Интервью с Винсом Фаркухарсоном об игре Evolva

Vince Farquharson (Computer Artworks Ltd., Producer of Evolva) gives us some details about their upcoming third person tactical action game, Evolva.

(1) stonewall: This game has been described as a genre defining "Tactical Shoot ‘em up". Could you explain what differentiates Evolva from other, similar games?

Vince Farquharson: There are many things that set Evolva apart. The Mutator technology is one area that has been highlighted. This is where the player is able to customise & personalise there Genohunters as they progress through the game allowing them to create a unique set by the end. They can then use their unique Genohunters online in deathmatches to see who has bred the ultimate fighting team. Other areas of note are the multiple unit control. You always have direct control of one of your Genohunters and the others operate on a combination of AI and and a simple command interface. It allows for a lot of player control whilst still allowing them to be in the thick of the action. Add to this the advances we are making in AI, graphics etc and you get something which we think sets it apart from its peers.

(2) stonewall: One of the most intriguing things (for me) about Evolva is that the skills that your Genohunters develop will be a result of your particular style of play. Could you elaborate on how this is done with an example?

Vince: As you progress through the game you gain new abilities and weapons from the creatures you defeat. Players will be able to make choices throughout the game via Mutator as to how they wish to balance these abilities. E.g. a player may prefer to have fast Genohunters which are good at hand to hand combat where as another player may choose slow moving Genohunters which are good at projectile combat. As each Genohunter can be mutated individual they may choose to have both of these options catered for in their team. There are many weapons and abilities in the game that can be balanced off against each other in this way. They can all be powered up to higher levels and Mutator also allows for random and aesthetic mutations to spice things up. The way these guys end up is down to the player.

(3) stonewall: It has been said that by the end of the game the Genohunter’s abilities can have over a billion different combinations. What types of ability variables will there be? Different types of weapons? Flight?

Vince: Here's the list of weapons/abilities that feature in the game: Claws, Spike gun, Flame-breath, Spore-cannon, Electricity, Stealth, Shield, Mucous, Necrocytes, Gene-disruptor, Armour, Speed, Jump, Sticky-foot. Add to this the aesthetic mutations such as colour, spikes and body adornments, muscle development, fat/thin etc. You'll have to wait to see exactly what all of these do or how they look but it enables players to get some pretty cool stuff into their Genohunters.

(4) stonewall: How will the acquisition of DNA work? Does the hunter that makes the final kill get to use the DNA or is it shared between all four of your hunters by eating certain parts of the victim?

Vince: When a creature dies it can be broken in to body bits. These body bits are absorbed by any Genohunter which is near enough. The genes from the meat are spread between all four of the Genohunters.

(5) stonewall: How was the modeling and character art-work accomplished? Are there a finite number of model variations for the hunters or does the look of the hunter vary dynamically with the skills they have acquired?

Vince: The 3D art content of the game was modelled using patches which allows us to output at arbitrary poly levels based on the capabilities of the system running Evolva. This allows us to produce some very high detail scenes on cards such as this GeForce where our creatures are being drawn with typically 7000 polys with 10 + creatures on screen at any one time. Obviously not everyone has a top spec machine which is why this ability to vary poly levels is as useful on lower spec machines where we compensate by dropping the poly count to up the framerate. The Genohunters are also skinned which allows us to deform the bodies, we add in meshes too for things like spikes on the body and weapons but these all have multiple variants and can be added at multiple points so it keeps the potential for variation very high.

(6) stonewall: ‘Fuzzy-logic’ has been a hot topic in game development for some time now. How have you managed to implement it so both the enemies and your other hunters react appropriately to different situations? Does this AI result in unique and surprising behaviours? Does it prevent behaviour "loop-holes" where using a particular tactic proves as an infallible way to defeat enemies?

Vince: The AI in Evolva is something which has had a lot of work done on it and is providing us with a lot of benefits. The 'Fuzzy-logic' system allows us to move away from the on rails or hard coded behavioural system of most games. All the creatures in Evolva have emotional centres which govern their behaviour such as fear, aggression, proximity of friends, proximity of foes, memory. What this means for us as developers and gamers is that rather than having a pre-set behaviour for a creature we set up a bias for the creatures behaviour. E.g we can set up a level where a creature is attacking another creature. With traditional on rails AI if the player managed to bypass the route to this set piece that the developer has put in place, they may be able to approach the creatures and realise that they are effectively non-interactive and unaware of the players presence. What we do in Evolva is ramp up both creatures aggression and stick them in close proximity which mean they will fight. Now if the player manages to get in the middle of this and starts attacking one of the creatures enough it is going to have the creatures aggression towards the player outweigh that of it aggression to the other creature, in which case it will attack the player. This is a very simple example but this re-evaluation of behaviour is being done constantly which gives very realistic behaviour for all the creatures in the game, whether it be 'who their real enemy should be' or ' whether their attack is working & should they try an alternative'.

(7) stonewall: Evolva will have a heavy dose of battle strategy but will also include puzzles. Will these puzzles focus around having the right Genohunter skills to get past a situation?

Vince: Yes, the abilities you gain are linked with the puzzles you need to solve. For example there may be a chasm which blocks progress to a new area of the map. The way the player could solve this is by finding a creature which is particularly good at jumping. The player would then kill the creature and absorb its genes which would allow the player to mutate their Genohunter to have the 'Jump' ability. This would then allow them to jump the chasm and gain access to the new area.

(8) stonewall: The parasitic enemies will not only attack your hunters but also the creatures inhabiting the planet. The creators of Half-Life said that this type of scenario allowed them to show off the AI while adding suspense at the same time. Are these some of the same reasons Evolva will have these types of possibilities? Are the creatures from this planet capable killers as well or just pushovers?

Vince: The Parasite that is invading the planet is trying to wipe out the indigenous population so the fuzzy-logic AI has allowed us to do many nice scenes which allows the player to either sit back and watch or get directly involved. The indigenous creatures are not as savage as the Parasite but they will defend themselves if they feel they have no choice.

(9) stonewall: Genohunters "assimilate" the DNA of their kills while trying to defend the planet from parasitic enemies. This begs the question, which species is the real plague in the game? ;)

Vince: Although the Genohunters are trying to defeat the Parasite it is not for completely selfless reasons. The Parasite breeds by growing eggs and exploding the planet to launch them on to the next set of planets, where it repeats the process. The Evolva and their ultimate warriors the Genohunters are simply looking out for their own interests. If some of the indigenous population has to be sacrificed to the greater good then so be it.

(10) stonewall: The alien parasites have scattered eggs in all directions to infect many planets. The plot of Evolva seems to leave the door wide open for follow-up games. How does succeeding in saving this one planet help the player save the universe?

Vince: It removes the imminent danger to the Evolva's home planet which is near to the infected planet. However who knows when or where other Parasite eggs may be discovered.

(11) stonewall: The screenshots that have been released for Evolva show large scale outdoor areas with genuine looking scenery (although I have never seen an alien planet personally ;). How will the game run on a typical system?

Vince: Due to the scalability of the game engine Evolva will run on anything from a 233 with a voodoo 1 or equivalent and up. Even at the lowest settings the game looks good.

(12) stonewall: With the Evolva release scheduled for early next year is it now officially crunch time at your offices? What is left to do?

Vince: Oh yes. We are on the final straight at the moment and the majority of the work is going into minor gameplay tweaking based on test feedback and ironing out the remaining bugs. A few more weeks and I'll be able to take the padlock off the front door and let the team explain to their loved ones where they've been for the last 2 years :)

My thanks to Vince Farquharson for providing us with lots of great Evolva info! I can't wait to try out the demo that came in a bundle with my GeForce :)

by stonewall, 1999