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Shadow20002
01-14-2003, 09:52 PM
Lionhead's satellite Intrepid Computer Entertainment tells us about its prehistoric Xbox masterpiece

When a typically excitable Peter Molyneux revealed BC as an Xbox exclusive at Microsoft's first major press gathering back in October 2001, the world naturally took it as a sign of the console's forthcoming dominance over all it surveys. If the PC world's brightest star was switching platforms, who were we to say he was wrong?
The game in question caught the imagination of everyone - dinosaurs, club-bearing cavemen, scantily clad cavebabes, more dinosaurs. Who wouldn't be impressed? Since then it all went a bit quiet though, as the team at Intrepid Computer Entertainment, the Lionhead satellite company behind the game, got down to the serious business of making the damn thing.

Until now, that is. Eager ferrets that we are, we've managed to grab Ben Cousins and Joe Rider (Lead Designer and Company Director respectively), drag them away from their desks and throw a few questions towards them. Graciously, they supplied us with the answers...

How is BC progressing at the moment? What sort of stage are you at regarding gameplay?

Rider: The core game is emerging and we are busy working on sophisticated behaviour models for the creatures.

Cousins: We are also adding the ability to set fire to creatures and vegetation and trying to get the combat system as violent and intuitive as possible. Just today I was sniping hogs from across the level with a bow and arrow, and belting the occasional 'raptor into the middle of next week with a 10 foot long burning tree branch.

Obviously 'historical realism' isn't too high on the agenda - dinosaurs mixing with humans, sexy cavewomen and the like. How much artistic licence have you taken with the period?

Rider: The game creatures (including dinosaurs, mammals and sea beasts) are taken from distant and diverse periods of the Earth's history. The creature's behaviours and habitats are modelled realistically, but we have taken artistic license by throwing them together in a simulated ecosystem to form a rich and dangerous food chain.

Obviously, in reality primitive man didn't have to contend with these exact ferocious predators, but it makes an exciting challenge for the player.

Cousins: We have also added weapons technology that was not available to primitive man, like burning arrows and various natural chemicals whose effects we are keeping secret at the moment.

What sort of role does the player have? Direct control? Hands-off god-like modes?

Cousins: The player directly controls one character at any time, much like Jak & Daxter, Soul Reaver or a Mario game. In addition they have a customisable team of men and women following them around and they can issue orders to them, like 'attack that creature' or 'collect that food' or alternatively switch to directly control any member of the team.

BC is about as much of a god game as Rainbow Six. Each level has a camp in the centre which you can use to set up your team and buy equipment, but you never have to do anything as boring as micro-manage it. BC is a console game through and through.

Is there a story running through the game? If so, can you reveal any details?

Cousins: At the start of the game the humans are starving vegetarians on the verge of extinction, cowering in caves and being killed by the most pathetic predators you can imagine. The player takes control of them just as they accidentally discover meat eating, which gives them the strength to fight back and also a reason to explore the world and hunt.

As they move through the world looking for food, they begin to discover primitive technology and slowly they become more sophisticated. Later in the game they discover something that will require the whole effort of mankind to combat. Destroying this secret enemy becomes the player's goal in the latter half of the game.

What role do dinosaurs play in the game?

Cousins: The deal with the dinosaurs and creatures in BC is that we were a bit fed up of enemies in action-adventure games that just see the player and run at them, attacking blindly until they or the player dies.

The creatures in BC have a complex individual agenda which involves guarding territory, sleeping and drinking as well as looking for food/hunting and various social activities. This means the player can exploit their intelligence (or lack of it) rather than go in guns blazing. One of my favourite things to do at the moment is get a bunch of 'raptors to follow me into a herd of Dodo's. The 'raptors get distracted by the Dodo's, and start ripping them to shreds. You can begin to see how these things became extinct.

We've heard something about 'training' them?

Cousins:There is no direct training of dinosaurs in BC, but the player can domesticate one of the mammals in the game.

What can you tell us about the environment? Self-contained, linear areas or the freedom to explore the entire world?

Cousins: The world is divided up into a series of vast environments which are several kilometres across and are completely free-roaming. Within each environment there is a series of missions that the player can complete in any order.

The missions themselves can be completed in any way the player pleases. In addition there are hundreds of simulated creatures milling about, minding their own business and tearing each others heads off. Once the player completes all the missions in that environment they unlock the next one.

They player can also backtrack through the previous environments. By the end of the game there is a really huge world to explore. We are really keen on games like Grand Theft Auto and Elite that give the player lots of freedom to choose their own path through the game.

How much more work is there to go? When do you expect to near completion?

Rider: We have a lot of world building to do this year and expect to be very busy until autumn when the team will enter the final phase of the project development. We expect BC to be released early in 2004.
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Sight*, gonna wait a little bit longer than what i expected. :rolleyes:

Knight
01-14-2003, 10:54 PM
Originally posted by Shadow20002


Sight*, gonna wait a little bit longer than what i expected. :rolleyes:

I bet you it will be delayed to mid-2004 soon.

Knight
01-14-2003, 10:56 PM
What do you think will make it out first Fable or B.C.?

I say Fable will be first.

TheCovenant
01-15-2003, 05:06 AM
Originally posted by Knight
What do you think will make it out first Fable or B.C.?

I say Fable will be first.

FA-BLEH! it will be first....actually, witht the rapid speed that B.C. is going at, i think they might debut at the same time....or very near to each other.

for fable, i think they take a nap every day. A good ol' 7 hour nap............seriosly this game has been in development since before xbox came out!

but hey, maybe that what all developers need to do to get a genre defining game outta them!

(hint, hint,.......to Jaleco)

Qbas
01-15-2003, 05:09 AM
Aww crap, well ow one of my anticipated games is pushed back to 2004 *sigh* :(