Nerve-Damage
10-30-2005, 02:30 AM
Possession Interview. (http://wired-gamers.com/id12.html)
Wired-Gamers: How does Possession differ from other zombie games?
Nick Dixon: The majority of other games that involve zombies as a prime game component, place the player into the role of the lone
human survivor. As of yet only Stubbs allows the player to play the game from the other perspective… that of the Zombie. We do things a lot differently than anything that has come before. You are not the lonely survivor, stalking dark corridors with a shotgun and facing only 3 opponents. Nor are you a comedy zombie with a small horde of 10.
You orchestrate a serious and bloody zombie apocalypse, taking a horde of hundreds of zombies that you command in real-time… devastating an entire city and the inhabitants that try to defend it.
W-G: Are you excited about the Revolution controller?
ND: As a player… yes, I can see how it will make for some interesting gameplay… as a Designer, I can also see that it will bring some interesting challenges and, perhaps, a few headaches J
W-G: Is it possible we will see this game for the Revolution?
ND: I will be honest with you in that I’m not sure right now. We know far too little about the machine itself in order to make a judgement call. Possession demands some hefty console power. We know that PS3 and 360 can deliver that. The main question arises as to whether the Revolution offers the same degree of power. Plus the controller does raise a few issues with respect to the Possession control system, which whilst very feasible with PS3 and 360 controllers… possibly questions the viability of Possession using the Revolution controller.
W-G: How is developing next-gen games different than this gen?
ND: From a design point of view I am offered a lot more creative freedom than was previously available. I simply could not allow the player to directly control as many individual units as we do in Possession. Added to this is the significant enemy count – all displaying very complex AI and set within a massive streaming city environment. Plus it all looks very nice indeed and more highly detailed than previously possible.
W-G: How does it stack up against both current AND next generation games?
ND: Again this is down to both sheer numbers of units plus the size and detail of the environment. This was simply not possible before. Therefore, whilst many other games are giving you a better-looking version of the same experience (Project Gotham Racing for example), Possession is giving you a great looking, but thoroughly unique experience.
W-G: Are you planning on taking full advantage of the PS3 hardware, including the Blu-Ray disc format?
ND: The demands of Possession’s game design do mean that we will most definitely make the most of the PS3’s architecture. If we were running the game on a single processor bottlenecks would be caused by the need to run both a complex physics simulation and updating the animations of hundreds of characters – both of which are cpu intensive tasks. The PS3 and Xbox 360 both have multiple processors, meaning we can share the workload and run these intensive tasks in parallel, without the need for multi-threading.
With regard to the Blu-ray format, we are currently undecided as to how much use we make of it. It certainly offers a huge amount of storage space, which will most likely be necessary for HD fmv, as it takes up 6 times the disk space of a normal TV resolution.
W-G: What are the plans for the online elements of the game?
ND: The game features a wide variety of multiplayer modes, letting the player experience the horror and carnage of a large-scale zombie uprising. A single Enslaver player can control the horde and hunt down a handful of FPS survivors, or they can grab a shotgun (or a cricket bat) and see how long they last against the hundreds of zombies.
We looked at a lot of classic zombie movies and tried to bring out the real essence of these movies for the player, giving them a chance to experience all the same events. We’re getting the right balance between teamwork and paranoia. For example, players will be able to get infected with the zombie virus, and their teammates will have to inject them with antidote. Of course, a bullet in the brain will cure them even faster. So if you get infected you might want to keep quiet about it!
We realized pretty early on that designing a multiplayer game with zombies could throw up some fairly odd situations. We wanted players to be able to scavenge supplies from dead bodies, but quickly realized that these bodies might well get up and start walking round the level. That’s the kind of weirdness that this game can throw up from time to time, and its what makes our multiplayer games unique.
We’ve also tried to make the online game a frightening experience. There are lots of games out there providing adrenalin thrills, but no one has really tried to get survival horror into the online environment – overcoming limited resources, battling against a real horde of zombies and wondering which one of your team-mates is going to be infected next! So whilst the single-player game is about you creating the terror, we also have the best elements of survival horror within online play.
W-G: What is your take on the different approaches that the three console makers are taking this next generation?
ND: It seems obvious to me that Nintendo are just not entering the same battle that PS3 and 360 are. Nintendo probably feel that they cover a niche that makes their brand of gaming unique and will solely concentrate on that. 360’s tactic seems to be arriving on the battlefield first… at tactic that may well work. They do have some attractive content.
But then Sony is an incomparable marketer who knows how to generate a buzz about the hardware and deliver some very cool first party titles. So… who is going to be the victor? Hard to say… but it will be a messy fight, which ultimately should provide the gamers with a good degree of choice of game. No bad thing for them J
W-G: How is the experience of developing for HDTV gaming? Is it difficult? Enjoyable?
ND: Well the fist issue was to get hold of some HDTVs, as they are still quite scarce in the UK currently - you won’t get any complaints from me about having nice shiny top-end TVs on my desk though! ;-)
And of course supporting HDTV does mean that you can create and review your game’s graphics at a far higher resolution without any interlacing. Although the rendering speed of the PS3 will most likely mean that there are no framerate compromises for HDTV you do lose some more memory to the frame buffer, which is something we have to be mindful of.
W-G: What engine are you using if it is not built in-house?
ND: At Volatile games we use its own comprehensive BlitzWare in-house engine and suite of tools.
W-G: What type of voice talent, if any, are you using?
ND: There is a strong storyline for Possession, with an accompanying script. At the moment I don’t really have any direct desire to use known voice talent simply because they are known. My experience tells me that only certain types of games benefit from this kind of thing. Ultimately I will use the right sounding voice, dramatically, for the right part whether they are famous or not.
W-G: Can you reveal any part of the plot to us, as we know very little about this game?
ND: The game is set within a once decaying, fictional US city, which is now being restored by the apparently benevolent Prometheus Corporation. The lucky inhabitants of the revitalised city now live under the care and attention of Prometheus. But all is not as it perhaps seems. The player’s character, the man who will become the Enslaver, leads a small team of activists into a Prometheus facility at the beginning of the game and discovers horrific secrets within. Unfortunately he is captured during the break-in attempt and then subjected to torturous experimentation within the facility… transforming him into the Enslaver. Managing to escape he heads into the city and to the Prometheus HQ in order to exact his bloody revenge… and that’s just the beginning!
W-G: Where, if anywhere, did you draw ideas for Possession?
ND: There are many sources. Primarily it is the staple of zombie films that created the genre… from the classic Romero films to the modern interpretations. Plus of course we have a wealth of games that have come before to draw inspiration from. But we also have our unique elements and zombie mutations that no-one’s seen before… something both nice and nasty that will really give the player a sense of empowerment… something that came purely from our own sick and twisted minds. Of course the story has many familiar elements and motivations we can all understand… those that cover the simplest human emotions regarding anger, revenge and base animal passions.
W-G: From what I can tell, the basis of Possession seems a little bit like Nintendo/n-Space's current gen game, Geist. What differs the two?
ND: On the surface it may appear so. But you’ll soon notice that the two are very different. Geist allows you to possess items that specifically relate to a linear mechanics or puzzles, generally quite limited in scope. Outside of that the possession factor is quite limiting. In “Possession” you can possess any single zombie in your army at any time and take advantage of their unique abilities. This may include firing weapons that they are carrying (the Shamblers) to wall climbing (the Shredders) and just plain and simply pummelling everything into dust (the Monster).
For us, the possession mechanic that opens up a huge amount of fun and emergent gameplay mechanics. Plus you get to BE the zombie… and that’s got to be cool.
W-G: Do you currently have any other next-generation plans?
ND: Possession is our main current focus. But I can tell you that we do have some other significant and very exciting ideas that are being explored. I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait to find out what those are though J
W-G: Out of the three next-gen games, which do you like the best?
ND: If you mean games then I am most excited by Morrowind IV. I have always enjoyed the freedom that the Morrowind games offer the player. If you are referring to the consoles… I don’t have a favourite. As a designer I have always felt the need to own each console… and do just that. It just doesn’t pay to limit myself and therefore prevent myself from being able to play and explore any game produced.
W-G: A lot of people were complaining about how the game was a while back, but when shown some of the newer stuff, they are saying it is looking more interesting. Is this an indication that the game is just now starting to shape up?
ND: A game passes through many stages of development, with the early stages being the hardest to show and impress. What people were seeing was very early work. Rather than try to use complex yet false renders to pass off an idea as oppose to a reality, we preferred to place genuine in-game screenshots in front of people. There’s a bit of a bite at first because they don’t quite match up to the lovely renders that some other developers are displaying. Then your art slowly catches up until you have something both real and challenging… that’s where we are now. That’s why people are beginning to respond positively… not only does it look good, they can play it and it play’s well. However… if you think that it looks good now… it’s only 10% of final quality. So, you’re in for a real treat later.
Wired-Gamers: How does Possession differ from other zombie games?
Nick Dixon: The majority of other games that involve zombies as a prime game component, place the player into the role of the lone
human survivor. As of yet only Stubbs allows the player to play the game from the other perspective… that of the Zombie. We do things a lot differently than anything that has come before. You are not the lonely survivor, stalking dark corridors with a shotgun and facing only 3 opponents. Nor are you a comedy zombie with a small horde of 10.
You orchestrate a serious and bloody zombie apocalypse, taking a horde of hundreds of zombies that you command in real-time… devastating an entire city and the inhabitants that try to defend it.
W-G: Are you excited about the Revolution controller?
ND: As a player… yes, I can see how it will make for some interesting gameplay… as a Designer, I can also see that it will bring some interesting challenges and, perhaps, a few headaches J
W-G: Is it possible we will see this game for the Revolution?
ND: I will be honest with you in that I’m not sure right now. We know far too little about the machine itself in order to make a judgement call. Possession demands some hefty console power. We know that PS3 and 360 can deliver that. The main question arises as to whether the Revolution offers the same degree of power. Plus the controller does raise a few issues with respect to the Possession control system, which whilst very feasible with PS3 and 360 controllers… possibly questions the viability of Possession using the Revolution controller.
W-G: How is developing next-gen games different than this gen?
ND: From a design point of view I am offered a lot more creative freedom than was previously available. I simply could not allow the player to directly control as many individual units as we do in Possession. Added to this is the significant enemy count – all displaying very complex AI and set within a massive streaming city environment. Plus it all looks very nice indeed and more highly detailed than previously possible.
W-G: How does it stack up against both current AND next generation games?
ND: Again this is down to both sheer numbers of units plus the size and detail of the environment. This was simply not possible before. Therefore, whilst many other games are giving you a better-looking version of the same experience (Project Gotham Racing for example), Possession is giving you a great looking, but thoroughly unique experience.
W-G: Are you planning on taking full advantage of the PS3 hardware, including the Blu-Ray disc format?
ND: The demands of Possession’s game design do mean that we will most definitely make the most of the PS3’s architecture. If we were running the game on a single processor bottlenecks would be caused by the need to run both a complex physics simulation and updating the animations of hundreds of characters – both of which are cpu intensive tasks. The PS3 and Xbox 360 both have multiple processors, meaning we can share the workload and run these intensive tasks in parallel, without the need for multi-threading.
With regard to the Blu-ray format, we are currently undecided as to how much use we make of it. It certainly offers a huge amount of storage space, which will most likely be necessary for HD fmv, as it takes up 6 times the disk space of a normal TV resolution.
W-G: What are the plans for the online elements of the game?
ND: The game features a wide variety of multiplayer modes, letting the player experience the horror and carnage of a large-scale zombie uprising. A single Enslaver player can control the horde and hunt down a handful of FPS survivors, or they can grab a shotgun (or a cricket bat) and see how long they last against the hundreds of zombies.
We looked at a lot of classic zombie movies and tried to bring out the real essence of these movies for the player, giving them a chance to experience all the same events. We’re getting the right balance between teamwork and paranoia. For example, players will be able to get infected with the zombie virus, and their teammates will have to inject them with antidote. Of course, a bullet in the brain will cure them even faster. So if you get infected you might want to keep quiet about it!
We realized pretty early on that designing a multiplayer game with zombies could throw up some fairly odd situations. We wanted players to be able to scavenge supplies from dead bodies, but quickly realized that these bodies might well get up and start walking round the level. That’s the kind of weirdness that this game can throw up from time to time, and its what makes our multiplayer games unique.
We’ve also tried to make the online game a frightening experience. There are lots of games out there providing adrenalin thrills, but no one has really tried to get survival horror into the online environment – overcoming limited resources, battling against a real horde of zombies and wondering which one of your team-mates is going to be infected next! So whilst the single-player game is about you creating the terror, we also have the best elements of survival horror within online play.
W-G: What is your take on the different approaches that the three console makers are taking this next generation?
ND: It seems obvious to me that Nintendo are just not entering the same battle that PS3 and 360 are. Nintendo probably feel that they cover a niche that makes their brand of gaming unique and will solely concentrate on that. 360’s tactic seems to be arriving on the battlefield first… at tactic that may well work. They do have some attractive content.
But then Sony is an incomparable marketer who knows how to generate a buzz about the hardware and deliver some very cool first party titles. So… who is going to be the victor? Hard to say… but it will be a messy fight, which ultimately should provide the gamers with a good degree of choice of game. No bad thing for them J
W-G: How is the experience of developing for HDTV gaming? Is it difficult? Enjoyable?
ND: Well the fist issue was to get hold of some HDTVs, as they are still quite scarce in the UK currently - you won’t get any complaints from me about having nice shiny top-end TVs on my desk though! ;-)
And of course supporting HDTV does mean that you can create and review your game’s graphics at a far higher resolution without any interlacing. Although the rendering speed of the PS3 will most likely mean that there are no framerate compromises for HDTV you do lose some more memory to the frame buffer, which is something we have to be mindful of.
W-G: What engine are you using if it is not built in-house?
ND: At Volatile games we use its own comprehensive BlitzWare in-house engine and suite of tools.
W-G: What type of voice talent, if any, are you using?
ND: There is a strong storyline for Possession, with an accompanying script. At the moment I don’t really have any direct desire to use known voice talent simply because they are known. My experience tells me that only certain types of games benefit from this kind of thing. Ultimately I will use the right sounding voice, dramatically, for the right part whether they are famous or not.
W-G: Can you reveal any part of the plot to us, as we know very little about this game?
ND: The game is set within a once decaying, fictional US city, which is now being restored by the apparently benevolent Prometheus Corporation. The lucky inhabitants of the revitalised city now live under the care and attention of Prometheus. But all is not as it perhaps seems. The player’s character, the man who will become the Enslaver, leads a small team of activists into a Prometheus facility at the beginning of the game and discovers horrific secrets within. Unfortunately he is captured during the break-in attempt and then subjected to torturous experimentation within the facility… transforming him into the Enslaver. Managing to escape he heads into the city and to the Prometheus HQ in order to exact his bloody revenge… and that’s just the beginning!
W-G: Where, if anywhere, did you draw ideas for Possession?
ND: There are many sources. Primarily it is the staple of zombie films that created the genre… from the classic Romero films to the modern interpretations. Plus of course we have a wealth of games that have come before to draw inspiration from. But we also have our unique elements and zombie mutations that no-one’s seen before… something both nice and nasty that will really give the player a sense of empowerment… something that came purely from our own sick and twisted minds. Of course the story has many familiar elements and motivations we can all understand… those that cover the simplest human emotions regarding anger, revenge and base animal passions.
W-G: From what I can tell, the basis of Possession seems a little bit like Nintendo/n-Space's current gen game, Geist. What differs the two?
ND: On the surface it may appear so. But you’ll soon notice that the two are very different. Geist allows you to possess items that specifically relate to a linear mechanics or puzzles, generally quite limited in scope. Outside of that the possession factor is quite limiting. In “Possession” you can possess any single zombie in your army at any time and take advantage of their unique abilities. This may include firing weapons that they are carrying (the Shamblers) to wall climbing (the Shredders) and just plain and simply pummelling everything into dust (the Monster).
For us, the possession mechanic that opens up a huge amount of fun and emergent gameplay mechanics. Plus you get to BE the zombie… and that’s got to be cool.
W-G: Do you currently have any other next-generation plans?
ND: Possession is our main current focus. But I can tell you that we do have some other significant and very exciting ideas that are being explored. I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait to find out what those are though J
W-G: Out of the three next-gen games, which do you like the best?
ND: If you mean games then I am most excited by Morrowind IV. I have always enjoyed the freedom that the Morrowind games offer the player. If you are referring to the consoles… I don’t have a favourite. As a designer I have always felt the need to own each console… and do just that. It just doesn’t pay to limit myself and therefore prevent myself from being able to play and explore any game produced.
W-G: A lot of people were complaining about how the game was a while back, but when shown some of the newer stuff, they are saying it is looking more interesting. Is this an indication that the game is just now starting to shape up?
ND: A game passes through many stages of development, with the early stages being the hardest to show and impress. What people were seeing was very early work. Rather than try to use complex yet false renders to pass off an idea as oppose to a reality, we preferred to place genuine in-game screenshots in front of people. There’s a bit of a bite at first because they don’t quite match up to the lovely renders that some other developers are displaying. Then your art slowly catches up until you have something both real and challenging… that’s where we are now. That’s why people are beginning to respond positively… not only does it look good, they can play it and it play’s well. However… if you think that it looks good now… it’s only 10% of final quality. So, you’re in for a real treat later.