>No need to apologize. Vacations are good for the soul. :) I've included my >questions before, if you could answer them when you're back and sufficiently >rested. Also, do you have a photo of yourself hanging around that you could >send? Sure. Try http://www.spidweb.com/mages/People/JandM.jpg That's Spiderweb's 2 first employees, Jeff Vogel and Mariann Krizsan. >Will there be giant spiders in Avernum 2? I can't help but wonder if, given >the name of your company, there's a little subliminal message going on >there. :) Of course. The spiders are one of the trademarks of our games. We love the silly little fellows. >Were you happy with the success of the first Avernum? Absolutely. It's done extremely well, and lifted the sales of our other games as well. We're extremely pleased. >Do you think more people are getting turned on to retro-style RPG's? Definitely. Whether it's a huge amount, an amount worth big companies looking at, I'm not sure. But most of my customers are people who are completely new to computer games and just like my games better. I'm amazed that, despite the glut of rpgs in the last few years, our games still keep selling well. Amazed, and very, very pleased. >How did you hook up with Phil Foglio? Is this the first thing you've done >with him? Were you a fan of his work before this? We've been friends with Phil and Kaja Foglio for a few years, and he's addicted to our games. Thus, when I needed some new, funny art, it seemed only natural to ask him. >Was there a large disparity between PC and Mac sales of the first Avernum? The PC and Mac sides tend to sell about equally. Less Mac users, but less competition. >When did you start considering a sequel to Avernum? As soon as I started it. It's the first part of a huge, three-part story. We hope to start Avernum 3 as soon as Avernum 2 is ready. Plus, these are complete rewrites of an earlier trilogy. So considering sequels is only natural. >Where are you now in the development of Avernum 2? Things are moving along very quickly. We hope to have the Mac version out before Christmas, and the Pc version out around 2 months after that. We found that people, for the most part, really liked the Avernum engine, so we're sticking pretty close to it, at least for one more game. >What can you tell us about the plot? There is a massive war. The Empire is invading Avernum, and slowly tearing it apart. Also, a new, strange race of creatures called the vahnatai have been discovered, and they seem to totally have it in for Avernum too. Fortunately, the player has a chance to set things right. >In an age where a lot of the new RPG's being released have heavy system >requirements, it's nice to play a quality RPG that only requires 20 MB of >hard drive space. Do you make a conscious effort to keep the system >requirements low? Do you think you've reached a wider audience because of >it? Absolutely, and absolutely. Most of the game industry seems to have forgotten that most ordinary folks have neither the time nor the resources to buy a new, buffed out gaming PC every two years. I always write my games to be able to run on the PC which was popular 3 or 4 years previous. >Will you include a walkthrough in the manual again? I always include hints for the demo in the manual. To get a full walkthrough, you have to buy a hint book. Most people prefer not to have a hint book around. The temptation is too much. >What will be noticeably different about Avernum 2 from its predecessor? The world is larger and more detailed, and the quests and plotting is much richer. Also, the graphics, while not up to Baldur's Gate standards, are nicer. >Aside from the premise, were there any elements of the first Avernum that >you were conscious to keep? The size. The number of quests. The constant availability of quests to do and dungeons to explore. >Did you get a lot of feedback from gamers about the first Avernum? Are you >taking any of it into consideration when developing this one? Yes, and yes. There are lots of tweaks to be made and rough edges I'm trying to smooth out. >Will Avernum 2 use turn-based combat? Yes. I'm working on a real-time role-playing game now, in addition to Avernum. All of the Avernum games, however, are stricly retro, in an Ultima IV-VI sort of way. >What do you do most of your developing on - Mac, PC or something else? I develop all of my games on a Mac and then port them to the PC. This shouldn't be takes as a statement of prejudice on my part about one being inherently better than the other. It's just what I'm used to. >How much longer does it hold you up to make a hybrid disc as opposed to one >that is for one platform or another? The difference between Mac and PC releases is almost always about 2 months. So not so bad. After all these years, I'm gotten very good at porting things quickly and cleanly. >Do you see any more Avernum games after this one? Probably 1-3, and that's it. >So what's the secret of escaping Avernum? Talking to people. I've tried to make sure that every key element is hinted at by at least two conversations somewhere. So, if you miss one, you can pick up another. All of the best quests and hints come from the dialogue. Also, I worked really hard to try to make it fun to read too. >And thank you very much for doing this. :) My pleasure. I love talking about myself. :-) Samantha Craggs Mac/Misc Editor - www.gamesmania.com