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Gamecloud - First, why did you decide to create your own professional game developer after creating a number of free game projects?
Einar Saukas - We didn’t have a lot of choices. Developing a SP (single-player) game requires a significant amount of work: character creation, scripting, storyline, dialogues, special sequences, monster variations, enemy placement, ambushes, puzzles, and so on. Most of all, it also entails designing many original locations, unlike MP (multiplayer) maps that people like to play over and over again. All this work was barely manageable when we produced the classic They Hunger mod trilogy using the Half-Life engine. However, the newest 3D game technologies require a much higher level of detail. Consequently, producing a full-size quality SP project becomes almost impossible for part-time developers.
Neil Manke - I still remember our first sponsored project, with 3 maps produced in 2 weeks. It was a freely released mod for Quake 1, created to promote a TV series by Rysher Entertainment. However, these days every little detail takes much more work. For example, it’s not uncommon to see a multiplayer mod take up to 2 years and then launch with only 3 or 4 playable maps. And also, one must consider the considerable amounts of money the major developers now invest in their games. Simply put, modern games require much higher investments of time, energy and money and there’s no magical way to avoid this reality. Starting a professional company is the only route that may give us the opportunity to be able to produce the kinds of games we’ve always wanted to.
Gamecloud - What new weapons can we expect to see in They Hunger: Lost Souls?
Einar Saukas - The weapons are similar to those in classic They Hunger, in the sense that they are a selection of era-relevant weapons, explosives and incendiaries. With the addition of a unique and innovative new weapon, the likes of which I can’t reveal to you, otherwise we will have to eliminate you and end this interview!
Gamecloud - What other new gameplay features will They Hunger: Lost Souls have?
Einar Saukas - There are many new gameplay features but obviously we can’t reveal much about them. For now I can only give you one example: One of the favorite features from the classic series was driving an old steam locomotive and flattening zombies with it. However, smarter zombies refuse to be such sitting ducks, so instead we decided to take advantage of realistic vehicle physics (provided by the Source engine) and give you a powerful tractor, that you can drive freely to chase the zombies down before running over them.
Gamecloud - Will this new game be episodic in nature like the previous They Hunger games?
Neil Manke - It is actually a fully independent game. However, we do have it planned as being the first game in a series. We already have a basic story outline for the sequels depending upon the reception of the first. Each game in the series is a complete story within itself, and each with an exciting and satisfying ending. Most would find it extremely frustrating to spend hours playing a game and then not be rewarded with a proper story tie-in, and I’m sure our fans appreciated the nice endings we always implemented in the past.
Gamecloud - Will this new game be released via Valve's Steam system or will there be an actual retail store release for the product?
Einar Saukas - Sorry, all we can reveal at this time is that we are still working out the pricing and distribution options. We can only state that we intent to make it available for minimal cost compared to most commercial games.