Following previous denials from Sega that the newly revealed Crucible title had no relation to their own similarly titled game, the recently leaked game may actually be the latest brain child of Oblivion designer Ken Rolston and developer Big Huge Games. You can check out our full article for more details on this interesting tidbit.

Have you ever wondered how game developers went about developing the kinds of games you enjoy playing? If you're thinking of attending the Game Developers Conference in February, then you're in luck. Representatives of various game development companies will be talking about the games they've worked on, with four sessions currently slated for the conference.

Find out what those four sessions are about after the jump!

An interesting topic was discussed during the Games Convention Developers Conference this year when Ken Rolston, lead producer of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Bob Bates, a veteran adventure author, sat down to talk about problems that modern game narratives encounter.

The two make an ideal pair to discuss the merits and downfalls of a game narrative. Rolston speaks from the viewpoint of a developer and producer of video games, giving him the insight and experience needed to judge how a game can be written. Bates on the other hand, speaks as an author. Naturally his skills in writing would give an extensive range of insight to storytelling.

It kind of goes against instinct on the essence of an RPG, but both of them agree that the storyline of a game should be less complex and more linear, giving the player less choices. Ultimately the player should only be given a certain number of choices, if any at all, that could affect the storyline.

From Rolston's point of view, the reason for this is that there's little pay-off to be had by the player when faced with a lot of choices that will lead to a lot of endings. A writer would have a hard time giving each choice the dramatic tension it deserves. Not only that but developers would have to provide content for each ending, which could easily fall to disaster when keeping track of all the possible decisions and objects needed for each one.

From Bates' point of view, giving players the freedom of choice isn't fair. The dramatic choices a character makes in a story shouldn't be personally ours to make. "As an author of a story you have to push a character into doing things it wouldn’t want to do in order to grow the character. As a game designer it’s not fair to make the player have to do that."

One point they did disagree on during the talk is on the ambiguity of a backstory. Rolston believes that a backstory can be ambiguous. The developer would leave ambiguous hints of the character's past and leave it up to the player's imagination to fill in the blanks. Bates, however, believes that you can't get into the mindset of a character by being ambiguous with the backstory.

The eve before THQ was set to announce its newest project that will launch the company into the world of RPGs, IGN managed to have a little enlightening chat with Executive Vice-President Kelly Flock. And as if THQ's lucky stars were indeed smiling brightly upon it, the company even had Big Huge Games' President, Tim Train, to join in on the interview.

First of all, it is certainly without a doubt that this yet-unnamed RPG project from THQ and BHG has piqued the interest of the gaming community. But as THQ has been strict about keeping mum about it, we can only hope that this duo will be more forthcoming.

And relatively accommodating, they were. For one, they had no qualms discussing the extent of renowned designer, Ken Rolston's participation in the project. Ken Rolston had supposedly retired after the completion of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. And yet we see him back in action for this THQ-BHG title. Says Tim Train,

Ken is the Lead Designer and resident Mad Genius, and he sets the tone for the game and the project team across the board. It's hard to overstate how well Ken fits in to Big Huge's collaborative approach to game design. In particular, he is exceptionally skilled at world creation and at helping us solve issues that we've all found annoying in RPGs for years. I think he's most energized by the opportunity to work on a completely new IP, unfettered by the constraints of working in a world on its third or fourth incarnation.

But while they were open about talking about Rolston's participation, both Flock and Train were keeping good at keeping quiet about their game. Quips Flock, "You can expect more info from us later this year."

Okay, one last push. To which platforms will we be seeing this game? Flock replies,

From a console perspective, the horsepower behind the PS3 and Xbox 360 help us create a huge world with that sweeping scope we're aiming for. Happily, the PC has kept pace with the times, and we're excited to be developing the game for simultaneous release across all three systems.

Great, it's a multi-platformer, then. Now we'll just have to be patient and wait for THQ's official announcement about its RPG multi-platformer. We'll be sure to keep you updated as soon we get wind of it. We expect news to come around in just a few hours. So keep it locked here for more.

Ken Rolston was the lead producer of such titles like Morrowind and Oblivion. With 25 years of experience under his belt, you can understand the excitement when Big Huge Games snapped him up to develop a new RPG for them. This action actually took Mr. Rolston out of retirement which he announced last May 2006.

Mr. Tim Train, the president of Big Huge Games, is very pleased with the company's newest member. While he has assured us that they would still produce quality RTS games such as Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends, he admits that they have been "looking" into the RPG scene. He believes that Mr. Rolston is a perfect fit for their plans, adding that his experience and leadership will help their new venture succeed.

While details regarding the RPG have yet to be announced, it has been said that the game will be on a console. This is definitely something to look out for.