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Arx Fatalis Interview/Feature Feature
Stephen Leyton
13/11/2002
Derek sits down with the team behind Arx to reveal what we are in for...
For some reason, computer game genres seem to go in cycles. Not so long ago you couldnât move for racing games or strategy games, and before that adventures appeared to be flavour of the month. Now the wheel has turned full circle and itâs the ever-popular role-playing-game (RPG) commanding the attention of developers once more: Arkane Studios is one such company. Founded in 1999, Arx Fatalis is their first title as a collective â“ members of which have worked on a variety of projects such as Hexplore, Sacrifice, Alone in the Dark 2 and 3, and Messiah â“ although the seed for the game goes way back to 1993. The man behind that original idea is Raphael Colantonio, and Derek dela Fuente collared him to find out more.
Before all that, Iâm sure you would all like to know the scenario to the game: so here goes. In the world of Arx, there is a secret cult, the cult of Akbaa, whose sole purpose is to try and destroy the world by summoning a demon god. Why anyone, manic cult or otherwise, would want to destroy their own planet - along with themselves - isnât made clear, but that leads to your objective. Arx Fatalis takes place wholly underground because the sun of Arx has disappeared leading to all the different races â“ humans, snakewomen, ratmen, trolls and goblins amongst others â“ retreating into a dwarf mine. Your character wakes up in a prison cell and his aim is to discover who put him there and why. By finding out who you are, you also learn your ultimate task in the game. I wonât spoil it by giving anything away â“ yes I will! You, the player, are actually the chosen one; the Guardian who has to prevent Armageddon by stopping the cult. All in all, another dayâs work at the office really.
âWe hope the story is interesting and that it will make the player want to know whatâs behind it. We try to link a lot of things together, characters and locations, so that the player will feel he is in a believable environment and that he plays a real role in the story of Arx. The story is extremely pivotal because you can choose different routes at some intersections; there are different endings, and considering you can always get back to any location in Arx, we have to make sure everything stays consistent. I think there is plenty of space for a game like Arx. There are very few real RPGâs around these days as most of them are ânowâ products that have gone through the marketing machine. The core gamers have been let down. Saying that, Arx is not a classic hardcore RPG; we like to think of it as a new genre of Role Playing Game.â Itâs all in the accessibility of the game by way of being extremely user friendly â“ a light interface, easy controls â“ and high production values â“ graphics, animations, and sound. Many have trodden this path before and failed, but one thing is certain: gameplay wonât be sacrificed in order to reach a larger audience.
Attempting to make something new out of a well tested genre means that Arkane Studios has chosen to have a smaller, detailed, well organised world with lots to do rather than something large where everything looks similar. Apparently, detail, variety and vastness are three concepts that are difficult to bring together in the production levels of today. âIn Arx, every shop is detailed, as is the castle and the tavern, then we make sure we have a graphic universe that varies from each environment. The crypt, various natural caves, temples, Snakewomen domain, Troll encampment, Dwarf forge, etc. are completely different.â Theyâll be no mistaking where you are in this game. As for characters and races, the difficulty is in giving each of them a reason to be in the underground world of Arx in the first place. In order to drag the player into an environment where they get to know the inhabitants and places better, there was no way hundreds of different races could be accommodated. Considering the idea was to develop characters as far as possible, there is to be no classes â“ itâs up to you to decide what you are and how far you go.
Integral to any RPG is the magic/spell casting aspect, and Arx carries on that tradition. The company has been focusing on a system that will make it feel as close to ârealâ magic as possible (and who can argue what ârealâ magic is?). This is why spell casting will require discipline and a learning phase. Itâs important to note that any path will allow you to cast basic spells, but only a Wizardly path will grant you access to all levels of spells. The player will have to collect runes that are associated with words of command such as Fire, Create, Time, etc. Each spell is composed by a sequence of words of command, so, for example, to light a fire, youâd have to cast Create Fire. Each rune shape composing a spell has to be drawn in the air with a mouse gesture. Spells can fizzle or backfire and injure the caster, and some of them will see their efficiency change depending on the casterâs level. Some runes are easy to find, some others are for sale in magic shops whilst others are integrated into quests. There is a list of âofficialâ spells that are easy to find or buy, but one of the nice effects of this system is that the player will be able to guess secret ones by associating runes in a logical way. All in all, the plan is to have over 50 spells, the strength of which is determined by your characterâs level. If youâre only at Level 1, the Summon Demon spell will bring you something like a chicken (not very frightening) whilst Level 10 summons something scary. I canât divulge any more about magic and spells because of threats from Raphael Colantonio to turn me into a frog.
Donât be confused into thinking Arx Fatalis is a game where you wander around drawing signs everywhere; magic is present in normal proportions in Arx, but there is also a concentration on other features such as object behaviour. The idea behind this is that every object (including NPCâs) has its own behaviour scripted in a generic way as opposed to a contextual way. An example: you could define that mice wander around for food and that when they see food they approach and eat it; you could also define that a piece of cheese is considered food; finally, you could define that any Troll will run away when he sees a mouse. The interesting thing about scripting object behaviour in a general way is that the player could try things just to see what happens, or find ways to solve problems that the game designers didnât even think about. So, coming back to the example: if the player throws a piece of cheese close to the Troll, he will respond to the sound, the mouse will approach the cheese in order to eat it, which will trigger the Troll to run away because heâs afraid of mice. This is only an example, of course, Trolls arenât afraid of mice.
Returning to your actual character, apart from deciding on physical features such as facial style and hair colour, youâll be able to dress them in armour, leggings, helmet, boots, shield, etc. These items will be the very basic available and itâs in your interest to improve these by finding discarded items. There is also the not insignificant matter of attributes and skills. Numbering thirteen in total â“ strength, dexterity, intelligence, constitution, and the skills of object knowledge, technical skill, stealth, magic, ethereal link, close combat, projectiles, defense and intuition - these skills can be increased by allocating points gained by completing tasks and solving puzzles. For anyone wondering, you wonât be able to get all these skills to their 100% maximum because thereâs only a limited number of skill points to go around, even by the end of the game, forcing you to specialise your hero in specific skill areas (magic, combat, stealth or any mix thereof). In any case, whereâs the fun in being able to finish the game without really trying? To some, the number of skills may sound small but itâs in keeping with the philosophy behind the game. âOur primary goal is to make an immersive and accessible RPG. If you have 100 skills, it gives the impression of being in a game rather than on a quest. Anyway, these statistics originated in pen and paper RPGâs to simulate things such as âfind hidden objectâ. You canât have a Dungeon Master asking everyone to roll a dice to see who finds the object in a 3D environment. The more technology leads us towards reality, the less weâll need statistics in a game. The best RPG for me will be the one where Iâll step into a machine and get teleported in a dungeon: I wonât be thinking about stats.â Returning to Arx itself, Colantonio had to find a compromise between classic RPGâs and this teleportation idea, so he had to use only the skills and stats thought to be absolutely necessary. âWe spent a long time making sure that every single skill or attribute has its own importance in the design and that removing one of them would change the whole balance of the game. The skills we ended up with are very generic such as âobject knowledgeâ, which allows the player to make potions, to identify objects, to poison weapons and to repair them.â
Another inherent part of games in the role-playing genre is that of puzzles. With Arx Fatalis, Arkane Studios has tried to link puzzle solving to a combination of events such as fighting, object combining (like a point and click adventure game), having conversations and casting the right spell. âOverall, there are very few mechanism / trap type puzzles because we found them hard to place in a clever way in terms of game design. I don't see why there should be a room full of pressure pads and levers if there is no good reason for these mechanisms to be where they are, unless itâs some kind of trial for the player. So, in general, most âpuzzlesâ consist of solving situations that stop you from achieving your aim. For example: at some point, youâll need to get assistance from an NPC in your investigation of a stolen object. This takes you through conversations with other NPCâs, fighting, and spell casting in order to search through the alleged thiefâs belongings.â
Arx Fatalis may not be the game that manages it, but they have taken their first steps in the search for the next Holy Grail of game development: emotion (and any game which relies heavily on characterisation comes under this category). Itâs strange that films, books and music â“ which you have no control over - can make you laugh or cry, whilst games tend to fall into the âso whatâ camp. In order to succeed in this, Arkane Studios believe three things have to come together: to make sure NPC interventions are believable; to have just enough characters so you can identify with each one and to have quality speech. âI think most speech recording studios for games use actors that come from the cartoon industry probably because they associate games to kids. In the case of Arx we will make sure the actors act as if it were a movie.â
The team has developed a game editor, DANAE, which allows for the making of a game within the game, saving time and giving instant feedback for tweaking. Usually, designers and artists waste a lot of time compiling, importing and converting data before being able to see the result of their work in a game format, and they have to do these heavy manipulations every time they change any script, or move a single object.
For Arx, maps, objects or animations built with THEO can be loaded before placing NPCâs, objects or lights in first person as itâs played. âWe can modify the behaviour of an NPC, object or camera by editing its script. Then, we can test the result of the modification by switching into game mode again.â A designerâs dream! Another unique quality of DANAE is the versatility and the power of its script language: an event driven language where you can do almost anything you want thanks to user friendly functions developed by the programmers. âIn a matter of minutes, we can create complex situations such as an NPC who thanks you and drinks a bottle you just dropped on a table after having filled it up with wine that was in a bigger container. We could also check if you put some poison in the bottle.â I could expand on this script language but itâs pretty boring for most of us.
Arx Fatalis, a game that will encompass eight diverse environments, is set for a late Q4 release â“ December probably.
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Date Added:Sat 16th Dec 2006 19:48
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Date Added:Sat 16th Dec 2006 19:48
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Date Added:Sat 16th Dec 2006 19:47
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Date Added:Sat 16th Dec 2006 19:47