Gothic 10-Year Anniversary Interview

Gothic fansite Gothicz.net has an interview with Piranha Bytes co-founder Mike Hoge, talking the Gothic series as the first Gothic hit its 10-year anniversary.

Gothicz.net: There is not many women in the Gothic series. Don’t you feel, that you owe something to the fans concerning this fact?

Mike: No. 🙂 Please forgive me if I do not elaborate on that. It would be worth a thread an a philosophers’ forum.

Gothicz.net: As we know, the magic barrier in G1 was created by twelve magicians plus Xardas. In the Colony we can find precisely the same count of them, however the fire mage Milten came in to the Colony after the Barrier was created. So we are missing one fire mage. It seems to me quite impossible, that you would overlook this disharmony. So what happened to this unknown mage?

Mike: The Magic barrier was created by 12 magicians, Xardas being one of them! When Xardas left the old camp, there were only 5 Mages left.. So they took Milten as an apprentice, when he was thrown into the prison after the barrier had been created. There is a dialogue in the game where one of the mages gets the numbers wrong. I think it was Saturas… I noticed that error, fixed it and some ex-team member of mine “fixed” it back because he didn’t understand the background. There is no missing mage. The guy just messed it up 🙂

Gothicz.net: Have you ever thought about the past of the Nameless hero? I mean like what crime he commited etc. Or you just picked a random man without the past and put him into the Colony?

Mike: Nobody is innocent.

And, an interesting tidbit: Piranha Bytes is getting the license back soon.

Gothicz.net: Mike, last question. If you had a chance to win the rights for Gothic back, would you consider it? Is there a possibility, that you ever develop another Gothic?

Mike: We get the rights to Gothic back when we have finished Risen 2. Why? Because we did only sell them to our ex-publisher for a certain amount of time 😉

With JoWood in trouble, it is excellent to hear the faith of the Gothic franchise won’t be put into limbo. It might also explain why they’re taking Risen in such a new direction with Risen 2, as otherwise the two franchises are way too similar.

Thanks RPGCodex.