Interview with Björn Pankratz - english translation

[Infinity II]

Björn Pankratz is the project manager and one of the game and sound designers behind Elex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yviAcmtssFY

Disclaimer:
This is not a literal translation of the complete interview as I tried to focus only on the Q&A and the interesting information. Small talk and repeating parts I did not write down.

Have fun reading.


Q1: As a developer, what do you do the last days before release?

A1: Some things we are already preparing for the new game which are very closely related to the time schedule of the master or until release and somehow “melt” with each other. There is no three months vacation between releases.

And yes there are many appointments you have to comply to, like this interview. Also we want to make sure our product (Elex) to be as good as possible. We are still patching which means we have already send out our master for PC but are currently preparing the day-one patch. On consoles this has to happen through a submission. Which means Sony and Microsoft have to look at it and approve or not. Normally this takes some weeks. But if they have agreed to one build you are stuck with it and it becomes your release version 1.0. You can’t change that anymore. So when we release at 17th this means that with the current submission for Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One we should be ready – we are ready.

It is difficult to understand what we have to do now. We have to see if we can fix known bugs in a coming patch but this patch has to go through submission process again – very complex.

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Q2: This would mean that the day-one patches will be released a bit later for consoles?

A2: Or they are day-one or are what you have achieved until now where you say “OK this is now three weeks before release” and you can manage to get the submission done until release. Otherwise you need to plan some days in advance when to release a patch. Days or even weeks.

And very very close to release we have feedback from people who are currently playing the game. But everything from this feedback would be implemented in a later state. At such a time you just don’t stop to working. Than comes the release but you still don’t stop working…(he repeats himself now so I stopped translating)

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Q3: Elex 2 is in planning process, how far in development are you and your team now? Like story-wise?

A3: We are currently planning for the next project. That it could be Elex 2 I have never said and I should not do that. Yes we are currently making some plans and there are rumors and people are discussing them, but which project we are working on I’m not allowed to tell.

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Q4: For Elex you made the music completely by yourself or did you have additional help?

A4: I did get some feedback from musicians but in a way that I got a list where they told me some details I should change. But after that list there was no more intervention. I make music since 25 years but never commercially in a way that I sold something or did it for someone else. For Elex it made sense to do it myself. In the past I interfered in and supported our sound design – even during Gothic in the background. It always was a burning desire to do it. I worked on the music besides my normal work and in summary it took me half a year to complete, after working hours at home composing and cutting with my own private equipment.

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Q5: So you are satisfied with your music?

A5: Yes of course I’m satisfied. Especially because it is my debut. On one hand I have this music experience but on the other hand, when you finally make something out of it – it’s like poker, at one moment you show what you have. You either have a full house or not.

[Infinity II]

Q6: We heard a lot of times that Elex is 1,5x bigger than Gothic 3, but how big is it compared to Risen 1?

A6: We never made this comparison. Risen 1 was in any case, from the “playing-field” smaller (than G3), but how much smaller I don’t know. It was much more compact and the world was build differently. There were less free areas like in Elex or G3. The areas in Risen 1 were much smaller. It’s hard to compare these games (Elex and Risen 1).

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Q7: I understand what you mean. I’m currently playing Risen 1 again and it fells more compact and crowded, not as open and wide as probably Elex will be. It is often the case that your first games are smaller (area-wise) than your later ones or not?

A7: Yes. Maybe that’s also because of the current Zeitgeist. If you go to the market and tell that you have an open world RPG and you want to design it in an epic way, with three factions you can join and a fourth which is the big threat and an opulent setting, complex with a lot of facet... you can’t have these kind of small areas anymore.

If you go into a desert it must feel like one. You need space as in G3 where you cross from one zone (transit zone) into another like from the forest area to the desert area or the ice area (in G3). Basically you need space and finally we ended up with the size Elex has now.

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Q8: Can we change all key bindings?

A8: I think we have made so many settings available like in no other project before. So yes all keys can be changed. However on consoles I’m not sure.

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Q9: Does taking Elex affect your “coldness” because until now it was more like what you do (in case of coldness).

A9: Yes and yes.

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Q10: Will Elex support 21:9 resolution?

A10: Yes I think we tested it. So yes.

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Q11: Can you give a statement about the console version? Is it as good as the PC version?

A11: On every game you have to consider that a PC can do more than a console and the more time goes the better PC systems get and the worse consoles become. This means on some parts we had to compromise but both versions are very close to each other.

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Q12: Is there a difference between Xbox One and Xbox One X version or is nothing planned in this case?

A12: We have a plan which is not finished yet. But we are currently working on it.

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Q13: The Elex logo. Can you explain what it does symbolize?

A13: Originally the working title for Elex was Evolution because my concept for the game was designed around the evolution of humans. Basically what does it mean to be human – from a cave man to a futuristic Darth Vader who can wield magic and has a laser sword or similar. Later this idea merged to different guilds which we now call Berserkers (medieval + magic), Outlaws (post-apocalyptic Mad Max style) and Clerics (futuristic). To combine these parts into a logo was the task.

I like short words for game titles. The word Elex stems from life-elixir. A substance which influences your life, makes you strong but somehow changes your feelings. So the logo needed to have some blue elements because blue symbolizes coldness. In Magellan (the world of Elex) where ice is there is Elex.

The blue orb-thing in the logo is something like a heavenly body (meteor?) and the curve is the planet. The Elex title art-style is a mix of a dwarven-medieval-forged-iron which you could build into a robot.

[TrompeL'Oeil]

Thanks once again Infinity II for your time and dedication to the community. This is a very interesting read and an excellent translation, I am sure. Great work, very much appreciated.

*Only* five days to go!

[HeyJoe-HUN-(SNAKE)PCRPGCommunity]

Hmmm..., interesting in deed! Thanks for translate & share this interview here! :)

[Quantumplays]

Nice one, my interview seems to be even more interesting than I thought xD Good that the english community can profit from it as well^^

Ah btw. for anyone who is interested, there will be 2 more parts of the interview in the next days^^

[Catticus, Coveter of Snack]

thanks for the translation, by the way, animations at 9:27 look ok

[Melchior]

thanks for the translation. Anxious for the game.

[Y Ddraig Ddu]

Dude, Infinity II, the amount of work you put in to translate these things is simply astonishing. Thank you again and again.

And I am not even remotely surprised you have a Fallout 2 avatar. Great people play great games, and that's a fact.

[FireShark]

Thank you. I think Elex is going to be something special, but only the "hardcore, old-school" crowd will fully appreciate it.

[ReV0LT]

Originally posted by Infinity II:

Q10: Will Elex support 21:9 resolution?

A10: Yes I think we tested it. So yes.

So... is it a yes? Or a no?

[Y Ddraig Ddu]

Originally posted by ReV0LT:

Originally posted by Infinity II:

Q10: Will Elex support 21:9 resolution?

A10: Yes I think we tested it. So yes.

So... is it a yes? Or a no?

That's a yes!

[ReV0LT]

Originally posted by Y Ddraig Ddu:

Originally posted by ReV0LT:

So... is it a yes? Or a no?

That's a yes!

Or do we think it's a yes?

[sly]

It was a definitiv "yes" in the interview.

[Andrewlol]

yes we tested but he aint sure is working

[Taiwan Number One]

Thanks for the translation, but you forgot to put "Ja" at the end of each sentence.

[Moon mission captain]

Good stuff, thanks