News From Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor posted a newsbit on Gas Powered Games’ official Dungeon Siege website that talks about the game’s upcoming release and what their plans are for the future:

Hey Everyone! As most of you know by now, Dungeon Siege has gone gold and will be in stores on April 5th. This may seem to mark the end of a long journey, but in many ways it is just the beginning. We are now starting work on our next release, the Siege Editor, which will be available for free download from the Internet in early May. We’ll be coming up with an exact date in the next few weeks. The Siege Editor that we are releasing is the same version we used, but there are still some bugs we want to find before we release it. I could talk at length about how rough actual development tools are, but we feel that this extra time to find and fix the real big bugs will go a long way to making everyone’s first experience a much better one.

We actually have many different projects in the works, and among them is the gmax game-pack for Dungeon Siege, another download that will be available for free from the Internet in the months ahead. We are working closely with Discreet (makers of 3D Studio Max and gmax) to get this ready for launch as soon as possible. More information will also be coming your way soon regarding the launch date. Lastly, we are working on a set of tutorials to guide first-time mod makers. These tutorials will provide detailed instructions on how to create terrain, place objects and monsters, create new AI using Skrit, and how to set up story-sequences, character dialog and more. The first batch of tutorials will be available when the Siege Editor is available for download in early May.

These next few months will be very exciting, and filled with thrills and spills as we smooth out all the rough edges, and make all of these different tools available. We are entering a fantastic new world, and we know that we must expect the unexpected, and we must all be prepared to forge the way in this area of game development. I can’t imagine a more exciting time to be in this business, and to be a part of what is undoubtedly going to change many different aspects of the way we all make and play games.

To all the future Dungeon Siege mod makers around the world, Gas Powered Games wishes you the best, and can’t wait to see the fantastic worlds you will create and share in the coming months and years ahead.