Posted: 02-10-05 In: Interviews By: Munro2 |


A group of toughened elites, heavily armed with the most high-tech weaponry are pitched against a single, mysterious being. I have to admit it’s not exactly the most revolutionary idea; predator style hunts are practically a genre in themselves… but they are incredibly fun, as I‘ve learned from playing The Hidden!

Suicide42: First of all, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions; it’s a pleasure being able to talk with you! Before we get stuck into the main discussion, there’s something I just have to ask. While you were mostly following the concepts laid down by the original Half-Life 1 modification (for those of you who don’t know, it was a University project led by Mark Wherrett) I’ve always wondered what you drew inspiration from in order to evolve subject 617 from concept to nightmare. Was it long nights in front of a television with a bag of popcorn and a stack of horror films that gives 617 that extra outlandish touch, or did you develop his character by simply discussing what would make the game frightening?

Ging: As with everything in the mod, we base most of our ideas off amalgamations of movies, games and anything else that we find cool or interesting! Several of us are chronic movie buffs and we've spent many an hour over the past few months throwing ideas around in impromptu design sessions. Though ultimately, some ideas don't make it in because of gameplay issues (like thermal vision goggles and the like.)

Boxy: Yeah I'd say 617, actually most of the mod, is basically an amalgamation of everything we think is or would be 'cool' to have. Obviously movies are going to make a huge impact on what we create and how the mod eventually ends up looking. We also like to take the cream of the community ideas and put those in as well. At the end of the day we are creating the mod for them as well as ourselves!

Suicide42: I’ve heard you’ve all been hard at work in the lab - chopping 617 up into tiny pieces, with the intention of re-assembling him in time for the next update, along with a chilling array of new abilities and devices to scare the pants of those I.R.I.S. members. Can you outline what improvements you’ve made to Subject 617?

Ging: We've finalised his abilities at last, unleashing the full potential of 617 by allowing him to cling to walls, feed from corpses, pick up and interact with physics objects and perhaps most importantly to pick up corpses, carry them around and pin them to walls / ceilings for "storage". We have counter-balanced this with a stamina system, slowing down his game play slightly to allow for a more "scary" approach.

Boxy: Yep, the more varied interaction with the environment was a big step forward, notched up the fun factor a hell of a lot. Nothing more amusing than using IRIS bodies as human shields, throwing items around the map to confuse, disorientate and plain simple scare the IRIS team, or turn round a corner to find half the team strung up like a scene from Predator. The stamina bar is undergoing testing as it will have a big effect on how the game mechanics work, so a lot of tweaking is required to get it 'just right' before Beta2 is released.

Ed: Along with many other graphical overhauls, my part in the 'new' Hidden was to create a new higher poly mesh and to paint his texture from scratch. In the development of Beta 1, I was still learning new skills and techniques all the time, so for the characters (both I.R.I.S. and Subject 617) we had to knock together what we could from photographs which never sat well with me. Once I had learnt how to paint organic material such as clothing, faces and bodies, it was obvious all the characters would need completely redoing for Beta 2.

Suicide42: Looks like a lot of I.R.I.S. members will be phoning in sick when the next update is released. Talking of I.R.I.S, I’ve noticed that the character customisation is intentionally simple, which makes the experience more focused on getting frightened rather than deciding which combination of guns to carry. Even so, extra content is always appreciated… will you be implementing any new features to the I.R.I.S. team, such as weapons or player models?

Ging: Right now, we've not got any further new weapons or player models planned - though we've discussed it and have a few ideas up our sleeves, just nothing concrete yet.

John: We’ve tweaked the weapons for this new release; textures, models and animations have all been updated and a new pistol added to the shotgun load-out (the FNP-9).

Boxy: The community fancied a different pistol for the Shotgun class, and at first we were against any extra weapons as we wanted to keep the game as simple as possible. Eventually the FNP9 was suggested; the team mulled it over and thought it would be nice to segregate the classes a bit so we added it. Other than that, there are no immediate plans for extra weaponry, there’s not much that we could add that would change the game enough. The IRIS team have become much less cartoony from Beta 1 to Beta 2; they are based on a more professional SWAT look now.

Suicide42: Now, onto maps; there’s some brilliant level design in The Hidden: Source. Will you be adding any new maps to the fray, and if so, what are they like?

Boxy: Beta 1 shipped with five maps, Beta 2 will ship with a total of eleven maps, including two tutorial maps. There are also 'ovr' versions of three of the maps for the second game type OverRun on top of that being ovr_Docks, ovr_Derelict and ovr_Executive, so technically you could say we have fourteen maps in Beta2. The new maps for Beta2 are Derelict, Manor, Highrise, and Discovery but all Beta 1 maps have also been revised and overhauled with custom textures and models as the team felt there was too much HL2 content in the mod.

Suicide42: Excellent, it must take a lot of time to make a map; I’d imagine the hardest thing is actually designing something that can inspire fear into the players. How do you go about doing this?

Boxy: I would say that the fear is made by the players in the map rather than the map's design itself. The maps are merely designed so that 617 has the opportunities to scare the IRIS team such as have physics objects appropriately close to ledges to throw off, or have breakable scenery that gives the world more realism and interactivity. There are certain effects that add atmosphere to the maps that we could not use such as fog and volumetric lighting as it made 617 far too easy to see, which is a shame.

Suicide42: Presently, there is only one game mode that’s applied to these great maps. Are there plans for any more styles of play in the future?

John: Beta 2 introduces the ‘Overrun’ game-type; every time the Hidden makes a kill the victim comes back as another Hidden! It’s a fast and frantic last-man-standing style of play which offers a little light relief from the classic mode. It’s also ideal for new players trying to gain a little practice playing as the Hidden.

Suicide42: Finally; if you had all the time in the world, plus endless resources and you were told to create the ultimate Hidden: Source map… what would you create?

Boxy: With no limits, that’s a toughie...I'd probably be forced to go mad on draw distances, normal mapping and all the effects possible within the Source Engine. Id attempt to make some insanely detailed world, make everything interactive and destroyable, giving the Hidden plenty of opportunity to mess with the IRIS team's heads. The other problem is every mapper knows you never finish a map; it just gets 'completed' for release. There’s always more you like to add, so even given all this infinite time and resources, I'd still want more...

Ging: I just figured I'd steal a final word... All this art talk is making me uppity! Just looking back, we're suitably impressed at the amount of work that's been done by the team in the past seven to eight months in every aspect of the development, it's hard to believe that the "gameplay taster" brought anyone into our community, let alone the amazing group of people we have right now! We're hoping that Beta 2 will go a long way to putting us "on the map" in regards to the modding community!