Mike Hoge, the lead game designer of the Gothic series, visited our forums and talked a little bit about how he and the other PB employees created the world of Gothic. His posting is in German but you can find the translation below:

When we founded PB in 1997 (we were only four people by then), I was the only storywriter in the team and had to (or was allowed to!) come up with the setting and the main story. So I am able to say rather precisely which parts were "stolen" and which were not.

The beginning: Three young programmers visit us and (inspired by Ultima Unterworld) want to create a 3D RPG.

The vivid world: The game was supposed to have a plausible, not too nice (!), rather "serious" world. The world mustn't be too large (this would have been too much work) so I needed a plausible reason to limit its size. First I thought about an island but then I came up with idea of a barrier (inspired by Escape from New York/L.A.). Everyone liked the idea and it solved three problems at once: 1. Plausible border for the world, 2. a scenario that isn't too nice, 3. a goal for the player (get out of prison) and a motivation for the NPCs.

Then I started to draw a map. A round circle with the old camp in the middle. I planned it to become a castle with an outer ring. My second idea was a village on poles in the swamps and a third camp ("well, it ought to be at least three camps") that should be somehow different. At that point, it wasn't clear that these camps would become the old, the new and the swamp camp. It was all about having different architectures. Without a lot of thinking, I also drew "The tower of the demon evocator" in the south-east of the map because I found it cool in some way (and I was definitely "inspired" by the various magician's towers I came across in the past, including Saruman's tower :) ).

By then, it had been decided that there will be dungeons in the game. To get a little variety. So I started to think about different possible themes for dungeons ("well, it ought to be at least three dungeons" ;) ) that would fit into the world in a plausible way. Mines. A mining colony full of prisoners. Cool. And there should be caves. But WHAT can be inside these caves? An underground civilization should be there. Something like the Morlocks in "Time Machine". They should live in primitive caves, "bother" the diggers and come to the surface from time to time to cause some trouble (later, they became the orcs).

But only mines and caves are boring. Every good RPG needs cool underground architecture. Preferably a crypt or so. With some undead. But how do these fit into the world? Could be something ancient that just happened to be located where the barrier is. By coincidence? No, of course it was destiny. And why do the undead people sit down there doing nothing for so long? They guard something. But what? A sanctuary. But sacred to whom? To the orcs of course because they are living straight above the temple (almost stayed that way in the final version). So what is so great about this sanctuary? No idea but it is the deepest dungeon level of Gothic, so a phat boss is needed. Something big. Maybe a dragon? Noo.. there were already too many of these.. ;) Something evil, ancient. An arch demon. With horns. But why does HE sits down there and does nothing? Is he kipping or what?

Yes, he is..

I could go on for another three pages but I think the main questions were answered (Interestingly, all these idea were already there at the VERY beginning)

One more thing: Did I say in some interview that we only needed four months for the story? To clarify: It took four months to SCRIPT the dialogues and missions for Gothic I. The story took three years.