You may have read our recent review of Avencast:Rise of the Mage, developed by ClockStone Software. During the review of that game, we had the opportunity to interview ClockStone Software about the development process of Avencast and many other interesting elements of game design. Read on to see what ClockStone Software’s team had to say about Avencast: Rise of the Mage.

Tell me a little bit about Clockstone Software, your location, team size/members and any other projects you’ve worked on.
Michael Scheistl, ClockStone CEO: Let me tell you how our story began. Imagine an enthusiastic and naïve student with a vision of making an action role playing game. That was me about 4 years ago. Of course, I had no idea of what it actually takes to make such a game, but I had basic knowledge of 3d programming, and – most importantly – a number of friends sharing my idea. So we started to work out a plan for the game we called Avencast, created the first graphics and started to program the first simple levels. But what was planned as a hobby project soon required more and more time. And suddenly we realised that – if we wanted to complete the game – we would not only have to put our studies to rest for a while and work on Avencast as a full time job but we would also have to invest a considerable amount of money. Plus we needed a legal base for our venture…so we founded ClockStone Software GmbH.

It is our understanding that you are both the CEO and lead developer? How do you describe your role in the company and how did the team come together?
MS: I was the only engine programmer, the producer, and CEO at the same time. No need to say I was completely overburdened from time to time.

How did you get started in game development? Did you go to school for anything related or just dive in?
Tri Do Dinh, ClockStone Game Designer and Lead Animator: Almost none of us had any game development related education. We were just a bunch of enthusiasts who one day decided to jump into the cold water, not knowing that said water can be in fact very, very cold.

What kinds of games does your team enjoy playing currently and are there any classic games that you consider an inspiration? (One of our all time-favorite RPGs was Fallout 2)
TDD: Diablo 2, obviously. It was an inspiration in the sense that as soon as we decided to make Avencast an action RPG, its gigantic shadow came looming over our project since it’s widely regarded as the pinnacle of Hack ‘n’ Slash and all that. Being compared to Diablo 2 was inevitable, which sort of led to our decision to try something different with the gameplay rather than retreading something that has already been done so well. You could call it reverse inspiration.
Other than that, Avencast’s gameplay owes a lot to Beat ‘em Ups, games like Final Fight, Street Fighter, Tekken and many, many more.
Personally, I don’t get to play many games right now. I don’t own any consoles and my PC is 7 years old, so that unfortunately limits my gaming options a bit.

We heard somewhere that Avencast: Rise of the Mage was in development for quite some time. You mentioned in earlier conversation that it grew from a hobby project! Can you tell me a little bit about the inspiration and original vision for the game? How does the final project differ from your original vision?
TDD: In fact, Avencast did start as the proverbial Diablo clone. Run around in dungeons, kill monsters for loot, rinse and repeat. Very simple, without any ambition to be groundbreaking in any way whatsoever. The team grew, and so did the project since everybody was throwing in ideas left and right, and soon our vision of the game would literally explode into something that probably could have rivalled “The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion”. There was, of course, no way that we could have pulled off a project of that size so we had to settle with what Avencast ended up being right now.

The control scheme in Avencast is very different from the usual RPG or action RPG experience. We loved the physical control we had over the character in battle but also felt like it was a daring move. What was your inspiration for the very active controls and how do you feel gamers have responded to the unique system?
TDD: I can only speak for myself, but I always felt that combat in action RPGs was lacking a certain dynamic quality that on the other hand could be found in games of other genres like Beat ’em Ups, and that’s why we took so much inspiration from such games.
People’s responses to the combat system have been mostly positive, I think a lot of them were happy to see something new rather than the usual “point-and-click-to-death” combat system and every once in a while we do get a couple of really enthusiastic responses, so we must have done something right, I guess.
There were of course people as well who felt that adding that sort of “twitchy” gameplay would dilute the roleplaying experience, and they certainly do have a point. With Avencast we decided to emphasize the action over the roleplaying and that’s the way it is, but should we ever do a different RPG that’s something that we might keep in mind.

What language was the game developed in and how was localization handled?
Matthias Hilke, ClockStone Project Manager: The game was originally developed in the German language. I think developer teams should always develop in their mother tongue. This is the only way to create texts with a natural flow and as much feeling in it as possible. The rest is up to the translators, who take care of the next main step regarding the localization: the English version. This is where all subsequent translations depart from. However, localization does not only have to do with having texts translated. It also touches programming since you have to have all the necessary fonts implemented. This was quite a challenge with the Chinese language, for example, because they have a completely different letter system. Also graphical design gets involved because e.g. maximum lengths of texts in GUI elements can become an issue: e.g. Roman languages, like Italian and French, often use terms that are longer than their equivalents in Germanic languages like English or German, because the languages are built up differently. Besides German and English, Avencast will be available in Chinese, Czech, French, Italian, Polish, and Spanish. I’m looking forward to seeing all these versions (and hearing some of them as well since not all will get speech recordings as well).

You mentioned that you and your team developed the game engine that powers Avencast. Can you tell us anything about the technology? What is the primary language used for development and what were some of the biggest technical obstacles that you faced?
MS: I programmed almost every part of the game engine (entirely C++) myself. The DirectX framework, the particle engine, the level editor, the AI engine, and even the scripting language. It was a whole lot of work and I gained a lot of experience by doing that, but I also learned that this is not an efficient way for quickly making a game. One of the most tedious problems was to support the large number of video cards and their various number of – not seldom – buggy drivers. This is a programmer’s nightmare.

Were there any significant compromises that you had to make to meet time or technology demands?
MS: There are so many features I would have loved to program for Avencast, such as better real time shadowing techniques, realistic physics, multiplayer, etc. It’s a pity that our financial situation and the schedule just didn’t allow them all.

What part of Avencast: Rise of the Mage are you the most proud of?
TDD: Finishing it. Easy as that. Looking back at it, it’s a little bit of a miracle that we pulled it off considering the circumstances of development.

How do you feel about modding or general alteration of your game? How open is Avencast to modding and was that something you had time to think about during the development process?
TDD: We didn’t have any time to think about modding possibilities during development but I don’t think that any of us is averse to the idea of people modding our game and creating their own experiences with it.

Do you plan to release any devkits, modding or level creation tools (if you haven’t already)?
TDD: That’s a tough question since the development tools aren’t all that user-friendly right now. It’s really a matter of money and time so we can go and get them into a state where people can reasonably create their own stuff. We’re looking into it.

I’m sure you will be tied up with Avencast for awhile, but what’s next? Can you tell me if you’ll be following up with an expansion for the game or do you have different projects in the works?
MS: This is a difficult question. We are not sure about our future plans, we still need to make up our mind but there are currently many options for ClockStone – also on different platforms such as the xbox 360 or the Nintendo DS and maybe the Wii. If there will be a next Avencast or a completely new title is not decided yet.

Do you have any advice or parting comments for other developers looking to make a break?
TDD: Start small, be clear about your goals and don’t underestimate things, sounds easier than it is, I guess.

Do you have any other final comments, call-outs, etc that you would like to mention?
TDD: I’ll be honest right here. Our biggest problem is that not enough people know about Avencast, since we can’t afford a marketing campaign the way other big developers or publishers can. And it breaks our heart to see people coming to our forums and telling us that they greatly enjoyed the game but only found out about it by pure coincidence. I mean, if you don’t like Avencast, that’s fine, but if you enjoyed the game or think that someone else might enjoy it, just spread the word. We’d appreciate that.

Well, we loved the game and you guys did an amazing job of creating something that appeals to the RPG lover in all of us, while making it fresh with a new magic and combat control mechanism. Thank you very much for your time and for creating a great game. We hope that you keep releasing great games long into the future!