tenebra
04-02-2008, 13:30
Q&A #1 - Nour Polloni, Producer, Eden Games, answers the questions you submitted.
Jackpot890: “Does the initial release have an entirely self-contained storyline or will it end on a cliffhanger and be continued in future downloadable episodes?”
Nour Polloni: Good question! If we told you the answer to that we’d be giving too much away. For downloadable episodes, we haven’t actually made a decision on that yet, but it is something we’re looking at closely. A lot of it will depend on how successful the game is when it’s released. Of course we hope it’s very successful :)
Joao: “What will happen when we finish the game, will we unlock other game modes (such as Resident Evil Series) or just be able to play it with another character (such as AITD4)?”
Nour Polloni: There’s no unlockable game modes and the game’s only playable as Carnby. There is a pretty big surprise waiting at the end of the story however.
Lamotia: "Hello, I'm wondering if you can tell me more about the music of the game.The Bulgarian traditional music is really deep and for me it perfectly fits the atmosphere of the game. So I like to know how did you got the idea to include Bulgarian traditional music and also what are the people behind the soundtrack?”
Nour Polloni: The music is by a composer called Olivier Deriviere who did the music for Obscure. He’s an incredibly talented composer and he came up with the idea of using the Grammy award winning Mystery of Bulgarian Voices choir. They’re actually singing about what’s happening to New York, the park and Carnby, and I’ve seen translations of some of the trailer music from Bulgarian fans on comments threads which is really cool. He recorded the choir in Sofia, Bulgaria which was an amazing experience, not least of all because they nod their head to mean no and shake to mean yes, so he thought they hated everything he was doing for the first day!
Jackpot890: “How do NPCs fit into the game? Do they act as AI teammates or hand out "side-quests" or what exactly?”
Nour Polloni: There’s one character called Sarah who’s with Carnby for a lot of the game and has a big role to play in the story. She doesn’t fight alongside Carnby as such though – the rough stuff is left up to him. Another character central to the story is Theo and he’ll be guiding you during the early stages of the game, explaining parts of what’s going on and what you need to do. Then there’s Crowley who’s definitely not on your team, but who as your human nemesis provides a lot of clues which help you on your way.
Jackpot890: “Do you use a save checkpoint system or save at an ingame object like a typewriter or what exactly?”
Nour Polloni: You save using a checkpoint system, which we’re tuning at the moment. You can save at any time in the game, and the save will be at the last checkpoint made.
Jackpot890: “How open is the world in terms of free-roaming? Can we explore most of Central Park from the get-go or do sections get unlocked in a linear fashion?”
Nour Polloni: The first two episodes actually take place outside of the park, and you only end up there at the end of the second. Then as you follow the path of the game the park gradually opens up logically so that well before the end of the game pretty much the whole park is open to explore.
Understudy: “How has the increased realism of the game mechanics affected the gameplay design?”
Nour Polloni: In fact it’s the other way round; the gameplay design is based on having realistic game mechanics. We specifically wanted a level of interaction and real world physics that hadn’t been done before and which is instinctive, so what we aimed for was that every object would respond and behave just like it does in the real world. With the ability to combine objects we ended up with some really exciting gameplay possibilities leading to emergent gameplay, that’s to say you could well think of doing something that even we haven’t thought of. As you can imagine this makes it pretty tricky to test and balance, but that’s the target we have in our sights.
Understudy: “How do you balance puzzles that that can be solved by many different approaches? Does this lead to extremely complex puzzles that may make the game impossible for less inventive players?”
Nour Polloni: Most of the puzzles are built around a simple logic to resolve them. For example you need to burn something to get past and it’s up to you to find a way to burn whatever it is. It could be by setting an object on fire, or using your healing spray with a lighter to create a flamethrower, or throwing a Molotov cocktail. The means you use to reach the objectives can range from obvious solutions to ones that need a bit more thought. That’s why we wanted the player to have multiple ways so that he is not frustrated because by having only one way to move forward. We’re also going through the tuning process now to make sure that nothing’s too hard and there’s some help to work out the really tricky ones.
Lastly, if you get really stuck, you can skip sequences and even episodes in the DVD style interface, but always at a cost. If there’s bits you didn’t do first time round you can also go back and do them later.
RoxanaUK: “Can you tell us more about the weapons system and reasoning behind them?”
Nour Polloni: It was important to us to give the player a new sense of discovery and enjoyment with the gameplay, so we based everything on the real world rules concept which opens up massive possibilities in terms of what the player can do. Our aim was to make absolutely every object in the game react and behave like in the real world, which logically extends to not just using single objects but being able to combine them to create things with new uses. This means a humble cigarette lighter can become a lethal weapon if you combine it with an aerosol can for a flamethrower, use it to light a fuel trail to blow up a car or light a rag in a bottle of alcohol for a Molotov cocktail for example. Of course Carnby still has a gun, but you’ll quickly find there’s much more original and powerful weapons you can create to tackle the situations. Most of the enemies can’t actually be destroyed by bullets alone. Fire is the number one weapon, and lots of the gameplay is geared to giving the player as many different ways as possible of using fire to beat enemies and get through situations. That could be something as simple as lighting a broken table leg as a torch, pouring alcohol on bullets so they set fire to the target, or igniting a fire trail to a moving car you’re using as a rolling bomb. We want the player to have a real sense of wonder when they realize the possibilities of what they can do, and none of these innovations come at the expense of fun.
Jackpot890: “Does the initial release have an entirely self-contained storyline or will it end on a cliffhanger and be continued in future downloadable episodes?”
Nour Polloni: Good question! If we told you the answer to that we’d be giving too much away. For downloadable episodes, we haven’t actually made a decision on that yet, but it is something we’re looking at closely. A lot of it will depend on how successful the game is when it’s released. Of course we hope it’s very successful :)
Joao: “What will happen when we finish the game, will we unlock other game modes (such as Resident Evil Series) or just be able to play it with another character (such as AITD4)?”
Nour Polloni: There’s no unlockable game modes and the game’s only playable as Carnby. There is a pretty big surprise waiting at the end of the story however.
Lamotia: "Hello, I'm wondering if you can tell me more about the music of the game.The Bulgarian traditional music is really deep and for me it perfectly fits the atmosphere of the game. So I like to know how did you got the idea to include Bulgarian traditional music and also what are the people behind the soundtrack?”
Nour Polloni: The music is by a composer called Olivier Deriviere who did the music for Obscure. He’s an incredibly talented composer and he came up with the idea of using the Grammy award winning Mystery of Bulgarian Voices choir. They’re actually singing about what’s happening to New York, the park and Carnby, and I’ve seen translations of some of the trailer music from Bulgarian fans on comments threads which is really cool. He recorded the choir in Sofia, Bulgaria which was an amazing experience, not least of all because they nod their head to mean no and shake to mean yes, so he thought they hated everything he was doing for the first day!
Jackpot890: “How do NPCs fit into the game? Do they act as AI teammates or hand out "side-quests" or what exactly?”
Nour Polloni: There’s one character called Sarah who’s with Carnby for a lot of the game and has a big role to play in the story. She doesn’t fight alongside Carnby as such though – the rough stuff is left up to him. Another character central to the story is Theo and he’ll be guiding you during the early stages of the game, explaining parts of what’s going on and what you need to do. Then there’s Crowley who’s definitely not on your team, but who as your human nemesis provides a lot of clues which help you on your way.
Jackpot890: “Do you use a save checkpoint system or save at an ingame object like a typewriter or what exactly?”
Nour Polloni: You save using a checkpoint system, which we’re tuning at the moment. You can save at any time in the game, and the save will be at the last checkpoint made.
Jackpot890: “How open is the world in terms of free-roaming? Can we explore most of Central Park from the get-go or do sections get unlocked in a linear fashion?”
Nour Polloni: The first two episodes actually take place outside of the park, and you only end up there at the end of the second. Then as you follow the path of the game the park gradually opens up logically so that well before the end of the game pretty much the whole park is open to explore.
Understudy: “How has the increased realism of the game mechanics affected the gameplay design?”
Nour Polloni: In fact it’s the other way round; the gameplay design is based on having realistic game mechanics. We specifically wanted a level of interaction and real world physics that hadn’t been done before and which is instinctive, so what we aimed for was that every object would respond and behave just like it does in the real world. With the ability to combine objects we ended up with some really exciting gameplay possibilities leading to emergent gameplay, that’s to say you could well think of doing something that even we haven’t thought of. As you can imagine this makes it pretty tricky to test and balance, but that’s the target we have in our sights.
Understudy: “How do you balance puzzles that that can be solved by many different approaches? Does this lead to extremely complex puzzles that may make the game impossible for less inventive players?”
Nour Polloni: Most of the puzzles are built around a simple logic to resolve them. For example you need to burn something to get past and it’s up to you to find a way to burn whatever it is. It could be by setting an object on fire, or using your healing spray with a lighter to create a flamethrower, or throwing a Molotov cocktail. The means you use to reach the objectives can range from obvious solutions to ones that need a bit more thought. That’s why we wanted the player to have multiple ways so that he is not frustrated because by having only one way to move forward. We’re also going through the tuning process now to make sure that nothing’s too hard and there’s some help to work out the really tricky ones.
Lastly, if you get really stuck, you can skip sequences and even episodes in the DVD style interface, but always at a cost. If there’s bits you didn’t do first time round you can also go back and do them later.
RoxanaUK: “Can you tell us more about the weapons system and reasoning behind them?”
Nour Polloni: It was important to us to give the player a new sense of discovery and enjoyment with the gameplay, so we based everything on the real world rules concept which opens up massive possibilities in terms of what the player can do. Our aim was to make absolutely every object in the game react and behave like in the real world, which logically extends to not just using single objects but being able to combine them to create things with new uses. This means a humble cigarette lighter can become a lethal weapon if you combine it with an aerosol can for a flamethrower, use it to light a fuel trail to blow up a car or light a rag in a bottle of alcohol for a Molotov cocktail for example. Of course Carnby still has a gun, but you’ll quickly find there’s much more original and powerful weapons you can create to tackle the situations. Most of the enemies can’t actually be destroyed by bullets alone. Fire is the number one weapon, and lots of the gameplay is geared to giving the player as many different ways as possible of using fire to beat enemies and get through situations. That could be something as simple as lighting a broken table leg as a torch, pouring alcohol on bullets so they set fire to the target, or igniting a fire trail to a moving car you’re using as a rolling bomb. We want the player to have a real sense of wonder when they realize the possibilities of what they can do, and none of these innovations come at the expense of fun.