We're really hanging our hat on the customizable nature of the rangers, so that starts with character creation right off the bat. Some role-playing games have gone a different way where you play a specific character and then you get to hear his dialect and how he speaks or reacts; this is a little bit different. While designing the game we don't really know whether you're creating a group of Russian women or what. The game is completely customizable in terms of your skills and your attributes and even the look of it. You can import portraits that you want to have represent your groups, and we even let you choose the pack of cigarettes you like to smoke.
What do you think about turn-based gameplay?
For deep role-playing games I think it's a given that you need to do [turn-based combat] because combat's the thing you do the most, and already these types of games require a lot of reading and a lot of thinking. I think the combat system should follow suit: turn-based combat has you worrying about things like distance, height, ammunition, inventory, skill systems, etc. You're always using your brain, and I think that's critical for a good role-playing game.
What are your thoughts on PC gaming today?
For years, PC gaming has been declared dead and going away. And strangely enough, here we are and it appears to be stronger than ever, especially from a creative perspective. I look at crowd-funding, I look at the slate of titles that are coming out in the next year to two and they are more innovative and creative than I have seen in a long time. That's going to make you feel pretty good about the PC. It's really an open system, much more so than [home consoles] where it seems like we always see the same [kinds of games.]
You can't compete with the crowd, so as the PC continues to remain open I think we're going to continue to see more and more innovation there than anywhere else.
