Steven Peeler, founder of Soldak Entertainment, creators of Depths of Peril, consented to chat with me after I bribed him with a tiny trade route and 10 silver pieces. If you haven't played the game you don't realize how much that bribe actually is. So get the game and find out. But first read probably the only videogame interview in history to blend human sacrifice, goulashes, spelunking and a really big guy with an ax.

[SG]: What possessed you to leave Ritual and move into your own digs? Was it the human sacrifices? How long have you been in the 'biz'?

[SP]: Well the human sacrifices were fun for a while, but you start getting really nervous when the supply of victims runs low. [smiles] Actually, one of the main reasons was that I wanted to work on an RPG and while many people at Ritual and even some of the owners wanted to create one, it just didn’t look like a publisher was ever going to sign a deal with Ritual to do one.  Something about Ritual having no experience with RPGs and some nonsense about too many RPGs already.  So I decided to do one anyways, which meant leaving Ritual.

 I worked at a startup before Ritual for a couple years, Ritual for 6 years, and now Soldak for almost 3 years.  So I have been in the industry for about a decade (plus or minus a year depending on what you count).

[SG]: What the heck is a Soldak? It sounds like a big grumpy guy with an axe to me.

[SP]: That sounds like a great tag line for Soldak.  Buy our game or else we’ll sic our big grumpy guy with an axe on you!  Actually, I just made up a word that I thought sounded nice and was pretty unique.  Since then I have learned that Soldak is a last name used in Poland, I believe, and that Soldak can be loosely translated as lone tree.

[SG]: If I were to offer you a Tiny Trade route would you tell me how you decided to mix an action RPG with the political strategizing that makes Depths of Peril the interesting mesh of genres that it is?

[SP]: Well, maybe if you throw in 10 silver.  I mostly just wanted to make something different.  I didn’t want to create another clone of Diablo.  The industry is already spitting out enough of those as it is.  So sometime in the design phase while looking for that key distinguishing feature, I thought about adding some strong faction gameplay into the game and it grew from there.

[SG]: Truly, how deep are the Depths of Peril? I mean are we saying I'm going to need goulashes or should I pack a wetsuit or a mini-sub?

[SP]: Pretty deep, but I think spelunking gear is more appropriate.  The name is a play on many aspects of the setting.  “Peril” is everywhere in the world because the West lost the Fourth Great War and now all of Aleria is overrun with monsters.  “Depths” refers to many of the evil races coming from underground and specifically to the releasing of the dark elves story Depths of Peril (which can be read here).  “Depths” has also come to be a play on the gameplay and world having more depth than the typical action RPG.

  Stay tuned for Part 2 rising from the Depths of Peril on Friday.

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