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Prey Q&A Feature
Chris Leyton
07/02/2006
Having to be pulled away kicking and screaming, TVG tracks down Human Head's Timothy Gerritsen to fill us in with more...
Prey has been capturing a few headlines of late for all the right reasons. Originally put on the shelf back in 1998, only for 3D Realms and Human Head Studios to team up and bring the project back to life in 2001, the wait is nearly over as TVG found out recently with a Hands-On playtest of the game.
TVG was also fortunate enough to get a further insight into what's already shaping up to be one of the most wanted titles for 2006 as we chatted with Timothy Gerritsen,
Chairman, CEO, and Internal Producer on Prey at Human Head Studios.
Prey dates back to the days of a former era in first-person-shooters; can you give our readers a brief recap on its story and the reasons behind its resurrection?
Prey was begun in the mid 1990's as an internal project at 3DRealms. They had a very ambitious design and a solid group of programmers working on a brand new engine set to challenge the likes of Quake and the not even announced yet Unreal. However, after a couple of misfires and staff shakeups at 3DRealms, the project was shelved in 1998. 3DRealms felt they couldn't pull off the project they had envisioned at that time with their competing interest in getting the next Duke Nukem off the ground.
In early 2001, after Human Head Studios had completed and shipped Rune, we were approached by 3DRealms about working together on a future project. They were big fans of Rune and saw something in us they wanted to cultivate. We talked for a while about numerous concepts, but ultimately decided to resurrect Prey. We began design work on the game in late 2001.
"The engine is based on Doom3, however, so it isn't really fair to say it is a 'portaling' engine, but rather a modification of the Doom3 engine that includes portals as a new feature."
What is the relationship with 3D Realms like and is the vision behind Prey similar to that dating back to 1995 - can the team fully realise the "Portal Engine" with the current technology (believed to be the reason behind the original cancellation) or have you changed this considerably?
The relationship has been extremely beneficial to both parties. 3DRealms has excellent game design sense, and they brought that to the table. That said, they also gave us a lot of room to run free with the concept and come up with our own design concepts for the game. They gave us the original designs to look at, but didn't restrict us. Internally, we really wanted to resurrect the Portal concept, and made that a very large focus of the development and had our first prototypes of portals up quite early. The engine is based on Doom3, however, so it isn't really fair to say it is a 'portaling' engine, but rather a modification of the Doom3 engine that includes portals as a new feature. We embraced some of the early portal ideas of the original concept, but rejected others, while bringing our own ideas on it to the table.
Few details were released on the original concept's storyline, although we did know that the game would be set in outer space; the main character would be a Native American named Talon Brave and the game would feature four alien races. Has any of this stayed the same and can you elaborate on the setting/storyline behind Prey now?
We really like the idea of exploring the concept of a Native American within a sci fi setting, however, those are really the only elements of the original story that remain. We changed the nature of the story quite a bit to make it focus on the character of Tommy more. He's really just a man who is trying to survive a situation well beyond his initial understanding. It's more of a horror story intertwined within the story of Tommy. He rejects his heritage and the strength of his culture, but events rapidly get well beyond his personal problems and force him, reluctantly, to take the mantle of a hero.
Tommy, the main character, is ultimately abducted onto a living starship. It's made of living tissue and uses organic material (the people it abducts) for food. Our guiding principal for the story line was "What would you do in a situation like that?" We wanted this to be a perspective anyone could connect with, regardless of their personal heritage.
What kind of moderations will be made on the Doom 3 engine to enable more then just interior scenes and can it capitalize on Prey's ambitions?
We try quite hard to mix up the environments of the game. There are some very claustrophobic indoor areas, but also huge cavernous areas as well. We take you out into space where you can fly around in a small shuttle, as well as taking you to a large outdoor southwest setting. We pushed the engine to its limits in what we could present visually and tried to mix it up to keep the player interest in the game.
"We really like the idea of exploring the concept of a Native American within a sci fi setting, however, those are really the only elements of the original story that remain."
Early information hints at a strong level of interaction within Prey and its environments, can you talk about this a little and provide a few examples?
Sure. We wanted the world to feel accessible, so you can interact with many of the machines or objects you find. There's a segment in a bar in Oklahoma where you can play several arcade games that are in the bar, or watch tv, or turn on the sinks or hit up the juke box and get your favorite music tracks going. That spirit of interactivity repeats itself on the alien starship you visit later.
What are some of the unique features that will make Prey stand out from the crowd and appeal beyond just those who've been waiting for the last eight years?
The current Prey is really a whole new project. We started with a clean slate, so we didn't intend on carrying on the legacy of the original title. Instead we just took the bits we like best and put them within the larger context of making a first person shooter that set the genre on its ear. We didn't want to just have the same run and gun as has been present for the last several years. To that end, we've added feature after feature in the game to make you think differently about what a first person shooter is and what it can be. We think anyone who likes games and is tired of the same old system of first person shooter gaming will find something that will make them smile.
Naturally a FPS is only as good as the weapons it features so perhaps you'd like to tell us about the type of weaponry players can get their hand on?
All of the weapons except the wrench you bring with you to the ship (you were a mechanic on the reservation) are alien in nature and we tried to put an organic component to them. Some weapons are quite literally alive, such as the crawlers, who are made of volatile goo that explodes when you throw them, or the rifle that wriggles as you carry it, and has a living stalk that comes out to suck on to your eyeball to give you a sniper scope.
One concern we had in the design was making the weapons too alien, however, to be enjoyable. Therefore we spent a lot of time making sure the weapons had a good visceral feedback to them. When you hit something you feel like you are making an impact, and when you fire the weapon, you feel like you are really doing some damage.
"The combination of a modern real world story and a fantastic sci fi universe gives us many possibilities for future Prey games."
Level designs actually appear to be at the forefront of Prey's design, can you talk a little about the design process and the type of environments/challenges presented to players?
Most of the new features in Prey are integral to level design, and thus caused us a bit of difficulty in wrapping our heads around them early on. We have the ability to manipulate gravity, or have you walk up magnetic surfaces. In addition, we have the portal system that can whisk you away to another place just by stepping through. Those elements required us to think long and hard about navigation of levels, and about making the experience an interesting one beyond just the horizontal plane.
Another design focus we had was not just using our features as one time gimmicks. We wanted to make sure that once we showed you a new feature, you could use it, or would be required to use it continuously throughout the game. That includes vehicles. Therefore we redesigned elements many times to make sure you were using all of the skills we teach you early on.
Will Prey offer an extensive array of game modes and what kind of multiplayer focus will the game have?
The game was predominantly focused on single player from the get go. However, we wanted a strong multiplayer element as well. We're a small development house, though, so resources were limited. Many developers try to throw in whatever they can in an attempt to make things stick. We didn't want to do that. Instead, we focused on a very strong deathmatch and team deathmatch system that allows you to use each of the single player features. This meant a whole new way of thinking about deathmatch gaming.
It was a gamble for us, since deathmatch has become quite stale in recent years. People have looked for new features to make up for the generic sameness that deathmatch has become. We feel our gamble paid off, however, as the inclusion of things like wall walk, spirit walk, gravity control and our shuttle vehicles makes for a uniquely intense deathmatch experience. The reaction we've gotten in testing is that Prey makes deathmatch fun again.
Finally in 1997 Prey was talked about as part of a series with the promise that Talon Brave's story would continue beyond the one game; is this your hope for Prey as it stands now or is the game contained within the one adventure?
We've seen from the beginning the possibilities of Prey developing into a series of stories about the world that Tommy encounters. The combination of a modern real world story and a fantastic sci fi universe gives us many possibilities for future Prey games.
aliendon73
Date Added:Sat 11th Nov 2006 18:23
aliendon73
Date Added:Sat 11th Nov 2006 18:23
aliendon73
Date Added:Sat 11th Nov 2006 18:20