Another BaK question

rlccohen DeleteThis @aol.com (R. Cohen) wrote:
>Raymond Feist <raymond DeleteThis @bittersea.com> wrote in message news:<010820040724114410%raymond@bittersea.com>...
>> In article <ceil7g$mlf$1@sunce.iskon.hr>, Gizmo
>> <george.washington DeleteThis @microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> > > One other one was Evil Seek - especially if you had an Infinity Pool.. I
>> > > remember having to fight the Pentathians. It's been so long since I've
>> > > played this game - I think we needed to use weed walkers to make sure we
>> > > got first turn. Then with Evil Seek/ Infinity Pool, they were pretty much
>> > > history.
>> > >
>> > > Also, once Gorath got the Guarde Ravauche sword, the hit points were
>> > > amazing - 100+.
>> > >
>> > > Before I go - Once again, I have to say - BaK is one of the classics. To
>> > > this day, and we have played hundreds of games, BaK is still one of our
>> > > favorites.
>> >
>> > It came out of nowhere and made into a legend
>> >
>> > Yes, BaK is one of my favorite games ever, too. BTW, I just find time to
>> > play Return to Krondor and I did liked the game actually.
>> >
>> > But, there is some thing that was done wrong - camera/movement should be
>> > better, also weapon and magic was not acquired as in BaK - yes you have
>> > lousy weapon from the start but when you reach end of the game you didn't
>> > tried everything, same for the magic. In BaK - game was much longer and all
>> > magic and weapon where put during the game to keep wanting more. My Solon
>> > character never learned all path till the end because he didn't have enough
>> > levels to go up and learn spells... But, it's a very good game. BaK is still
>> > best RPG ever made.
>> >
>> > Morrowind? Hahaha, don't make me laugh, combat in BaK is 1000 miles ahead of
>> > Morrowind...
>> >
>> >
>> RtK was a strange story. The fact the game even made it to the store
>> was nothing short of amazing, and that it had any playing enjoyment was
>> miraculous.
>>
>> It's been long enough that I suppose it won't hurt to let out a little
>> truth about that project.
>>
>> I was contacted by a young lady while on tour in Dallas, who along
>> with her husband was a fan of mine. She worked for a start-up called
>> 7th Level. I spoke on the phone with her boss, George Grayson, and
>> then met with the other partner, Bob Ezrin.
>>
>> To make a very long story short, in an attempt to be innovative, 7th
>> Level made a lot of very bad design choices, among which was to start
>> developing assets (art, music, voice) before the final game design was
>> finished, so suddenly the code guys were being told, 'You have to make
>> them walk down these streets and here's what they see, and where they
>> can go and when they have these encounters, here's what the player can
>> and can't do.'
>>
>> Suddenly 7th Level fell apart, and the partners weren't speaking to
>> each other. They had purchased a small art house that had done a lot
>> of work with Sony, Pyrotechnix, in Cincinnati and turned the game over
>> to them, then when 7th Level died, Pyrotechnix (along with Krondor) was
>> turned over to Sierra.
>>
>> Sinjin Baine (who now runs SIMS for Electornic Arts) deserves a huge
>> amount of the credit for keeping the game alive.
>>
>> We had great voice actors, a great music house, and wonderful artists,
>> but the game play took a huge hit. No the fact there is an RtK at all
>> is, as I said, miraculous.
>>
>> Best, R.E.F.
>
>You could see that it was a game half finished. It started off
>fairly well actually and was pretty entertaining until the game left
>Krondor and then it went downhill quickly from there.

Sounds like Lionheart.

An article is posted by Raymond Feist, who is old and wise,
and with the following gibber, the Holy Lord Kalten replies:

> RtK was a strange story. The fact the game even made it to the store
> was nothing short of amazing, and that it had any playing enjoyment was
> miraculous.
>
> It's been long enough that I suppose it won't hurt to let out a little
> truth about that project.
>
> I was contacted by a young lady while on tour in Dallas, who along
> with her husband was a fan of mine. She worked for a start-up called
> 7th Level. I spoke on the phone with her boss, George Grayson, and
> then met with the other partner, Bob Ezrin.
>
> To make a very long story short, in an attempt to be innovative, 7th
> Level made a lot of very bad design choices, among which was to start
> developing assets (art, music, voice) before the final game design was
> finished, so suddenly the code guys were being told, 'You have to make
> them walk down these streets and here's what they see, and where they
> can go and when they have these encounters, here's what the player can
> and can't do.'
>
> Suddenly 7th Level fell apart, and the partners weren't speaking to
> each other. They had purchased a small art house that had done a lot
> of work with Sony, Pyrotechnix, in Cincinnati and turned the game over
> to them, then when 7th Level died, Pyrotechnix (along with Krondor) was
> turned over to Sierra.
>
> Sinjin Baine (who now runs SIMS for Electornic Arts) deserves a huge
> amount of the credit for keeping the game alive.
>
> We had great voice actors, a great music house, and wonderful artists,
> but the game play took a huge hit. No the fact there is an RtK at all
> is, as I said, miraculous.
>
> Best, R.E.F.

Thanks for the info.

A few more questions if you are able and would be so kind to answer: :0)

1) How much did it cost to make BaK and RtK? Also, if the same game using
todays technology were to be made, how much would it cost? I recall you
taking a share of the profits rather than being paid for your work because
you said they couldn't afford you - I take it that the costs of the game
were huge?

2) Did any of the people that made the original music to BaK make any of the
RtK music? Whilst I like most of the music in BaK, one tune stands out in
RtK. This is where the party gets to that eerie place where they have to
talk to the witch and go digging up graves or something. There is an Inn
there which has very welcoming music. As I recall, unlike BaK, the tune
wasn't burned onto the CD like in BaK so that you could rip it into an MP3.
Does anyone know how I can get hold of that tune from RtK?

3) I spoke to some chap that said he was on the BaK programming team. He
sent me an email saying that they had started work on a sequel (and I don't
mean Betrayal In Antara etc). Can't remember what it was called, but it
either had the word Dream or Thief in its title I think. Lost the email I
got sent. Anyway, do you know much about this and why it got scrapped?

4) When playing RtK, I notice that time is quite an important factor, such
as the game with putting the ship together. However, there is one place in
the game where time is a factor but I do not understand how it was intended
to work. Before the final battle, there is some dialogue between the
characters to quickly rush to the shore (for the final battle). If you
dwindle (leave your PC doing nothing for half an hour) before rushing into
the final battle, you can't win it. Why is that?

Cheers,

Kalten~!!!