Drakensang – Official Dev Diary #1

02. 02. 2007: The team behind Drakensang

I’m excited to finally be writing these lines, which mark the start of the Drakensang dev diary. This diary will supply you with interesting background information every two weeks. The first entry will introduce you to the people who make Drakensang possible. It is unfortunately not possible to do a write-up on everyone involved in the project, so I will focus on the people that hold the key positions, from Creative Director to the Lead Designer to myself, Jan Lechner, project manager of Drakensang.

When the game was initially announced back in April 2006, Bernd said: “The development of a classic party role playing game, combined with proven gaming tradition, modern gameplay, sophisticated storyline and up to date technology – that’s our vision of a new The Dark Eye game. Drakensang is the realisation of a personal dream.”

I start off with the master mind behind Drakensang and our whole company: Bernd Beyreuther. The entire project began with him and his dream of a new The Dark Eye computer game. With the creation of his own company Radon Labs he placed the fundaments to make his dream come true. As Creative Director, he makes sure we keep true to this vision and he is the one that sharpens the team’s awareness of the spirit of The Dark Eye universe.

Sven is the one that makes our common vision becomes reality.

Our Lead Level and Game Designer Sven is the one that takes the rough ideas and turns them into virtual reality. Nobody else knows the technical aspect of the game as well as he does, and on top of that he has apparently played every other role playing game the world has seen so far. Sven claims that he has a girlfriend who he takes out at times, but we can hardly believe he is telling us the truth, considering the work load he manages here.

The Lord of the Nebula Engine: Floh

Then there is our Technical Director Floh, who has written the Nebula Engine. Without him, this company wouldn’t run at all, and everyone at Radon is aware that we have a genuine genius in our midst with him. One could suspect he put in a couple of predetermined breaking points in the engine, just to remind us that we really are dependent on him. ;-)

Doesn’t like deadlines: Nico

Just as important is Nico, the Lead Programmer, who is responsible for all decisions which are not directly linked with the engine. He is precise and knowledgeable, to the point where I couldn’t imagine working without him, but there’s one thing I could do without in future: The look on his face when I ask him for a time estimate. Why do programmers not like deadlines?

Is a „Tatzelwurm“ capable of spitting fire? If we only had asked Fabian before…

I should also mention Fabian, our Game Designer, who is an expert on the world of Aventuria and all of its rules. There are more than 5000 pages of publication on The Dark Eye and one would almost think he has read every single word. The rules are extremely complex, making selection necessary, and it’s up to him what will be integrated in the game and what won’t be.

Hello, my name is Jan. You may know me from the official forum or several interviews. ;-)

Last but not least there is I, Jan Lechner. Some of you may know me from the official Drakensang forum where I post every now and then. It’s my responsibility to make sure every person involved in the project does their job in the best conditions. This is not always simple, because things can and will go wrong sometimes, so I avail myself of this opportunity to thank the team for the great job.

I would also like to give a nod out to everybody in the team that I couldn’t introduce here individually. You guys are just as important and indispensable to the game, so keep up the good work!

That’s it for today. Next time I will answer the question why we are actually making a The Dark Eye computer game, and why we love the world of Aventuria so much. Come back in two weeks when the dev diary will be continued on this website!

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