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Plain Sailing From Outerlight Feature
Derek dela Fuente
28/09/2005
TVG takes a look at an interesting take on the online genre – did we mention it's powered by Source...
Starting out as a unique take on multiplayer online titles, this interesting Half Life mod is currently being lined up for release on Valveâs STEAM network and is currently undergoing the enhancements that the SOURCE engine brings.
Simon Hill, Produer at Outerlight, gave TotalVideoGames the full insight into The Ship and the team behind the gameâ¦..
Who we are?
The inspiration behind Outerlight came from a number of sources. Fundamentally we wanted to create a development studio which did things the way they should be done and lived up to the dream of what working in the games industry should be.
This stemmed from a belief in and a passion for games coupled with a frustration of working on and playing games with derivative gameplay, as well as a belief that making games can be both a highly satisfying and rewarding field to work in as well as a financially rewarding one. We are convinced that games can and should be both fun to develop and fun to play, and indeed that one goes with the other, in that having fun making the game rubs off on the game itself. We are also convinced that making games is both good fun and good business, which makes the games industry a pretty unique and exciting industry to work in.
Outerlight was also partly created as a reaction to developers who have bled the fun from making games, and that they have also bled the fun from the games themselves, partly due to a reluctance to take risks or to tread new ground. This is no doubt in part due to the current climate where publishers are also being risk aversive and focusing on licenses and sequels. We donât believe that gamers are particularly impressed with or enjoy playing most licenses and sequels, and so Outerlight aims to deliver the games that gamers want, and to continue to push the evolution of games forward.
Outerlightâs philosophy is that we should have fun making and playing our own game, and that the profits should go to three places, the development team who made the game, the financiers who made it possible, and the company who will use the funds to develop and deliver more innovative products. Outerlight has a raft of other original titles, which we hope to go on to develop over the next few years.
Our Vision for the ship
The Ship is a ground-breaking new title from fledgling Scottish developer Outerlight. Combining familiar game elements with fresh and unique game-play for a deeply immersive, addictive and paranoia inducing experience and The Ship revitalises and redefines first-person multiplayer gaming.
The game takes place on a voyage aboard a luxury cruise liner. Some of the passengers on board received mysterious invitations to partake in the cruise for free. However, once the ship is safely out at sea the real reason for the cruise is revealed by the nefarious Mr X. The free riders are given the name of another passenger and asked to hunt them down, to murder them with as much style as possible. As an incentive Mr X rewards successful kills with cash prizes according to the method employed. In addition to their role as hunters, players must also be aware that they are being hunted in turn, so itâs imperative they watch their backs at all times.
The Ship is not just about killing though, the trick is to kill cleverly, to select the right tool for the job, to find your quarry and to despatch them in style without being caught by security. Players who broadcast their actions will end up dead, fined, or doing time in the ships brig. Players also have to take care of themselves; they must eat, drink, sleep, wash, use the bathroom, socialise and entertain themselves. These needs make for an interesting interactive and immersive world, and they ensure people are in constant motion while providing many opportunities for stealthy murders.
Players have a bank account from which they can withdraw cash, and this bank account also serves as their score. The Ship is a fully functioning luxury cruise ship and as you might expect players are charged for their purchases while on board. They can use the shipâs boutiques to personalise their character with new outfits and accessories, which isnât just about the aesthetics, but also allows players to disguise themselves in their efforts to escape the clutches of their hunter as well as to conceal their identity from their quarry.
A diverse range of possible murder weapons from poison to traps goes far beyond the standard set of guns and allows for more complexity in the planning and execution of a murder, as well as resulting in more amusing scenarios and deaths.
The game features two main modes â“ Hunt and Elimination. In the Hunt mode players are assigned a quarry and a successful murder triggers a countdown race to finish your victim before the new round begins and quarries are re-assigned. The first player to reach a specific bank account target is declared the winner. In Elimination mode the players are in a âkill loopâ and the action continues until there is one clear winner, upon killing your quarry you are assigned their quarry and so on, until only one hunter is left alive.
The art deco styling persists throughout the gloriously realised and heavily detailed environments. The characters are stylised and the violence is comedic in nature as the game avoids the familiar gritty realism of most first-person games.
While the initial release, due in summer 2006, focus is currently on the online multiplayer iteration of the game, although plans are well underway to provide a single player version with an emotive narrative later in the year.
The Ship encompasses game-play from a number of genres which are woven together to create a staggeringly original coherent whole. The game caters for casual and hardcore gamers alike featuring a level of depth which provides a wealth of player choices while retaining simple and intuitive basic elements so that the player can choose their own level of immersion.
The current iteration of The Ship was created using Half-Life 1 technology and was designed to test the gameplay and see how the different gameplay elements worked together. As an afterthought we decided to release this for the public to enjoy, and this resulted in both excellent public and press feedback, and also in us receiving two awards, one for originality, and one for being one of the top five mods of 2004.
At the moment we are working on a Source version of The Ship (for which we owe many thanks to Valve), which we aim to release around May 2006 through online distribution as well as traditional retail channels.
Our aim is to get the first release out there to generate publicity and hype and start to grow our online community, as well as to start to generate revenue from the game. Because the game is so modular we can use revenue we generate to add more content over time, which will allow us to realise the full potential of The Ship, including adding shipboard games, a dating game, other player roles (such as security guard, hitman and bodyguard), as well as a single player mode.
More information about The Ship can be found at The Ship Online; weâll have more on the title soonâ¦
Anonymous
Date Added:Sun 31st Dec 2006 03:23