Prey to God An Interview with Paul Schuytema by Fragmaster, New Vore Times

PS:	(Paul "Don't Call me Toyota" Schuytema): Not too bad-the Texas spring is cool and bright and full of great promise. sorry, there I go, off on another tangent.

PS:	I'm Paul Schuytema, project leader for Prey over at 3D Realms. I'm working on Prey because, for me, it was the creative "holy grail."

PS:

The classes I taught were all very subjective-I looked for student improvement rather than rote memorization or anything-if students liked the class, they didn't seemed to be bothered by the amount of writing I had them do-if they weren't having fun or were "slackers" then the 80+ pages of writing assignments per semester seemed like a "bitch."

PS:	I can't really say much of anything about Mech 3 _except_ that it's going to rule. The team they have on the game is comprised of some of the best talents in the business-Mech 3 will go way beyond Mech 2. It was very hard for me to leave that project.

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Yes, Mech 3 and Prey are very different on the surface, but they're both hard and serious science fiction, which is what I love. In Prey, we have the opportunity to create our own s.f. universe, from scratch-you can't get much cooler than that. As for action games being an overcrowded genre, I disagree, to an extent. Everybody sees action games as the "cash cow" genre, and so there are a ton of titles out there, but games like Duke 3D, Quake and Shadow Warrior are really pushing the envelope, and they "feed" the expectations of the players-that makes each and every action game in development feel the pressure-we've got to deliver an experience that more exciting (in every way-gameplay, graphics, AI, etc.) than our predecessors-that's a tall order, but we're confident that Prey will bring some fresh approaches to the genre.

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Since Prey is still deep in development, I can't tell you all that much more than what we've got posted on our web site-we don't want to say "hey it's going to be this way" and then do something different in development. Prey isn't a "pulp" game-we're not doing a humorous game here, but a dark, gritty science fiction game. We're also making sure that our story has the "meat" necessary for it to feel like a real and plausible science fiction universe-we're trying our best to make the science accurate and the plot tight and exciting-we really want player to come away from this game with the feeling that they've just been immersed in one helluva cool adventure.

PS:	Prey is a cool name because of the double-edged meaning: the prey/predator meaning and the "pray for help" meaning.

PS:	In short, Prey will be a different game that Quake for some of these key reasons: -the game will have a very strong central character (Talon Brave) -there will be a detailed and involved plot -the level of interactivity will be far greater (as in Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior)

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I hesitate pulling out a checklist and saying "Prey will be better than Quake here, here and here." Quake, as a game technology, is still evolving, and when John Carmack is "finished" with it, I'm sure he'll move onto something far more advanced. As for what I feel comfortable talking about, Prey has these innovations (there are more, but I can't mention them just yet): -a Portal Based engine (no more BSPs, which means that environments don't have to be static and unchanging) -16 bit textures and 16 bit colored lighting -radiosity lighting (light will emanate from a source, but it will also bounce back from whatever it hits-we calculate this "bouncing effect" for many, many iterations, which creates incredibly realistic-looking lighting)

PS:	I'd like to think that my writing skills will help to create an intense plot for Prey (I have my terminal graduate degree in science fiction writing), but in truth, game design here at 3D Realms is a "team task"-we all brainstorm together, and build the design out of our best collective ideas.

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Computers can do a lot of things really well-like plot the parabolic path of a spiraling jib or severed arm. What we need to do in Prey is give the player enough visual fidelity to be able to really identify with the characters and enemies in the game, but then take advantage of a computer's awesome calculating ability to make the experience intense with things like particle systems, dynamic lighting, geometry destruction algorithms and the like-if we do this, then we can create an experience that is far more intense and visceral that anything we can see in a movie. Remember, super-cool effects in a movie are usually split-second affairs (any longer, and they'll look fake)-in a game like Prey, if we've provided enough visual fidelity (enough "representation," if you will), then we can make the awesome effects last as long as we want-even in slow motion if we wanted to, and our minds, as players, will be able to "buy into" the fiction of it all.

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Yes, we sure do. We've looked at a pile of Quake maps but that certain "magic" we're looking for just didn't show up as often as we would have liked. Creating a killer map for Duke 3D or Quake really takes a whole host of skills: skills with the design tool, architectural knowledge, artistic knowledge, knowledge of play balancing, knowledge of risk-reward issues, etc. Since our Prey mappers will get an opportunity to use one of the most intense architectural creation tools out there (our own Preditor), we want to make sure that the mapper we hire has the inherent abilities to make the most of our technology.

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Yes, I miss the column a great deal-it was a wonderful learning experience for me, and it was a chance to talk, at length, with some of the best talents in the business. Right now, though, I really need to focus on Prey-Scott and George told me when I signed on that they had no problem with me continuing the column, but right now I only want my mind focused on the job at hand-Prey.

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I've written a ton of articles for CGW, Compute, Omni and some other magazines, written a few strategy guide books, a pile of science fiction short stories (that have been published-I've got about a zillion that haven't been published.yet) and some scholarly works (on Mexican archaeology, Ernest Hemingway and game design), but after all of that, I still only type with my two index fingers-go figure!

At this point, Paul decided to hand the remaining questions in the interview to other people that weren't doing anything at the time.... This is what they said. (Warning, this is New Vore Times material... Beware) :)

Fragmaster
The New Vore Times