Latest Features
StarCraft II Q&AWoW: Wrath of the Lich King Q&AMassive Entertainment: Moving ForwardsGC08 - Empire: Total War Q&AToo Human Q&AUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Worms 3DWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Worms 3 Interview Feature
Stephen Leyton
29/04/2003
It was nearly 10 years ago when Worms came onto the scene, now they return in all new 3D. We check the game out with this exclusive interview with Team 17.
Was it really nearly 10 years ago we first saw Worms? In the 1990s everything that Team 17 did was a success and they were seen as one of the young progressive developers come publishers. Thankfully they are still with us in the guise of a mere developer but still with a passion that other developers respect.
Worms, a turn based strategy game that anyone can understand and more importantly play, is still full of inventive ideas with imaginative cast and eye-catching graphics. Martin Brown, one of the people behind not only the success of this company but Worms, was on hand to speak to Derek dela Fuente in glowing terms about Worms 3. It might look a fun and simple gaming idea but it is also a game of complexity and rock solid strategy!
The Worms 3D core development team is very large (around 35, without including the QA team). This is approximately 2-3 times the size of the personnel who created the 2d games, which was hugely successful. Along with new people there is still a fair number of the staff that worked on the 2D series and who know the game very, very well. As a result avid gamers can be assured that the team is working to produce the âWorms magicâ in 3D, with as close a transition to the 3D environments as possible. âMost people who have seen Worms 3 have been very pleasantly surprised and the way the game plays, looks and feels, surpasses their expectations since many consider how some 2D games have translated poorly to 3D.â
With the evolution of time have come more powerful machines, which in turn presents new opportunities for a development team. âWe couldnât have developed Worms 3D on any other generation of hardware before this â“ absolutely not. Weâve maintained for some time that we needed quite considerable polygon throughput to do the game properly in 3D. We have developed a whole new technology hybrid for the game, which suits the game absolutely perfectly, and as a result we see totally free-form destructible environments (without limit) in a way that plays identically to the 2D series. The 3D environments have enabled our designers to run a little wild, and thatâs a good thing! Our focus is more on making sure we have a great game on our hands rather than a desire to be cutting edge. We want our game to look great, look appealing, feel good and play as Wormsâs fans know. The fact that weâve developed an entirely new technology (unique as far as we can tell right now) is not the most important thing.â
Although Worms 3 has the console market, as a focus the PC is always very important, which must be welcomed, as Worms 3 is a refreshing change to the constant diet of deep strat games that all look alike. Traditionally Worms has been a strong PC game, along with its strong online support!
One may consider that Worms 3 can offer nothing that hasnât been done before but you could not be further from the truth. The 3D platform, along with the latest technology, is such a quantum leap forward for the game that that alone would satisfy most gamers. The fact is, as
Martin explained, that this is a completely new generation of Worms, far more impressive and visually rewarding than ever before. They also have plenty of nice surprises to ensure itâll get the attention it deserves!The fact that itâs in 3D means that it plays a little differently - even if the game feels a little similar. I think thereâs a slight leaning towards more action than drawn-out strategy, which suits the console side a little more. In terms of themes, there are some great looking levels (all of which can be randomly generated) and some stunning single player missions that look very different to most games!
Many levels are still in design, many of which have outline designs complete and are being textured and special effects added. The design of the game missions is very, very different to the 2D series â“ even if a lot of the old content is there. There will be a full single player menu, with skirmish battles, mission campaigns, tutorials and challenges. There will be lots of unlocks too. The PC version has a very comprehensive 3D environment editor that will ship with the game. The game also has a great random level generator.
One of the most important focuses, aside from actual game play, which many will understand, is the games look and presentation, which revolves around the games engine.
âThe main focus for the engine has been four-fold:
- 1. An effective free-form 3D mesh destruction system that would work on all platforms â“ giving us the ability to deform and destroy the mesh in any way, with an automatic system to handle this fairly dynamically.
- 2. An intuitive camera system that handles the complex occlusion problems caused by environments that are constantly changing.
- 3. To automate the rendering process, with the engine handling lighting, shadowing, details, etc. without the need for artists to do this, thus speeding up level design and opening it up to our community.
- 4. To support many special particle effects. Explosions need effects!â
âAs I said earlier, weâve gone out to make the game visually appealing (in a cartoon environment) and if itâs in there, itâs to facilitate the game play.â
Up until now it is a fair comment to say that the CPU AI has probably been the weakest point of the 2D series since it was pretty much always an afterthought, with more thought going on the multiplayer and online play. However with Worms 3D the team has taken a close look at this and believe the AI will be much improved in terms of itâs use of weapons, strategies and be more of a personality. Martin added â“ âCombining this with interesting mission design and some great challenge modes, itâs by far the best single player Worms experience to date â“ if anything it means the single player can certainly enjoy repeated CPU battles on random levels and feel like theyâre playing a human-style player.â
There are many not âpuzzlesâ as such in the missions this time, and they are more objective and skilful than the 2D series. The levels are obviously bigger and vary greatly in style and goals. It is hard to get the team to be more specific on the objectives of the game as within Worms this was what the game was all about. Needless to say the Worms have more traits/skills and there are, of course, more weapons to use and complex solving to undertake.
Control of the worms and undertaking the tasks you confront has been made a lot easier! âWe have refined the controls and added new functions for the 3D game. The game is generally played in 3rd person, with auto/manual camera control. Other cameras such as 1st person (for some weapons), âblimpâ (overhead, again for some weapons) and orbital (with rotation/yaw) allow the player to have a good look around. The game will track action with cool camerawork too.â
Sound and music are not overlooked as the team has decided to re-do all speech banks and pretty much all the sound effects, so it will sound fresh. For the first time there will also be independent music and ambience on the background audio, so the user can set the kind of atmosphere they want.
Martin ended with a request for us to come back in around 5 months to see and get a final take on all the inspirational ideas created but parted with a final few words â“
âWorms 3D is the ultimate action-strategy game for single players, friends, parties or even your worst enemy⦠Itâs Worms how it was meant to be, itâs Worms re-born."
