Alpha Black Zero Interview Page 1 - Background and Story Page 2 - Multiplayer, Mods, and More! by Jason "Rodzilla" Rodzik   Posted on January 28, 2003   Seriously! - What can players look forward to when playing Alpha Black Zero online? Yesse - There will be a multiplayer mode in which you can play the game cooperatively with 5 players. Coop multiplayer is done way too little I think, there are many action games which would have been so much cooler if you could have played them with friends. For now we are concentrating our efforts on a good single and coop experience, we will figure out later whether we want to add extra multiplayer modes, but we'd rather do the first two right before we add any others. Seriously! - Congratulations on recently signing with a publisher! Now that you have full access to the engine, what additional features can we look forward to? Yesse - Croteam has added an advanced Terrain renderer to SS for licensees of the engine (it is not used in either SS:FE, SS:SE or SS Xbox), which can create huge outdoor terrains which are very detailed. The power of this terrain renderer is comparable to that of the Unreal 2 engine. We are adding our own features to the terrain renderer as we go along, modifying it to suit our needs. As far as I know we are one of two SS licensees using it. It is pretty powerful and unique. Add to that the amount of enemies the SS engine can render onscreen and you have a pretty powerful set of features that allows us to create the game we want. Seriously! - With the increased detail and extra features, what do you anticipate in terms of performance compared with the current releases of Serious Sam as well as other upcoming games? Yesse - ABZ will run on a Pentium 4 equivalent with a 2nd generation 32mb Hardware T&L graphics card. The best results you will get if you go higher of course, but that is the lowest configuration on which ABZ will run. Seriously! - Is Alpha Black Zero being designed with mod developers in mind? What kind of accessibility and support can be expected? Erik - Yes and no. We are trying to fit in as many possibilities as we can in order to allow modding, but are giving the regular development a higher priority at the moment. I'm not ruling out that modding will be possible, but we are not focussing any time on it in particular. If we decide to open the game to mod developers we want to make sure that everything is in place and well documented. Should we fail to reach those standards, we won't release any tools for modification. We feel that the community deserves the best and if we can't live up to that, we shouldn't do it at all. Seriously! - Why did you choose the Serious Engine? What do you like most about it? Least? Erik - Our first concern was whether or not we could build the game-concept in the engine. What we like most about it (and still are amazed about sometimes) is the graphical power of the engine. But, as with any licensed engine, it does require a whole lot of work to get it to do what we want. The gameplay of ABZ is completely different from that of Serious Sam, so for the most part, the engine is changed completely to suit our needs. Sometimes the documentation is a bit sparse, so that doesn't help, but if we get really bogged down, we can always count on Croteam to lend a helping hand, which is great. Most hurdles have been taken now though. Seriously! - Are you planning on releasing a single-player and/or multiplayer demo? If so, when do you expect to do this? Yesse - We are going to produce a playable demo for Playlogic and other business relations. This demo will not be released pubicly. Wether we will be able to actually release a public demo will largely depend on whether we are able to produce a demo that is as polished and flawless as the final product will be. The question is whether we will find the time to do this. Khaeon is a small development team and we need to direct all of our efforts to actually getting the game out of the door. Seriously! - What is the current status of Alpha Black Zero and when do you plan on releasing the game? Yesse - Progress wise we are in the midst of an early alpha stage, and are heading into a crucial phase of integrating certain elements of the game. We are confident that we will make Q4 of this year for a release. Seriously! - What's on your desk right now? Yesse - A Wacom tablet, a mobile phone, a packet of Gauloises Legeres, A bottle of Pepsi Max, Two Ministry cd's and the soundtrack for "Judgement Night" and a huge sketchbook with storyboards for the ingame cutscenes. And a keyboard. Erik - A PC (duh), a half empty Pepsi Max bottle (love the caffeine, hate the sugar), various music CD's, Game Programming Gems (buried under a stack of notes), C++ STL ref, Scott Meyers Effective C++, sketches for the close-shoulder view, stacks of notes, coffee creamer and a phone. Seriously! - Lastly, what is the single most important thing people should know about Alpha Black Zero? Yesse - We are going to release a game that is foremost, incredibly fun to play. While we want to make the game as visually attractive as possible, our main concern is making the game a blast to play. You can expect an immersive story as well, to which we dedicated a lot of production time. Alpha Black Zero: Intrepid Protocol is going to be a very cool game which I think will have something for everyone. Seriously! - Thank you for your time! Great work so far and good luck with the rest of the game! Yesse - We won't let the community down, I can promise you that. Related Links: Alpha Black Zero Khaeon Games Playlogic International Screenshots « Prev Page Page 1 - Background and Story Page 2 - Multiplayer, Mods, and More!