Titan Quest Update Interview

According to legend, a race of elder gods called Titans once ruled the world. Uranus, the deity of the sky, was their first ruler. He was the son of the earth mother, Gaea, and later became her husband. The pair produced many offspring, one of whom, Cronus, eventually overthrew his father. He married Rhea, and seeking to avoid the same fate as his sire, took to eating their children. However, this did not please his mate, who tricked him into eating a rock instead of their son, Zeus. This event proved fateful since the latter, after reaching adulthood, led a rebellion that resulted in the Olympians ascending to power. Most Titans fought with Cronus, and were duly punished. Atlas, who led them in battle, was made to carry the world. Most others were exiled to Tartarus, beneath even the underworld.

In Iron Lore's Titan Quest, these powerful beings have escaped from their gloomy prison. Back on the surface, they are wreaking havoc, and the ancient conflict has been renewed. Perhaps ironically, the struggle between the old and new gods will be decided by mere humans, albeit champions in their own right, who must undertake a series of quests to discover the secrets that will return the insurgents to captivity. These tasks will take the players to such famed locations as the Parthenon, the labyrinth at Knossos, the Great Pyramids and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, where they will have to face and defeat an assortment of foes that will include various creatures of myth. To learn more about the title, which is slated for 2006, we consulted Brian Sullivan, who is the studio's President and the action RPG's Lead Designer, and Lead Content Designer Tom Potter

Includes four exclusive screenshots

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Jonric: What kind of RPG is Titan Quest, and what distinguishes it from other titles in the genre? What kind of gamer is likely to find it most appealing?

Brian Sullivan: Titan Quest is a pure action RPG set in the ancient world, where myth and the gods are real. It takes the 'action' part seriously, and has great visceral combat at the heart of its gameplay. The fantastic graphics, ancient world setting, and over the top combat really distinguish Titan Quest from most other RPGs.

there is something hugely entertaining about making some mountains, adding some grass, some tents, monsters... and before you know it, you've spent two hours on a level tweaking it to perfection.

Anyone who likes a good PC game, especially an RPG, will like Titan Quest. Even though we built a lot of depth into character development and other parts of the game, we made it incredibly accessible, so even casual gamers will want to give it a try. And ultimately, Titan Quest is following in the footsteps of the Diablo games, which really popularized the category and defined many of its basic tenets, so we expect many Diablo fans will especially like it.

Jonric: When is it shipping? Why did your original date change, and what did the additional time allow you to do?

Brian Sullivan: Titan Quest is scheduled to ship worldwide on June 26, 2006. Originally we had an internal date that was eight months earlier, but added time to the project to make it bigger and better in just about every way.

Jonric: What's your perception of the current level of anticipation for the game, and how has it built up to where it is now?

Brian Sullivan: Titan Quest has always had fantastic buzz in Europe, probably because many Europeans have really been waiting for a quality action RPG to come along. The buzz has started a little later in the US, but it is getting much bigger as we approach release day. The demo really helped get people excited about the game. We have had a lot of downloads and CDs distributed, and have gotten great word of mouth from that.

Many game forums have been talking about Titan Quest and the demo - in fact, I was just on one of the forums where one thread on cool things in the demo had over 3000 posts! We also have recently started advertising Titan Quest in trade publications and online, so the buzz is starting to get deafening!

Jonric: How much of Titan Quest does the demo include? Does it give a good indication of the play, and what key elements are not in it?

Brian Sullivan: The demo has around five percent of the game. It allows players to play three of the eight skill masteries up to character level 6 in the first two levels of the game. It only allows single-player games.

I think the demo is a good indication of the type of game Titan Quest is and how awesome the graphics are, but of course, it only gets better in the real game with more and higher level skills and equipment, more environments to explore, and of course multiplayer. We will also be shipping a great editor with the full game that is not included in the demo.

Jonric: Since you brought up the editor, which is an interesting feature that may not have gotten all that much attention, what would you like our readers to know about it?

Tom Potter: I've used a lot of other level editors out there, and this is by far the easiest to use. And I'm not just toeing the company line when I say that. If you look at screenshots of the editor, you'll notice that there really aren't many buttons - at least compared to competing products. This may seem like a sign of inferiority, but the simplicity is by design. We wanted tools that are powerful enough to accomplish many tasks at once. With the core tools - terrain sculpting, ground texture painting, and object placement - you can create a fully functional level. It's pretty astounding how quickly you can create a cool little scene from absolutely nothing.

I think this is one of the huge advantages of our toolset. If you have an idea, you can create and test it quickly. And the most important thing is that it is actually fun to use the editor. Even if you never play the level you've created, there is something hugely entertaining about making some mountains, adding some grass, some tents, monsters... and before you know it, you've spent two hours on a level tweaking it to perfection.