Lionhead"s Black & White 2, if everything goes according to plan, will stomp onto the scene this year and will without doubt be one of 2005"s biggest PC releases. A sequel to what is now widely regarded as a flawed classic that caused a storm of debate when it materialised, it"s addressing the shortcomings of the original game and of course is pimped out with new gameplay turning it into an extremely enticing follow-up.
We recently got an invite down to Lionhead HQ, so with a bag-full of questions in tow we headed off to meet up with one Peter Molyneux and Black & White 2 lead designer Ron Millar to chat about the creature feature sequel. Part one of the interview follows, and we"ll be bringing you the concluding part two next week.
Can you tell us a bit about your aim and ambitions for B&W2?
Peter Molyneux: Well the ambition has always been to create a game that anybody can play and you can play it in a nurturing role looking after your people and your creature. You can be all cute and fluffy and build your people, cities and playgrounds and gardens. It"s a very female, nurturing growing thing.
Or you can create [censored] great armies and go and destroy the entire earth. Combining those two things together makes a very new and interesting game. We"ve had the whole studio play and if you"re female it"s a very nurturing experience. If you"re a guy, it"s much more about going out to destroy!