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Will Rock Interview Preview Preview
Stephen Leyton
26/11/2002
2003 is going to be a happy time for action gamers as the list of First-Person Shooters is growing daily...
2003 is going to be a happy time for action gamers as the list of First-Person Shooters is growing daily and there are some class acts on the way, including Will Rock from US developer Saber Interactive, published by one of the largest publishers worldwide, UBiSoft.
FPS and technology go hand in hand on the PC and Saber Interactive is a company which has a lot of focus on the advancement of technology and creation of tools. The thorny issue is that most developer spout off about their innovative ideas and engine along with made up vocabulary to confuse, whereas there is nothing really disernable about what they are showing. Matthew Karch, President and CEO at Saber Interactive, agreed with these comments and explained in detail about his company's ideas to correspondent Derek dela Fuente.
"I agree, in the majority of PC games the average gamer really can't discern one 3D engine from the next. In my opinion, this is due to the legitimate desire by publishers to make the game available to as wide an audience as possible. Thus most games are made with minimum specs in mind. It is difficult to really show off your technology when you have to create a game that runs on machines with slow processors and outdated video cards. So all games have the same sort of look that really prevents you from distinguishing one game from the next and therefore one engine from the next. There is only one company I know of that can make a game where the minimum spec is a Radeon 9700. Most companies need to think about the guy who hasn't been able to upgrade to the Geforce III or Radeon 8500 (or better). What distinguishes many games is the quality of artwork. In our case, we have extremely talented artists who have tremendous experience in developing 3D art for in-game art and animations.â
"Having said that, there are certain elements which do set the high-end engines apart from the rest of the crop. The first is optimisations. The better your rendering pipeline is optimised the more detailed your scenes can be. The better engines are finely tuned and streamlined to render scenes quickly. The second element, which sets apart the great engines, is feature set. The more robust engines support a wide range of features such as bump mapping, projected shadows, detail textures, mirrors, dynamic lighting and a host of others. Of course, each of these elements needs to be highly optimised as well in order for it to be used in a game.â
"As far as Saber is concerned, we have always been a technology-first company. Two programmers, who, in my opinion, are easily among the worldâs best, created our engine. (I hope they don't read this or I am in trouble.) In addition to creating a fast rendering engine that supports a very wide range of highly optimised features, they have gone the extra mile to create features not seen anywhere else. For example, we have implemented a combination of rigid body dynamics and the real-time calculation of object break points to render, in real-time, the breaking of any object we designate as breakable. The in-game implications of this technology are remarkable. When a player shoots a breakable object, the object breaks as it would in the real world and its components fall and bounce naturally. This not only adds a large dose of realism to the game environment but has real game play implications. Using our technology, for example, we could have a player break through a wall. As the wall breaks outward, any opponent unfortunate enough to be hit by the falling chunks will get killed. This adds strategically to the game play by allowing the player to time when to break the wall. Another game play implication, in the case of Will Rock, is the Medusa Gun. This weapon turns an opponent to stone (in real time) and breaks him up into pieces. Another example of technology that we have created that is not only cool but also functional is real-time procedural morphing. This technology allows us to realistically morph objects in real-time. We have used this technology in many of our in-game weapons to melt, shrivel and blow opponents up like balloons - all procedurally - while the opponent continues to move. No other FPS has integrated weapons that employ such advanced technology for the end-effect in Will Rock there are many ways for an opponent to die."
Talking the talk only stands for something if you truly have a good game and at this stage Will Rock looks like it is heading in the right direction.
Hand in hand with technology comes concept and ideas and Matthew, along with the assistance of Vladimir Chernysh, the Art Director, came up with the concept. Having played Doom, Unreal, Quake and Serious Sam they wanted to create their own slant with a story that was also pivotal to the game They knew they could create something that could compete and even surpass these titles in terms of technology and visuals.
Will Rock's strong story centres around Willford Rockwell (aka Will Rock), an unlikely hero whose body is inhabited by the spirit of a defiant Titan. Launched into a fantastic adventure through time, Will arrives in Ancient Greece where he must battle some of mythology's most powerful foes.
Players will experience fast-paced shooter action through 10 huge varied levels and additional expertly designed multiplayer maps. The Ancient Greek/Roman setting allows for unique weapons that support the game's theme, including a Medusa Gun, Flaming Crossbow and Acid Rifle. The game's âreal-time shatteringâ technology allows for a wealth of breakable objects, providing gamers with the experience of a truly interactive environment. With Will Rock's advanced game play technology and level design, players must rely on both quick thinking and reactions to solve environmental puzzles and survive the hardcore action!
"In order to better support the storyline and fully explore this rich area of Greek mythology, we have limited the environment to the hills, valleys, cities, dungeons, coliseums, theatres, rivers and caves surrounding Mount Olympus of ancient Greece, with a large dose of fantasy and artistic freedom thrown in. The areas are very diverse - there is little repetition of environments, texturing, etc. There are over 25 opponents in the game and dozens of different types of environments. â
In one area of the game, you are attempting to enter the great Coliseum. A row of snipers appear under the arches of the coliseum wall. You must duck and shoot your way through this area in order to avoid getting killed.
In another area, you exit a stone mine and descend through a cave to an opening on a plateau surrounded by mountains. You are attacked simultaneously by hordes of rats, numbering over 50 at a time. In the course of this battle you will have killed nearly 500 opponents before you can move on.
The strongest selling points of Will Rock are the visuals and the game play along weapons. There is certainly justification that the screenshots do not do the game justice - it really looks awesome. The world that we have created is very real and detailed. The weapons are also lots of fun. In what other game can you turn an opponent to stone or melt, shrivel and burn him, or even blow him up and pop him like a balloon?
âWill Rock is very immersive. Lots of objects to break, bridges to lower, catapults and battering rams to activate, etc. There is also a myriad of opponents and types of attacks, so a real challenge is offered!â
As in many FPS games, as you progress, you are rewarded with bigger weapons offering different modes of attack. Of course, bigger is not always better. One of our guys can complete the entire game with nothing more than our default weapons - a shovel and a revolver - he is probably the only person in the world who could do this.
There is some in-game dialogue between Will and his alter ego Prometheus, along with cut scenes. Most of the story, however is told comic-style, ala Max Payne. In addition to the typical stuff - Health, Armour, Points, Weapon in Use, Ammo Remaining and Power Ups available. We also have gold points, which tie in to our power-up sub-game, that I mentioned earlier.
