In May 2019, the Austrian computer game publisher THQ Nordic bought the German development studio Piranha Bytes, which were the creators and owners of the Gothic series. This title and ownership passed to THQ Nordic.[2]
In December 2019, the Spanish branch of THQ Nordic, THQ Barcelona, released the game demoGothic Playable Teaser and at the same time started a public survey to get feedback from the fan community on the demo and on the idea of a remake.[3][4] The response to it was relatively high, with over 180,000 downloads of the demo[5] and over 30,000 responses,[6] which varied accordingly.[7][8] In February 2020, THQ Nordic announced the production of the remake. According to the publisher, over 90% of the players were in favor for a production of a remake.[5] Aside from certain graphics taken from the playable teaser, there was a "complete reboot" in game design, after the community feedback on the demo called for a remake that was more close to the original than the demo itself.[9][6]
Before the start of production, in March 2021, Alkimia Interactive was founded in Barcelona specifically for the development of a Gothic remake.[10] All creative people involved were advised to have played the original title before the start of production.[11] Piranha Bytes itself had stated to THQ Nordic that its own motivation in game development was not another Gothic game, but the development of other titles such as ELEX.[12] But as a result of the closure of Piranha Bytes in Winter 23/24, some employees of that team joined the studio Alkimia Interactive and thus the production of the remake.[13][14] By their own admission, the "heart" that Alkimia Interactive is focusing on in production is the AI. An algorithm in the game decides which animation sequences are called up or follow one another, so that the movements of the player character (the "nameless hero") and NPCs appear realistic. The algorithm/the AI uses 20–30-minute motion capture recordings as specifications, which have been divided into individual sequences and categorized, which is referred to as motion magic. According to the developers iteration has been given a lot of work-time during the production in this regard. "Controls and UI" are also "two big points" to make the game "more accessible [than the original]". According to Reinhard Pollice, the lead producer at Alkimia Interactive, the combat system in the remake is based on the original, in contrast to the playable teaser. The skill system will again be "very close to the original", too.[9][6] True to the 2001 game, the nameless hero also starts untrained, without any skills.[15] Lockpicking will feature a system similar to the original, but will be, according to Alkimia Interactive, presented differently. Due to increased design options and higher level of detail since 2001, the game world, which is based on the original, will be 10–30% larger overall. If some places in the original game world were not fully designed, an attempt was made to "take up such potential".[9][6] Ideas that Piranha Bytes could not implement during the development of the original, due to a lack of budget and time, were taken up.[16] Because of this, some locations have higher magnification than others.[11] Through those few new locations the remake has got additional quests, which are based on the camp affiliation.[17] Puzzles have been revised to include "new interactions". "Plotholes" of the original would be "better explained" in the remake.[6][17] One narrative difference is that the remake offers more content and lore about the orcs and their culture, and that the player can decide how his general stance towards them is.[15] Other innovations compared to the original are the adjustability of the camera angle of the third-person perspective and the possibility to adjust the balance/difficulty.[18] Has it taken at least 23 hours and 38 hours at max. to beat the original,[19] the playtime of the remake can be about 10 hours (according to other statements up to 20 hours[20]) longer.[18] However, this applies to one playthrough. Due to the additional camp-specific quests of the three factions, the remake has a total of at least 30 hours of additional content.[20] Alkimia Interactive had in 2023 approximately 45[6][17] and in 2024 over 50 employees working on the production of the remake.[15]
The THQ studio Gate21, based in Sarajevo, was commissioned to design armor and NPCs. In contrast to the predecessor, the armor of the NPCs will not look exactly the same, but will differ in details, so that there will be variations from each armor model.[11] In the remake, the "hero" (player character) is able to tweak the value of his armor through modifications, which in turn has a small impact on the appearance of the armor. The weaponsmithing and food- and cooking system have been expanded for the remake.[21][22] In order to facilitate and speed up the work process, the faces of NPC were created with deep learning AI.[6] The development of those faces was a multi-year process, at the beginning of which the faces were designed manually. To avoid having repetitive faces (as was the case in the original) with around 600 NPCs in the game, the developers morphed face models together to create new faces.[22]
When asked whether there will be mod support for the remake, the development studio, which itself consists of members (e.g. Lead Producer Pollice) who had worked on mods for Gothic I and Gothic II, explained that they will "hand out some kind of scripting language", as the Unreal Engine is "not ideal for modding".[23][11]
Soundtrack, dialogues, voice over and localization
Kai Rosenkranz, who was already the composer of the eponymous original, is also responsible for the soundtrack of the remake. Rosenkranz reinterprets the original soundtrack and adds additional pieces of music.[11]
The Dialogues from the original are sometimes adapted and new written dialogues will be added to the remake, too.[24][6][9] As in the original, the choice of a dialogue-option can often determine the course and outcome of a conversation.[25] The game will be voiced in German and English, and due to its large fanbases in Poland and Russia, in Polish and Russian, too. Text based localizations for Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish are also planned. When dubbing the German edition, Alkimia Interactive wants to include voice actors who were involved in the original,[6] if voices havent changed or aged too much.[15]
Marketing and retail versions
A first trailer was released in August 2022.[26] Artworks and screenshots of the remake get published on Steam at regular intervals since January 2023 at the latest.[27][28] A second trailer was published in August 2023.[29] A year later a third trailer, containing ingame scenes, was released.[30] In the same month, August 2024, a demo was presented at Gamescom, which differs from the finished remake in terms of gameplay and setting (e.g. no quick save mode, different player character).[24][31][32]
There will be a Standard Edition and a Collector's Edition as retail versions. While the standard edition only contains the game, the collectors edition, which is limited to 7,500 copies, includes the game on DVD, a wall decoration (a so-called sleeper mask with a wall mount), a notebook and a bracelet, each made of real leather, and the game's soundtrack on CD.[33][34]
Release
In February 2023, Alkimia Interactive claimed the development was "in the middle of production and therefore perfectly on schedule", but did not want to commit to a release date.[6] In March 2023, the studio cited the year 2024 as a "realistic release timeline."[17] In the same month, publisher THQ Nordic said it "did not want to name a final release period".[35] By August 2023, it was planned for release in the second half of 2024.[9] After Gamescom, it was reported in September 2024 that the release could also take place in the first quarter of 2025.[36]
