Published - 07/31/99

Messiah is a third-person action game where the gamer assumes the role of Bob, a cherub sent down to Earth on a mission from God. Bob must fight his way through evil cities to finally crush the demonic forces that oppose him. Bob's abilities are not an average hero's, he can possess people and use their talents to get by people. Messiah is scheduled to be released in November of this year and expect a demonstration soon.

PC Paradox: You said that "You always look for a HOOK" in one of your speeches concerning de signing, what is the hook for Messiah? What makes this game so much more different than a regular action game?

Dave Perry: The hook for any game is the one unique feature that describes the gameplay. If you can't write it on a matchbook cover, then you need to focus your design more. In MDK it was, "You can shoot an enemy in the eye from over a mile away." The sniper weapon was the hook. For Messiah, the hook is simply "You can possess and control any character in the game that you encounter." The hook is the sheer number of gameplay options that playing as any character brings to the design.

PC Paradox: What compelled you to create the idea of Messiah? Was it something you have always had in your mind?

Dave Perry: A lot of people assume that since I do a lot of the interviews and talk the most about the games, I must be the one who creates all the characters and scenarios. In reality, I do most of the talking because the guys are really busy making the game! That, and it's easier for the press to develop a relationship with one person rather than getting bits and pieces of info from a whole bunch of people from the team. We had a discussion when starting the game about making something totally different from what was the current rage on the market at the time (Quake, Duke, etc.) and with a radically different character. The idea of a main character that was as 'helpless as a baby' was tossed out and got a few laughs. Next thing you know, Darran (Messiah's character designer and modeler) had a picture of Bob being chased by a bunch of weird looking guys. Mike Damien took that and fleshed out the basic possession aspect to give the main character some ability. The rest came about through long team meetings where everyone was asked to put in their 2 cents. I'm involved in team meetings and design decisions mostly giving the team pointers about what works and what doesn't. When all is said and done though, it is my company, so I am the final arbiter of what makes it in the game and what doesn't.

PC Paradox: What are the most notable characteristics in the character system? What does Messiah do to make the characters more realistic? What is the team doing to make these characters 'smart'? If one sticks out its hand, will there be a shadow of it?

Dave Perry: The technology has really been covered a bunch in the past. From tessellating polygons to deforming them so the characters always look realistic. They start out with anywhere from 100,000 to 500,000 polygons, so we're working with really detailed models. (Who needs bump mapping when we can actually model it?) The character system is the root technology that allows everything else in the game to work. I don't think there's a single element in Messiah that isn't pushing conventional limits. Specular lighting, real-time shadows, polygon tessellation and deformation, 3D sound, fuzzy logic, colored lighting, volumetric lighting, particle effects, streaming audio and video, neural net AI, the list simply goes on and on! And that doesn't include the game's design, which is probably the most revolutionary thing about Messiah. Play as any character in the adventure? Change bodies at will?? How cool is that?

PC Paradox: What is the graphics engine used? Will it support environmental bump mapping? What other characteristics will make gamers cry for more?

Dave Perry: Well, I think I just about covered everything in the graphics engine above. With regards to bump mapping, we aren't using it in Messiah. Why 'paint' a texture that gets translated into a detailed surface when we can make the models that detailed?

Right now, I think the most exciting aspect of Messiah is the sheer variety of gameplay that possession allows. You've got to use your brains in a totally different way than a FPS, or even a standard Tomb Raider style adventure game. Strategy becomes a big part of the game. Players who think different and play 'smart' will be rewarded with access to different things - weapons, locations, other secret stuff.

PC Paradox: Who is making the music (I remember hearing about the person who did Scream and other movies, unfortunately I do not remember)? What is Shiny trying to accomplish in the music? Total immersion? Suspense?

Dave Perry: Messiah has a pretty unique soundscape, which made us use four separate groups/artists to create it (not to mention the programmer who coded all the sound). First off, there's Fear Factory. They're one of the hardest, most aggressive bands I've ever heard. We've licensed some of their stuff for the intense action sequences in the game - much like a movie in that sense. For the club area in "Sex City", we got Jesper Kyd - a NYC techno artist and game musician to create a few tracks. He's also done some remixing of the Fear Factory tunes for the game that the band totally dug. Next up, for the majority of ambient / "sound washes" that are constantly in the background, we got in touch with Void and P. from [:Side Effekt:] to create those. Finally, Tommy Tallarico and Joey Kuros from Tommy Tallarico Studios are handling all the sound effects and voices in the game.

It's probably the most ambitious sound team that we've ever assembled for a game. The guys are all outstanding and contribute essential elements to the flavor of the game. Without them, the game would fall flat on its face.

PC Paradox: Since the gamer will always see Bob or his possessed character in front of him, what is Shiny going to do to solve the problem of aiming?

Dave Perry: We've done a few things. First, the camera is always a bit above and behind the character. This allows you to see what's directly in front of you. Next, when you go into combat mode and your gun is pointed within a certain 'cone of death', a targeting indicator comes up. That makes it pretty simple to aim. Also, in combat mode any player can go into a 1st person viewpoint to help them target specific body areas. Some characters have a zoom feature that, like MDK, allows you to make precise shots.

PC Paradox: How long has it taken to configure the AI? What is making this AI so different from the common one in an action? Will there be difficulty levels for this game ?

Dave Perry: Golly, the AI has probably taken almost as long as the graphics engine to program. The big hurdle is that a character can be possessed and moved from one area, say a sewer or something, and used throughout the level, then abandoned or depossessed in a totally different area, like a nightclub. Now, that character has to act intelligently in a situation that they aren't accustomed to. What do they do? How do they act? Do they react to other characters? How do the other characters react to them? That's one of the main reasons that's taken the AI so long to develop.

Yup, we'll have difficulty levels to make sure that casual and hardcore gamers are challenged.

PC Paradox: What is refraining Team Ego to not make a multiplayer option? I have heard that they are pondering the idea after the game is released, but why not add it into the game before?

Dave Perry: Well, we want to ship the game! That's first and foremost. Adding multi-player to the release version would have delayed the game even more, and then there would have been a bunch of client/server issues that would have dragged out the process even more.

1) Players get used to the game mechanic and learn how it's different from any other game out there they've played.

2) Gives us time to tweak multi-player options

3) Let's the Sacrifice guys get their game further along so we can use some of their stable network code!

PC Paradox: How will the gamer go about controlling Bob and his possessed characters?

Dave Perry: We're trying to make the interface as flexible as possible. We know that some people prefer using mouse+keyboard, keyboard only, joysticks, etc. so we've set up the game to let a person assign actions to whatever input device they want. Why limit it to specific keys or buttons?

We've also made most of the action context sensitive. So we can have, say, one 'action' button. If you're standing in front of a computer terminal, it'll activate that. If you're in front of a door, it'll open or close the door. That kind of thing. Makes the interface a lot easier on the player, but a bit tougher for us to make. Oh well, if making games were easy, I guess everyone would be doing it!!!

Thank you to Dave Perry and Scott Herrington for getting this interview to me so promptly.

Author:
Kevin 'Exodus' Weinberg

Type:
Action

Developer:
Shiny Entertainment

Publisher:
Interplay Productions

Requirements:
To Be Announced

Expected Release:
November 1999

Multiplayer:
No

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