Building upon the world’s most popular conspiracy (everybody loves a good one) and featuring vocal talents from the likes of David Duchovny, Powers Booth and Marilyn Manson, Area 51 looks to provide an engrossing first-person-shooter experience along with strong online components.

This month TVG chatted to Jim Stiefelmaier Creative Director and Peter Franco Art Director, discussing everything from the technology that drives the game to the dynamic online maps.

TVG: How focused is the team on technology issues and ensuring this game offers the very best in presentation and also perhaps pushing the envelope? Tell us about one or two of the tools you are using within the game and perhaps one you have developed which you are proud of?

JS: The team is completely dedicated to pushing the hardware to its theoretical limits. Our rendering is a great example of how hard we push the technology. I have not played a FPS that looks as good on the PS2 as Area 51 and we have several more rendering enhancements to our Xbox engine. In many areas of the game we perform an incredible number of rendering passes. In some of our Alien-Base levels, we are doing up to 7 rendering passes for materials and then 5 passes for post-effects. Most games do about 5 passes total. So we perform up to 12 rendering passes and we do them all at a consistent 30fps. We have a proprietary editor that was custom built from the input of the design and art teams. Our excellent facial animation is largely the result of a Max plug-in created by our Lead Technical Artist, Aaron Smischney.

TVG: Tell us about your 3D engine (two interesting facts) and how difficult it is on developing on 3 formats and does the PC lead in terms of presentation?

Interesting Fact #1

JS (after talking with Tech): Our instance renderer was hand-tuned to run extremely fast on the PS2. One nice side effect of the instance renderer is that other tasks like collision queries, physics, and AI all become faster too. This is because we transfer less vertex data around which lightens the load on the main bus.

Interesting Fact #2

JS (after talking with Tech): The Xbox engine creates a lightmap on the fly to give per pixel lighting.

JS (after talking with Tech): Developing on multiple platforms is difficult. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses and it’s difficult to play to the strengths of all platforms without making sacrifices on other platforms. The PC leads the way in terms of texture resolution and screen resolution, but does not lead the way for development. Our primary development platform was PS2—where there is a lack of good first-person shooters. Also, since the PS2 is VERY different from PC and Xbox and required the most specialized code, it helped to play to its strengths first. PC and Xbox were added later in the development cycle.

TVG: Can you tell us how the team work alongside/with Stan Winston? I know you send him sketches but how does the process work and has he created creatures in the game and what have you learnt?

PF: Once we had a good idea of the high level concepts of the game along with a character roster, we flew out to Stan’s Studio and had a lengthy meeting where we kicked ideas back and forth. They had concept artists working at the meeting as we were talking and at the end of each conversation, there would be rough images to talk about.

We then each went away for a while and we would get character sketches from Stan, and we would give him our feedback until we landed on an image that worked.

Ultimately, what Stan Winston’s studio provided us with is inspiration. We learned that going from 2d to 3d often necessitates some amount of change, especially in a game environment where you need to factor in issues like collision, silhouette, AI abilities, etc.

TVG: We constantly hear about the film and gaming industries moving closer together but what have you learn from Stan in terms of design and creation and are his techniques that much different?

PF: Surprisingly the creation process isn’t that much different in terms of conceptualization. It starts with written designs from a script or character bio, followed by thumbnails, concept sketches, turn around, and model sheets. Of course, because they are often creating characters that become costumes or miniatures, they often go to sculpting whereas we go straight into a 3d program.

TVG: What kind of process does the graphics team go through in designing a character? Do they read a storyboard, script, and what are some of the basic requirements when the process starts? Also, just as important what inspires the team and are you going for a certain style?

PF: We really tried to go on a journey visually. We wanted to start in a very real and practical environment that started to get increasingly more foreign and alienating (no pun intended) until ultimately, your surroundings are like nothing you’ve seen before on earth.

To this end, we designed the characters to reinforce this. The characters in the beginning (the Hazmat squad, the Special Forces, their equipment, etc) they are all based closely on current tech or on concepts of what cutting edge military might look like in 20-50 years from now. Later in the game, we let the creativity flow more and try to think outside the box by creating aliens and abilities that are more science fiction.

TVG: Can you tell us exactly what the mutation system is and how it works and what the gamer will see onscreen? Give us a nice example!

JS: About midway through the game, the player’s biohazard suit is breached and they become infected by the very virus they were called out to deal with. This virus rapidly mutates its host. The player manages to contain the virus’ mutagenic properties somewhat via assistance form the enigmatic Dr. Cray and a mysterious Gray named “Edgar”. Once the player is able to control their mutation, they can instantly transform themselves into a mutant killing machine. The HUD is completely different, with NPCs (even cloaked enemies) that glow and pulse. While a mutant, the player loses their ability to use conventional weapons, but in return gain a host of biological analogs. The primary mutant weapon is a spread of homing parasites. Parasites that successfully attack an NPC will return health to the player. A volley of parasites released into the world will home in one closest enemy or the player can direct them to a specific enemy. Firing parasites costs mutagen, and once you’ve depleted your mutagen; you change back into your human form. Additionally, as a mutant you acquire a powerful melee attack (that return more mutagen to you if you successfully kill an enemy), and special power called “contagion” which causes infected enemies to attack each other.

TVG: Does the team make a conscious decision to look at other games and try to work in new ideas and been innovative? What would you say is one of the biggest innovations within Area 51?

PF: From a visual standpoint, we were always looking at our competition and determining what has worked in the past and what we could push further. When we started the project, Metal Gear Solid 2 did a great job pushing the PS2 graphically. The care they took in crafting their characters and cinemas was a huge inspiration. We would look at things they did and try to push the look further using our materials and engine.

JS: We always look to our competitors and that really helps us focus on what is important to all FPS’s. However, we are very happy with our unique version, the duality of human and mutant powers. Additionally, we have some unique innovations technologically. Some of our multiplayer modes are dedicated to pitting human vs. mutants. One particularly cool innovation on our multiplayer side is our dynamic level sizing. Most of our maps are built for 16 players. But what happens if you start a 16 player match and 8 people suddenly drop out ? Obviously this would be too big a playspace for an 8 player game, so we dynamically close off rooms and pathways until we have a right size for 8 player match. This is also true in reverse. If you start a match with 8 players (but the match can hold up to 16) up to 8 more players can join in and the map will dynamically grow larger to accommodate these new players. The playspace dynamically transforms to get at the right size for a good frag-fest.

TVG: What weapons are on offer and perhaps you can talk about one that is the team’s favourite?

JS: We have all the expected human weapons (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, sniper rifle, grenades, etc.), but what really shines are the alien weapons. Besides a cool rebounding gun, and some cool alien grenades, the team’s favorite weapon must be the Meson Cannon. The Meson Cannon has a very low rate of fire, but the effect is worth it. At the point of impact the Meson Cannon opens an energy vortex that shoots out dynamic tendrils. If any NPC (or dynamic object) is touched by the tendril, they are jerked upwards and flung around awhile they are set to ragdoll. If timed well, a single Meson Cannon can have several enemies flying around, colliding very dynamically with the environment. Once the tendrils release their victims, they crumple to the ground, very dead.

TVG: How does combat work within the game, is it merely shoot and kill or are they any subtleties?

JS: A large part of the game is fast, frenetic “run and gun” gameplay. However, we know we have to engage the player intellectually as well. Often there are several ways to accomplish a goal, obviously the player is welcome to try shooting first, but the smart player can save ammo (and health) by creatively solving the problem. A good example is an event in the Alien Base section of our game: a player is crossing a electrical bridge. About ½ way to the other end, an enemy appears and hits a switch, causing the bridge to retract in segments. The player must retreat backwards to their side of the bridge. Once the player has sniped the far away enemy, they can use their controls to extend the bridge. Now as they finish crossing the bridge, they are shot at from behind. The player can engage the enemies, but why not use the trick the enemy just taught you a minute ago? If the player thinks about it, they can use the same control to retract the bridge, causing a squad of enemies to fall to their death. I’d also venture our entire “Lore” gameplay, the collection of conspiracies, is well positioned towards the cerebral gamer. Through the collection of lore, the player can unfold more story elements, unlock new weapon abilities and get hints on how to combat enemies.

TVG: Because of the ‘freaky’ nature of the game will weapons, combat – even killing possibly not present the kind of outcome the gamer would expect?

JS: I think it is fair to say the situations you find yourself in are not conducive to traditional outcomes. Area 51 is very much like an onion, once you peel one layer, you are immediately presented with another.

TVG: To continue from last question, how spot on will the AI be, considering you are facing enemies of an unknown description. Surely the way they react is not like a human would.

JS: Our AI is an interesting mix of human and otherworldly behaviours. Obviously your squad mates fight like humans, and a few enemies (based on human DNA) fight the same. We do have many alien enemies, a good example is our Leapers. Leapers are the last stage of human mutation, reducing their hosts to a very deadly animalistic state. The Leapers can climb walls and attack much like a leopard, they strike and retreat to strike again. Their locomotion is primarily on all four limbs so they have unique ways to attack and dodge player attacks.

TVG: What kind of moves/techniques will the player be able to undertake?

JS: We have the traditional movement set of a good FPS, but we alter that set when you become a mutant (for example you move faster, you jump higher). There are also some non-traditional player mechanics such are firing an energy turret and riding on some maglev cars.

TVG: How extensive is injury worked within the game on you and the creatures (how many detection spots) and are locations fully deformable?

JS: We deciding for performance reasons to constrain the hit detection to four areas (legs, torso, arms, head). Each area has specific damage profiles and each enemy has their own rule-set. We have various damage related small and large pain-flinches (these are special animations that overlay over the currently playing animation). Additionally, we dynamically apply “pain-skins” or 3D damage decals to models. Some of our Boss NPCs do have deformable elements.

TVG: What is the current state of code and completion of the game?

JS: We are very close to finalizing the game. Only about 2 weeks from final code submission.

TVG would like to once again thank the guys at Midway Austin for taking the time to answer our questions; we’ll have more on Area 51 in our concluding chapter next month.