Exclusive: The official Dev Diary @ drakensang.info

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Starting this week we are proud to offer you in co-operation with dtp exclusive developer material from Radon Labs for their upcoming rpg "Drakensang: The Dark Eye". From now on Lead Designer Jan Lechner will provide you with special insights into the development of "Drakensang" every two weeks.
Today's part is an introduction to the team behind "Drakensang". If you ever wanted to know who's responsible for developing Radon Labs' open source engine "Nebula" you definitely have to take a look!

Many thanks to dtp's community manager Olgierd Cypra for this offer (we could not refuse). Also thanks to Vasilii, who is always a great help. (Did I already mention him? I think not. O tempora, o mores! I beg your pardon, Vasilii!)

Dev Diary #1 @ Drakensang.info

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And the developer diary continues.

Last week, Radon Labs' project director Jan Lechner introduced us to the team behind Drakensang. Today creative director Bernd Beyreuther took over the part to please you with another installation of the official developer diary. He tells us where their fascination for RPGs and especially for The Dark Eye universe comes from. Take sure, to have a look!

Read on.

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Today follows the third part of the official developer Diary, written by Creative Director Bernd Bayreuther. Todays topic is the ongrowing passion of the guys at Radon Labs for TDE, their dreams of making an TDE game and how this dream came true. Don't miss the foto in this article.

Read on

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News from dev diary #4 (15.03.2007)

As I wrote on wednesday, there is a new developer diary for you. Today's topic is the creation of the overview map. It's written by lead programmer Nico Pogoczelski, who explains you the responsibilities of a coder in a game project like Drakensang.

What does a coder actually do as a games developer? This is exactly what I’d like to tell you, on the basis of the development of the overview map. As the Lead Programmer, this task was very tricky for me, which is why I decided to write my first article for the dev diary about the map.

Recently the little son of our secretary Borislava visited us. After she guided him through several departments at Radon Labs, they finally came in the coder’s room.

„What do these guys do?“ – “They get paid for playing games.”

Read On

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Anaconda and Radon Labs sent us the next entry for the developer diary. Today, game designer Fabian Rudzinski continues the diary with an entry about his work as games designer for Drakensang.

Today I’d like to write a little about the game design. Before I tell you about my tasks on Drakensang, I’m going to introduce myself.

When I started playing the very first edition of The Dark Eye in 1985, I discovered my love for role playing. After TDE, I played many other role playing systems: AD&D, Shadowrun, Pheoenix-Command, Call of Cthulhu, Warhammer Fantasy – these are only a few examples of the games I played in the last 22 years. Of course, at the same time I started spending more and more time on all types of computer role playing games.

Read on

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Today's Developer Diary is about the Tatzelwurm. You could already see the Tatzelwurm in the official trailer. Misunderstandings between marketing and designers resulted in a demonstration where the Tatzelwurm spitted fire. Scandalous, because - for TDE - Tatzelwürmer do not spit fire and that demonstration lead to controversial discussions within the german TDE community. Not only for spitting fire, but also for its vestigial dragon wings and arrangement of the legs. Nevertheless, the first Drakensang star was born. So, today Radon Labs wrote about creation process of the Tatzelwurm and the reasons for its final design.


Dev Diary #6

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Today's developer diary is written by programmer Arne Schnurr. He is responsible for all things concerning the GUI of Drakensang. And that's also the topic of his entry for the Drakensang diary.

"Funny, that's the 10th time I've clicked the button [Open Inventory] and nothing happens?!" That's what it would sound like, if there were no one responsible for the functionality of the graphical user interface.

...hang on, there wouldn't even be any button to click...

As you already guessed, this entry is about the graphical user interface of Drakensang and the steps necessary to make some visible buttons that the player (you) can click on in the end. To explain how this process works, it would be best to demonstrate it with a simple ingame window, in this case the crafting window.

Read on

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Todays Dev Diary is a little bit different. Former entries have all been witten by employees of Radon Labs. But some time ago, Radon Labs looked for an intern from german TDE community to help them with their rulebook researches. dennis Reichelt, webmaster of german TDE community website www.dsa4.de, was the lucky one. Today he describes his impressions during his work for Radon Labs.

Please notice that comments are not available at the moment, I'm on it.

Dev Diary #08

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Right before pentecost, the next diary entry about Drakensang arrives. It's written by programmer Michael Gehling who gives some explanations about the tasks of creating the combat system.

Today’s dev diary is about the development of the combat system in Drakensang. As always, the designers have certain demands on what the combat system should look like. In addition we, the coders, incorporate our own ideas in that process.

A couple of features were essential for us

Read on

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After a small break, today the Developer Diary continues with a chapter called "The Genesis of a Character". Radon Labs gives you an insight to the creation process of an ingame character.

What are the stages of development a character has to go through, before he finally makes his appearance in the game? That is the question we will be dealing with in today´s entry.

First of all an idea of the character is needed. What does he look like? What does he wear? Which skills and attributes does he possess? Which faults? What is his current emotional condition? Some of these ideas have been delivered by the authors, other types of characters can already be found in Aventuria. But that´s not enough. Many more new ideas are required to enrich the story of Drakensang with interesting characters. Fabian Rudzinski, the Game Designer in charge, has assumed this task.

Many thanks to Ragon der Magier, who helped us significantly with this entry. Good job!

Dev Diary #10

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Here it is, the next entry of the Drakensang developer diary. Todays topic is the implementation of the rule set. It's once again written by TDE insider Dennis Reichelt who is working as intern for Radon Labs.

Today we would like to turn to the implementation of the TDE4 rule set in Drakensang. As you can imagine, this is a very extensive and difficult part of development - especially if you consider the sheer volume and complexity of it.

A short review: At the end of 2001 the [Ed.: German] 4th Edition of the Pen&Paper Roleplaying Game "The Dark Eye" was released. It came in the shape of 4 boxes each containing two more or less thick volumes and creating partly radical changes and very detailed rules compared to the previous sets. A three-tier system of basic, optional and expert rules enabled every TDE-player group to compile their own individual catalogue of rules.

Dev Diary #11

Once again, many thanks to Ragon for his help!