcs' dynamic."
As is true of most independent developers with AAA studio experience, there are comparative advantages and disadvantages to going indie. "The resources you have on a large team are invaluable, and being able to talk to an expert in almost any field is something you can't overestimate," Thomas said.
That said, such a large-scale studio can run into agility-related issues when it comes to developing a title. "Once you reach a certain number of employees or try to make a game with a high degree of complexity, you lose the ability to be agile and create unique content," Thomas explained.
