If you want to know more about the man, the myth, the legend behind the chart-topping Eschalon series* click the link below.

http://basiliskgames.com/new-interview- ... riegsecker

*by this I mean "the socially withdrawn man-child who made the mildly successful (by indie terms) Eschalon games".

Very nice interview, Thomas. I, for one, certainly fell in love with your games because of the combination of classic open structure (in character creation and world design), and stepped up graphics with the classic feel. Also, the story is fun. I'm looking forward to finding out where this adventure has been headed.

Woo! Stats/skills/spells balance is my pet request for Book III. More variety in viable character builds will greatly improve replay value in my opinion.

Great interview!

One of my first computer RPGs I played was Interplay's Lord of the Rings. Obviously the story there was a little more linear than yours, but still the world felt huge and there were lots of places to explore off the main path. That's the thing I appreciate about your games.

A lot of commercial RPGs seem more combat-oriented with no story or purpose behind it, and no opportunity to explore - just one battle after another. That's not for me. Battles are fine, but there's so much more to a good RPG than that. I enjoy exploring your world and finding hidden secrets, talking with the characters and being surprised by unexpected plot twists, going on a good variety of quests, solving puzzles, etc. I also enjoy the character development. I love it when I can get alchemy up to a high enough level that I can start hunting for ingredients to make an awesome super-weapon, or build up a high weapon or elemental skill that will allow me to eventually mow down lots of enemies with ease. Now, that's all fun!

Very good interview, I’m a newer fan of Eschalon but I really enjoyed reading this.
One question for Thomas or any of the developers. can you better explain the quote below or explain what the graphic improvements will be

“It’s really going to be our best looking game to date as we push the Eschalon engine as far as it can go.”

Here's a top secret spy screenshot from Book III:

Not bad for an isometric game engine

What this means is that without doing a major rewrite of the engine, we can only push the current engine "so far". Within this limitation, we are going to do everything we can to get the maximum speed and visual quality out of it.

Then the engine will be retired. We will never use this particular engine again for any future game.