Timothy Gerritsen: Drakan has similarities in that it had a story about this character (named Rynn). Rune probably has more similarities to Drakan than to Blade. It is probably more similar to Heretic 2, though that was more about magic spells and acquiring power that way. We really are not quite like any other game out there. They all have surface similarities, one being the audience, and many think that if you have a sword, it's fantasy, and for a lot of people, if you have a sword, it's roleplaying. People ask what kind of powers they get and how many skill points per level; Rune is not an RPG, it's a totally different animal. Half Life in the middle ages would be a way of describing how the story [takes place]. We are about creating this really cool story and how the plot evolves, and lots of carefully scripted segments and elements that move the story along and then building in a cool multiplayer section that is fun.

Sharky Games: There are already fan sites, and recognition in Europe, how much of a following has developed before even releasing the title?

Timothy Gerritsen: There is RuneGame.com, there is RuneNews.com, DarkViking.com and RuneCenter. We actually hired Trish to run RuneGame, she used to run a fan site. But RuneGame is our official site co-run by us and Gathering of Developers.

You have those fan sites, and we get reaction from all around the world. ECTS was incredible, we are big in Germany, just like David Hasselhoff. It just got a phenomenal worldwide reaction because everybody likes Vikings. If you go to Japan and say “Viking” they understand what you are talking about, and that is one neat aspect of doing a game based on Vikings because they are so universally recognizable. People just really react. We went on a European press tour in June and people were really reacting well. We were on a plane filled with Danish marines to Copenhagen, and they were like “you do game about Thor!”. And one guy had a Thor's cross on, and they were like “tell us about it” and “OK, doing a good job” and they were all into it so it was really cool.

Sharky Games: What can some of the gamers expect after release, because you have talked about adding levels.