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View Full Version : Talking Games with Peter Molyneux: B.C & Project Ego



XboxGamers
03-24-2002, 01:47 PM
Intrepid Games
http://www.gamespy.com/gdc2002/molyneux/bcs.jpg

Intrepid Games is developing B.C. for the Xbox
After finishing up with what Black and White Studios was doing, Molyneux made a side note of Intrepid Games, another satellite development house of Lionhead. He told us they are working on a new Xbox game called B.C., that has been in development for almost two years.

"This will undoubtedly be the most savage and brutal game ever to come to console," he said. With that, he showed us the image at right. "You will be in control of a prehistoric tribe. When they kill that T-Rex, there won't just be a little blood or blotches of red. There will be a flood of blood!"

The idea of the game is that you must take your tribe and teach it to become more civilized and less brutal, but you will face wars with other tribes and simians, as well as face down a meteoric collision that only the most skilled members of prehistoric Earth can survive. Molyneux said the game will make its official first appearance at E3.

Big Blue Box
http://www.gamespy.com/gdc2002/molyneux/ego4s.jpg

Project Ego will use the full range of the Xbox.
After covering the status of the other satellite studios under Lionhead's control, we finally delved into what was to be the original focus of the interview, Project Ego. Molyneux didn't waste any time before making an extremely bold statement: "I want to create the greatest role-playing game ever. And that is probably the most stupid statement I have ever made!"

He said that he has relished the idea of making an RPG every since he played Wizardry more than twenty years ago. "But RPGs haven't changed much in that time. There are still events that must be solved by a certain time, you still must pick what your character looks like at the beginning of the game and everyone in the world tends to be oblivious that doom is approaching their world."

Molyneux said that is something that has always bothered him about RPGs. "How your character looks should not be based on a start-of-the-game decision, but as the game progresses. And as your character's appearance changes, so does the way the world reacts to your character." And what the company learned in the creation of Black & White with the morphing process, they have transferred that to Project Ego. "Instead of morphing a cow, we now apply it to a human," he said.

Another quirk in current RPGs, Molyneux explains, is that your character always is the only one who can save the world or solve a quest. "In this game, your destiny is to be the greatest hero of all time. But others will be trying to do the same thing. If your quest is to rescue the princess, you may come up as someone else is scaling the wall to save her. Someone could very easily beat you to it."


Since the game was unveiled last year at E3, Molyneux said the game has made significant progress. The character morphing process has been refined, the huge world has been flushed out even more, and the story is evolving, although there is still quite a bit more work to do. He said the gameplay mechanics have been implemented about ninety percent of the technology is in place, but there is still a fair amount of tweaking yet to be done.

Molyneux wouldn't speculate on how far from completion the game was because "we will continue to work on it until it is the greatest RPG ever. The game has been in testing for six months and we are still doing a lot of balancing, but we still have a way to go."

As for gameplay, he promises players at least "20 hours of amazing incredible gameplay if you play straight through with no distractions or side quests. But your character could get thrown in jail for ten years; he could get married, have kids and take a break from adventuring or choose any of a number of other ways to play the game. We are balancing the game around great entertainment, not on how difficult we can make it."

What the Future Holds


The world has grown quite large since E3 2001.
As the interview was wrapping up, Molyneux took a look forward. "The key to good games is real entertainment, not niche stuff. Technology is advancing to the point where genres will be blurred or redefined. There will be no holds barred. If you liken the game industry to the film industry, we are just coming out of the silent film era where slapstick was considered innovative. Our view of gameplay has been pretty primative. Gameplay is going to explode in new directions as technology continues to grow."

So what does he think will succeed? "Games that are set in worlds we recognize. Consoles will be in millions and millions of households and making games instantly accessible and recognizable is a must."

Link: www.gamespy.com/gdc2002/molyneux/index2.shtm

Calve
03-24-2002, 02:39 PM
pretty cool!!!! Thanx for the heads up on B.C........... Looks like a cool game!!:)

Piccolo_DBz
03-24-2002, 02:45 PM
I can't wait for more info o these games. B.C. sounds kick ass. E3 is gonna be sweet. :cool:

XboxGamers
03-24-2002, 04:09 PM
I can't wait for B.C too! :D

Crazy Joe
03-24-2002, 04:17 PM
Project EGO sounds really really cool, but only 20 hours of gameplay straight through? I realize there will be side quests, but 20 hours is very weak, that's like how long Max Payne took to beat.