October design meetings

October 1, 1997

We reviewed the initial draft of the design doc, and talked a little bit more about what we want out of Prey, as a game.

Let’s really give a sense of passing time. In certain exterior areas, let’s have it deep night at times and "artificial dawn" at other times. When a player enters a hallway, for example, let’s have it fully lit most of the time, and lit by "emergency" lights at other times (presumably at "night" or other low-traffic times). When it’s lit only by emergency lights, the chance of a random encounter is less than during "normal business hours."

Instead of having keys for a single door, have some sort of device (key, access card, access bracelet, etc.) that operates a whole class of doors. That way, a player may explore an area, but only certain doors or avenues may be open. In another environment, Talon nabs the access bracelet, so now when he returns to a previously explored level, there are new areas now accessible.

Let’s make the goals in the game dynamic in some way—if a player accomplishes a goal with greater risk (attack rather than stealth, for example), then the rewards can be grander.

If possible, let’s have more "goals" or "missions" than are needed—that way, player A and player B might take on different goals during their work through the game.

In single play, Talon can’t have his arms blown off etc., but what if we make that part of "nightmare" difficulty—he can lose limbs.

Let’s allow blood to drip from severed limbs (in multiplay) or deep wounds, such that they can create a trail to your prey (sic).

In the trailer park/gas station area, let’s have Talon see the Trocaran shuttle ship relocate to the area on the other side of the missile base—it will help to prompt him to go on.

The intelligent species in the shareware level are the Keepers, but Talon might only catch a glimpse of one or two (in the end-episode cinematic, Talon will catch a glimpse of the insectoids or saurians).

The shareware episode takes place at night, but during the small level of the exterior area with the Trocaran shuttle, let’s have it be dawn.

When you are playing level 5, you can get onto the ship either forcibly or through stealth—how you get onto the ship effects the situation in level 6.

In level 6, the episode ends when Talon gets to the bridge of the ship and attempts to take over and fly the thing—he’ll either be there alone or with some of the captives, depending on what he’s done previously. As he fumbles with the controls, the beasts are pounding at the only door into the bridge—he’s captured (triggering the end-episode cinematic) when the beasts finally break into the bridge and swarm him (it’s inevitable).

The shareware levels were agreed upon and here is the breakdown, including the mapper for each level:

1 Talon’s Apache reservation (large) – John

Trailer park/gas station (medium) – Matt

Nike missile base exterior (small) – John

Nike silo interior with alien facility (large) – Matt

Exterior area with Trocaran shuttle ship (small) – John

Trocaran shuttle ship (medium) – Matt

October 2, 1997

We talked primarily of the vampire-like humanoids and their weapons. He is what we decided:

The female vampire humanoids are humanoid alternates, however, they are very intelligent compared to other alternates. They have split off into a sort of gang (picture the gang groups in Escape From New York), and live in the shadows of the ship, primarily in the humanoid areas, but they venture elsewhere as well. While the humanoid primaries are cannibals, these vampires survive primarily on humanoid blood, gathered via their weapon. They can survive somewhat on Saurian blood (it makes them sick, though) and insectoid blood is toxic.

There are two types: basic vampire chicks and the leader (tentatively named Hataa-skeen). The basic vampire chicks are "standard" enemies. Hataa-skeen is their leader, but is also a character in the game, who confronts Talon on several occasions and even offers some assistance later in the game. Dramatically, she is the character archetype "emotion" for the protagonist Talon. The basic vampire chicks and Hataa-skeen will be different models, but they will share similar features.

Their weapon will be one of the primary weapons that Talon can use in the game (also in multiplayer). It looks like a long cyberpunkish spear. It has two attack modes—melee and vampire. In melee mode, the vampires (and Talon) can slash with both ends at close quarters—this offers a potent attack but it can also be utilized as a defensive blocking weapon. In vampire mode, the weapon fires out its tip—this tip is connected, via and energy strand, back to the spear. When it strikes a foe, it will begin draining life, which can be seen as red moving back along the cool blue energy field. The speed of this drain is based upon the distance of the target (closer is faster). The player fires again to release the weapon. Once draining begins, health will drain from the target and feed into Talon. Remember, if the target is in multiplayer or a humanoid, health will be clean. If the target is saurian, then it may give health or it may damage Talon (allergic reaction). Against an insectoid, this weapon will damage Talon. In addition to the vampire attack, this weapon can be used in two other ways—the energy filament can cause damage, so that traps and trip wires can be set by the player. Also, it works somewhat like the Quake grappling hook, allowing the player to swing and access other areas.

Matt encapsulated the "feel" of the three main species nicely: Humanoid: cyberpunk, run down, Star Wars rebellion. Saurian: Star Trek, Maya, Star Wars Empire. Insectoid: Alien, bio-stuff

October 3, 1997

From a Scott Miller email:

One of my concerns for Prey is that we strike terror within players' pounding hearts. The big question is how to do this.

In movies, such as Alien (the scariest movie of all-time, IMO), viewers were put in tense situations, knowing danger lurked somewhere, but not knowing when the danger would leap forth. This is fairly easy to accomplish in Prey by having enemies surprise the player in a *wide variety* of unsuspecting ways. These ways should be staged by the level designers.

Another good way to invoke fear is to hold the player captive, seemingly in a hopeless situation, and show the danger coming slowly but surely, such as when James Bond was on the table with the laser beam coming toward him in Goldfinger. How is this accomplished within the game? Possibly by having Talon captured and put into a situation that is certain death unless he figures the way out, such as tied to a post in a room with water rising slowly.

My concern is that, unlike in other 3D shooters I've played, we can truly evoke movie-theater-like fear in the player. This may mean slower (by this I mean less action-oriented) areas of the game, but with true haunted house style suspense as the player explores.

October 4, 1997

We reviewed Allen’s models, and sat down to discuss two saurian "alternates."

The quad-beast was decided as a "must do" model. Allen will model it with a 650 maximum poly count (because we see them moving in packs). He will model standard sever points (head, legs and tail), and other interesting variations will be handled algorithmically via some sort of splitting function.

The beast will be one of those that will appear in episode 1, as the aliens destroy Talon’s reservation. They will often appear in groups. When wandering, the bony ridges of the back will remain flat—in aggressive mode, they will raise up. When fired upon, the beast will hunch back, hiding behind its bony skull and bony protrusions. It will have a leaping bite attack. At times, it will try to leap and push its prey to the ground—then it will mount and begin a vicious slashing and biting attack at close range. It can also slam down its tail to spawn a "sonic" shockwave. We all thought that it would be cool to play as this beast in multiplayer.

"Stumpy," the 4-foot tall Ofarian Guard, is another saurian alternate that was chosen as "golden." This creature will turn and flee if it is alone, but in packs of two or three (called Ofarian Clusters), it will attack. The creature has a wrist mounted energy weapon as well as a transforming shield/axe.

In neutral state (when the guard is simply walking around), the weapon will be in its long state, but the energy blade will be dormant. If fired upon, the weapon will transform itself into a shield. The guard will hide behind the shield and fire with the energy weapon. For a melee attack, the guard’s weapon will transform into a unique laser battle axe, which he will swing at his foes—if there’s a hit, it does a helluva lot of damage. As a surprise attack, after it swings the axe down, it can fire its wrist weapon.

These creatures attack in Clusters. One guard sets himself up as the
"target" attempting to garner the attention of their prey. He stays at long range and fires from behind his shield. The other one or two guards will attempt to disappear into the shadows and flank the prey, then charge in with a melee attack. If they successfully engage the prey, then the target may run up and initiate a melee attack as well.

We also talked about playing as other creatures in multiplayer. When we play as an alien, it would be nice to have the visual display change to reflect the creature, but we need to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with the player’s visual perceptions. As an example, if you play as an insectoid, have the screen chance to be a large hexagon, which is the normal view—the four "triangles" that make up the remainder of the screen can be warped like insect vision, but they can give a far greater field of view.

October 8, 1997

We talked about weaponry in general. The age-old argument of first-person specific model vs. our approach surfaced again. George thinks that we’re nuts to make it the same model, but he’ll reserve final judgement until we can get it working (or not) the way we want.

Since we want to have the third person and first-person weapon be the same thing, we need to pay special attention to the modeling of Talon’s (and other multiplayer character’s hands). This means that Allen will need to spend some polys for better geometry resolution (no fingers, though). Scott will also have to burn some more texture space, as well, on the visible part of the hands.

Talon’s "mundane" weapon will be the long-barreled 1880’s Colt peacemaker pistol. Talon got it from his great grandfather, who, in-turn got it from his father before that. This weapon and the basic version of the blaster below (plus any bludgeoning weapons) will be all Talon has for episode 1 (perhaps we should add one more weapon—something like a thrown bomb or detonator?).

Talon’s spirit guide (the great grandfather) will have left caches of shells for the weapon on the Trocaran ship—not too many, but enough where needed. In some areas, that weapon will be the only effective weapon. Perhaps, later in the game, Talon can modify and "create" some type of explosive shells for the gun.

There will be two fire modes: normal and rapid (Talon fires with two hands—one slapping back the hammer). It holds six shots and automatically reloads in a quick animation.

The "basic" sf weapon is the humanoid blaster. This is a modular weapon which has three parts: a pistol-like blaster core, a barrel and stock extension and a scope. It has two fire modes: an energy "pulse" and a standard immediate laser. The energy pulse does normal damage and possesses some kinetic punch. The laser is a heat mode—it does damage to opponents, but it can also do heat damage to locks, etc.

When the weapon is pistol only, it is nearly silent in pulse mode and totally silent in laser mode. When the extensions are added, the damage increases, but the bolts (and even the laser beam) produce more sound, alerting those entities around the shot.

The scope is a standard optical scope—when used, the entire screen becomes magnified and superimposed with some "scope metrics." Perhaps we could use short bursts of the laser mode as a laser sighting feature—not enough damage in a short burst, but it might provide some crucial targeting info and some metrics information.

October 13, 1997

From an email by Scott Miller:

This is for Duke primarily, but Paul you might want to consider this for Prey, too.

I think in Duke we should have two classes of inventory items. The first class is contains stuff like we've seen in Duke 3D's inventory and other 3D game's inventories.

The new class is what I call the "adventure game class." Accessed by a different method or button, this class contains items that are likely only used once or twice in the game to solve a puzzle. For example, a wire-repair kit to repair a panel to open a door. It's used once and disappears forever from your inventory. Or a can of oil that you poor into a machine to get it working. Or a piece of paper containing a code to be used later. Basically, inventory items like you found in adventure games, and you hung onto them until you figured out how and where to use them.

Sure, we'd already thought of this idea, but I think we need to push it and make it integral to the game. The idea of making these inventory items a separate key helps solidify this idea. And when this key is pressed a full list of all of the items appears on the screen along one side, and a moving highlight bar can scroll up and down through the list to pick the item you want to hold in your left had (which allows you to *use* the item where you want).

For the most part, these items replace keys. I think it'll add a lot to Duke (maybe Prey) to find special items and figure out where they should be used.

In Duke, for example, you could find a can of gas, empty bottles, some rags, and make a Molotov cocktail. Imagine the player's excitement in figuring this out. On the other hand, the player might put the can of gas somewhere and attach a proximity fuse to it, making a gas mine. Giving the player this freedom to make objects will be seen as ultra-cool.

October 14, 1997

Let’s have some energy weapons that you can set on "overload" mode—they then become, in effect, time bombs and explode horribly after a time—this would be great in multiplayer as a cool "suicide" to take another life when you blow up.

A "death blossom" grenade—you can set it or toss it—it detonates after a time. When it detonates, it rises up about 3 feet and spins, shooting off laser beams in all directions

Vampire spear—let’s have it only stick in biological stuff (eliminated grappling hook design problems)—can shoot it at a flying insect and fly, but only until the blood gets back and starts hurting you.

Insectoid grenade launcher (Allen’s idea). Primary fire mode is a glob of explosive goo—when you fire, a chitineous hull is put over it and it bounces and fires like a "standard" a spherical grenade. In fire mode two, the shell isn’t put on, so that the grenade sticks to targets (other players too). If it sticks on a player, they can jump in water to loosen the glue. Detonates after 5-6 seconds.

Scoring system—let’s have a very detailed, very cool multiplayer scoring system. One cool area to highlight could be suicides that you take someone else with you—either weapon overload or jump into lava or something like that. We also want to reward "most excellent" kills with some special score, like taking out someone with a pistol when they have a rocket launcher, or you have virtually no health, etc.

Highlight films—perhaps in a multiplayer session, a demo can be recorded constantly—when the game is exited, the film is compressed so that only "spectacular" kills are recorded and we can then watch the highlight film.

October 15, 1997

Perhaps there is some whole level dedicated to defeating the cyber-vamp tribe. Perhaps they all (the minions, not the leader) have tattoos on their face or something like that—you must sever their heads and place them on a tsompantli in the proper order to get a map or some other useful information. Once you rock all over the vampire minions, you will earn the "fragile allegiance" of the vampire leader, but she, via a cinematic, will tell you that she can crush you utterly—that it’s to her advantage to take you out.

Let’s see if we can have the vamp leader have red particle system hair, like it’s on fire.

If Talon attacks the vamp leader, she rocks on him, leaving him very damaged and she’ll run off, to be met later.

October 17, 1997

From a discussion with Scott Miller:

A multiplay "mystical" mode—all players are losing health all the time (1 point per 3 seconds, for example). When they kill a player, a "mystical spirit" rises from their corpse and remains there for 5-10 seconds—run through it (anyone), and receive a 10% health boost. It eliminates campers, adds a mystical feel to the game and adds pressure to the experience.

October 20, 1997

From an email by Scott Miller:

What if one of the skill levels was "Automatic"?

In this skill level, the game would automatically adjust to the players

skill level, based on how close to death the player came, how many

secrets he found, how fast the level was completed, what percentage of

enemies on the level was killed, etc.

When Automatic mode is selected, the game starts on the medium skill

level. After the first level is done, the game evaluates the player and

either stays at the medium skill level for the next game level, or goes

up or down a level. After each level the game re-evaluates the player

and adjusts the skill level if needed.

This should be *very easy* to implement, and would be another 3D Realms

first.

What made me think of this was a magazine article that was commenting on

skill levels in 3D shooters and when were they going to be smart enough

to be automatic. I think we can be smart enough to do it first.

October 24, 1997

From an email by Scott Miller:

Some ideas:

[1] Noticed that in Sid Meier's Gettysburg, that troops on higher

ground have an advantage of troops on lower ground (makes sense). In

Prey, what about doing something similar, such that enemies (or Talon)

that are higher that who they're attacking get a *slight* advantage, but

adding a few percent more damage power to their weapon, and only if the

higher enemy in at least 6 feet higher or more. Note that this will

only affect gameplay very slightly, but it *will* be an

attention-to-detail item that we can claim. And when players see that

we have a detail like this in the game, they automatically think we've

got other cool details. Same with the Press. :)

[2] What about the idea of having areas in the game that are

damaging-at-a-range to Talon. For example, let's say crystal clusters

give off radiation (which makes sense since they are unstable, can

explode, or be used as a power source by knocking off a small piece) and

if Talon is within a few feet (let's say ten feet) of a crystal cluster,

then his health drains, let's say at the rate of 1 point per 2 seconds.

Once again, another detail that shows we've given a lot of thought to

the game (just like in Q2, with the flies around bodies, and the dead

guy still firing off some shots).

[3] I want to remind you about the idea of parasites in Prey, which are

creatures that are not one of the four primary races, but still like

rats and pests in Trocara. One of these is an acid slime slug, about

six inches long and as thick as a baseball, which just moves around like

a slug on walls and floors. If you step on one you lose a few health

points, but you can also grab one and throw it like as an acid grenade

at enemies. Also, since it's organic, it goes though electromagnetic

shields.

We should have other parasites in the game, too. What about something

small (size of a big rat) that appears to come out of cracks in the

walls sometimes and feasts on just-killed actors? What might be cool is

if they sometimes came out and chowed down on fallen actors who are not

dead yet, but too weak to get up (i.e. health 3% or below triggers this

state--the player can finish them off, too), and you heard them

screaming! This would give players chills, I think.

October 27, 1997

Let’s allow the player to access our internal scoring system from within the Prey console (perhaps that’s how a player can access it anytime—otherwise, it’s only seen after a player completes a mission, level, etc.). We’ll use the score system internally to drive our invisible "confidence meter."

We could have scores like this: a kill—2 pts. (perhaps this score should be based upon the health level of the target—bigger critter, more points), finding a secret is 3 points, subtract points for all health lost from attacks, add points for health remaining at end of level (or whenever player checks the score), etc.

To reiterated what we’ve talked about before, let’s allow Talon to learn a vocabulary of limited words which can then be said from a keypress—this can be used for all sorts of things—getting something from an actor, activating a voice activated door, etc.

October 31, 1997

Scott, Steve, John, Matt and Paul all met to discuss the texture set that Scott and Steve created. We reviewed the architectural/artistic themes document, and explored the four regions (Insectoid, Keeper, Humanoid and Saurian) in light of the new textures.

We came to the conclusion that the Insectoids are easy to visualize, but we need to make sure that there is enough juxtaposition between organic and manufactured within Insectoid levels. We suggested texture sets that are membranes stretches over mechanical girders, wires, etc. Scott suggested teeth-like columns of metal grabbing into the organic goop in between.

The humanoids are the easiest for us to visualize, but we amended the themes document by enhancing the rusty, corrosion filled nature of their areas, and pulling back on their "costumed"

The meat of the discussions focused on the subtle differences between the Keepers and the Saurians. We agreed that the Saurians have evolved into a far more regal (and less animalistic) species than we first envisioned. We liked a clean, "professional" look for the Saurians, with the truncated triangle (equilateral trapezoid) as their common design motif. They often use bone-like or concrete color motifs. They also work with a very circular, but simple iconographic design motif.

The Keepers embrace the colors of royal green and parchment and they make use of semi-circular design element. Their textures show the most age and sophistication, and they have a very filigreed and curvaceous design motif.

We agreed that Scott and Steve would refine their texture sets, and then we would pick several textures for each species to serve as "reference tiles." Steve and Scott will work in all four areas, but they will work in texture sets to main continuity.

Matt and John will spend the next week building reference rooms of each of the four species, paying special attention to what they imagine to be recurrent architectural design motifs. We’ll meet on Nov. 13 to review the rooms.