Thrust forth as the game that stated “Evil is good”, Bullfrog's Dungeon Keeper, was one of the most innovative and addictive strategy titles of last year. In it, you became an evil dictator ruling over a crew of imps. The poor louts did your bidding and attracted outside wanderers and warriors to your dungeon. All to further your quest to knock off the good guys.

　　Now that the game's original designer, Peter Molyneux, has gone on to found his own development studio, gamers have been wondering what will happen to the sequel, Dungeon Keeper II. GameSpot News also wanted to find out what evil was brewing at Bullfrog. We caught up with Dungeon Keeper II's producer, Nick Goldsworthy, and discovered that the DKII crew has enough creativity and twisted sense of humor to build a title as addictive as the first. And we've got the shots to prove it.

　　GameSpot News: What stage of development is Dungeon Keeper II in?NG: Currently, we are at pre-alpha stage and on schedule.

　　GSN: When is the proposed ship date for the sequel?Nick: Right now, we're looking at shipping the title for the PC in spring 1999.

　　GSN: How is the gameplay being enhanced from the first Dungeon Keeper?NG: Well, a fundamental strategy flaw from the original keeper was combat. The player picks up a handful of creatures and drops them into a battle and "hopes" that the experience levels would throw the battle in his/her favor. This has now radically changed.

　　In our completely new accelerated game engine, we have given each creature its own floor space. The player now has a greater opportunity to plan their attack or defense in a more strategic way. For example: The Bile demon can be used to block corridors while you set up your Elfin archers for projectile attacks. It's no longer a battle of numbers; each creature's stats (30 in all) have their own fear and threat level, different moods, and differing resistance to different attacks and defenses.

　　You will be able to gauge the battles more clearly as you will see each creature's attack (over 30 animation sets per creature) and the effect it is having.

　　We have also introduced many new items and features for the player to research and discover. As an example, traps now play a greater role. The Sentry is my particular favorite - think of ye old self-targeting canon that unleashes fireballs and causes Imps to explode; you can imagine the fun we're having experimenting with these.

　　Self-triggering mechanisms can cause multiple chain reactions and have rolling boulders and spike traps activating in sequence causing mayhem for hostile creatures or human opponents.

　　Mana is a new resource generated by the efficiency and creature count of your dungeon. Spells and certain traps require this magical flow for them to work.

　　We have a fantastic story for the single-player campaign that now heavily involves the Horned Reaper working with the player to gain entrance to the sunlit world of heroes. Each level can be completed in more than one way, and we have optional sub-objectives and secret levels.

　　GSN: Are there going to be any multiplayer enhancements?NG: Oh yes.... Multiplayer will be supporting up to 16 players over the Internet, IPX, modem, and serial. We are also developing our own lobby server. Players will be able to create skirmish-style games, with a multitude of options to adjust; you can team up or go all against all, join forces, and take on the heroes or lots of enemy computer players.

　　Through the first-person perspective, we are going to give the players a deathmatch opportunity, by possessing a creature and taking on each other with the various creature spells (over 20 creature spells).

　　We'll be supplying approximately 20 multiplayer maps with the game. The big news is we'll be supporting Dungeon Keeper II with free downloads that will include new creatures, spells, traps, and levels over many, many months after the game is shipped.

　　GSN: What new creatures or spells can you talk about?NG: We have a rogue character that can be used to enter an enemy's camp unseen and maybe steal some valuable resources. The Dark Angel is nearly as tough as the Horned Reaper. One of his specialties is to fly over slain corpses and bring them back to life as animated skeletons. As for new spells, the Tremor spell violently shakes the surrounding area and causes debris and rock to fall causing creatures to topple, and walls become weakened, and the Turncoat spell forces an enemy creature to do your bidding for a period of time.

　　This is just the tip of the iceberg for new game creatures and features....

　　GSN: Will DKII play the same as the first game, or will there be more substantial improvements and changes?NG: No, no, no... a fatal mistake. Dungeon Keeper II is not an enhancement or Keeper-plus.... It's a major sequel.

　　Dungeon Keeper II will be the best strategy/management game anyone has ever played with a massive dose of evil and sadistic gameplay never seen before. Be prepared.

　　We have the largest team working on this at Bullfrog (35+ Bullfrog employees, all of them great!)