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Nexus: The Jupiter Incident Q&A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
18/10/2004
TVG's roving reporter blasts off into space, where no reporter has gone before...
Developed by Mithis Entertainment, Nexus â“ The Jupiter Incident is a real-time mission-based tactical strategy space game featuring superb real time-battles and visual quality.
Distributed in various territories by Vivendi, Derek dela Fuente spoke with Vincent van Diemen, Producer from HD Interactive, the publishing company, about this long time in the making title.
Although this could easily be compared to Homeworld, once you delve a little deeper you will find that it is a very enthralling tactical space fleet game that has many unique features and veers off in its own direction. With combat, and the manageable aspects of the game very much tighter, has opposed to the aforementioned title. Nexus: The Jupiter Incident this could well become a leader of its own pack!
The game has been a long time in development. How long has it been and has it changed much throughout the whole process cycle â“ and why so long?
The game has been in development for over three years. This includes periods that the game was on hold or during which only a limited amount of people were working on it, due to problems with the previous publisher.
The final result is not that much different from what it was originally intended to be. In its previous life-cycle, with CDV as publisher, much gameplay changes were made in order for the game to match the Imperium Galactica license. The decision to license the IP of the IG series was never an idea of the team; it simply did not match its original design. When HD picked the title up after it was abandoned by CDV the game was taken back to its original design.
Imperium Galactica 3: Genesis, Galaxy Andromeda, Nexus - The Jupiter Incident. Why have there been so many name changes? Also, this is the third in the series, so do you believe you could not have got to this stage of understanding about the subject matter without the previous two?
The development of Nexus started when the Mithis team was still part of Philos studios in Budapest. CDV picked the game up and decided to license the Imperium Galactica name from Atari (infogrames at that time). This was not a controversial decision because Nexus did not match the game-type that the Imperium Galactica series was. After the core members of the Nexus team left Philos and founded Mithis, they continued the development, but there were several clashes with the publisher. Mithis integrated several gameplay elements that were requested by CDV, but they were never too happy with it.
After the license of the IG3 name expired, CDV decided not to take it on again, but instead change the name. This was when it was given the name âGalaxy Andromedaâ. Again a decision solely made by the publisher that the development team was not very happy with. HD picked up the title after it was canned by CDV, the decision to call the game âNexusâ and give it the subtitle âThe Jupiter Incidentâ was made in a collaboration between the development team and the publisher.
Please tell us about Mithis Entertainment - the dev team, what you have done before and how many make up the team working on the game?
As a team Nexus is the first title to be released from the Mithis studio. Several team members worked on previous titles, such as Theocracy (UbiSoft). The Mithis studio has now several teams working on different projects such as âCreature Conflictâ for Cenega, âMidwayâ for Sci and a new RTS project for HD Interactive. Furthermore Mithis is working on two more yet to be announced projects. The core team that was working on Nexus consisted of approximately 12 people, but many more were involved during different phases of its development.
When gamers think of space games they instantly think Elite, which has action and strategy, whereas the likes of X2 is very much a strategically challenging game. Do you feel that the RTS appeal of Nexus could capture a large part of their space sim market!?
The sci-fi / space game market has almost always been the territory of the hardcore gamer. A group of loyal and dedicated people who are interested in the gameplay, but also in the setting and the story, the characters (development), the technology, etc. etc.
Nexus is very different from the ones mentioned above and very different from any sci-fi game released before. Nexus holds a great tactical challenge, but it also has a very good story, strong characters and a credible setting. With Nexus being such a complete game (we prefer to call it an experience) and given the fact that we have put a lot of effort in the quality of the product (graphics, voice-acting, music, etc.), we definitely hope to attract more than just hardcore gamers.
If you had to highlight one real innovation in this title what would it be?
As Nexus is a real time strategy game, but not an RTS in the traditional sense, we often call it a âtactical fleet simulatorâ. This maybe does not do the game justice as it is much more than just that, but this is where the most innovative elements of the game might be. Micro-managing a fleet of space-ships with different tactical characteristics and a variable set of equipment choices are on offer. This has not been done before with so much depth.
In terms of the game size and structure have you had to curtail enthusiasm to ensure that the game does not appear too open and has a real intuitive feel and what kind of structure does the game have? To continue â“ could you tell us how the game starts and what some of your first tasks and objectives will be?
Before you actually start playing you will see two long intro movies (the 1st pre-rendered, the 2nd ingame) that will introduce the gameâs characters and their story up to where the game takes off. Your first tasks are quite limited. In the first mission you will only learn how to control the camera and how to manoeuvre your ship. In the second mission you will have your first light attack assignment and bit by bit all the game-elements are introduced and explained to the player.
The first episode is basically a big tutorial, and itâs there to first of all introduce all the controls and make you feel comfortable with them. Apart from that it explains the story and introduces more characters that you will encounter in the game.
How central to the game is the AI and how random are the events and factors within the game?
The AI has two totally different meanings in this game. First of all there is the AI that was implemented for the enemies of the player, but also one of the greater opponents in the game is an alien AI!
Nexus has a strong story and the player follows the story-line through the eyes of his/her character. This leaves not so much room for random events, other than on some occasions where it fits the story-line.
All the missions in Nexus (26 in total) are connected to each other and your performance in one mission may (and will) affect parts of other missions. We do not want to say too much about this, but there is certainly more than enough replay value because of this and because of the fact that there are some RPG-like elements for the playerâs character.
What kind of resources will you have and how does the management of the planets work? What kind of fine balance, sequence if any, is required been combat strategy and colonization and fleet building?
In Nexus there is no planetary management. There is also no traditional collecting of resources. The only resource collection that is used in Nexus is a reward system that is based on your performance in previous missions. This âresourceâ can be used to enhance your ships or to change their equipment from mission to mission. The ships and the available equipment are mostly scripted and dependant on your performance and choices done during previous missions.
Could you give us a brief insight into the diversity of missions you can undertake?
Mission objectives range from research to rescue, from combat to espionage and from salvage to sabotage.
Have you created the interface to assist in the many management and strategy implementations and is there a help system on hand?
The GUI (Graphical User Interface) has been well thought through during the development process and was redesigned at several stages. The GUI is quite complex at first so it was really challenging to make it easy to manage. All elements of the GUI have very detailed tool tips. Furthermore there is a complete tutorial throughout the whole first Episode (and even beyond that) of which all elements are available through an info panel throughout the rest of the game. In the info panel the player also finds all primary and secondary mission objectives and all previous dialogues from the current mission.
What kind of innovative 3D engine or technology within the game are you pleased to speak about?
You have to see it to believe it, that is the bottom line. Motyo, the engine programmer, could completely focus on creating a great space-engine, as we did not have any need for planetary scenes and such. The particle system will blow you away! And the explosions are awesome. And it does it all on relatively low spec machines as well.
More info - visit www.NexusTheGame.com
