Elveon Q&A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
03/01/2006
An epic fantasy in the making powered by Unreal Engine 3; TVG takes an early look with the team responsible...
10TACLE STUDIOS, a German publisher, may be a new name but it is one that should be marked out. With a number of games in development for 2006 and beyond it is not unusual to spot one gem in a release schedule but to have three titles of note, one being the recent GT Legends to be followed next year by Black Buccaneer, along with Elevon, which is not due for release until 2007, makes them a publisher to keep tabs on.
Black Buccaneer, a horror adventure game, is looking both polished and stylish, whilst Elveon, based on a fantasy saga, which means of the book of elves, already has a number of distinguishing features. A 40 strong internal studio in Slovakia is creating a captivating story and utilising the Unreal 3 Engine to ensure the presentation is equal to the ambience and mood of the game! Derek dela Fuente spoke with Slavo Hazucha, Studio Director in Slovakia.
Can you tell us a little about the 40 strong internal team based in Bratislava which is creating the game? What is your expertise, what have any of the team created before and how was this set up formed?
10tacle Studios Slovakia currently employs over 40 people, all working on the Elveon project. We are an international team with most of our people, including myself, coming from the regional development industry. We also hire people with other backgrounds like sculptors and architects who work in our design department. The core team came together to work on the concept of Elveon at the beginning of 2002. In 2004, we did an extensive pre-production together with 10TACLE STUDIOS Germany and positioned the title into its current form.
"If I should put it into Tolkien language, our story is definitely Silmarilion and not LoTR."
The release date is 2Q 2007. What stage of development are you at, is the PC the lead machine and why such a lengthy development time? Trends do change also so how can you keep abreast of technology with such a long development period?
It's not unusual to have such a long development time especially for the next-gen titles as you can count on around 2-3 years to create a game. The production is currently running at full speed. Our focus at this time is the gameplay. We are testing different ideas and try to present next year already a revolutionary new system. So we try to set the trend instead of following one. We are looking forward to presenting a first playable version of Elveon to the games media at the beginning of the next year.
What would you say is the main vision for the game, and what do you see as it innovations? Also, where do you draw inspiration for the game and what other fantasy authors or stories do the team members enjoy?
In Elveon, we tend to pick up one key feature that mostly captures the idea of our elvish universe in each game area and focus on it to make it a true highlight with extreme detail and quality. We do so in the combat system and we do so in the approach to the Background and the Story. I hope the most highlighted contribution will be the way of our storytelling and the dynamic fusion between story and gameplay we hope to achieve.
We see Tolkien and his world as an inspiration and a reference that cannot be entirely avoided, but try to do our own thing - in our world and story we focus on something every genre-fan has heard of but had no opportunity to see or play it - the magnificent history of a fantasy world in the age when the Gods and the Elves were the only ruling powers. This is what we want to depict with Elveon. If I should put it into Tolkien language, our story is definitely Silmarilion and not LoTR. But in making the world and story, we were strongly inspired by ancient mythologies, particularly the Greek heroic epics.
Please can you tell us about the story and subject matter of the game? Is it actually based on a well known story or book or has this been specifically created for the game? To continue, what elements of the fantasy saga will capture the imagination of the gamer and how important is the story to the game?
"Elveon" is an own story in a complete new fantasy universe. The title means "Book of the Elves" and describes the history of this heroic and popular race. But our game and our fantasy universe depict an ancient era where the Elves still are a cunning and dynamic race on their rise to power, with great deeds not the fairy-like fading culture that is known from most other fantasy stories.
To tell you the whole story would be too long for this interview. The story development took us 4 years. So there really is a massive background behind Elveon. But in three sentences: The gods have left the world of Naon in a rush, it is the place they had wanted to transform into their paradise. The Neamas, the elves of the ancient times and fellows of the gods, have remained there all alone. A smouldering conflict is gaining more and more importance and a new era starts which is marked by envy, malevolence and relentless wars that prevent the gods' descendants from entering upon their inheritance. You are the hero of this epic and your mission is to achieve your objective, the fulfillment of the prophecy - namely the liberation of the city of Nimathar - as the mightiest warrior of Naon because this task is normally made for a god.
How important a focus is the technology to the game and with the game appearing on next gen formats and PC, do you have separate units of the team working on different systems to maximize the strengths?
From my point of view, technology is extremely important. In Elveon, we intend to implement several technological highlights that will give the game its unique feeling and atmosphere. Even though PC and X360 development is relatively similar, from a certain point in the development, we treat X360- and PC-projects as completely different entities. But this does not refer only to technology, but goes deeper into the game substance.
Can you tell us some of the interesting features the Unreal Engine offers and why you choose to use it? Do you have interaction with Epic Games and do you actually try to improve any elements of the engine?
UE3, apart from being a very performant next-generation game engine in all important areas, offers a superb material editor that allows us to achieve superior visual asset quality without a radically increased effort compared to present generation asset production.
The cooperation with Epic and other Unreal Engine developers is very satisfactory through the use of the Unreal developer's network. The development stage of UE3 provides us all solutions necessary for the basic game performance and allows us to concentrate on our own features and distinguishing highlights throughout the rest of the project.
We're told about Elevon's intense combat aspects? Can you briefly tell us about the fighting system and how complex you hope it to be?
It's too early in development to talk in depth about the fighting system but there will be a broad range of weapons, moves and combat strategies and the player will be encouraged to create his own way of fighting. But let you surprise. The gameplay has its own style and brings several new innovations and genre cross-overs. So we will not describe it before we can present it. One more surprise...
How big is the in game cast list and is interaction and dialogue a big feature of the game?
We have a lot of impressive and strong characters in the game and you will meet some very interesting counterparts. But it's too early to introduce them already.
Can you tell us the main objectives of the game, along with the variety of locations on offer?
As a story-driven game, Elveon starts with a basically pre-defined Character. During the game, the player will continually customize his character where he can choose from several significantly different expertise directions. The story and the answers the player gets will always be slightly different - the Legend which the game represents is divided into the Background part, which the player discovers, and his own contribution, where he has the freedom of choice. The goal is to sharpen your skills and find your own way to liberate the city of Nimathar
Can you tell us about an action or event in the game that you believe gamers will be impressed with?
The fighting system is very impressive! We have hired our own martial arts crew and they have developed a very unique 'elvish' fighting style which represents the honourable and powerful skills of these characters. Also the very cinematic approach of the presentation will lead the gamer into the story and he will be completely embedded in this universe. He will feel and live the adventurous history of the Elves.
TVG would like to thank Slavo Hazucha for providing this early insight into Elveon; we'll have further coverage on the promising title soon...
