Undead walk the land, spurred on by the power of a one-time shogun turned by a mad priest into the demon Dark Warrior. Collecting a stout band of samurai, your job is to defeat the lieutenants of Zanshin, battle through his defenses and ultimately send him to his demise.

Backing you is a frail, yet mystical daimyo who will lend his restorative powers, a blacksmith who will repair weapons and imbue them with mystical powers, and a priest who will make sure that all is right between your characters and the gods.

Throne of Darkness, from Click Entertainment and Sierra ( http://www.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r13067.htm ) is a wonderful action-adventure role-playing game that will challenge and delight fans of the genre. It is fast paced, featuring terrific graphics and sound, and seemingly nonstop battles.

Leif Jensen, producer of the game for Click, took some time to answer a few questions about the game and industry.

Question: The Far East has been a fascinating world in terms of mythology. For the majority of Westerners, that mythology is not that well known. Was this aspect of Throne of Darkness researched, or is the evil element drawn from the wellsprings of the developers' minds?

Leif: “The general story was drawn out of the minds of our designers, but most of the monsters, weapons, and architecture were taken out of extensive research through our huge library of books on Japan and their mythology. Some of our employees are either from Japan or have ancestors from there, so we were definitely not low on content.”

Q: ToD bears some resemblance to a pair of extremely popular games – Blizzard’s Diablo and BioWare's Sword Coast tales. Knowing the time frame of developing such an in-depth game like ToD, this is regarded as happenstance. But what elements will be unique and exciting to ToD game players? Has this game pushed the technological envelope in any way?

Leif: “The game may look a bit like Diablo II, because some of the key developers on the original Diablo team started our company. What takes Throne of Darkness to the next level, is that you actively play and evolve a team of seven Samurai. We have created an entirely new way to control a squad of characters we call tactics. Using tactics, the player can set formations and roles for the charters to fall into. Twelve different tactics give you the ability to quickly switch the Samurai's formation, aggression, and weapon. Also, the ToD engine runs at 800x600 screen resolution and 16-bit color display. This gave us the ability to design our characters and levels with an extraordinary amount of detail. I believe visually there is no other 2D engine that compares to richness and beauty that Throne of Darkness displays.

Q: What was/were the hardest element(s) to realize in the game? What brought the greatest sense of accomplishment?

Leif: “Anytime you try and make an online multiplayer game, there is going to be a lot of testing involved. Originally, we wanted to do a multiplayer game consisting of more players, but due to testing time restraints, we were not able to do so. We've had games in the office with 28 players running smoothly, so we may release a patch later on. For now, the maximum amount of players in a multiplayer game is eight, which we are still very proud of.”

Q: The beta of the game underwent several weeks of testing to work out the bugs. What will players experience when they launch the multiplayer version of the game?

Leif: “First off, you will have to download a small patch, but after that the game runs great. The feedback we've received has been very positive in how well it runs. The game will run similar to the single player version, though you will be able to share castles and either face off with other clans or overthrow the Dark Warlord.”

Q: If there were any aspect of the game that you would change (if time permitted), what would it be?

Leif: “We would get the multiplayer up to 35 players.”

Q: Can you give us a little background information on yourself – such as game playing history, favorite titles, education, and other titles you have worked on?

Leif: “I've been playing games since I was a little kid. I like playing sports games, though, recently I've been playing the Return to Castle Wolfenstein demo and have really enjoyed it. In the last 6 months I've been playing; Tribes II, Tony Hawk Pro Skater II, and PGA Championship Golf.

“Two and half years ago, after graduating college from Central Washington University with a business management degree, friends of mine, Ben and Isaac (the owners of Click), offered me a job.  My first task was doing the foreign localization for Barbie Super Sports (a little different than ToD). After that I began working on the production of Throne of Darkness, which has been a great experience.

Q: Where would you like to see the world of games in 5-10 years? Do you think that online multiplayer gaming is going to be a major factor is the way games are built, or is the emphasis still going to be on the storyline depth of the single player outing?