Interview: Curt Schilling Talks 38 Studios’ “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning”

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At EA’s Studio Showcase event yesterday, Red Sox pitching great Curt Schilling finally got to reveal the first glimpses of his long-brewing action-RPG. Formerly known as “Project Mercury”, the title’s been revealed to be Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and is being published through EA’s EA Partners division. The game will be appearing on consoles and PCs next year.

After the presentation, Schilling and Big Huge Games designer Mark Nelson–who worked on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with 38 Studios’ Senior Designer Ken Rolston–sat down to talk about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. In the conversation that followed, Schilling compared his old job to his new job and spoke about why we’re finally getting our first peeks at the fictional universe he and the brain trust at 38 Studios have been building.

I hope you don’t take this in the wrong way, I think you won’t, I have seen you talk abound this game at least three times now, including GamesBeat last year. But you’ve never been able to show anything. How does it feel to finally be able to pull the wraps off of this?

Curt Schilling: I can exhale. I’ve been looking for some semblance or some recognition of my past life in this. I have lived a life where every fifth day I went out and did my thing, and it was instant feedback, and I was done. So, in development, it’s little wins and it’s little things that happen behind the scenes, but no one ever talks about it, because they can’t, and because you [nods at PR person] won’t let me.

Today really is like opening day all over again. I started opening day nine times in my career, and that was — yeah, after opening day everyday is a normal day, but it’s that special first day. This is the first day I have been able to brag about these people, and what they’re doing.

In terms of brass tacks and basic facts, is ‘Reckoning’ the project that was formally known as ‘Project Mercury’?

Curt Schilling: Yes.

So ‘Copernicus’ is still under wraps?

Curt Schilling: Yes.

But, ‘Copernicus’ is also the name of the larger universe, too, right? Okay. And I remember some of the early talk about the games, how the two were tethered with some kind of interoperability between them. Is that still the case?

Curt Schilling: ‘Amalur’ is the universe in which ‘Reckoning’ is set and ‘Copernicus’ will be set. The games are going to be connected in a lot of different ways. We are not going to detail obviously on any of that stuff, but they are in the same worlds.

Same fictional universe?

Curt Schilling: Yes, yes, and the story is tied together in a lot of different ways. And as we roll this out, and when reckoningthegame.com goes online Thursday, from then to launch, people will begin to understand what those ties are.

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