Q: Some of the mountain shots are awesome, recently Phil sent me one of a snow covered mountain shots and the attention to detail is outstanding, how long does it take to design and implement something like that?

A: I wish I could take the credit for it, but that’s mainly down to the Rock Solid engine… What makes it so great is that I basically told it ‘Put some sort of mountain here please’…. And it goes away and creates it and makes it look natural…. If we were to actually have to build the mountains and all the small landscape nuances (hills, valleys, whatever) locally then we’d never get the game finished. Items like the textures and vegetation are placed procedurally so the engine simply knows what to place and at what altitude…. Hmmm, it makes it sound like I don’t actually do much ;).

Q: Will these mountains be passable and have secrets hidden within them?

A: Current design thinking (which has been known to change now and again ;)) is that you will be able to go pretty much anywhere you like – but if you wanted to climb a steep slope like that of a mountain then the ‘climbing’ animations would kick in and your progress would be painfully slow – so it’s in your own best interest to search for easier alternative routes. Secrets? Of course…. A lot of our plans for dungeon entrances rely heavily on mountains, the engine also creates nice dips and hollows up in the mountains which will be ideal for hiding stuff in…. although I can’t reveal too much, obviously ;).