TVG talks to Sergey Zabaryansky of developers Deep Shadows...

The Ukrainian development team - Deep Shadows - is one of the few Eastern block developers whose reputation has been built on a solid base of producing quality games so when news filtered through of their next titled game, Boiling Point: Road to Hell, we were eager to find out more and spoke with Sergey Zabaryansky, Founder and Director of the studio,

Billed as an action title, Boiling Point: Road to Hell is set in the intense tropical heat of the South American jungle, where players take Saul Meyers, a decorated Legionnaire, way beyond the limit of any man's patience. Saul has reached his point of no return - his life threatened, his family compromised – he's a desperate man, ready to take matters to the ultimate extreme to protect the life of his daughter, Lisa. Boiling Point: Road to Hell is a game of immersion and the South American jungle, complete with endless vehicles including taxis, civilian vehicles, military vehicles, helicopters, planes and boats, which are readily availed, open up a story of intrigue.

TVG: Sergey, tell us a little about Deep Shadows, what you have done before, your core expertise and how many people are working on the project?

Having finished work on the FPS action game ‘Codename: Outbreak’, myself and Roman Lut founded a new development studio called Deep Shadows on August 30th 2001. In the beginning it was a team of four and during the following two years the project grew to 13-15 employees on average.

TVG: What do you believe enticed Atari to take on this title and what also do you see as the game’s distinguishing qualities?

The name (Boiling Point: Road to Hell) expresses the plot of the game: an interesting storyline mixture of brisk Latin America cultural features, a jungle full of danger and a boiling atmosphere of confronting enemy forces. These are all very important peculiarities of our project, but there’s something else that we consider to be the real core of the game: the mixture of genres within the perfectly detailed and ‘living’ game world. The game can take players everywhere – to towns or Indian villages, military objectives and secret bases, drug lord’s villas and even to the ancient ruins – it depends on the way the player chooses. I suspect that it was this mix that attracted Atari.

TVG: Boiling Point is billed under a number of genres cutting across many ideas. Firstly, is it predominantly a shooter but what other gaming ideas and actions will be undertaken by the player?

Within the world there are six confronting factions – the player’s relationship with these factions plays a significant role in the main character’s investigation. We present a unified system of player’s experience based upon many different skill parameters.

Working on Boiling Point: Road to Hell we tried to reach a full-scale three-dimensional project with rich graphics, but also wanted to make sure that it corresponded with all the requirements of such genres as Action and RPG. You can judge the results for yourself.

We represent the complete system of a player’s experience based on many parameters (about twenty), which includes never-ending interaction with the NPCs. Another major part of Saul’s relations will be based on the principle of ‘money-good’, ‘money-service’, ‘good-service’, which is why we paid lots of attention to the system of dialogue and trade.

On the other hand, the player can defend himself with strict methods. Twenty kinds of weapons are available: pistols, assault guns and grenade launchers. All weapons correspond to real prototypes – we spent a great deal of time studying the weapons in order to model these barrels in the game as close to their real specifications as possible. Added to that, most kinds of weapons can be upgraded as well. We worked out the enemy combat AI thoroughly: they spot the location of the main character on virtual sight and sound, and will attempt to reach him with grenades if using guns is not available. The enemy will use cover when reloading weapons and can call in reinforcements and act as a group.

Taking into account all these facts, in Boiling Point: Road to Hell the player still has a choice how to solve the problem. Reach your target aggressively or just study the situation and wait for a suitable moment – each player has to decide for their self and their character. We have prepared the game for wide audiences and given them an opportunity to finish it using different qualities.

TVG: To continue on from the last question. Presently the quality of FPSs, which Boiling Point comes within, is extremely high with usually a brand creating even more awareness. Firstly do you believe you have to be innovative within the genre as well as being technologically at the top of the ladder to succeed?

You’re right, it’s impossible to create a successful product without using interesting and innovative ideas that reinvigorate the things which seemed to be implemented a long time ago.

Since the very beginning of the development, we wanted to achieve a single target: combine the features of several game genres in order to bring absolutely new feelings in virtual reality to the player.

TVG: Tell us about the backdrop story to the game and that of the prime objectives.

Saul Meyers is a retired officer who served in the French Legion for years. His daughter Lisa works as a reporter. She goes to South America to collect material for an article, when she disappears. The situation in that region is very tense and there’s no real chance of waiting for the authorities’ assistance. Saul decides to take it upon himself to look for his daughter. He has to get through many difficulties in order to reach his target – but to find her he must understand the cause of everything that’s happened.

TVG: We are informed that the play area is diverse and large. Tell us about some of the settings and how gameplay changes within them?

The game has got two big towns, many military bases, drug lords’ villas, trade places and many other interesting places. In the town shops you can buy necessary equipment, sell spoils of war, and repair your favourite weapons. In hospitals you can get treatment, in the bars you can hear the latest gossip and news, ask about some facts, and get the information about the person you’re looking for, or take an assignment. For example, a player can get an assignment from the guerillas but will need a microphone for the performance. Players can buy it in a shop and then make their way towards the officials’ base to listen to conversations. If everything goes fine and the player gets the information they will be rewarded.

TVG: What kind of progression, options and rewards does the game offer? Is the structure of gameplay random or along a fairly tight game line and what does successful killing brings?

There are two kinds of missions in the game: resource and scenery. Some of the scenery missions are given according to the player’s relations parameters. The undivided world allowed us to implement the non-linear order of fulfilling resource missions. The plot of the game is also non-linear as it has many variants. Players can reach the final target in different ways, playing the role of good or bad. The player can choose what to do at any given moment and go anywhere they want (most missions in the game have several solutions). Relations parameters have a great influence on rewards for missions and can even help gain access to the required information. A significant parameter is also the relationship with confronting factions – it influences the reward, the information you get, etc. These parameters make a successful text dialogue, simple conversation and trade. The higher the rating among a particular faction, the easier it will be to make trade with this faction and therefore get the required information, but be ready for bad attitude from other factions. Along with the relations parameters, weapon skills also play a great role. If, for example, the player frequently uses the sniper rifle, they will become a professional after some time.

TVG: Tell us about some of the technology behind the game; the game engine and the AI? How good do you believe both are and can you give us some facts to impress?

One of the main features of our game is the huge seamless world. Working over the map we, of course, divide it into a great number of sub-levels, which are loaded dynamically in the background during gameplay. There’s no difference between getting into the Maya pyramids, getting into a car, into the bank building or to the balcony on the second floor of the villa to admire the sunset – you won’t see the Loading – quite simply, it does not exist in the game!!!

The world of the game is totally interactive. You can take the objects, throw them, move, place upon one another, blow up watch towers and shoot through thin walls. The glass will break if you shoot it. Players can stun a guardian with a flower-pot… Canisters, barrels, chairs move as you shoot at them or smash at explosion and fall according to the principles of physics.

We have utilized the second iteration of our engine. Vital Engine 2 is not only very good at rendering, but it includes a big set of developed libraries (render, path-finder, rigid body physics, sound, networking etc).

• Unique technology of rendering huge, well-detailed territory
• Skeleton animation with blending of three bones per vertex
• Character face animation while speaking
• Multi-layered textures of any resolutions. Our technology makes the visible tiles obsolete.
• 5000 polygons per character and up to 300 000 in the frame.
• Lightmaps
• View-dependent progressive mesh for models
• The physics system supports different kind of objects starting from simple rigid body to complex ones like: car, helicopter, motor-boat, plane, and player.

The combat AI of characters in Boiling Point is based on the virtual hearing and virtual sight: if you sneak silently into a base and get what you need, you won’t have to fight all two/four legged creatures on the base – but you will need to go back just as quietly. If they spot the player they will raise the alarm and give chase. The AI for different factions differs as well. The representatives of the different factions fight in their own way; hiding, surrounding or just madly attack. They may call air support or make an ambush, or just turn cowards and run from the battlefield.

TVG: You will drive vehicles; how detailed is the driving experience/expertise; and what vehicles will you use?

Everything players can buy, rent, get as a reward or simply steal – is at their service! Armor, Strela SAM, different kinds of automobiles: from military jeeps to civilian cars, trucks, motor-boats, several kinds of helicopters and a plane. So to say, you have a great choice of things to fly; sail or just have a ride in is significant. Handling is arcade-like but the physics for each vehicle is different and well-balanced: players will feel the difference of flying a combat or cargo helicopter at once. The physics of cars is also different: a sports-car won’t surprise players with its off-road qualities as, for example, an army jeep, but player will enjoy its speed qualities. Vehicles must also be taken care of – so as not to have breakdowns at the most important moment… players should keep in mind that they won’t go too far with their tires shot or with an empty tank.

TVG: Lastly tell us about the in game cast; the player you assume and the enemy factions? Do you have any support and what kind of body deformation will there be?

The game has six enemy factions and there are also civilians. Working over the typical features for each faction we tried not to make them good or evil – they’re just people. For example, a drug lord is a bastard, but to the citizens of the small village near his villa – he’s a very good man: he built the school, pays well for work on his villa etc…

In general, the factions have many differences between them: from weapons, equipments and clothing. The game also has a zonal damage system: for example, with a shot leg you run not so fast, your arm’s hurt – you lose your accuracy, etc.

In the world of Boiling Point you may co-operate with any faction – each of them has something what will be in use for you: some of them pay more; others have required information or good reliable weapons, etc. If players spoil their relations with some faction and then need their help they can always try and improve the situation with money donations, missions etc – But they’d do well to remember that every action has a corresponding reaction...

Boiling Point: Road to Hell is set for a May 2005 release, we’d like to thank Sergey Zabaryansky for taking time out to speak to us