XboxGamers
03-02-2002, 05:04 AM
I've never heard about this game before. Looks and sounds sweet!! :D
Since last May, when developer Digitalo first announced that they were developing an Unreal engine based first person multiplayer action game called Devastation, the news about the game itself has been non-existent. While the developer is still holding off on spilling the entire beans about the game at this point, HomeLAN managed to get Vic DeLeon, the senior producer at Digitalo, to finally reveal a few more details about Devestation, as well as the game’s current status, in this brief interview.
HomeLAN - First, we're very curious about the status of Devastation. What can you tell us about its current progress?
Vic DeLeon - I'm happy to say that we're still pounding away tirelessly on both PC and XBox versions and our production pipeline is making serious progress. We're extremely pleased with the positive responses from the recent build evaluations. The team is devoted to making the Devastation experience even better, as thorough playtesting and private focus groups are becoming more routine and producing better results for us to study. Production on both gameplay and visuals has gone through several revisions since the version we showed privately at E3 this year, and it's still being tweaked and honed to perfection. This, along with some of our latest technical feats brings us only a few months away from completion. The gametypes are shaping up and I'll have more on those later. On the business side, we're working with several publishers and have more than one deal on the table as the biz guys negotiate for the one that will give us the widest distribution and best marketing.
HomeLAN - What can you tell us about the features in the game?
Vic DeLeon - We've developed many amazing enhancements and tools for the Unreal Engine since we started this title, and I will save the details for another interview with Bob Berry, our Lead Programmer, a LOT more technical than I. Rest assured, we have a new and utterly amazing rendering system, as well as some very smart bots that will surprise everyone will their abilities and behaviors just as the UT bots did way back. Plus, we've created a skeletal animation, blending, and character expression system that gives the computer-controlled players more realistic and fluid motion as well as more human movement characteristics and, of course, some really graphic dismemberment action. We're also taking our time and making sure the game is very mod friendly and easy to work with, providing our own tools and upgraded editors. More on all this stuff will be released at a later time :)
HomeLAN - Is there an overall storyline to the game?
Vic DeLeon - Typically, a strong storyline is one of those elements that simply cannot be portrayed in a high-action shooter for obvious reasons -players usually don't want it, nor do they care. Still, a little bit of story is always nice, and Devastation has what could be considered a subtle storyline, gradually presented to the players. It can be better described as some very strong aesthetic elements and scenarios, interesting enough to be noticed, but not overdone to the point of being blatant, annoying, or pretentious in any way. In other words, it's more than just a simple theme, but less than a full-blown storyline.
The details of the story will have to remain a secret, but I can reveal that first and foremost, it's all about teams and teamwork. The teams consist of two warring factions of humans living in a somewhat dysfunctional version of the not too distant future. It's a very dark and cyberpunky kind of genre with a very unique visual interpretation. The 30+ massive levels are all based on real-world locations from some local as well as exotic parts of the world. There's no aliens, no spaceships, no really insanely impossible fantasy weapons, just real pulpy "cyberpunk grit" somewhat reminiscent of the kind of stuff you'd get from William Gibson and Neil Stephenson novels.
HomeLAN - What are the weapons like in Devastation?
Vic DeLeon - We have provided the player with a rather extensive urban-action arsenal, but with a nice edge unlike any other game to date. First, you get a pretty standard assortment of 20th century present-day weapons like pistols, shotguns, machine guns, and assault rifles, plus you also get some retrofitted versions of current-day models that have been upgraded with special accessories. Now is where things start to get really exciting as Devastation also sports some more exotic weaponry and explosive devices based on prototypes from current military and police forces- all those weapons that we'll be seeing in the next couple of decades ;)
The action in the gametypes is very diverse, complementing the weapons so different types of players will have different experiences. The less carnage-minded will get to chose from some pretty interesting and fun surveillance equipment and robotic drone-type gear, as well as handheld PDA devices that you must use to infiltrate and hack your way into enemy computers- a feature we have spent a long time on, and have integrated into the primary gametype as a main feature. Finally, for the stealth-minded players there is an assortment of sniper rifles, as well as my personal favorite, a massive samurai-style katana sword for those quiet, up-close encounters.
HomeLAN - How many character models are in the game and what are they like?
We have over a dozen characters in-game right now and by this time next month we should have close to twenty. I have to make a point about the character models in Devastation and I can't stress this enough- our artists have spent a long, long, time developing the styles and wardobes to look unique and very distinctive. That's all I'm going to say about the characters right now, you can see many of them in the screenshots.
HomeLAN - Finally, what else have you guys been up to?
Vic DeLeon - We're the last of an endangered species- the privately-owned indy studio, so we enjoy that very rare and much sought after freedom in experimenting and perfecting our craft. Seriously, we humble ourselves and undertand that we're very lucky to have what we have. The tradeoff to all this free-flowing madness is that in the past we've found ourselves picking up external projects to support our internal development. Our familiarity with software engines along with our very talented team and biz people means we're often approached by other developers seeking our assistance to finish projects. Earlier this year Digitalo was offered a contract by Electronic Arts to create and manage level design and technical gameplay mechanics on the PC version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Since Devastation was our pet project, and we had independently funded the majority of its production, we decided to continue working on it while simultaneously accepting the EA contract even if it did cost us some internal delays on Devastation. It has all been well worth it, and tons of fun.
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev6q.jpg
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev2q.jpg
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev3q.jpg
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev4.jpg
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev7q.jpg
Link: http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=3700
Since last May, when developer Digitalo first announced that they were developing an Unreal engine based first person multiplayer action game called Devastation, the news about the game itself has been non-existent. While the developer is still holding off on spilling the entire beans about the game at this point, HomeLAN managed to get Vic DeLeon, the senior producer at Digitalo, to finally reveal a few more details about Devestation, as well as the game’s current status, in this brief interview.
HomeLAN - First, we're very curious about the status of Devastation. What can you tell us about its current progress?
Vic DeLeon - I'm happy to say that we're still pounding away tirelessly on both PC and XBox versions and our production pipeline is making serious progress. We're extremely pleased with the positive responses from the recent build evaluations. The team is devoted to making the Devastation experience even better, as thorough playtesting and private focus groups are becoming more routine and producing better results for us to study. Production on both gameplay and visuals has gone through several revisions since the version we showed privately at E3 this year, and it's still being tweaked and honed to perfection. This, along with some of our latest technical feats brings us only a few months away from completion. The gametypes are shaping up and I'll have more on those later. On the business side, we're working with several publishers and have more than one deal on the table as the biz guys negotiate for the one that will give us the widest distribution and best marketing.
HomeLAN - What can you tell us about the features in the game?
Vic DeLeon - We've developed many amazing enhancements and tools for the Unreal Engine since we started this title, and I will save the details for another interview with Bob Berry, our Lead Programmer, a LOT more technical than I. Rest assured, we have a new and utterly amazing rendering system, as well as some very smart bots that will surprise everyone will their abilities and behaviors just as the UT bots did way back. Plus, we've created a skeletal animation, blending, and character expression system that gives the computer-controlled players more realistic and fluid motion as well as more human movement characteristics and, of course, some really graphic dismemberment action. We're also taking our time and making sure the game is very mod friendly and easy to work with, providing our own tools and upgraded editors. More on all this stuff will be released at a later time :)
HomeLAN - Is there an overall storyline to the game?
Vic DeLeon - Typically, a strong storyline is one of those elements that simply cannot be portrayed in a high-action shooter for obvious reasons -players usually don't want it, nor do they care. Still, a little bit of story is always nice, and Devastation has what could be considered a subtle storyline, gradually presented to the players. It can be better described as some very strong aesthetic elements and scenarios, interesting enough to be noticed, but not overdone to the point of being blatant, annoying, or pretentious in any way. In other words, it's more than just a simple theme, but less than a full-blown storyline.
The details of the story will have to remain a secret, but I can reveal that first and foremost, it's all about teams and teamwork. The teams consist of two warring factions of humans living in a somewhat dysfunctional version of the not too distant future. It's a very dark and cyberpunky kind of genre with a very unique visual interpretation. The 30+ massive levels are all based on real-world locations from some local as well as exotic parts of the world. There's no aliens, no spaceships, no really insanely impossible fantasy weapons, just real pulpy "cyberpunk grit" somewhat reminiscent of the kind of stuff you'd get from William Gibson and Neil Stephenson novels.
HomeLAN - What are the weapons like in Devastation?
Vic DeLeon - We have provided the player with a rather extensive urban-action arsenal, but with a nice edge unlike any other game to date. First, you get a pretty standard assortment of 20th century present-day weapons like pistols, shotguns, machine guns, and assault rifles, plus you also get some retrofitted versions of current-day models that have been upgraded with special accessories. Now is where things start to get really exciting as Devastation also sports some more exotic weaponry and explosive devices based on prototypes from current military and police forces- all those weapons that we'll be seeing in the next couple of decades ;)
The action in the gametypes is very diverse, complementing the weapons so different types of players will have different experiences. The less carnage-minded will get to chose from some pretty interesting and fun surveillance equipment and robotic drone-type gear, as well as handheld PDA devices that you must use to infiltrate and hack your way into enemy computers- a feature we have spent a long time on, and have integrated into the primary gametype as a main feature. Finally, for the stealth-minded players there is an assortment of sniper rifles, as well as my personal favorite, a massive samurai-style katana sword for those quiet, up-close encounters.
HomeLAN - How many character models are in the game and what are they like?
We have over a dozen characters in-game right now and by this time next month we should have close to twenty. I have to make a point about the character models in Devastation and I can't stress this enough- our artists have spent a long, long, time developing the styles and wardobes to look unique and very distinctive. That's all I'm going to say about the characters right now, you can see many of them in the screenshots.
HomeLAN - Finally, what else have you guys been up to?
Vic DeLeon - We're the last of an endangered species- the privately-owned indy studio, so we enjoy that very rare and much sought after freedom in experimenting and perfecting our craft. Seriously, we humble ourselves and undertand that we're very lucky to have what we have. The tradeoff to all this free-flowing madness is that in the past we've found ourselves picking up external projects to support our internal development. Our familiarity with software engines along with our very talented team and biz people means we're often approached by other developers seeking our assistance to finish projects. Earlier this year Digitalo was offered a contract by Electronic Arts to create and manage level design and technical gameplay mechanics on the PC version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Since Devastation was our pet project, and we had independently funded the majority of its production, we decided to continue working on it while simultaneously accepting the EA contract even if it did cost us some internal delays on Devastation. It has all been well worth it, and tons of fun.
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev6q.jpg
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev2q.jpg
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev3q.jpg
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev4.jpg
http://www.homelanfed.com/images/jcal/dev7q.jpg
Link: http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=3700