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HereticII.com - What do you look for most when playing a game? How has that affected what you contribute to the making of Heretic II?

Dan - I look for entertainment. It has got to be fun and engaging. Those are my only prerequisites.

Mike - The Fun Factor. If it sucks I don't play it.

Tom - Laughs.

MRJ - Good graphics and some semblance of a story line.

Matt - It's gotta look good first. Then, some intriguing events that keep me interested. Oh, and breasts.

Tom - Playability and a good story line.

Jon - Ummm... yeah.

HereticII.com - Hexen II introduced a major hub system, with puzzles stretching between hubs. At the same time, Hexen II provides lots of action. Tell us about Heretic II from this standpoint. Should we expect tough puzzles? Is the game centered on action? Or is it a sprinkling of both? Will we be seeing a hub-related game as in Hexen II?

Dan - What else can I say? The puzzles are cool because they make sense, they are not random meaningless puzzles. They fit with the environment and have some kind of connection to the overall story line.

Jon - The puzzles are streamlined a lot more from Hexen II. They will be more akin to those in the mission pack. There are some hubs, but not like in Hexen II.

MRJ - There is much more action than in Hexen II.

Mike - The puzzles are harder than Quake II, but are not like Hexen II.

Matt - They make sense to the context of the level.

Tom - Yeah, context.

HereticII.com - What goes into balancing the game? That is, making it hard but not too hard, how smart the AI is, and how difficult you make the puzzles to solve?

Dan - Holy Cow! (do people still say that or am I dating myself?) This is really the tough part of making the game fun because what is hard to one person might be a cake walk to the next. We have had some people come in and play the game (people that have not seen it before outside of maybe screenshots). This gives us a pretty good handle on what people expect and what they want out of how difficult the game is. (By the way MRJ wasn't lying... he does like to kill the player :-) just kidding, maybe...)

MRJ - No balancing, kill the player.

Matt - NO MERCY!

MRJ - OK, I lied.

Tom - If I can get through it, it's good enough for me.

Jon - Yeah, Tom sucks at games.

Mike - If you die two seconds into the level, it's probably too tough.

Jon - Seriously, we play the game a lot to make sure the balance is there. We also let our artists try playing it. They suck more than Tom.

HereticII.com - Having such a broad fan-base must make it hard to successfully address all these issues. Some prefer the puzzle challenges, while others don't want to bog down the action with too much "dull" thinking. What approach do you take to make this "everyone's" game?

Dan - We knew from the get go that there would be some controversy when we changed the approach to the game, but like Jon said, we are making a game that we want to play. We are all gamers and we know what we think is fun. There enough of us here that we get a pretty good slice of what gamers think is fun.

Jon - We don't make everyone's game. We make a game we'd like to play.

Matt - I think we go for a nice mixture of puzzle and action to make everyone happy.

MRJ - Make the puzzles interesting to keep the puzzle guys interested, but simple enough so the action guys don't get pissed off.

Mike - Yeah, what he said.

HereticII.com - The saga of the Serpent Riders was a great story and was a major part of the plot/gameplay in Raven's past releases. Was it nice to "break away" from the Serpent Riders storyline and introduce new elements to the plot? Is there anything you miss, or wish could have been included in Herectic2 that is Serpent-Rider-related, but can't now because the situation has changed from the past 3 games in the series?

MRJ - There are some references to D'sparil, but other than that, I'm not sorry. I'm tired of them.

Mike - Who are the Serpent Riders?

Tom - It was nice to get away from them for a while.

Matt - I wanted the Lorethane from Mageslayer. :)

MRJ - Wasn't the Serpent Rider a Traci Lords movie? Ha, Ha.

Dan - It was time to move on. The route we chose allows us to get the tie in feel of the other games, but gives us a dramatically different story. A lot of the crew on Heretic II were not around for the original Heretic (myself included) so it is a fresh perspective that makes it such a good sequel to the original. I'm with Matt - I liked the Lorethane.

HereticII.com - The games of the late '90s have had a major surge in online, MultiPlayer environments. This has become a staple of successful games, and a lot of gamers almost won't even buy a game without good MultiPlayer setups. There has been a lot of talk concerning the work that has been put into making Heretic II playable over TCP/IP (internet) connections. Will we be seeing a lot of MultiPlayer/DeathMatch content within Heretic II in terms of many DM levels and support in addition to a great SinglePlayer game? Will Raven release additional levels after the initial release of the game?

Dan - This has been a long time goal of the project. Multiplayer support is so important for the longevity of a game. Look at TA and Quake II. Both of these games have just oodles of add on stuff available. Since we are using the Quake II engine, we are wide open for user mods as well as posting new maps of our own. We are shipping the level editor with the game so everyone will be able to just jump right in and start making their own stuff.

Matt - Yes, we hope to.

Mike - Thank you, may I have another.

Jon - There will be 4 or 5 levels release with the game, and almost all single player maps will be playable in DM.

Tom - Sure, I'd love to do some DM levels for the 'net.

HereticII.com - What is your favorite aspect in Heretic II, generally?

MRJ - Decapitating people.

Tom - The 3rd person view is a lot of fun. Quit worrying about it. DM is a blast.

Matt - Deathmatch = fun.

Mike - The fun factor.

Jon - Listening to these guys try and answer questions.

Dan - Gore, blood, decapitations, dismemberment, and did I say Gore...

HereticII.com - What is your favorite contribution to the game as a whole?

Mike - Ummm...

Tom - Huh?

Matt - What?

MRJ - Coming up with creature names, with nobody's help. Which is why some of them are stupid.

Mike - Re-writing the physics. (Jon's note: He didn't really re-write the physics.)

Tom - Building things that piss off the programmers.

Matt - Building and playing DM.

Mike - Making the game too hard for people who can't "play better".

Jon - I agree.

Dan - Writing the story ....

HereticII.com - Can you offer any sort of "sneak-preview" descriptions of the boss monsters?

Dan - My lips are sealed.

Tom - There's boss monsters?

Jon - They're "Top Secret".

Matt - Wear "Depends".

MRJ - No.

Mike - They're comin' outta the 'booth!

HereticII.com - How big will Heretic II be, both in terms of the number of levels and also the expected average single player gameplay time? How many deathmatch levels will be included in the full version?

MRJ - 15 minutes.

Tom - A CD is 5" in diameter.

Jon - There will be 24 single player levels, 4 or 5 DM only levels, and some tools to make your own.

Mike - Lots o fun.

Matt - Long enough for you to thoroughly enjoy it and come back for more!

Dan - I like Tom's answer, but he forgot about the box... Really the expected play time really depends on the player. If you explore and look around the levels, there are a lot of things to see, and some of the levels are just gigantic. If you just plow your way through and don't pay any attention to the game at large it will be a shorter (and probably a less rewarding) experience for you, but then that is why you have deathmatch isn't it...

HereticII.com - Thanks a lot guys, for taking the time to answer all of these questions. Credit and a big thanks go out to JackStraw for contributing to the assembly of the questions. Credit also to Ancient1 for partial contribution, and to Phoebus for getting this whole thing organized.

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