Alexey Ilin on Disciples III: Resurrection
Feature
Disciples III: Resurrection is a turn-based strategy game from .dat studio. The series has been quite popular and with the expansion's release on the horizon, we got in contact with Alexey Ilin, the game's producer.
Alexey Ilin: I should start from Disciples 3: Renaissance I guess. Initiative just enabled us to sort units at the very beginning of the battle, nothing more. In Disciples 3: resurrection the feature was reinvented. This time around, a unit with high initiative can act more times in a round than a unit with lower initiative. For Example: White Wolves, which have high initiative, have a chance to act 3 times during a single turn while fighting against a Troll that has low initiative.
That is why potions, spells and runs increasing initiative became much more important and effective. The player always has a choice between using very strong units, or fast ones which have lower attack and defence. This way, the feature has made battles much more varied and fascinating.
Hooked Gamers: Promising players over 70 hours of gameplay is no small statement. Some critics stated that the combat in Renaissance became boring after a while and that,even though there was a lot to do, it was not enough to keep the game interesting throughout the campaign. How will you keep the player interested enough to complete this massive campaign?
Hooked Gamers: Tell us a little bit about the new leaders, heroes and bosses the player will meet in the game.
Alexey Ilin: Disciples 3: Resurrection introduces 2 new heroes, 4 new leader, and 2 new bosses.
Each of them has unique abilities and skills, and as you can imagine, all of them have their own impressive stories and hard fates that are intertwined with the course of the plot. We have divulged a lot of information about the heroes and leaders in our recent news-letters, but we’ve never revealed any information about bosses in the game. So, in order to not repeat myself, let me unveil some exclusive details about bosses. We’ve already faced one of them in the previous game. A man named Ferre became the Emperor of the Humans, and is now one of the new bosses. He has usurped power over the Empire of Nevendaar and launched many bloody wars of conquest. Some people hate him for his cruelty and ruthlessness but he is still respected by the others for his strength and fearlessness. This is the man whom we shall defeat. Undiguillash, a youthful mermaid and the queen of the merfolk, received great power from a mysterious artifact. In the hearts of the merfolk and Gallean himself, she has taken the place of Soloniel, who became the Undead Goddess. Let’s try to imagine how powerful a level we will must reach in order to defeat both Ferre and Undigillash. :)
Hooked Gamers: When a player needs to take a break from a game, a good thing to have is a Map Editor. The Map Editor that came with Disciples II proved very popular indeed and fan made maps were a dime a dozen soon after its release. Will there be a Map Editor bundled with this game?
If not, why not?
Hooked Gamers: The story was written by Ekaterina Stadnikova, an author who has already written and published a book based on the series. How has her talent enriched the depth of the game and how has it been working with her?
Alexey Ilin: Ekaterina Stadnikova is a great professional. It was very interesting to work with her on Disciples 3: Resurrection. She had no experience writing for games before we started this project and it’s always fascinating when people experienced in one literary sphere can open your eyes to some innovative ways of building the story of another. She worked in close collaboration with level designers and game designers. She knows what is more interesting to read, and developers were very excited by this interaction. Oh, and all our meetings were so noisy and expressive . Ekaterina managed to enrich and renew the story; to add deep relationships between the characters; and create more interesting quests. We hope this work will be appreciated by players.
Hooked Gamers: We’ve heard a lot of talk through the grapevine about an upcoming Gold edition of Disciples III. Can you tell us anything about that?
Alexey Ilin: The Gold edition of Disciples 3 will be nothing like the products which are usually referred to as “gold editions”. That is why we gave the game a different name. I can say that I’ve never seen a “gold edition” with so many improvements and changes. We’ll leave this theme for a future discussion, but I’m sure the surprises we’ve prepared in the gold edition won’t disappoint you!
Hooked Gamers: Is there any news of a definite release date?
Alexey Ilin: The date is up to the international publisher and considering that a press release has not been published yet, I can say nothing. But I think it will be soon :)
Hooked Gamers: It is our tradition to give the developer the last word. Is there anything burning on your lips?
Also I’d like to thank our fans and our community. We don’t have much time to communicate with them but we do read their opinions and wishes and try our best to make the game better for them. We’ve been listening to the players the whole time while making Resurrection and we are doing even more for them now working on the “gold edition”.
You can post your questions and wishes here in the comments and on our fan-page and we will try to keep in touch and will do our best to bring you a nice game.
Hooked Gamers: Thank you for your time.
Alexey Ilin: Thank you Hooked Gamers for a great interview. It was really a pleasure to meet you and your readers!