Zero Point Software who are now having a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of their realistic FPS “Interstellar Marines: Prologue” agreed for an interview with LinuxGamingNews.org

1. Please tell me about your team ,how many people are you and what each does ?

We’re currently two partners working full-time on the project; Kim Haar Jørgensen (Game Director) the visionary man behind Interstellar Marines, and Mikael Garde Nielsen (CTO) the guy in the engine room making sure all the wheels are turning.

On top of that we have assembled a core roster of extremely talented people who have all worked on the project at some point, and are ready to go full-time when the resources allow for it. Their experiences range from small unknown indie titles to big blockbuster games like Crysis and Deus Ex, and they all share the same intense desire to realize this ambitious project with us.

2. Originally you made a prototype using the UDK engine … which in my opinion looks graphically better than the current game (shame UDK doesn’t support GNU/Linux).

Please tell me what happened after the well received release of the prototype ? why didn’t you continue developing the game with UDK ?

Good question. Actually the prototype was made on an UE3 evaluation license back before there ever was an UDK. The publisher demo that we created was well received, however when we found out that no publisher were willing to risk their money on a new IP and an unknown team, during a financial crisis, we changed gears and tried our luck in crowdfunding, which eventually lead us to changing to the Unity engine.

The main reason that the demo graphically looked better than the current is that we had a 2 team working on it, compared to 4 people on the current Deadlock prototype.

3. What made you move from UE3 to Unity ?

With the UE3 evaluation license we were not allowed to show off our work to the world unless we paid the multi-million dollar price tag on the engine (remember, this was before UDK was available), and we worked out that in order for us to be successful in crowdfunding we would have to show more than just ideas to the public. We had to show playable prototypes.

At this time the Unity3D engine were quickly gaining grounds, and it seemed like the natural choice for us, so we decided to try it out and we haven’t looked back since.

This whole process is explained in more detail, in the Kickstarter video (http://kck.st/VKkH3K)

4. What features are added or missing game wise after the engine switch ?

It’s kind of hard to compare the two; the UE3 publisher demo served as a vertical slice to sell the vision to publishers who normally required such demos at the time, whereas the Unity prototypes serves more as proof of concepts of the various central features of what is to become Prologue.

5. Will it be a deathmatch/arena only FPS game or a campaign/missions are planned in the future ?

From the outset Prologue is a game that is focused on training scenarios, whether that be in multiplayer deathmatch to single-player target practicing or co-op hostage missions, everything is built around fun and engaging combat in an immersive training facility, where you’re constantly improving your proficiencies as a candidate for the Interstellar Marines battalion.

6. Why do you show the outdated UE3 videos from 2008 on the main Kickstarer campaign page and not the current Unity videos ?

I mean the UE3 videos look better, but your current game looks much different and it’s no longer represent it.

As described before, the prototypes zooms in on the various features of what is to become Prologue but we still feel that the old videos from 2008 is better at showing “the big picture”. They most accurately portrait what kind of game and style we want to deliver, despite their age.

7. You strive for realism and simulation, and your game so far looks great and is heading to the right direction.

How will the damage in the game work ? will you be killed from 1 shot ? or can parts of your body be damaged ? (like if you aim for the leg, the person won’t be able to use it and will crawl, or shoot his hand and he will lose his weapon).

Prologue will feature simple component damage to destin; which means thatWe’re simulating a lot of immersion effects to enhance the belief of looking out the eyes of your character and when it comes to e.g. being fatigued, stressed, wounded etc. we’re always considering which audio / visual cues we can implement to enhance the immersion.

8. What kinds of arena games the game will have ? (deathmatch, capture the flag etc…).

We’re planning to have all the standard game modes that we all love to play in other games; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Domination etc. In addition to this, and since the game is about training for “first contact”, the training scenarios will be controlled by a all-encompassing AI (SARA), which controls both the simulation of the environment (rain, lights, sounds, access ways etc) and the mission parameters (objectives, AI, allowed equipment etc.) which opens up for a whole range of possible game modes.

