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Gothic Remake
An exclusive insight into the Gothic Remake and its Baroque artistic approach at Gamelab Nexus
We caught up with Daniel Candil at the Polo Digital in Málaga to learn more about how Alkimia is building the modern take on the classic RPG with both a clear visual theory and artist agency.
Audio transcription
"Alright, we're in Malaga for the Gamelab Nexus and I'm here, standing by Daniel, who just gave us a really beautiful talk, I have to say, about art and I learned a lot about the Baroque and about, you know, the visual design, the visual intent you want to convey with the new Gothic, which is, how do you sort of pay tribute to what the game was in the 2000s with the current technology?
Okay, that's a complicated question, I mean, yeah, the first thing that, we started the original game we understood what they were trying to do with the original developers, right?
And this is something I've talked about in the podcast, we do a podcast, about development podcast and one of the latest chapters was about art direction and yeah, I mean, the first step was to try to convey what they were trying to do, what they were doing how they envisioned the world, the settings, the atmosphere of the game and then we are very close to the community, we try to understand what the community, what the fans are expecting and we realized that Gothic offers a very moody atmosphere, this kind of realistic environment, more than realistic, I would say plausible, it's a thing that should feel alive, and it's a pretty awesome ecosystem of living creatures, and the use of light, where people can see the trailer, the latest trailer we released on Gamescom, and you can see how we approach the light design, trying to create and capture this original atmosphere, it should feel, you know, this is a dark fantasy tale, or something similar, so, yeah, we try to give the visual style of the game the level of importance that Gothic deserves."
"Hence the inspiration in the Spanish Baroque, right?
Well, yeah, the Spanish Baroque and the European Baroque, I would say, and, yeah, there's something that I have spoken about this in different places, we already talked about this in the podcast, but actually, yeah, I mean, the way the Baroque artists, the way they paint the light, the way they understand, they understood the light as a way of creating and conveying atmosphere and expression and darkness, this kind of naturalistic and realistic approach to the world, and it's something that we believe that perfectly fits in Gothic, and if you see the trailers, if you see the things that we released so far, I think you can appreciate the care that we have put into the light, and the lighting, and trying to get this kind of living picture feeling, but, yeah, I mean, the fans already, well, they told us to fix some stuff, to, you know, to darken some areas, or lighten some areas, and we are always listening to the fans, and we are always trying to learn from them, so we are, you know, taking the feedback and putting them into the game, and, yeah."
"How do you work on that technically, in terms of, I mean, if I recall correctly, you went from Unreal Engine 4 to 5, but now you're trying to sort of, as you just said, use the light in a slightly different way than pretty much any other studio, so how do you take that from conceptual art to, technically, the Unreal Engine?
Yeah, well, I wouldn't say differently from other studios, I mean, our approach is very clear and very focused, very straightforward, we know the way we want to be similar to this Baroque painting style, to this way of they understood the light, and changing, I mean, when we saw Unreal 5 and all the amazing things they can create with Lumen and with the new technologies, we thought that the move, even risky, deserved the prize, no?
And I've been our director in this industry for a long time, and if you ask me 10 years ago, 5 years ago, having a global illumination, real-time solution, it seemed, that works just straight out of the box, it seems like a magic thing for me, you know, it's like a magic dream come in reality, so when we saw Lumen working, we say, we need to try, because maybe this is a way to convey the kind of light we want to work in the game, and I think it's been an amazing experience to try to understand how Unreal works, how this new realistic approach to light systems work, and the way we can tweak it and modify it and play with it, it's been an amazing experience."
"It's interesting, now that you mentioned your background, you also have a university background, you're teaching at the university as well, and also you mentioned during your talk, you mentioned that you want to give artists agency in how they decide what they want to create, not just following orders, but also trying to be more creative, so tell me a little bit more about this background and how you guys approach this freedom."
"Okay, yeah, I mean, I'm also a professor at university, art professor, and I'm also a doctor in fine arts, so for me, art is not only a passion, it's about a way of life, not trying to study the old masters and apply the teachings that we can learn from them to an actual modern production, for example, like Gothic Remake, and about the art team, yeah, we assemble a team, an art team, plenty of passionate developers, passionate artists, artists that we embrace them to have agency, to be the authors, the authority in the assets they create, they are part of the integral creativity process from the beginning to the final end, to the integration in the engine, and I would say in Spanish we have a saying that it's more, it's about, I don't know exactly how to say that in English, Convince, but yeah, not, yeah, convince in the Latin, yeah, root."
"Yeah, exactly, it's about convince, about the artist, it's like they share the same vision, they can understand what we are trying to do and incorporate to them, so at the beginning they need guidance, but there's a point that we are on the same track, they know what we need, and well, I'm always there, trying to help them, trying to guide them, and also trying to learn from them, so yeah, I mean, I'm interested in working with authors, working with artists, that they feel proud about what we are doing and about what they are doing as a collective."
"Okay, we talked a lot about art now, you also mentioned inspiration by Walt Disney World, not only artistically, but also in how you want the world to feel alive, right?
Yeah, well, exactly, I would say more than Walt Disney, that yes, it's about the theme design, they created this kind of, this themed design, when they were creating and trying to convey the first idea of the theme park, they discovered that they could tell stories using the environments, they could tell stories using the buildings, the ground, the decoration, the colors, the weather, the light, no?
It's about letting the environment tell a story to the visitor, so when we approach this open world game, in the end, you are creating a free space, an open space, where the player can roam, can decide where to go, and it's important to create a system, to have a system, something systematized, that can help us to tell stories using the color, using the shapes, using the visual noise, using the composition, so in this part, specifically in this part, going back to the theme design and what John Hench was doing with Disney on the 50s, this thing that they call the art of the show thing, trying to understand and read about what they did, and how they incorporated this visual theory to what they do in real space in our game, has been an interesting process, and yeah, it's something that we don't normally understand."
"It's been interesting because we were talking art and Disney and inspirations at the THQ Nordic booth at Gamescom, when we were talking about Disney Epic Mickey Remake, so it's very interesting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you also mentioned telling a story, so let me ask you about narrative."
"This is, if I'm correct, this is a colony, there are like three different groups, so how are you guys approaching this part of the world, which you want to be like a living world, and also with more interactions with NPCs, etc.?
Well, I'm not the person..."
"I know, I know.
...who can talk about this, I mean, we have an amazing narrative team, and our designers, they are part of it too, and I think Reinhard Pollice, our head of studio, has been talking about narrative in our podcast and in other interviews, but I would say, in general, I could say that we are trying to be very true to the original game, right?
I mean, we understand the story, we understand the visual quality, the story they wanted to tell, so I think the narrative team is trying to be pretty close to that, and I'm sure there will be some changes, because this is, in the end, 25 years, 22, 23 years have passed, but, yeah, I mean, one of the original pillars of the remake is trying to be very faithful to the original game, and I hope we are going in the right path."
"Which takes us back to the first question, which was about being, you know, honoring the original game.
So, final one, I didn't know about you guys.
I didn't know about Alkimia, I didn't know you were based in Barcelona, I didn't know about your team, so please, tell us a little bit more about how you guys work, who you guys are."
"Yeah, well, it's true that the last four or five years, we have been, like, under the cave, I don't know, inside a cave, working in Gothic, spending a lot of time working in Gothic, it's a very passionate project, and I would tell you that maybe it's a project of my life, and a project of the life of a lot of my colleagues and co-developers, but, yeah, we are a studio in Barcelona, we are part of the THQ Nordic studios, and we got the task, all of the main developers, and I would say all the developers, they love, we love the original game, every time that we have new people joining us, the first thing we ask them to do is, actually, you will be playing the original Gothic and Gothic 2, and once you have been beaten up, once they discover that the first scavenger, the first meat book, can actually kill you, and you are actually, and it's like, hey, the first monster, the first little bird, it's killing me, and then we'll say, okay, welcome to the colony, this is Gothic, I mean, you need to understand the experience, no?
You're hired."
"You're hired, no? It's like, no, it's, because all of our people, they understand, and they love the original game, and they are part of the fans, and, yeah, I mean, we've been working so hard, and now, step by step, we are releasing more and more content, and hearing the feedback here in the community, and you can see, and you can find Reinhardt, our guy, Rosencrantz, also in events, or Timur, our community manager, you can follow us in the social networks, and so you can be updated with the new things coming up."
"You're releasing more and more and more, but you're not telling me when you guys are coming out.
I don't have the information, I'm not sure.
I don't know, but the best way to keep updated is to follow the social networks, follow Reinhardt, follow Kai, follow Timur, follow our social networks, and when THQ Nordic decides, they will, probably they will say something, but I don't know."
"We'll for sure follow you guys, so thank you so much for your time.
Enjoy the rest of Gamelab Nexus, and, yeah, it's been a pleasure to meet you guys.
Thank you.
Thank you."
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