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[21:56] matteox: Hey Everyone the chat is going to begin in 4 Minutes!
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[22:00] matteox: Hello! We are very pleased to welcome everyone to the Titan Quest: Immortal Throne expansion Live Chat! Please welcome our special guests from IronLore, the developers of Titan Quest, who will now introduce themselves and start taking your questions!
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[22:00] [IL] Scott Morton: Hi everyone; great to be chatting with you!
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[22:01] [IL] Brian Sullivan: Hi, this is Brian Sullivan, Lead Designer on TQ and Creative Director on Immortal Throne
[22:01] [IL] SFrison: I'm Shawn Frison. I was one of the gameplay designers on TQ and TQ:IT. Pleasure to be here.
[22:01] [IL] Chooch: Hi everyone, my name is Chris, I'm on the QA team at Iron Lore. If you've visited the TQ forums you've probably seen me post. Its great to be here!
[22:01] [IL]jglavine: Hi, I'm Josh Glavine Content Designer on TQ and TQ:IT, glad to be here
[22:04] matteox: Now on to the questions! =oD
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[22:05] [IL] Brian Sullivan: PhrasEEruption: - Is RPG the only genre Iron Lore will focus on, or can we expect other kinds of games? Over time we hope to be working on other genres. I spent 6 years working on RTS games (AoE1 and 2), and hope to get back to RTS sooner rather than later. But we do love RPGs and it has been a blast working on TQ.
[22:06] [IL] SFrison: [Xfire] Jubjub: Apex: I've really gotten into making maps and mods for TQ, but juggling multiple programs that are a bit less than user friendly is a pain. Any plans to streamline the modding process a bit to spur the mod scene?
Hey Apex. We don't have any plans for any changes to the mod tools for TQ in the future, but if it makes you feel any better, those are the same tools we used to make the game. They're definitely pretty powerful and versatile once you get the hang of them. Sorry about that learning curve, though!
[22:06] [IL] Chooch: PhrasEEruption: - Are there coming any more expansions for Titan Quest in the future?
We're excited about the community response to Immortal Throne, but we're not ready to discuss the future details of the franchise.
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[22:07] [IL] Brian Sullivan: ¬GODJonez [xfireplus.com]: Where did the idea to make Titan Quest and its expansion originally derive from? When working on Age of Empires, I thought the ancient word would make a great setting for an RPG game with all the great architecture and mythology. I am quite happy I finally got to make it happen.
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[22:10] [IL] SFrison: [Xfire] Jubjub: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: What was the primary reason for an expansion pack? You think there were things that needed to be addressed in the original?
Well, we still had a lot of great ideas for the game that we didn't get a chance to get in the original TQ. Some of them were things that we had hoped to get in the first game, and some were just things that we thought would be a lot of fun for a new TQ act to follow up the first game.
[22:10] [IL] Chooch: oXB|hallowed: How long was the development time for IT as opposed to TQ?
The original TQ took MUCH, MUCH longer to develop than the expansion pack. In Immortal Throne, we had a lot more experience working with the tools that we created, and it shows in the end product.
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[22:11] [IL] Scott Morton: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: What are you guys favorite things you added in this expansion?
I enjoyed making sounds for all the new monsters. That's always a creative and fun aspect of any RPG. Music is always fun to write too; especially for a more dark setting like Immortal Throne. I really dig the new Dream Mastery too.
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[22:12] [IL] SFrison: [Xfire] Jubjub: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: What are you guys favorite things you added in this expansion?
I was a big fan of all the easter egg stuff, personally.
We were on a pretty tight schedule on the original game, so we didn't get a chance to get goofy until the xpack. As far as the core game goes, I'm a big fan of the Enchanter. I was pretty happy with how well it solved some economy and relic hoarding issues that were concerns from the first game.
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[22:13] [IL]jglavine: GODJonez [xfireplus.com]: Was there any part in Immortal Throne that was finally not as you planned it but decided to release it anyway?
Many of the areas in TQ and TQ:IT changed and evolved as we created them. Often we are inspired as we create an area and end up adding our new ideas at a later time. You will find a lot of this in TQ:IT. Many of its environments contain elements that we thought of while making TQ. This is also true for other areas of the game such as equipment and skills. We often think of great new ideas that might not fit into the current game. Which, to answer a different question, is part of the reason why we wanted to make the TQ expansion pack. Because there were so many great ideas that we were unable to fit into TQ 1.
[22:14] [IL] Brian Sullivan: DeathfromPiks: While there be races on future TQ games for example; humans,god,demons,titans?
We cannot really comment on future games, but the idea of letting the player play other races has come up many times. Most RPGs let you play dwarves, elves, etc. So maybe we should let players play satyrs, giants, Titans, etc? No definite answer here, but we do think about it.
[22:14] [IL] Brian Sullivan: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: What are you guys favorite things you added in this expansion?
For me, it was the Dream mastery. It cost me many hundreds of hours to try to figure out the best new mastery combination. Some of our favorite discussions around the office are which are the best and effective combinations. Unfortunately, anytime there is a consensus that one combo is the best, it gets nerfed.
[22:14] [IL] Chooch: Wormhole-MP: Are you thinking to moving to the new graphics engine DirectX10 for Vista Users?
We currently do not have any plans to iupgrade the TQ engine to directx10.
[22:14] [IL] SFrison: [Xfire] matteox: Lord Rick: The locations in the Titan Quest series are taken from real life and greek mythology, but where does the inspiration for the many monsters you encounter throughout out the game come from?
For the most part, the monsters are taken straight out of mythology. Where that wasn't practical, we tried to use stuff that was at least _inspired_ by mythology. And in a few rare cases (the Anteok springs to mind), we just made something up because we thought it'd be cool.
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[22:16] [IL]jglavine: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: What are you guys favorite things you added in this expansion?
If you look very closely the Overlord is always watching.
[22:17] [IL] Chooch: Tom: Windows Vista seems to have some minor crash problems with the Expansion, will there be any patch in the near future to address this issue?
We're constantly reviewing data that comes off of the various TQ forums, and our community has been our biggest asset to fix TQ issues via patches. That said, we can't discuss any patch plans at this time, sorry.
[22:17] [IL] Scott Morton: Parsia: When playing TQ ( if you do it alot) won't being a develope spoil the game for you? because 1. you know what's gonna happen 2. you are always looking into the game to find the bugs, etc.
Game developers have a different perspective when playing our own games; it feels a lot like how it probably does for you guys that make mods. You tend to enjoy the creation process more than actually playing the game you make, although if the game is really fun, you find yourself playing it anyhow. =)
[22:17] [IL] Brian Sullivan: Fallen Angel: in your oppinion what makes tittans quest diffrent than say dungeon seige?
Both good games, but TQ focused on single character, fast-action combat and historical/mythological setting. We also kept a very strategic skill system.
[22:19] [IL] SFrison: Parsia: When playing TQ ( if you do it alot) won't being a develope spoil the game for you? because 1. you know what's gonna happen 2. you are always looking into the game to find the bugs, etc.
It certainly _changes_ how the game feels when you play it, but I don't think it spoils it exactly. While there's not the same feeling of discovery and exploration that you get when you buy a game off the shelf, there's a feeling of investment and accomplishment you get when it all starts to come together. And yeah, I do end up being pretty critical of the game while I play it, but I find that I also do that with competitors products since I got into the game industry.
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[22:20] [IL] Brian Sullivan: PhrasEEruption: - Whas it hard to decide what kind of RPG you would make Titan Quest?
Not really. We were all big fans of Diablo and liked many aspects of that game and thus, the Action-RPG in general. There were also very few quality action-RPGs on the market, so we thought that would be a great opportunity. Setting it in the ancient world and giving it a flexible skill system sealed the deal.
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[22:22] [IL] Scott Morton: [E6]CPL.NightMare{AF-4}: Why 29.99 ? why not more from the looks of it it should be 59.99
Hey thanks! Feel free to send the extra 30 bucks to me in the mail. Haha j/k.
[22:22] [IL] Brian Sullivan: Lord Rick: With MMORPGs in even greater demand than ever, has Iron Lore considered the possibilities of developing an MMO, with the classic, fast paces gameplay style of the Titan Quest series?
We do think about making the jump to MMOs, possibly even with the TQ franchise. But it is a big jump, and one we would have to make with our publisher. At this time we do not have solid plans, but I do think there is a great need for an MMOActionRPG.
[22:23] [IL] Chooch: Parsia: When playing TQ ( if you do it alot) won't being a develope spoil the game for you? because 1. you know what's gonna happen 2. you are always looking into the game to find the bugs, etc.
Yes! Doing QA on the same project for a number of years often leads to burnout, it is inevitable. The plus side is that the parts of the game that get too repetitive and unfun are often the areas that we need work on the most. Iron Lore's designers have always been very receptive to critical feedback, to help make the game as fun as it can be.
[22:23] [IL] SFrison: Parsia: What's the entry point into the gaming industry? I think it would be like a BS or MSc. in Computer Science as a developer? or taking part in GDC?
I don't think there's only one good way to get in. Largely it depends on what role you're trying to get into - as an artist, for instance, you really just need a great portolio and shop around. For design, it's pretty common to get in via QA and change departments once you've shown that you have some talent in that area. Mods and small independent games are also a great way to get in - there's really no better way to showcase your skills than to just make a game yourself in your spare time. And then, of course, there are the random flukes... for instance, I got into the industry because I won a few Starcraft tournaments, and I knew a company that was looking for skilled RTS players to help balance their game.
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[22:25] [IL] Scott Morton: Fallen Angel: how long did titans quest exspantion take to produce?
It was a pretty tight, hard-working 8 months of development time.
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[22:26] [IL] Brian Sullivan: Wormhole-MP: Any ideas or hopes for this game to go on Console like PS3 and use the PS3 cell processor to increase the speed of the game?
We did talk to THQ about moving TQ to a next gen console and there was a fair amount of interest, but at this point, I think it most likely we will reserve going to console for any future products in the franchise.
[22:27] [IL] Chooch: HeatDrive: Is there a reason why a multiplayer system, how you have a central server that finds games for you, wasn't included in the game? Even if you didn't add it to the core, why didn't you add it to the expansion when you had the chance?
We added a number of multiplayer lobby enhancements to Immortal Throne to help you better find games, but the cost of a centralized server that stores characters (ie: battle.net) is an issue of money. If you know someone with a few million dollars hanging around we'd be glad to work on an implementation!
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[22:27] [IL] SFrison: HeatDrive: How do you feel about some people pirating your hard work and playing without paying for it?
It's always disappointing when you've worked hard on a product and people don't support you, but unfortunately it's just one of those unavoidable realities of PC gaming. We try to take it as a compliment. (That said, there are many ninjas here. And as we all know, ninjas and pirates are mortal enemies. You better watch yourselves!)
[22:28] [IL] Scott Morton: imalittleteapot: Do yo guys spendmost of the creating prcess of the game test playing it or creating it?
Our QA team does a lot of testing throughout the development process, but the content creators (artists, level designers, etc.) are pretty busy creating content the whole time. At the very end in beta, we all get a chance to play the game a bunch and polish it up.
[22:28] [IL]jglavine: PeЧĐuĐe@CoDJumper.com: What is your favourite game of all time?
I would have to say that Half Life was my favorite game of all time. But honestly I like all sorts of games and it's really hard to say which was the best.
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[22:30] [IL] Chooch: Tom: What are your thoughts on Chris Relics, and hacked swords, it's really annoying, but thanks to "Inspect Player" it's easy to deter. Will there ever be an Anti-Cheat or Anti-Trainer for that matter, implemented?
This is something that would come with a centralized server, but with the way our technology is setup (characters and items stored on your own personal computer), anti-hacking systems are not technically feasible.
[22:30] [IL] Brian Sullivan: PhrasEEruption: - There are some jobs available at Iron Lore, does this mean that you completed the game without a complete staff?
No, we completed the game with a full staff - it wouldn’t be nearly as good otherwise. Some of the openings are to grow our team, some to replace a few folks who left for various reasons.
[22:30] [IL] SFrison: PeЧĐuĐe@CoDJumper.com: What is your favourite game of all time?
My top 5... Starcraft: Brood War, System Shock 2, Star Control 2, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, God of War
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[22:32] [IL] Brian Sullivan: PeЧĐuĐe@CoDJumper.com: What is your favourite game of all time?
Some of mine are WarCraft 2, Half-life, Diablo, Command HQ and of course the games I have worked on: Age of Empires and Titan Quest.
[22:33] [IL] Chooch: PeЧĐuĐe@CoDJumper.com: What is your favourite game of all time?
I'm not sure about my *favorite* game, but the games I played for the longest were: Dark Age of Camelot, Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors, and Tribes 2 =)
[22:33] [IL] SFrison: imalittleteapot: Do yo guys spendmost of the creating prcess of the game test playing it or creating it?
Depends on who you're talking about. The programmers and artists had almost no playtesting time until the last month or so of the project. Design and QA, however, have to spend a pretty substantial chunk of their time playing the game to do their jobs. As a designer, I'd say that I spent about ~20% of my time playing or testing the game on TQ:IT and probably a bit more on the original TQ.
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[22:35] [IL] Brian Sullivan: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: How did you feel THQ did as a publisher for Titan Quest? Did they accomidate everything you guys looked to have?
THQ was a great publisher, especially on the production side - they supported us 110%. And Titan Quest would not have been possible if they did not believe in the vision for the game.
[22:36] [IL] SFrison: Lord Rick: There must be hundreds of potential locations Titan Quest could expand to, what made you choose Hades for the expansion pack?
Well, we wanted a location that was rich in atmosphere and mythology, but that would be strongly recognizable. Hades was a great mix of what we were looking for: something with emotional appeal, tons of great mythological stories, and potential for great level design. I think it also provided great contrast to the environments in the first three acts.
[22:36] [IL]jglavine: ¬GODJonez [xfireplus.com]: Do you play other games while your game is still under developement? If so, which games, and do you get ideas off those games?
Playing games is as much a part of our jobs as anything else. It's always important for us to be playing as many games as we can so we have a good idea where the industry is headed and what other developers are doing. Plus we are all gamers at heart and we have to get our fix on a daily basis.
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[22:37] [IL] Brian Sullivan: ¬GODJonez [xfireplus.com]: Do you play other games while your game is still under developement? If so, which games, and do you get ideas off those games?
We are all gamers, so we do play other games during development, although a lot less than before I got into the industry. For a while, we had folks sinking a lot of time into World of WarCraft (like everyone else).
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[22:38] [IL] Chooch: Fяăиќ: What are your favortie classes to be in TQ/TQIT? And What is your favorite monster that you have created?
I was a huge fan of my warfare / nature duel wielder, it was my first character that I took through legendary (before we nerfed the pierce damage on archers too - ouch!). My second favorite was my oracle, but she only made halfway through Epic. I didn't personally create any monsters, but my favorite boss to fight is definitely Charon - he does some pretty awesome stuff that we didn't do in the first game.
[22:38] [IL] SFrison: Wormhole-MP: Are you looking for experienced beta testers for patches and expansions, if so, where could we sign up?
Not at this time, but keep your eye on the forums. If we need someone, that's the first place we'll give notice.
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[22:42] [IL] Chooch: oXB|hallowed: Any advice for mod makers? Would you play a mod if it recieved good reviews?
Yup! When Pinkfrog and Madman released their mod, we sat down and played through it. The disco level was awesome. The tools are out there to make some really creative levels, it just takes some work to learn how everything operates. We're looking forward to seeing what mods come out of the Immortal Throne assets.
[22:42] [IL]jglavine: Jubjub: PeЧĐuĐe@CoDJumper.com: If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?
If I could have any job in the world I would be a game developer. Honestly you have to love what you do to make it in this industry. Apart from that I would be a rally car driver but that's not really a job
[22:42] [IL] SFrison: [Xfire] mbg: Are there any games out there you would conside "competition" ??
Well, any action-rpg definitely provides some competition, but I believe we're probably the best in the genre right now. Of course, there are also plenty of games that provide indirect competition - hardcore RPGs, MMOs, etc. We mostly just tried to focus on making a great game.
[22:43] [IL] Brian Sullivan: Fяăиќ: If you could go back in time, would u change anything about Titan Quest, or Titan Quest Immortal Throne.
That would be hard to answer, as there are a lot of little and medium sized things we would have made better. I think I would have liked to change the camera to be moveable instead of fixed. We went with fixed to make the game more accessible (you can practically left click your way though the game), but now there are so many movable camera games that it is second nature to most gamers. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make the change mid development for performance reasons - we would have had to change pretty much all the art and levels up to that point. Even though this is where I think the market is, I still enjoy playing with the fixed camera.
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[22:44] [IL] Chooch: oXB|hallowed: How old were you when you got your first job in the design world?
I'm not a designer, but I started working in the game industry during my summers inbetween college semesters - I think 19/20ish.
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[22:44] [IL] SFrison: PeЧĐuĐe@CoDJumper.com: If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?
Corny as it sounds: game designer. My second choice would probably be to be a novelist. Unfortunately, I hear that you actually have to be a decent writer to make money at that.
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[22:45] [IL] Brian Sullivan: PeЧĐuĐe@CoDJumper.com: If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?
I am doing my ideal job, so I don’t have to look far. A great gig if you can get it.
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[22:46] [IL] SFrison: oXB|hallowed: How old were you when you got your first job in the design world?
21 or 22. Can't remember exactly. (I'm 28 now.)
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[22:49] [IL] SFrison: potte: Do you have any other games then TQ exp. coming up in the next few years?
Of course! We're not quite at the stage where we're willing to talk about details yet, but we're working on a new project right now that we're pretty excited about.
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[22:50] [IL] SFrison: DeathfromPiks: Will TQ be made into a comic book series or a book or something to that affect xD?
No plans at this time, sorry. We'll let you guys know if that changes, though.
[22:50] [IL]jglavine: oXB|hallowed: In the original diablo, the dungeons were random. Had you thought about doing something similar to the caves etc? Was it ruled out?
We did originally consider doing randomized undergrounds but we decided to go with custom made dungeons in order to create the best looking results and the most fun experience for the player. In short with a game that looks as good as TQ we were concerned that randomized dungeons wouldn't look as good or play as well as the rest of the levels in the TQ world.
[22:50] [IL] Brian Sullivan: Parsia: What do you think of the today's problem with games? We have a lot of Games coming out with a lot of bugs and then bombarded with patches. Is it that the developers have gone lousy? Or Financial Problems? Or the increasing complexity of Games?
Unfortunately, games are a lot more complex than in the past. Titan Quest is vastly more complex than Age of Empires, and has a ton more content. Also, developers have much larger teams working on the game, so if it is delayed a few months to find and fix every last bug, it costs a huge amount of money. But we do put a lot of effort fixing every bug before the game goes out. We make sure all known ‘A’ and ‘B’ bugs are fixed before we finalize the game - there are not any known significant bugs when we go gold. But despite all the testing we, the publisher, and our beta testers do, there are always a few bugs that come out after we release the game.
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[22:54] [IL] Scott Morton: Tom: With the release of Bang Camaro's album, do you think that they will possibly have more to do with Iron Lore in the future like for example, a sountrack to a future title?
Bang Camaro is awesome. One of the guys from the band actually worked as a programmer on Titan Quest, so that's where the connection was. Who knows where they'll end up; maybe you'll hear them in a game again sometime.
[22:55] [IL] Brian Sullivan: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: What games where inspirations for you deciding you wanted to be game developers? I was programming games since Junior High, and making simple text adventures and mods to the original Wolfenstein. Some of the games that inspired me were Adventure, Civilization, Command HQ, and the Lucas Arts adventure games.
[22:56] [IL] Scott Morton: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: What games where inspirations for you deciding you wanted to be game developers?
The early games in the Final Fantasy series were always a big inspiration for me. The depth of story in those games was always great.
[22:56] [IL] Chooch: Scott forgot to plug the Bang Camaro website! --
http://www.bangcamaro.com -- Their stuff is awesome, give it a listen if you haven't.
[22:56] [IL] SFrison: =HT=Gamma [xfireplus.com]: What games where inspirations for you deciding you wanted to be game developers?
What original got me fired up to become a designer were the really old games from when I was a kid: random Intellivision (AD&D, B17 Bomber, Biplanes, Astrosmash), Atari 2600 (Adventure, Combat), and C64 (Wizball, Impossible Mission, the Bard's Tale) were the biggest ones. But honestly, every good game I play inspires me a little more. It's great working in such a young industry because there are still millions of awesome ideas that haven't been taken yet.
[22:56] [IL] Scott Morton: † Ữþ£][ñk †: What was your First game you guys played?
The first game I ever played was King's Quest on the IBM PCjr.
[22:58] [IL] Chooch: oXB|hallowed: LOL what was up with not being able to skip through the opening movies before the patches cleared it up? Did you guys seriously sit through the opening EVERY single time you loaded that game? Did none of the QA guys, or beta testers complain about it?
You only have to sit through the opening cinematic the first time you open the game, after that, the escape key should skip you past them.
[22:58] [IL] SFrison: † Ữþ£][ñk †: What was your First game you guys played?
No idea. Either an Oddysey or Atari 2600 game. It's been wayy too long to remember, though.
[22:59] [IL] Brian Sullivan: jrodkiller: what will you do to stop the spread of hackers/botters in the game?
The best way to stop hackers is to go to a server based on-line game. Unfortunately, even thought we wanted to do that with TQ, it was way out of scope for our first game. I think any game we do in the future will have to have server based security (or with the console, we get it for free since they have a closed architecture.)
[22:59] [IL] Chooch: oXB|hallowed: Are there any plans for a linux release?
Not at this time, but Wine and Cedega seem to be making rapid progress in Windows emulation... maybe TQ will run on Linux someday...
[23:00] [IL] SFrison: HeatDrive: Which aspects of RPG do you like?? Is that what got you into making RPG?
Personally, I think the biggest strengths of RPGs are character progression and story. There's just something really addictive and fun about the constant character improvement. And for the story stuff, obviously you can just tell a great tale when you have dozens of hours and tons of different characters to tell it.
[23:00] [IL] Brian Sullivan: potte: Do you have any other games then TQ exp. coming up in the next few years?
We hope to continue with TQ, and move into some other franchises.
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[23:00] [IL] Scott Morton: Jubjub: Apex: Last one from me: The TQ score is really great I think, and did an awesome job taking a theme and fitting it to the many locales in the game. Who did the soundtrack and will it ever be available commercially (e.g. DirectSong)?
I composed the score for the game (glad you enjoyed it!) I sincerely hope that we can get a soundtrack out in the near future. Keep your fingers crossed!
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[23:01] matteox: Ok, that concludes the chat with the IronLore team! Thank You to our special guests and thanks everyone for participiating.
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[23:01] matteox: Unfortunately we have run out of time. But! We have some great prizes to give away!
[23:01] [IL] Scott Morton: Thanks everyone! It was fun!
[23:01] matteox: . Now onto the prizes! If you are one of the winners PM me for instructions on how to claim your prize!
[23:02] matteox: 10 Winners of Titan Quest Prize Packs which includes Titan Quest and a signed copy of Titan Quest Immortal Throne expansion!
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[23:02] matteox: 1. Heatdrive
[23:02] matteox: 2. =HT=Gamma
[23:02] matteox: 3. Apex
[23:02] matteox: 4. PhrasEEruption
[23:02] matteox: 5. Parsia
[23:02] matteox: 6. Tom
[23:02] matteox: 7. ~GodJonez
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[23:02] matteox: 8. oXB|Hallowed
[23:02] matteox: 9. Fallen Angel
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[23:03] matteox: 10. Frank.
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[23:03] matteox: Thanks again everybody!!
[23:03] [IL] Chooch: Thanks for coming everyone! =)
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[23:04] [IL]jglavine: Thanks everyone
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[23:04] [IL] Brian Sullivan: Thanks everyone!