With the PC and video gaming scene, in many eyes, becoming more and more predictable with publishers and developers sticking to a tried and tested formula it has been the exception, rather than the rule, when a game defies description and cannot be totally catagorised. Creating a game that is new and inventive in many circumstances is paved with disappointment which could result in low sales and no real media attention. Introversionâ??s new title Darwinia will go along this unconventional route but you first have to consider a number of facts. Uplink, their first title, released a couple of years ago although a minor 'underground' success not only received the support of a number of the leading UK magazine Editors, which is pretty unique, but a number of European Editors also were impressed with this Hacking game that was compelling and addictive.

That in itself would be enough for many but the fact that Pinnacle, the leading distributor in the UK, with the likes of Ubisoft and EA, the biggest publishers in the world, on their books added even more weight and kudos to this small but well formed team. Pinnacle was so enamoured when they saw this title they were eager to support the team and saw massive potential in Introversion. Put simply if Darwinia gets the kind of support and attention it deserves then it is sure to be a success and in turn will inspire many small developers who do not have the huge resources and production value behind them but just mere talent.

Derek dela Fuente spoke with Chris Delay, Lead Developer of Introversion Games, about the game and team behind Darwinia!

TVG: Please can you tell the readers about Introversion, the team creating the game, as well as a little bit about your previous title Uplink!

Introversion Software is a small independent game developer based in the UK. We have just three full time staff - Chris Delay, Mark Morris, and Thomas Arundel. We founded our company in 2001, straight out of university where we all met. Our first game was Uplink, a hacker simulator written by Chris and released initially online, which eventually made it onto the high-street. Because were such a small company without any offices, we had very low running costs, so the money from Uplink was enough to sustain us for three years while we worked on our second game Darwinia.

The team for Darwinia is larger and we have Andy Bainbridge working alongside Chris with the principal game design and production. We also have Alistair Lindsay and Michael Maidment working on the unique sound effects in game.

TVG: Uplink was a bit of a cult game and the many that saw and played the game thought it was brilliant. Firstly, do you have some kind of special relationship with distributor Pinnacle, for I believe they saw your early demo and were blown away with it? Secondly, are you all looking for real commercial success with Darwinia?

Pinnacle is our UK distributor and they are responsible for keeping the shops around the country supplied with copies of Uplink, and eventually Darwinia when itâ??s finished. They do a fantastic job of phoning up all the stores around the country and convincing them to stock up on copies of Uplink. Pinnacle was the only company we found that were willing to take a risk with us. Back in early 2002 we had sold a few copies online, but Pinnacle were responsible for getting Uplink into HMV and Gamestation, not to mention the hundreds of independent game stores around the country.

TVG: Would you say that being original and looking for total gameplay, no matter its commercial success, is one of the prime focuses for Introversion?

Commercial success is an important factor for Introversion, but itâ??s not our primary aim. We are very clear on this - the design of our games is the primary focus, and everything else is secondary. That attitude has led us into some financial problems recently, but it has also ensured our ability to do what we want. We are in a unique position of being free from the control of any publishers or producers, and the three of us own all of Introversion and all of our IP.

With each game we need to make enough money to live comfortably for the two or three years that it takes to make our next game. Once we run out of money we start running out of options, and we start getting forced to make decisions we donâ??t want to make. So itâ??s important to us to maximise the profits we make from each of our games, but those profits are not the driving factor.

TVG: Please can you tell us what Darwinia is about and what a Darwinian is? Also, itâ??s backdrop story and the objectives for the player?

The world of Darwinia is a virtual theme park constructed, by a mad computer genius called Dr Sepulveda, from faulty 1980s game hardware. Heâ??s built this entire world and populated it with a race of creatures called the Darwinians, and heâ??s given them the ability to grow and learn within their world. He has constructed a central repository of digital spirits, and those spirits are gradually sent down to the planetâ??s surface to live a life as a Darwinian. They grow, learn, and interact with other Darwinians. When they die, their digital spirit floats back up to heaven and enriches the collective whole.

The story kicks off as you visit this virtual theme park, only to find things in chaos. A nasty viral infection has corrupted the Darwinian spirits, and that virus is now slowly destroying the decades of work Dr Sepulveda put into the system. Your primary objective is to rescue the Darwinians and to save the world from destruction.

TVG: What has inspired the visual look of the game as it does look very much like David Bradenâ??s Virus and a collection of other golden oldie titles?

The look of the game is decidedly retro and there is a ton of old 80s games that make appearances within this one, both in terms of the visual style, and the gameplay. Weâ??ve tried to produce something that reminds people of the golden age of videogames, but still has a very modern look and feel to it. There is no one game that weâ??ve borrowed the look from itâ??s like a melting pot, with old games and movies thrown in and mixed around.

TVG: The game is about a deadly virus. How does it manifest itself and what are the strategical ways the player can get rid of it?

The virus appears as a series of destructive red creatures that the player has to battle. Dr Sepulveda was in the middle of writing some game programs for Darwinia when this virus appeared, so he gives you these small Insertion Squads which you can control directly. They are armed with lasers and grenades, and their control is very reminiscent of Cannon Fodder and Syndicate. These Insertion Squads are the primary form of control for the player.

There is no direct way to control the native Darwinians, but you can promote individuals to Officers and use them to give orders, Lemmings style. With this method you can herd the Darwinians around the map.

Most of the locations in Darwinia have been shutdown or damaged by the viral infection, so Dr Sepulveda also provides you with Engineer units which can be used to repair and reprogram buildings.

TVG: Does the game offer more than strategy - are there action elements and is there a progression of differing challenges?

Darwinia is primarily a fast action game, with a number of different strategy elements thrown into the mix. Many of the buildings in Darwinia require Darwinians to operate, so it becomes an important task to keep them under your control and ensure they are where you want them to be.

Every creature in Darwinia has a digital spirit at its core, including the Virii, since they used to be Darwinians and have been corrupted by the infection. When any creature in the game dies it leaves behind its digital spirit, and these become the primary resource in the game. Your Engineers can collect them and reprocess them back into Darwinians, or the enemy can pick them up and use them to fertilise eggs to produce more Virii.

TVG: We are told the game will take 3 years to complete. Can you talk a little about how it may have changed and how technology focused you are?

Originally Darwinia was designed to be a quick three month project, but it quickly expanded into something much bigger. It was originally going to be multiplayer only, and the Darwinians were the only creatures in game, with each player controlling large armies of tens of thousands of them on the battlefield. Our original technology was built to allow tens of thousands of sprites in the game world, each one a simple flat character in 3D space. This idea came from the Indie Game Jam during their first year they experimented with games involving tens of thousands of units on screen at once. ( www.indiegamejam.com/) Since then the ideas have slowly changed, but the core technology is still there.

TVG: How big is the world and is it level based?

Darwinia is a level based game, with each mission carefully designed. Darwinia is not the open-ended gameplay experience that Uplink was as we are now going for a much more purposefully built world, with clearly defined levels that accomplish specific tasks within Darwinia. But weâ??ve taken care to ensure there is always a number of levels open to the player, to minimise the chance of someone getting stuck.

Thank you

Darwinia is due for success in early 2005; weâ??ll have more information soon.