Interview with Taleworlds CEO Armağan Yavuz

Hi. I translated an interview with Armağan Yavuz. During translation I felt like I made a lot of Grammar mistakes but I think it's OK. Remember this is not a written interview. So try to read like that.

Starts from 00:20 Interviewer: The game improved very much in comparison with to last year especially technical sides. One of the major critism in last year was people couldn't see enough improvement in technical sides. But this year i see improvement at physic engine: animations, horse mane, horse impact, blood stains, blood effects etc. This was something you dwelled on. Was this planned or critisms maked you confused and you decided to focus on this topic? Armagan: Generally both of them but mostly it is planned. We have a to do list in our head. We put them in line according to their priority. Fistly most essential things, things that crush the game. Visual and cosmetic with lesser priority…

I: So because we didn't know about this at that period we evaluate the game with that version. But maybe we will see cosmetic improvement in that topic.

A: Of course there will. Because here we show only 20 minutes part, cosmetic come to the forefront. On the other hand we anounced early acces and prepare for releasing. We work for balance and stabilization of the game, correctly functional features. We give our time to both of them and try to balance the game.

I: Now to be completely honest, early acces is surprised me. I didn't expect this. Actually in first mount and blade game there was this situation but for second game this surprised me. When we talked last year you said we want to release the game in 2019 but the game delayed to 2020. Do you really consider early acces necessary, do you expect players will react this negatively. Because i see critisms like "after this many year why the game released as early acces". Does this scare you?

A: We are the one of the companies that started early acces, with original mount and blade. With time, there are some used this very badly like starting early acces too early, don't keeping promises or don't finishing the game. Thus there is a negative feeling about early acces eventhough a mechanism that can be used very positively. Our early acces probably won't be like that. Not probably definitely won't be like that. If we pushed a little harder maybe we could say "we finished it" but we dont't want to do that. We don't want to cut features or rush things for deadline. We release the game as early acces and it will be more true if we work on features we want to work on without pushing too hard. In the end this will be more beneficial for players.

I: It is true. Early acces was a more positive thing but now it turned into a more negative thing. What I understand from what you say, when the game become available at the march 2020 i will be feel like i am playing full game. Or will i say "It is more likely a beta game"? Will we feel the game as beta like bugs popping from everywhere, of course this is not something that can be foresee, or will it makes us feel almost full experience

A: Mostly it will be felt like full game. Our game is different from most of the other games. Not a game like linear and strict to a story. More of an open world and unpredictable so there are too much combinations. Normally in a linear game every time, you see what will happen and you could say "okey" if you don't see any mistake throughout 60 hours gameplay. But we don't have such luxury. There could be anything at any moment because of this combinations. Therefore we must make extra efforts and make the game more stabile.

I: A lot of time passed since you announced the game. And people's expectations increased every year, espacially in Turkey. This both nice and scary. People may expect something incredibly excellent, an impossible game. Firstly does this scare you? Secondly Have you ever said we wish we wouldn't anounce it too early or do you think you announced it too early.

A: There are things we said "we wish" about it. It would be probably better if we announced it a little bit later.

I: Probably you didn't planned such a late release.

A:Of course we didn't think like we will release this in 2019. Eventhough we have previous game experience there isn't enough know-how in Turkey. We have a super talented, extraordinary team but our friends don't come us with much experience. They learn here. We also learn here. Our standarts increase while we are making the game. Therefore we could extend development phase. Do these scares us? Not very much actually. More likely we have expectations about this game. We think like "a mount and blade game should be like this and this". This could be different from players' expectations. For my perspective, of course graphics are very important, but it could be something a new player can't see at first sight. Like does the game favorable to development, codes that works on background coded properly, when we make a change on them do these codes crush immediately. Things like this more important for us. Also we have modding system. The game should be favorable for modding, accessible for modders. With all these things everything become more complicated and the process is prolonged.

I: Have you ever said at the first years of development, for example 3rd year of development "we must definitely add this to the game" eventhough you know this will be delay the game or said "If we do that, the game won't be released before 2028" god forbid, and removed things from the game.

A:Of course we have. We are now using third user interface, this one is become too beatiful. We first start it and later said "things aren't going (well)". Then we passed into a new system and also deadlocked there. If we don't see what we want eventhough how painful it is, it is truer to cut it and redo a proper one.

I: This one is new one right? Different from last year.

A:Yes

I: We saw new one, looks very nice. It doesn't split you from the game. So i have questions that come from my viewers. Like "What changes are there in country management?", "Can we do stuff in order to stay on the throne", "do country do something behind other's back", like spying. Can we send our men to do something?

A: We focused on modelling things like politic debates(?) and trickts etc.

I: Do we feel Game of Thrones-like betrayel?

A: unfortunaletly we do. There isn't much between countrys. More likely between king, queen, lords, politic debates(?) inside theirselves. In order to modelling these things there are interesting mechnanism inside the game. And at some point these things become very important things. Like you joined a kingdom and took a castle with king's army. The next step is the king should give the castle to you and you should own that castle (?). Politics involved in that point and we have a mechanism called influence. You should take the castle with using that mechanism.

I:So we should keep relations. Maybe we will do missions for somones, and maybe we will do unwanted missions for others. So there will be conflict like this. Well then how marriage affect this?

A:Of course marriage affect this. There are variable noble families. Marriage with other noble families is very important. You become allince directly. You could also marry for love. Then this won't has any use.

I: At least we follow path of love. Someone asked about banners. How could will we customize banners?

A:You asked earlier if we removed any feature, we simplify banners. Because the game's itself very complicated and there is a high load of imformation to players. There are too many things happening in the map like caravans, armies, trade, recruitment. So we decided to make kingdoms' and lords' banners understandable in first sight. Therefore we simplify banner designing.

I: Does the game will be playable for the lower systems? Of course it is hard to say from now.

A: Our game engine guys work really hard for this sake but i can't say excatly for now. It probably works on a new laptop eventhough how low it is but i cannot say how many years back(?)

I:Consoles?

A: There is nothing i can announce for consoles for now.

I:(He said somethings about warband on console). So is there gamepad support on PC?

A:There will be gamepad support on pc. (He also talks about warband on (in?) consoles)

I: Are you planning to develop another game besides mount and blade in upcoming years.

A: We have a lot of projects. I have folders of game ideas in my house. But starting to them seriously wants investment and plan. Mount and blade frenchise probably goes on. Because it is very emotional and important project for us. There could be other projects as well.

I: Last question, when will we get full release?

A: Our main goal in early acces isn't adding a lot of new features. Instead balancing and polishing existing features. But i hope it won't take much time.

Don't forget to like original video: https://youtu.be/NZ_eNg6d3xk

Submitted August 22, 2019 at 04:14AM by Pattes123 https://ift.tt/2ZcvuKT