Lands of Lore Interview with Rico, 1/13 1998

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Interview starts:

Question
It would be nice if you could provide our readers with some personal background - your name, your position at Westwood, your RPG-experience.

Answer
I'm Rick Gush, aka Coco. I wrote and produced the first Lands of Lore, then wrote and helped design the next two. I also wrote and produced the Kyrandia comedy adventure series. and the questions are:

Question
Can you elaborate on how LOL3 is going on? What part of the game are you working on right now? How much of the game is already finished?

Answer
We're just about finished. I'll bet the game ships in late February. We sort of could have pushed something out the door for Christmas if we had had to, but when EA bought us, that deadline went out the window. They didn't want to rush a marketing launch. All this was very kind to the game, because the polishing that has been going on in these extra months is exactly what the game needed.

Question
Where in the Lands of Lore world does LOL3 take place? We have learned that some of LOL3 levels were taken from LOL1&LOL2. Could you enumerate these locations ? Have designers changed them significantly and will they be recognizable for LOL-fans?

Answer
LOL3 takes place back in Gladstone! Many of us have always wanted to explore Gladstone, so we made this story up to be able to do so. We also thought the dynamics of a town and the relationships within would be fun to start exploring. I as a writer think this is the new frontier. We've gone a little ways into relationships here, but in future games I'd expect a lot more of this. Hmm, well, for sure everybody gets to explore some old Draracle areas, which are easily recognizable, except for the step by step movement from LOL1 isn't there.

Question
Who amongst main LOL3 characters will be familiar for those who played LOL1 and LOL2 ? Will Luther take his role in the game ? What about Dawn and Scotia ? Who amongst LOL1 characters will return to the series?

Answer
Luther's got a cameo, no Scotia. Dawn's big time, again. Jeron, (now Lord Jeron)whom we all wanted to kill in LOL1, is back, as unlikable as ever. King Dick is home sometimes. Victor's daughter and Baccatta's brother show up. The coolest character in this story has also been in both LOL1 and 2, but I'll say no more.

Question
I guess LOL3 will contain tons of side-quests and puzzles. Could you give us a brief description of your favourite quest?

Answer
I like the whole final portal sequence. You have to travel to a post-apocalyptic zone, but we're not allowed to use that word.

Question
Can you describe a little bit the way Copper interacts with NPCs ? Will it look like a dialog tree or will it be scripted ?

Answer
No dialog trees. Everything is either scripted, or item click based. This is always the part that makes me most nervous, and I don't know how well the system will work this time. I, of course, want people to be able to hear and understand the dialog.

Question
About guilds. We know that any of the four guilds offers a player permanent support throughout the game along with some goodies. But I also guess a guild declares certain rules and laws which must be obeyed. Is it true? How will I be punished if I break some laws being, say, the member of Talamari guild? Is it possible to finish the game without support of the guilds?

Answer
I wish the guilds were stricter. Right now, they don't have a lot of sanction powers. And no, I don't think it's really possible to finish without joining a guild. It just gets too tough in the later areas. But there is no actual line of prevention, and I suppose, it is at least theoretically mathematically possible.

Question
About familiars. Do they have their own agendas or do they just follow Copper ? Is is possible for a familiar to interact with NPCs and to affect the plot ?

Answer
Familiars have a bit of an agenda, and you can give them some basic commands. Familiars can interact in combat and change the world, but they have little interactive ability with most speaking npcs.

Question
About portals. We have learned that Copper is supposed to travel from Gladstone to 5 different worlds comprised of multiple levels. It is also known that any of LOL3-world has multiple entry points (portals) scattered throughout the Lands. Can you elaborate on how actually those portals work? Do they act as unidirectional entities or bidirectional ones? For instance, what portals are located in Gladstone? Where do they lead?

Answer
Most of the portals are in the woods, and they act like any self respecting portal: you step through, and you're in another world. When you're in the other world, there's a portal there too, and if you step through it, presto, you're back in Gladstone.

Question
Have you put any exciting twists in the plot, like you did with LOL1? Will there be any points/items/locations in LOL3 world that may completely change current player's goal and affect the story itself?

Answer
There's a pretty good twist in the story. it's actual "character development", but I can't say too much without ruining the delicious mystery.

Question
Who is your favorite non-player character ? Where in the game does he/she appear? What is his/her role in LOL3-storyline?

Answer
My favorite this time is the Clerics Guild familiar. She's named Goldy, and she's a charming idiot. Sort of a cross between Gracie Allen and my wife.

Question
What is your favourite spell? What spellgroup does it belong to? How does it work?

Answer
I like all the awesome visual spells, and I appreciate them more for their visual motion than their pragmatic combat effects.

Question
Who is the most powerful monster in LOL3? How long will it take for a trained LOL-veteran to defeat him?

Answer
What a shock! The most powerful opponents are towards the end of the game, and they'll take more correct preparation time than actual toe to toe hours.

Question
Some statistics. How many spells, spellgroups, items (including those made with pharmacopea), NPCs, puzzles and quests do you expect included in LOL3? How many hours will it take for a novice to complete the game?

Answer
Hundreds of goodies. Should take a novice 100 hours+, and experienced player less, but we think the experienced player will want to linger and explore, rather than rush through.

Question
What would you say about the future of the Lands of Lore series?

Answer
Hot new stuff is being planned in quantity.

Regards, Jeff.