C
-Chaos-
Guest
Few games have as enthusiastic a following as the Tribes series. The two Dynamix-developed games in the Sierra/VUGames multiplayer shooter series are still being played online by thousands of people every day. Now developer Irrational Games is taking the ball for Tribes: Vengeance, the next game in the series and in addition to a strong multiplayer element will also have a solid single player storyline campaign. HomeLAN got a chance to chat with VUGames producer Chris Mahnken to get an update and find out more about Tribes: Vengeance.
HomeLAN - First, it's been over six months since the first official announcment for Tribes: Vengeance. What has the progress been like on the game so far?
Chris Mahnken - Our progress has been excelent. As with all projects there have been some stumbling blocks, but far fewer than normal. We’re on schedule and things are looking good.
HomeLAN - Some people were surprised that Irrational Games would be creating the next game in the Tribes series. How did it come about that the developer got the gig to handle the game's creation?
Chris Mahnken - We talked with over 20 different developers when we were searching for a team to make Vengeance. We slowly whittled our list down to one very big name developer and two smaller developers and started working with them. They all turned in design docs and we went thru a round of revision and it became obvious that none of them got it. The big name wanted to make the same game they had just finished, but in Space instead of Europe. The others made improvements like less of that difficult jet packing stuff, etc… So after several months of searching we were back to square one. I had just finished playing the Freedom Force demo and so I took a wild shot and called Ken Levine and asked him if he would be interested in having his Freedom Force team start work on Tribes once they shipped. Everything clicked from the very beginning and it has been one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on.
HomeLAN - Much has been made on creating a solid story-oriented single player experience for Tribes: Vengeance. Why was the decision made to have the game have more of a single player experience?
Chris Mahnken - There is a long list of reasons why we wanted to do the single player game for Tribes: Vengeance. The first was as a way to encourage more new players. Tribes requires more skill than most shooters and new players of the first two games face the daunting challenge of learning to play while trying to avoid the existing base of veteran players. Since Tribes and Tribes 2 were both exclusively online games new players never had a chance to build up their skills before going online. With the single player campaign players will have the basics down before they play online, which will let them play with the veterans right away.
The second reason is we simply wanted to push the bounds of story telling in shooters. The way stories are told in shooters really hasn’t improved since Half-Life released. You typically play an entire story from the view of one person, never seeing the important things which happen to other people in the story. Limiting yourself to a single character places a huge restriction on the type of story you can tell. We felt that it was time to push that boundary a bit. Some people in our organization were worried that switching characters in the middle of a game would be confusing to the player, but I think that we’ve convinced them that the gaming world is sophisticated enough to appreciate the change.
One of the other reasons is that the Tribes Universe is simply cool. It’s a great place to tell a story and the part of the timeline we chose is full of interesting events. The guys at Irrational are great at story driven games and I think everybody will be pleased with the story they’ve crafted.
HomeLAN - How hard has it been to create a memorable single player mode in a game which has emphasised multiplayer in its two previous incarnations?
Chris Mahnken - The biggest challenge has been the movement of Tribes. We really have to concentrate on meaningful goals for players because the jetpack gives them the ability to bypass just about anything they want. This has caused us to put a lot of thought (and swearing) into the single player map designs, with the end result being that our maps are less about killing wandering monsters and more about completing your goals.
HomeLAN - In terms of content, how much of the game's familiar weapons and items are being retained for Tribes: Vengeance and how much of the game's content is brand new?
Chris Mahnken - There is a good mix of both old and new in Vengeance. All the old staples are still there, the disk launcher, grenades, the chain gun, the energy pack and health pack, as well as some new creations from the slightly warped minds of our design team. We’re announcing our new stuff slowly, as it comes online in the game and we see that it’s up to our high standards. Our intention is to save the best for last, but you can never quite tell what will be the biggest hit.
HomeLAN - In terms of gameplay, what will the actual combat be like in Tribes: Vengeance as opposed to other games in the series?
Chris Mahnken - We’ve put a lot of thought into making interior combat more fun than in the past. Players of other games frequently say that Tribes feels slow to them. What they’re talking about is quickness, and not straight-line speed. Tribes is easily the fastest in that respect, but when you move indoors and lose the ability to ski and jetpack easily the game seems to slow down a bit. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to change that in Tribes. Outdoors we’re still highly concentrated on skill based combat and vehicles that are not just powerful, but also fun to pilot. The great thing about combat in Tribes is that there is something for everyone. Heavy assault/defense, snipers, medics, sappers, etc… And when you want to change your role you just go to the inventory station and choose new gear.
HomeLAN - How are the game's classes been organised for Tribes: Vengeance?
Chris Mahnken - Tribes doesn’t have specific classes like some games, instead players get to select all of their equipment and the “class” falls out of that. So if you choose to take light armor, an energy pack, a chain gun, and a sniper rifle you’re ready for sniper duty. Medium with a repair pack and you’re a medic. There are hundreds of combinations available and the freedom that provides is what gives Tribes players the ability to fine-tune their gear to the exact job they are doing.
HomeLAN - How has it been working with Epic's Unreal engine in the game and are you pleased with the results so far?
Chris Mahnken - Every engineering team always wants to write their own engine, so there are always a few complaints about this or that, but using Unreal has been quite a boon to our development cycle. It allowed our art and level design teams to start working on content at the very beginning of the project which is not possible if you’re building your own engine. I’m very pleased with our results to this point. I think the screen shots speak for themselves.
HomeLAN - Tribes: Vengeance is still about a year away from being released. Why was the decision made to reveal its existance well ahead of its planned release date?
Chris Mahnken - We just get so excited talking about it that we didn’t think we could contain ourselves much longer. No really. We’re all blabbermouths who can’t be trusted with a secret, and this was the only way we could guarantee we wouldn’t be fired for releasing confidential information. Either that or it’s part of the marketing plan, but they don’t tell me about that sort of thing.
HomeLAN - Finally, when will full scale beta testing of Tribes: Vengeance actually begin?
Chris Mahnken - I don’t have a specific date yet, but it should be sometime this summer I would think.
----------------------------------------------------
Everyone I have good news for all of you that have been waiting the Release date is Q4 2004 Ask in last 3 Months of the year!
-Chaos-
HomeLAN - First, it's been over six months since the first official announcment for Tribes: Vengeance. What has the progress been like on the game so far?
Chris Mahnken - Our progress has been excelent. As with all projects there have been some stumbling blocks, but far fewer than normal. We’re on schedule and things are looking good.
HomeLAN - Some people were surprised that Irrational Games would be creating the next game in the Tribes series. How did it come about that the developer got the gig to handle the game's creation?
Chris Mahnken - We talked with over 20 different developers when we were searching for a team to make Vengeance. We slowly whittled our list down to one very big name developer and two smaller developers and started working with them. They all turned in design docs and we went thru a round of revision and it became obvious that none of them got it. The big name wanted to make the same game they had just finished, but in Space instead of Europe. The others made improvements like less of that difficult jet packing stuff, etc… So after several months of searching we were back to square one. I had just finished playing the Freedom Force demo and so I took a wild shot and called Ken Levine and asked him if he would be interested in having his Freedom Force team start work on Tribes once they shipped. Everything clicked from the very beginning and it has been one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on.
HomeLAN - Much has been made on creating a solid story-oriented single player experience for Tribes: Vengeance. Why was the decision made to have the game have more of a single player experience?
Chris Mahnken - There is a long list of reasons why we wanted to do the single player game for Tribes: Vengeance. The first was as a way to encourage more new players. Tribes requires more skill than most shooters and new players of the first two games face the daunting challenge of learning to play while trying to avoid the existing base of veteran players. Since Tribes and Tribes 2 were both exclusively online games new players never had a chance to build up their skills before going online. With the single player campaign players will have the basics down before they play online, which will let them play with the veterans right away.
The second reason is we simply wanted to push the bounds of story telling in shooters. The way stories are told in shooters really hasn’t improved since Half-Life released. You typically play an entire story from the view of one person, never seeing the important things which happen to other people in the story. Limiting yourself to a single character places a huge restriction on the type of story you can tell. We felt that it was time to push that boundary a bit. Some people in our organization were worried that switching characters in the middle of a game would be confusing to the player, but I think that we’ve convinced them that the gaming world is sophisticated enough to appreciate the change.
One of the other reasons is that the Tribes Universe is simply cool. It’s a great place to tell a story and the part of the timeline we chose is full of interesting events. The guys at Irrational are great at story driven games and I think everybody will be pleased with the story they’ve crafted.
HomeLAN - How hard has it been to create a memorable single player mode in a game which has emphasised multiplayer in its two previous incarnations?
Chris Mahnken - The biggest challenge has been the movement of Tribes. We really have to concentrate on meaningful goals for players because the jetpack gives them the ability to bypass just about anything they want. This has caused us to put a lot of thought (and swearing) into the single player map designs, with the end result being that our maps are less about killing wandering monsters and more about completing your goals.
HomeLAN - In terms of content, how much of the game's familiar weapons and items are being retained for Tribes: Vengeance and how much of the game's content is brand new?
Chris Mahnken - There is a good mix of both old and new in Vengeance. All the old staples are still there, the disk launcher, grenades, the chain gun, the energy pack and health pack, as well as some new creations from the slightly warped minds of our design team. We’re announcing our new stuff slowly, as it comes online in the game and we see that it’s up to our high standards. Our intention is to save the best for last, but you can never quite tell what will be the biggest hit.
HomeLAN - In terms of gameplay, what will the actual combat be like in Tribes: Vengeance as opposed to other games in the series?
Chris Mahnken - We’ve put a lot of thought into making interior combat more fun than in the past. Players of other games frequently say that Tribes feels slow to them. What they’re talking about is quickness, and not straight-line speed. Tribes is easily the fastest in that respect, but when you move indoors and lose the ability to ski and jetpack easily the game seems to slow down a bit. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to change that in Tribes. Outdoors we’re still highly concentrated on skill based combat and vehicles that are not just powerful, but also fun to pilot. The great thing about combat in Tribes is that there is something for everyone. Heavy assault/defense, snipers, medics, sappers, etc… And when you want to change your role you just go to the inventory station and choose new gear.
HomeLAN - How are the game's classes been organised for Tribes: Vengeance?
Chris Mahnken - Tribes doesn’t have specific classes like some games, instead players get to select all of their equipment and the “class” falls out of that. So if you choose to take light armor, an energy pack, a chain gun, and a sniper rifle you’re ready for sniper duty. Medium with a repair pack and you’re a medic. There are hundreds of combinations available and the freedom that provides is what gives Tribes players the ability to fine-tune their gear to the exact job they are doing.
HomeLAN - How has it been working with Epic's Unreal engine in the game and are you pleased with the results so far?
Chris Mahnken - Every engineering team always wants to write their own engine, so there are always a few complaints about this or that, but using Unreal has been quite a boon to our development cycle. It allowed our art and level design teams to start working on content at the very beginning of the project which is not possible if you’re building your own engine. I’m very pleased with our results to this point. I think the screen shots speak for themselves.
HomeLAN - Tribes: Vengeance is still about a year away from being released. Why was the decision made to reveal its existance well ahead of its planned release date?
Chris Mahnken - We just get so excited talking about it that we didn’t think we could contain ourselves much longer. No really. We’re all blabbermouths who can’t be trusted with a secret, and this was the only way we could guarantee we wouldn’t be fired for releasing confidential information. Either that or it’s part of the marketing plan, but they don’t tell me about that sort of thing.
HomeLAN - Finally, when will full scale beta testing of Tribes: Vengeance actually begin?
Chris Mahnken - I don’t have a specific date yet, but it should be sometime this summer I would think.
----------------------------------------------------
Everyone I have good news for all of you that have been waiting the Release date is Q4 2004 Ask in last 3 Months of the year!
-Chaos-
