Xenus Interview

2003-04-22

Xenus is being developed by Deep Shadows, we had the chance to ask them a few questions about this upcoming game.

RPGDot: Who are you and what do you do at Deep Shadows

Alexander: Hello! My name is Alexander Khrutsky and I’m a dialogues and script-writer at the Deep Shadows team.

RPGDot: Deep Shadows started out as a developer of a game engine. Was it always planned to develop games as well?

Alexander: Actually, the main part of Deep Shadows team worked on the successful project, Codename: Outbreak, before Xenus. All of us had experience in creating games and wished to continue our favorite work. From the very foundation of Deep Shadows we knew that we wanted to organize game development company. The work on the Vital engine was an important step in our technical development. Besides, the engine upgrade was desperately needed for the game we planned to make.

RPGDot: What are the benefits of having both the engine development and the game development in house.

Alexander: This is easy, when you’re creating the engine for your own game – you can take into consideration all the special details and features of your project exactly. Moreover, the first version of the Vital engine is to be considered as a powerful development. We’ve kept the programmers, authors of the engine team and we’ve been working on it with pleasure. And, our engine is quite universal, so we plan to license it as the standalone product. For the moment Xenus takes all our thoughts.

RPGDot: What were the biggest enhancements of this new engine, with respect to the previous one?

Alexander: We modernized the engine in almost all possible parameters. The new version has up to 300 000 polygons per frame and allows to hold a large territory in the player’s sight due to easing the more distant objects. The level physics is quite equal to Havok by its power. Gaming fields occupy a large territory, thoroughly developed and highly detailed. We also included a set of ready physic models of vehicles, etc. In total, the upgrade affected almost all sides of the engine, and we’ll try to show all innovations in Xenus, which is the first game based on Vital 2.

RPGDot: Can you tell us something more about the storyline in Xenus?

Alexander: I think you already know that the story is based on the search for a young girl who had been lost in Colombia during her trip as a journalist. She is the sister of the main character, Kevin Myers, who decides to leave his peaceful life and go to the search for his relative by himself. Coming into a mysterious and dangerous country, Kevin finds himself in the very thick of things, where he is confronted with the six main groups, the rulers of Colombia. The relationships with these different sides will play a main part in success of achieving Kevin’s aim.

RPGDot: Xenus is your second game, what have you learned from Outbreak that is now put into Xenus?

Alexander: Xenus is based on a new version of Codename: Outbreak’s engine and we tried to keep and improve the high graphic characteristics in this new project. There are many more details and elements, but the main thing Codename: Outbreak gave to us is the real experience of a finished and successful project. To feel the process of development, to know fine and sticking points and to know how to avoid or overcome them – this is the priceless experience.

RPGDot: Xenus claims to have both Action and RPG elements. Why are you confident that you are able to mix the two into something good?

Alexander: Really, we saw many games in a similar genre, but in all of them one genre was prevailing – playing, for example, in immortal Deus Ex, we missed the role side, and in an RPG the part of action adrenaline is desperately missing. It always seemed unjust that we feel something missing in our favorite genres and games. We can make both an RPG and a high quality action game. So why shouldn’t we try and combine our skills and abilities and make the project that will meet the most exigent requirements, and will be the first in its own way. We always tried to bring something new in the development, and such full mix of genres is one of the main innovations of Xenus project.

RPGDot: What RPG elements are there in the game? And in what way do they allow us to influence the character? Do you level up?

Alexander: We reflected all traditional elements of an RPG in Xenus. At first, this is connected with the main character and his characteristics. Twenty parameters and a system of development of Kevin Myers allow him to advance and increase his skills during the game. The complexity of the game increases proportionally with the character’s development. The system of weapons upgrade depends on Kevin’s special skill too. The character has 20% skill of weapons upgrade at the beginning. Each own experience of a weapons upgrade increases the skill independently from the success of it. But, again, if the player prefers not to risk anything – he has the ability to go to a specialist and to upgrade his weapons for money. The skill will not change in this case.

The player will have access to the history of dialogues, list of missions with their current state, and to the diary for notes – very useful for Kevin, from the thoroughly developed interface. In the new world there will be much information which will need memorization.
The indispensable part of an RPG – communication with NPC – is fully presented in Xenus.

Colombia is the country which is populated by different people. The character will be able to communicate with almost everybody, and some of them will be critically important for the development of the plot. The large and very colorful dialogue tree is being prepared for all Colombians.
The ability of alliances with NPCs is very important. For money or because of similar ideas, some NPCs can become temporary helpers for Kevin, which is sometimes desperately important.

RPGDot: Will we be able to make choices in the game and do these choices result in different outcomes?

Alexander: Really, the freedom of the player’s choice is one of the most important parts of Xenus. The choice between a battle or a dirty trick, to complete or not to complete new tasks, of friendship or confrontation with each group, self-improvement or paying money to masters, and even the choice of where to go on the huge map – it’s all the player’s choice. The player’s decision affects the story and how he goes through the game.

Xenus can be finished with the grenade launcher, wiping away everything in your way (the main thing is not to hit your sister at the end), not paying attention to the politic affairs and gangsters’ clashes, to make fun of the life of the inhabitants and to some moments in the game that can make the game much more interesting and captivating, and open many secrets of this world. You can choose a completely different position, or you can combine your actions – each choice of two or more different behaviors will open one way to you, but hide others.

RPGDot: There are six groups that start out to be neutral towards the player. What can you tell us about these groups and what makes them change their neutrality towards the player.

Alexander: These 6 groups are the main active forces in Colombia: officials, drug dealers, gangsters, guerrilla, Indians and CIA. In the beginning each side is neutral to the player – only because he is unknown to them. The groups have weapons, money and power, and also access to the more serious flows of information. The character will come across them always, and relations with an entire group will depend on his actions – will he complete their tasks, sometimes quite dirty, or not, will he cooperate with them or not, etc. But, what is much more important, the groups are in total confrontation with each other, so relations with one force automatically affect relations with all others. The hostile relations with one of the sides will bring you many unpleasant moments. All of them will try to prevent you from achieving your aim or will threaten you by danger to your life – the methods of the groups vary. But, you can have many advantages of friendship. An NPC of your current ally can help you for free and the friendly group would pay much more money for completing the task than neutral one.

RPGDot: How good is the AI of the characters in your opinion?

Alexander: It is hard for us to evaluate our product objectively, moreover, it is not finished yet, but we’ll name some AI parts. In Xenus the group actions of the enemies are worked out very well; they can calculate player’s location from gun shots, throw grenades if they are not able to reach him, and run away from the grenades. For the moment we make the first AI tests and firstly try to make the game INTERESTING.

RPGDot: How is the hit calculation implemented?

Alexander: The damage is calculated by zones. For example, the main character has 6 zones of damage, and so every injure affects different combat skills.

RPGDot: Do you support multiplayer?

Alexander: Yes, Xenus will support some multiplayer modes, including all favorite traditional of them. Also we think about a new mode, possibly, but we don’t want to make any announces before we’ll be absolutely sure. Like in Codename: Outbreak, we use ping-independent technology for our multiplayer that makes cyber game much more fast and dynamical. We also plan to support GameSpy Arcade technology.

RPGDot: Looking at the features it looks like I will need a big system to be able to run the game in its full glory. Is that true? And if so can it be configure for lower end machines?

Alexander: Really, recommended system requirements for Xenus are not so high: 1.6GHz, GF3, 256MB and sure, the more the better. We know that because of the genres mix we have very big target audience, so we try to optimize our game to the lower requirements. Minimal requirements are: 1Ghz, GF2 MX, 256 MB. Talking about the video card, we try to take all into consideration, and to realize more new possibilities which DirectX 9 gives, in the game, but Xenus will run at all GeForce cards, beginning from GeForce 2 MX.

RPGDot: What kind of views do you support? And if more are supported can we switch between them without trouble?

Alexander: The are 1st and 3rd person views available in Xenus. Player may switch between them at any time.

RPGDot: What is the best feature in Xenus in your opinion?

Alexander: My opinion is that the main feature is something new the project brings in the game development. In Xenus case the answer is, for sure, the genre features of the game. Also our aspirations for the maximum realistic sight of the game is worth mentioning.

RPGDot: What feature would you like to have had in Xenus but did not make it?

Alexander: Xenus has many features and elements. Working with the global projects, it is very important to add them moderately. We include all our ideas in the project and try not to step out the firstly planned line. Of course, we have more interesting ideas – but the new project is waiting for them!

RPGDot: What do you think will make Xenus differently from the other action-RPG's out there?

Alexander: First it includes all characteristics of the two genres. Moreover, Xenus is based on a very interesting storyline, in the best adventure traditions. We also try to create the unique atmosphere in the game, making it maximally close to the adventurous spirit of actions. We remember that the point of the previous project based on Vital engine were its nature landscapes. Of course, we tried to improve this feature, as the tropical nature gives vent to the creative ideas. One more thing we’re proud about is the originality of the characters. Excluding twins, you’ll not meet any identical people, and we also tried to make each character (and there will be a lot of them) in Xenus unique. So, you’ll not have contact with lots of identical Pedros and Miguels. In Xenus your opponents/friends/trespassers are not abstract races or types of people, but different characters. Moreover, the key characters will be even more remembering and cognate. And, the character will have a lot of vehicles to drive – from cars to planes, helicopters, yachts, etc. We could continue this list forever. ?

RPGDot: What is the scheduled release date for Xenus?

Alexander: We plan the release date on the 3rd Q of 2003. Let’s be waiting!

RPGDot: Is there something you would like to add?

Alexander: We’d like to thank all gaming community for the attention to our project. It’s our pleasure to create an expectable game. And remember – everybody is welcome to the booth # 6427 in Kentia Hall at this year E3. We’ll be happy to show you our new build!