PC Modding Interview – SURE AI

[+Brodo Swaggins]

This week we’re talking to Johannes and Nicolas of the Sure AI modding team. Serving as the project lead and creative director, respectively, the duo from Munich are currently hard at work on their Skyrim total conversion mod, Enderal — one that last year captured ModDB.com’s Best Upcoming Mod award.

If Sure AI (www.sureai.net) sounds familiar — we’ve also highlighted them for their Fallout 3 project, Cube Experimental, as well as their Oblivion project, Nehrim

Read our interview with them below…

The Creation Kit toolset released back nearly three years ago (Feb 2012). How much “kicking the tires” did SureAI do before planning Enderal?

Johannes: Pretty much no kicking at all – we started planning Enderal — the scope, drafts of story and gameplay, a rough production plan, as good as it was possible without knowing the capacities of the CK — in October 2011, a month before Skyrim was released. Of course, the first results we got in the new engine weren’t that presentable and had to be reworked, but the actual development of Enderal started as soon as the Creation Kit was released.

How many folks are working on Enderal?

Nicolas: Altogether, we’re 14 people on the core team, of which around eight spend a lot of time on the development. Then, there are a lot of external contributors, mainly 3d artists, and, of course, voice actors and a German recording studio, 2day Productions, who help us with the localization.

For fans of Skyrim, what do you think players will appreciate most about Enderal’s world?

Johannes: Enderal has a different feeling, a different “flair†in comparison to Skyrim – which also results in it feeling more like a separate game than a mod. We spent a lot of time on the creation of an interesting world, and in total, I’d say that Enderal´s world is a little bit more “Europeanâ€, especially when it comes to cities and locations. We draw a lot of inspiration from medieval places and cities in Germany and Europe in general. There’s also something hidden everywhere, be it a quest, an interesting sight or a dungeon – that altogether makes exploring Enderal a lot of fun.

What would you say is radically different about Enderal when compared to Skyrim?

Nicolas: The story and leveling/skilling mechanics. The story, because it puts, in general, more emphasis on “mature” themes — as in politics, philosophy and psychology — and the the leveling system because Enderal has no level scaling and learning-by-doing anymore. Instead, the player has to traditionally gather experience points to level up, which can be done by killing monsters, exploring, completing quests, or being witty in dialogue.

That allowed us to reward the player for a variety of accomplishments, rather than just combat. When leveling up, he (or she) then gets skill, perk, and crafting points which he can use to improve his character. The “perk system” has also been entirely overhauled — to the point that we use a custom menu coded in flash instead of the beautiful “star-menu” – and is now a mixture between a traditional class-system, which still has all the advantages of a sandbox-system.

To sum it up: While fans of Skyrim will also like Enderal, it is different. You could say that it is a traditional RPG mixed with hand-crafted design and a beautiful, open world to explore, tactical and challenging combat, and an emotional, psychological story that differs from the usual.

Can you talk about some of the goals your team set after previous projects?

Johannes: We definitely didn’t want to repeat the mistakes made in Nehrim, which basically all boiled down to two problems. First, Nehrim was, in some aspects, too ambitious for our team at that time, and sometimes we wasted a lot of time on being too perfectionistic and constantly redesigning stuff that was already done, which sometime ended up in it being worse than it was at the beginning. The results of these two problems were too little sidequests, some dead cities, major performance problems in some regions of the game and an imbalanced endgame. For Enderal, we wanted to be sure that this didn’t happen again, and though Enderal is still massive undertaking — its world being almost as big as Skyrim’s, it looks like careful planning, experience, and project plans paid off.

Are there any current features in the project that you’re particularly fond of?

Nicolas: I love the new housing system, which allows the player to craft and place furniture in his home. It was originally a nice-to-have feature, that we were certain we had to cut, but thanks to a new team member, it turned out we didn’t have to. I also enjoy the skill system that comes with a bunch of new abilities which replace the Dragon Shouts. Nothing better than freezing a zombie and then shattering him with a lightning strike called from the sky, or teleporting behind him and finish up with a backstab.

Johannes: I love to explore our world. Probably also because we added a lot of new mechanics that are designed to make exploring even more worthwhile, such as rare plants that grant permanent bonuses when consumed. And while there is no pressure to do so – we hate “grinding mechanics†– it is very motivating to climb a hill and not only be rewarded with a nice sight, but also with something truly useful to the player.

What can you say about the project’s current status? How close is it to completion?

Johannes: We always refrained from announcing concrete release dates, but Enderal is in a final stage. Our gameplay features and levels are mostly done. At the time, we’re implementing the finale of the mainquest and more sidequests. It all goes very well so far, but — by experience – there will be a lot of bugs and problems. And while it would theoretically be possible to give a calculation on how much time would still need to be spent on that, most of our team members also have other jobs or work to do, which sometimes makes it hard to calculate their “capacityâ€. That’s the reason we can’t plan as precisely as companies with a team of full-time employees can and why we, although we’re in a final stage, will only then announce a specific release date once we’re sure we can hold it.

Through the years, what are some of your fondest memories with the SureAI team?

Nicolas: I haven’t been with SureAI for as long as Johannes, but the resonance our new trailer produced was so much better than we anticipated, not to mention scoring the first place in the Moddb.com-elections. Thanks again to everyone who supported us! And though most of us live in Munich by now, the team meetings where everyone comes together, are always great. I really appreciate the team spirit we have, and the fact that most of us are not only colleagues, but also friends.

Johannes: Word!

From your experience creating Total Conversion Mods, what advice would you offer to aspiring game developers and modders?

Johannes: Know your own capacities. A lot — if not even most — mod projects, and I dare to say that this happens a lot of times in the industry, too, fail because they’re simply too overambitious. Focus on the core elements of your project and ensure they’re fun to play, and don’t get caught up in perfectionism. For example, there’s no sense in planning thousands of sidequests if you have only one designer who needs a month to complete one simple quest. Your mod will be stunted in its development for years and your team will dissipate, because your members can’t see any progress. Finally, stick with it. Pulling a project through always means good times and bad times, and in our experience, one major key to getting things done is, above all, discipline and continuity.

Nicolas: Especially when developing a non-commercial project, work as a team. Even if you’re in a lead position, always ensure that everyone can, and does contribute his or her own ideas, as long as they’re not out of proportion and go along well with the overall game and the project plan. Never see yourself above others and expect them to “realize your ideasâ€, that will make your project only as good as you are, and most likely people will start losing their motivation faster than you can say “Dovakhiin”.

Outside of your team, what modding projects inspire you (both for BGS games and other games)?

Nicolas: I just mod pretty much every game I get my hands on, which makes it hard for me to name favorites. When it comes to BGS Games, I think what the SkyUI and the SKSE team has done, is exceptional, especially since it’s so polished and bug-free, which, unfortunately, a lot of mod projects aren’t. Finally, there’s one Oblivion mod which really inspired me when I was younger, called “Ruined Tail’s Tale”. Since it’s been so long I can’t say why, but I remember that the character and the story really got me back then.

When you’re not modding, what’s your full-time career look like?

Johannes: I worked at an engineering company until 2012, when I decided to pursue a career in the videogame industry. Right now I’m studying game design, while working part-time as a game and level designer for a studio in Munich, which is currently developing Spellforce 3.

Nicholas: I did social work after school, before also starting to study game design in Munich. Right now I’m basically working full-time on Enderal, while trying to get all the university assignments done at the same time. And if we manage to go commercial as we plan, to I’ll be doing fulltime SureAI after that, as well.

What are you interests outside of modding?

Nicolas: Since modding and game development pretty much include all of my interests — writing, coding, composing music, 3d art — there aren’t that many, apart from friends, sports, and languages.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Nicholas & Johannes: Because so many people ask: Apart from professional German voice acting, Enderal will also have full English voice-acting, at least if we find enough professionals to help us with it. Also, we’d like to thank everyone who has supported us. Especially in 2014, a lot of good things happened which we never expected. So, at the risk of repeating myself: Thanks!

Thanks for interview!

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