December design meetings

December 3, 1997

Had a phone design meeting with Martin—Paul, Matt, John, Allen and Scott were all there.

We discussed the idea of having certain areas in the game in which the mappers decide which weapons will work—perhaps meeting a boss with only the pistol, for example. How do we "remove" the other weapons? We could have them stolen, inactivated by a stasis field, etc.

We also liked the idea of giving the player cooler weapons earlier in the game, but then taking them away. Such as getting a rocket launcher and only 5 rockets, for example.

Martin had the excellent idea of having us all jot down the design things we like best, hate most and what we imagine games being like in 10 years. We’ll do that next week.

The most important aspect of the meeting, and what we spent the most time on was the save game system. Here’s an overview:

We have a "capture" save available at all times and for all skill levels—this let’s the player save the game at anytime (it boots them to a menu screen). When they restore the capture, they resume play, but the capture is wiped out. (note: we’ll have to make sure that this is somewhat encrypted to prevent people from just copying this file).

We use the "DNA clone" fiction for saving—Talon’s mystical spirit is nearly immortal, but his body isn’t. He has with him (given by the Keepers?) a "regeneration globe" with a limited number of DNA strands in it (this can be justified fictionally in Episodes 2-6—how do we handle it in Episode 1? Perhaps just unlimited saves at that point of the game?).

The number of DNA strands he has is decided upon by the skill level of the game (nightmare level has none, for example). Also, Talon can find additional vials of "DNA replication gel" in the game—they are very rare, but their frequency also varies according to the skill level.

When Talon is killed, his spirit sweeps away from his body as the DNA globe rolls a random distance away. In a few seconds, the DNA globe goes into action, reconstituting Talon and his spirit enters the body, and he’s ready to go again.

Talon’s weapons are scattered when he dies—he must recover them.

Problem: since restores are limited, we don’t ant Talon to regenerate and then be killed immediately—perhaps he has 5 seconds of "invulnerability or something like that. Also, creature can enter a "player is regenerating" state and move away from the scene of the kill.

Problem: we must keep saves limited enough so that a player doesn’t simply die just so that he can be respawned at full health and abilities and ready to take on a challenging situation.

Possibility: the "enhancements" that Talon gets, ability-wise, me be lessened with each respawn—it then rewards the player to stay alive longer and build up his skills—perhaps this might also cover the number of mystical spells and abilities he has.

Cool thing: the visuals for this effect can be simply stunning!!

Cool thing: this approach really gives the illusion that a play through Prey is a single thing, not a multitude of mini-games between save locations. It also dovetails perfectly with the fiction of the game and universe.

Cool thing: by limiting saves, we also increase the value of a players life- If we muck with stats and spells as well, then we up the ante even further—it’s would be very exciting and challenging.

December 5, 1997

Allen, Loyal and Paul were brainstorming in the break room, and came up with an interesting mission idea:

Jumping off from the "three ships of poison gas" idea, here’s one mission: Talon discovers the location of one of the gas cylinder ships. He tries to get to it, but he accidentally triggers its release. It is now slowly moving away from the Trocaran mothership towards Earth. Talon must find a shuttle bay. He gets in, but there is no ship—it is outside on patrol. Talon must use the computer to take control of the shuttle and guide it in—big doors open up and it flies in—through the windshield, he can see its occupant getting irate. It lands, a portal opens up and Talon must battle the dude on the shuttle. Enemy dispatched, he climbs in, closes the door and flies out into space. He must then dock with the huge cylinder drone and get inside its maintenance tubes—lights flicker on and off and strange parasites attempt to thwart him—he sets up the self-destruct sequence and must then get out, and back on the shuttle before the ship blows. Finally, the mission ends when he lands the shuttle back in the bay (or perhaps another bay?).

December 8, 1997

From an e-mail by Scott Miller:

I've been trying to think of ways to add to the game's story, *while*

the game is being played. An important part of this is for the player,

as Talon, to discover information along the way, including background

info on the Trocarans. When the game begin, Talon doesn't know that the

Trocara have been doing their seeding for 100's of millions of years,

and have wiped out and replaced 1000's of civilizations and planetary

species all the while.

This fact should be a startling discovery for Talon in the shareware

episode, when he not only realizes that Earth is the next target, but

that the dinosaurs were also part of the Trocaran seeding, and maybe he

finds a huge galactic map that shows 100's or 1000's of other worlds

that have been seeded.

The point is that this should be something Talon stumbles upon and

discovers on his own, within the game itself. After this, Talon might

get more info on this from his great grandfather.

December 9, 1997

Brainstorming the E3 demo at the end of May:

We should do a network demo—let’s have 16 stations and run 2 8 player games from dedicated servers. We can also have 2 "dummy" PCs that simply exist to send out preprogrammed camera locations to every other "high" monitor mounted above. We have 4 MultiPrey levels, and shift them every hour or two (that way, people will have to come back). We can run 5 or 10 minute games that end with cool scores, etc. A network game would offer a far more intense game experience for the show-goers, plus it would alleviate us from having to show too much of the single-play game experience. We could run a single PC kiosk for showing non-interactive flythroughs/cinematics.

December 10, 1997

From a conversation with Martin:

Let’s have "finishing moves" that Talon does with certain bosses. Martin’s idea is to have a powerup that’s very rare to find. You can invoke it on a boss who’s "got your goat" when he’s close to death—then, you can move to a "mystical" 3rd person perspective to see the incredible killing take place.

December 17, 1997

From an e-mail from Scott Miller:

I want to recap the idea we talked about today because I think it's a
valuable idea that needs to be integrated into Prey, and also for
George's benefit.
The idea is that Talon, after reaching a certain milestone in the game
(such as after he's given the medallion, and after he's reached a level
of confidence) can go into a trance state and enter the mind and point
of view of certain enemies, controlling them much like Abe can control
certain enemies in OddWorld.
Talon should only be able to control the secondaries of *one* particular
species (by limiting it in this way mappers are better able to control
when the player is able to use this ability). While doing this, Talon's
health (life energy) is slowly draining, so there's a penalty or
tradeoff for doing this. If Talon causes an enemy under his control to
attack another enemy, then Talon's enemy is attacked as a traitor and
killed (at which point Talon reverts back to his own body).
The main purpose for taking over another enemy is not for attacking, but
for puzzle-solving, much like in Abe's OddWorld. A simplistic example:
there might be a lever across a chasm that needs to be pulled to make
the bridge appear across the chasm. Talon would need to take over an
enemy that's across the chasm and use that enemy to pull the lever, then
Talon can exit that body and go back to his own body. (BTW, whenever
Talon exits a body that's still living, that enemy knows that Talon is
in the area and alerts all the other enemies present, which is another
tradeoff for doing this.)
The whole time Talon is in another body, his body is vulnerable. Any
attack upon his real body immediately breaks the trance and his back to
his real body ready for action.
After seeing how cool it is to walk around in an enemies body, I think
this will be a very key gameplay innovation for Prey to have first.

December 18, 1997

From a conversation with Martin:

A hook weapon. You fire this hook/harpoon at a foe and it sticks in them and drives them back against the wall, where they stick, crucified. They struggle to get free (they will in about 5-10 seconds), but while they struggle, you can either run away or kill them.

Mystical power—scanning (like in the movie "Scanners"). This is a "dark" power—Talon’s great grandfather urges Talon not to use it—it drains his health. If he has line of sight, he can drain the energy from his target to the point where he makes his head explode.

An expansion of our "posses another creature" idea: say that you can "posses" the body of a freshly killed enemy for a time—during that time, your health will slowly drain and your body will be frozen and vulnerable. Now imagine this: a room, packed with super nasty creatures (no way could Talon kill them all). Talon lures one out into the hall, kills him and posses him in order to enter the room and flip a switch. If he attacks the other monsters, they’ll go after him.

A creature like the T1000. Perhaps only a huge explosion will kill it—it blows into a pile of gibs. Then, the gibs gradually started pulling back together to reassemble the creature.