At E3 I had a meeting scheduled with the fine folks of High Voltage Software, creators of the very attractive Wii title The Conduit. What you may not know is that actor Mark Sheppard was hired to provide the lead character's voice in that game, and I faced the charismatic Brit as I checked in. It's not every day you come face to face with Gaius Baltar's lawyer, or one of Firefly's more flamboyant gangsters. To me though, he'll always be...

"Mr. President," I said, shaking his hand.

"I can tell you're a man of character!" Sheppard told me, laughing. "Have you played the game?" In a few minutes I learned that Sheppard goes everywhere the game is, talking to people, getting them excited about the game. At E3 he worked the booth like a master showman, grabbing people and giving them demos.

I made my way upstairs to the roof of the booth, where creative officer Eric Nofsinger and design director David Pellas were waiting for me. The Conduit is shipping in a matter of weeks, so we were there to talk about The Grinder, the upcoming four-player online co-op title where a scrappy band of characters fights off a collection of monsters. The game looked great, with detailed environments, gun play, and even a miniboss on display. Nofsinger happily played the game in front of me, explaining the concepts and the story of the game. You're a bounty hunter, a mysterious stranger hires you to take down some monsters, and there you are.

"We wanted to do something that takes advantage of our tech, our experience, and our resources that we gained on the Conduit. So we decided to do a first-person shooter with traditional monsters." You'll also see giant worm-like creatures, "very much inspired by the movie Tremors." The team also wanted to include wolf-men. I was asked if I remembered the cult-classic film Monster Squad.

"Wolfman has nards?" I asked helpfully. They nodded. Wolfman has nards. So far we had met Romo Lampkin, name-dropped Tremors, and discussed the genitalia of classic movie monsters. This was, so far, one of the most nerd-tastic meetings I had at E3. They extolled the virtues of the game's Architect system, which controls the behavior of the enemies on screen. You'll be fighting the monsters, the monsters will be fighting each other, and the game will exist in a barely controlled state of chaos.

The technology is impressive. If you light a collection of vampires on fire, each one becomes a separate light source. The game looks great, especially for the Wii, and we were told that WiiSpeak will be supported for the online play, and four-player online will be the "minimum." They're also looking at competitive game play modes, and Pellas asked if I have any ideas for that aspect of gameplay. I shrugged, but the amazing thing is that I know he's not blowing smoke. When High Voltage took the Conduit to shows back in the day they asked gamers for ideas on what they wanted to see in terms of control. The best ones were incorporated into the game. These guys don't just show off their games, they brainstorm with the press and the public.

The game is coming in late 2010, which means we saw at E3 is very early work. What's impressive is that the fully-fleshed out level we played was created in two months. "We have an amazingly talented group, and incredible technology and mature tools. All of the tricks of the trade we learned on the Conduit, and many we've learn since them, are all incorporated into this game." It took many hours, they stressed, and the team did four months of work in that two month period, but it's still an amazing feat. "It's a testament to the tools we built for the Conduit, and the maturity of them. We have such a robust toolset, we were able to get this up and running in a week." It may not have looked as good as the final E3 demo, but it was playable and functional. "It's amazing to demo this and know that two months ago, it didn't exist." The final game will also likely support the Wii MotionPlus, along with some nice swordplay.

It wasn't just the voice actors who got caught up in the excitement. "We have an amazing angel investor," I was told. "And he doesn't just write the check. He comes in, he plays the games, he's been here for two days, he works the booth. He's a really awesome guy." They couldn't tell me who that is, although they also assured me it's not Mark Sheppard, which was my first guess after seeing how invested the actor has been while working the booth. The take-away is that the company is fully funded, and is focusing on making the games, not worrying about finding a publisher... although there is no shortage of interest.

At this point I had to run to my next meeting, but High Voltage stuck in my head for the rest of the day. This developer has no shortage of gee-whiz technology and enthusiasm, and even the voice actors fall in love with the product. The investor was there at E3, working the booth and getting people excited. They invited me to tour the studio next time I'm in Chicago, and I promised to give them a call when I'm in town. Surrounded once again by booth babes and blasting music as I made my way back onto the show floor and away from the nice little meeting room on top of High Voltage's booth, I was glad to know that in this sometimes jaded and cynical industry, there are still a few people living their dream.