Posted: 01-06-05 In: Interviews By: Munro2 |


Halflife2.net: Elysium 2028 has been in development for a little over 2 years now and your design team has just recently chosen Valve’s Source Engine. What were some of the specific reasons behind this decision?

Brendan: At the beginning, we actually had the Deus Ex 2 engine in mind, and also considered UT2004, but after a while Source became the obvious choice. It's visually beautiful, very flexible, and the existing support for vehicles was very attractive. We were also happy with the excellent support infrastructure Valve is creating for modders with Steam.

Halflife2.net: What stage of development is Elysium 2028 in at the moment?

Brendan: Since HL2 and the SDK are not released yet, progress has been slow, sometimes nonexistent over the months as we were all busy with jobs or university. The delayed release of HL2 actually benefited us, because at this point we all have a little more free time and we've been able to coordinate very well and start accelerating our effort. At this moment the design is very mature, the episode 1 script is done, and work on models, textures, sound and music has started relatively recently.

Halflife2.net: Will Elysium 2028 be a fast paced shooter style game, or a stealth game based on tactics?

Brendan: We've tried to strike a balance between both. The single player game will often call for either firepower or stealth, and many times we'll offer multiple ways to achieve a goal, leaving the choice of methods to the player. I have to say that while there will be plenty of chances to try to be Rambo, our damage model is a bit unforgiving, and attacking a score of heavily armed men without giving your actions some thought may result in grisly death. You've been warned. Multiplayer is going to be similar. Instead of having one generic gameplay mode where the primary objective is killing the enemy, we're going to have an array of scenarios involving two and sometimes three teams where every team is put into a role and given one or more conflicting objectives. Matches may involve Counter-Strike style combat, or Splinter Cell-esque infiltration, or even some scenarios that are race-like. Importantly, multiplayer will combine conflict outside and inside the Elysium network, but right now we aren't going to give away a lot of precise details on the latter, because we don't want to have people's hearts set on something if we decide to change it around a little during play testing. You'll have to come and talk to us about that when the mod has advanced more.

Halflife2.net: One of the more innovative ideas you guys plan to release is to separate the game into six different episodes. How will the story transition into each chapter? What kind of locations will each chapter feature?

Brendan: Each episode will be several levels in a single world location. There will be cut scenes at the beginning and end of each episode to transition the player. We thought releasing the game episodically would be the best idea. Since each location shares a lot of the same sounds and textures, we can focus entirely on one episode before moving to the next, and this way we keep people waiting for an initial release as little as possible (while maximizing withdrawal symptoms for the following ones). The locations and their order has been pretty much finalized, and we have some pretty exotic places in store, but we don't want to give anything away other than that the game starts, of course, in Hong Kong.

Halflife2.net: The development team is a bit short with only four people currently working on the project. Was there any times where you feared that the release date was going to be delayed because of the shortage of staff members?

Brendan: In the words of our resident Scandinavian: "It was touch and go for a while." We're not sure where he was going or what he was touching, but to answer the question, no. We did have a small team, but then we didn't have much to do. Now that HL2 is looming, we've been expanding the team, and have picked up a few talented individuals but we still need skilled people to help with modelling and 2D art.

Halflife2.net: As a team of game designers, you would know that different styles of gameplay attract different audiences of gamers. What audience is Elysium 2028 planning on capturing?

Brendan: I like to think that anyone who likes FPS games or dark, twisting film-noir thrillers will be happy. As far as the story goes, if you liked movies like Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell, you'll like this game. With regards to the gameplay itself, we're mixing a lot of styles, from Deus Ex and System Shock to Max Payne, to Raven Shield. There should be something for all FPS fans, and a few things you haven't seen before, especially what we're doing to incorporate the Elysium network into multiplayer.

Halflife2.net: Even though the Source Engine is mainly first person orientated, do you plan on any of the game to be in third person? Maybe when driving, ala Halo?

Brendan: Unless it’s in a cinematic sequence, the perspective is always first person.

Halflife2.net: Because of the lack of a physics system in Half-Life, the support for vehicles was very poor. Half-Life 2 has changed this dramatically and with the introduction of the physics system, do you plan on taking advantage of this feature in Elysium?

Brendan: Yes. Cars will figure significantly in the game, both single player and multiplayer, and we plan on putting a lot of effort into them to make them realistic and fun to drive, including features like manual gear shifting. You might find yourself involved in a car chase or two. In multiplayer, most modes will see each team given a car to use as they see fit, and some scenarios may be designed almost exclusively for cars. Ever watch Ronin?

Halflife2.net: As I understand it, the player can only hold only two weapons at once, much like Counter-Strike. Can you explain how the inventory system works?

Brendan: The inventory system isn't quite so restrictive. Much like Deus Ex, System Shock, and Planetside, everything you can carry takes up space in grid-like inventory compartments. You have one such compartment intended for your primary weapon, one for your secondary, and a number of others, "pockets", for things like grenades, spare ammo, or supplementary items. But there is no real restriction on how you use the space you have. The compartments in your inventory are sized so that you can only carry one large primary weapon, such as an assault rifle, but if you want, you can ditch the rifle and use the space for two more pistols. Or you can opt to leave a secondary weapon in favour of more ammo for your primary, or more grenades, etc.

Halflife2.net: In Elysium 2028 there seems to be a large arsenal lined up for the player to use. Do you have an exact number of weapons, and what are the basic categories of these weapons?

Brendan: Whether it's a large arsenal by many people's standards, I'm not sure. We have a quality-over-quantity philosophy with weapons. While lots of guns are good, we want to make sure that the ones we choose to include are right for the game. Each episode will introduce new weapons and include new multiplayer scenarios, so I can't give you the exact number of guns as it is bound to change constantly. The early releases will likely feature only about a dozen guns, most of them modern or exotic weapons, such as the Heckler and Koch MP-7, the new XM-8 rifle, and the Chinese army's QBZ-95. Don't expect rocket launchers initially. Right now the heaviest thing we have in mind is the HK69 grenade launcher that can be seen already modelled on the site.

Halflife2.net: The Source engine looks spectacular, but there is a missing element about it - cinematics. The Source engine wasn't created for cinematics in mind but as the site states, Elysium 2028 will feature many cut scenes. What did the development team do to enhance the cinematics in Elysium?

Brendan: We are acutely aware of HL2's limitation in this regard. We spoke to Rick Ellis at Valve in person about this. Four hours and one SWAT team later, we decided that it would be a good idea to start with writing our own tools for camera control to facilitate the creation of high quality cinematic scenes. Hopefully we can make whatever tools we create available for other modders to use as well.

Halflife2.net: Once again I'd like to thank Brendan for taking time of his busy life to participate in this interview. For more background information on Elysium 2028, visit their website here.