Interview With Basilisk Games

Thomas Riegsecker is the founder, lead developer and all-around driving force behind Basilisk Games, a game studio that emerged on the industry scene in 2007 with the release of their first title, “Eschalon: Book I” and have now released it’s follow up, “Eschalon: Book II.” Both games are a welcome return to old-school RPG sensibilities, featuring a 2D isometric view, turn-based combat, and an emphasis on strategic single-player adventuring.

We were able to catch a few minutes of Mr. Riegsecker’s valuable time, and he graciously agreed to answer some of our questions. Read on and find out what Basilisk is all about. Also, if you’re interested in checking out the demos for either of their games, or purchasing the full products, you can find them by following the link at the top of this article.

There are a lot of gamers out there who remember old-school RPG’s first-hand, and there are also younger gamers who have gotten into them after the fact, yet this particular niche really isn’t very heavily represented in the mainstream market. So when Basilisk Games set out to start their own game development company, were you worried that all your hard work might fall on deaf ears?

TR – Certainly, that was a major concern of ours from the start and it continues to be. It is difficult to get the attention of most gamers under the age of 25 because our games offer no first-person perspective or gratuitous violence. Likewise, it’s a struggle to get any press coverage at all on mainstream gaming websites. Even though we have proven ourselves with two well-received games, we must continually push to get new gamers and the press to look at what we’ve got to offer.

Both “Eschalon: Book II” and it’s predecessor “Eschalon: Book I” were made available for Windows, Mac and Linux.  As a Linux user myself, I was really pleased to see this trend with your company.  However, the process of developing, testing and debugging for all three of these very different platforms must have represented a lot of extra time and headaches for Basilisk.  Most game companies wouldn’t have bothered with the Mac and Linux markets.  What was your motivation in seeking these gamers out when so many others pass them by?

TR – Being a small independent studio, we have to find customers wherever we can. The Mac and Linux markets have always been a second-thought to most mainstream developers, but for us it was a no-brainer. These are markets that are hungry for quality games, especially for niche titles like Eschalon. It’s not unusual for our day-to-day combined Mac and Linux sales to be higher than Windows sales, so the extra work has been a very good investment for us. I’d go further by saying we couldn’t survive without our Mac and Linux customers.

Basilisk Games is a relatively unknown, independent developer.  Yet the work on display in the Eschalon series is obviously that of some very passionate, skilled and experienced individuals.  How many people were involved in the making of these games, and were they primarily a group of hobbyists pursuing a dream, or people who had prior experience working on commercial titles?

TR – I get asked this question a lot, and the truth is most of the work was done by just myself. I am the founder of Basilisk Games and the lead developer, programmer and artist on the Eschalon series. However, I contract out all the music, and some graphics work and writing when get overwhelmed. Furthermore, I get a huge amount of feedback from the beta testers who have shaped it through countless suggestions and comments. In this regard, I am always quick to say that Eschalon is product of a team of people, but I remain the primary developer of the series.

What’s your personal background in making games?

TR – I’ve just been a hobbyist for most of my life, working on video games or pen-and-paper RPGs in my spare time. My technical background is actually as a Network Administration, but after I lost my job in 2005 I decided to follow my dreams of making games for a living, and so used my life savings to establish Basilisk Games. It was a huge risk and at the time I didn’t realize most indie start-ups fail before ever producing a single game. Luckily we managed to stick it out through the hard times.

During the course of working on any project this large and complex, there are always going to be bugs that crop up.  What was the strangest, funniest or most memorable glitch that you came across while making either of the Eschalon games?

TR – Bugs are always a problem, especially when trying to develop any kind of AI. The funniest bug is actually still present in the game because it was just too awesome to remove: if you approach a friendly NPC and attack them, they become agitated and will attack you back. Casting a “Charm” spell on them returns them to a friendly state, but if you attack them again at this point they go mad with confusion! They begin to attack themselves until they commit suicide! This is a completely unintentional AI reaction, but upon discovering the effect we decided it was just too funny to change.

To be the lead on a project like this you’re probably a huge fan of role-playing games. What’s the one old-school RPG you have the fondest memories of, and why?

TR – The first RPG I ever played was Ultima 2 on an Atari 800 computer, back in 1983. That game just blew my mind with its size and scope. Up until this time Donkey Kong on the Coleco Vision was the pinnacle of gameplay for me. So yeah, Ultima 2 was certainly the catalyst for my future interests, and from there I went on to tackle the remaining Ultimas, the Might & Magics, Wizardys, Dungeon Master, and many more. Pretty much any computer RPG from this golden era is what still inspires me to this day.

The Eschalon series seems to be well-recieved by fans and critics alike. Do you have plans to continue the series with a third installment?  And if things continue to go well, would you like to expand into developing other types of games as well?

TR – Definitely! We are very much looking forward to bringing the Eschalon trilogy to a close with the third game. After that, I want to move on to other ideas not related to the Eschalon universe. I personally want to do a Sci-Fi RPG using a new engine and possibly expand onto additional platforms. And while RPGs are what Basilisk Games is known for, I am not opposed to venturing into other genres if the inspiration strikes.

We are also going to release many of the tools we used to make Eschalon after the third game is out, so fans can continue to make their own adventures long after we’ve moved on to our next thing. I will certainly enjoy seeing what other people can come up with.
Thanks again for your time, Thomas! We appreciate it.

TR – Thank you, Max!