» Poll Archive
» Submit Poll
» Latest Poll
» Site Staff
|
|
|
|
|
Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter Interview |
|
This Page has been viewed 15,917 times
Hello Reid! Thanks for taking the time out from working on your mod to
answer some of the questions we have for you.
Bluehair: Could you give us a brief overview of your mod as well as your team?
Reid: Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter is an adventure game that first came out in
1986 (EGA) and then re-released in 1990 (VGA) with updated graphics and sound. My mod aims to give SQ1 yet another updated version and still retain the same humor and whimsical charm the first one had.
As for the mod team, we currently have about 12 members mostly of programmers, musicians and modelers.
Bluehair: Does Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter stand for your first attempt as a
mod?
Reid: I have a long track record of working on mods and game development. I’ve done some levels for the original DOOM and then released a 32 multiplayer map that was included in the QuakeWorld 32 Player Map Pak. My map called “World32” was really well received. After that I moved on to the designing the first level for the DOOM: Your Path of Destruction total conversion for Quake 1. Next up, I did a small amount of level design for Rewolf’s Gunman Chronicles, the only commercial single player total conversion for Half-Life. Currently, I am
employed at Ritual Entertainment and have worked on titles such as Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. With my experience in game development, I am very confident in making a great mod for DOOM3.
Bluehair: By which aspect of its engine are you the most admirative?
Reid: I really love how easily I can mod DOOM3. Nearly everything is in a text file,
which allows me to create new weapons, GUIs, level scripts and so on. Being
able to make maps and compile them in seconds is a beautiful thing that brings me to tears. :`)
Bluehair: You introduce your mod as the remake of a full game. This is no trifling matter! Do you expect to redo it entirely or instead select a few key areas from the original game and work them out enough to recreate its essence?
Reid: Actually, the original game is really small, for instance if you know all the
solutions to the puzzles, you can beat the game in under an hour. What makes
the game seem much longer is when you struggle to solve the puzzles and read all the pop up text msgs. There’s a lot of text to read in that game. I
understand that adventure games aren’t selling as well as other genres of
games. One of the reasons I am making this mod is to try to experiment and
develop a way to make adventure games more popular. With any kind of
experimenting, I want to reduce risk and increase reward. My plan is to release
SQ1 for DOOM3 in three separate chapters, one by one, in sequential order. The first chapter will take place on the Arcada starship where Roger Wilco
discovers hostile aliens have boarded. Once that chapter is released I will
wait for feedback from the community and see if continuing with development of the game is worth my efforts. Community feedback may help my team improve chapter 1 and make chapter 2 better at initial release. After all the chapters are done I imagine releasing the whole thing as one complete download and gaming experience with extra polish.
Bluehair: Space Quest I was a point-and-click adventure game that featured a good deal
of humor and that in fact didn't take itself too seriously; playing it was more a
matter of reflexion and good laugh than action and fear like in DOOM 3. On the
other hand, DOOM 3 fans are presumably FPS players in the first place; so, will you take those facts into account when designing it? And for that matter, can you give away some tidbits about the kind of gameplay they can expect to see in the mod?
Reid: Just to be clear, the 1986 release of SQ1 required people to type in text to
play. The 1990 release was in fact point-and-click. I first announced this
project would follow the point-and-click version simply because that was the
only version I had played. I’ve been considering implementing both a text type
and point-and-click interface for the mod. The SDK was recently released, so
we’ll research if adding a text parser is possible.
I do realize that DOOM3 and SQ1 are very different games and I think that’s a
big plus going for my mod. The gameplay will be adventure style, in that you’ll
have an inventory of items that you use to interact and solve puzzles with.
You’ll talk to characters and use information to help you on your quest. One
interesting tidbit is that SQ1 offers a couple opportunities for FPS style
combat and I do intend to take advantage of DOOM3’s combat gameplay to liven up those portions of the original SQ1 game. I want to be clear though; this mod is an adventure game mod first and foremost. You’ll probably only end up shooting a few guys in the whole game, just like the original. It will not be a slaughter fest.
Bluehair: I remember you discussing about ideas and means that would allow games to be more accessible to deaf gamers. Do you have any plans to realize some of them into the mod?
Reid: Well, SQ1 was originally all text based so anyone that was literate in its
native language could play it fine. There wasn’t this reliance on sound that
DOOM3 has now. In the remake, I’d like to bring back those text only
descriptions of the world and character dialog. There’s a “narrator” character
in the game that everyone loves. He has this real sarcastic dark humor and
mocks Roger Wilco if he makes a dumb choice. If we had an actual voice actor
for that there’s a risk that some fans will hate the voice while others like
it. With text only versions the gamers can create their own “ideal” voice.
Bluehair: Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter is amongst the most ambitious mod in the works so far. Wasn't it too difficult to find people with enough will and skill to jump into the venture? Do you have any open positions left today?
Reid: I think no matter what mod you make; it’s difficult to find talented people who
also have free time and motivation to help! Finding those three things is an on
going process as people drop out through the course of a project. I’ve worked on many mods so I understand that some of the people I am working with now might not be with me at the very end. It sucks, but that’s the reality of it when you do this sort of thing in your own free time as a hobby. Having said all that,
I’ve got a good number of programmers and musicians on board currently. I’m
trying to learn as much of DOOM3 as possible but it’d be great to have more
texture artists, modelers, level designers and GUI designers. I don’t have
anyone that’s a GUI designer yet.
Bluehair: This question may sound a bit strange at first blush but if I'm right you won't  Do you want to prove something with this mod?
Reid: I hope I am understanding your question correctly, if not please tell me, Yes, I do have something to prove with the SQ1 mod for DOOM3. I want to prove
that adventure games are still excellent games to play, can make money in this industry and I also want to prove that I am a good game designer. Sure, I
didn’t design Space Quest or any of the characters but for the mod I have taken
the storylines from the game, comic book and my own imagination to hopefully
come up with the best version yet. I also have ideas for small mini games or
collectables that I think will fit very well with the humor of Space Quest and
add to the game.
Bluehair: Will low end systems that can barely play the game at low still be able to
play with this mod?
Reid: Any system that can run DOOM3 will be able to run SQ1. I’m not looking to
somehow lower the system requirements nor increase them. So, current owners of DOOM3 will be able to play the finished version.
Bluehair: How good has fan support been for your mod so far?
Reid: The support has been awesome. No one has really said, “You’re crazy, SQ1 for DOOM3?” Some have suggested other engines but it wasn’t in a negative way. As soon as I explained my reasons for using DOOM3 they always understood and wished me well. The Space Quest community is really tight and they have felt a lot of hard ships recently with the recent cancellation of Space Quest 7. Anytime that someone like myself wants to remake a Space Quest game, they are supportive of it because only good things can come from the effort.
Bluehair: When can we expect to see its first release/beta?
Reid: There is no way I can estimate that, so I’m not even going to try. I’ll keep
updating my website http://game.rbkdesign.com/sq1/ on a weekly or bi-weekly
basis with the current progress of the mod.
Bluehair: Is there anything you would like to say to your fans before we wrap this up?
Reid: Thanks for taking the time to send me this interview and thanks to everyone who has shown interest in the mod. Your support is really appreciated. As someone who grew up playing Space Quest I am very excited about introducing it to a new generation of gamers. I have very high hopes for it and please spread the word that I could use a few more helpers. Long live Space Quest!
Bluehair: Thanks again for taking the time to answer these questions Vorrik! Good luck with the project and the team at D3files will be keeping a close eye on updates.
>> Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter Official Website |
|
|
| | | User Comments | | The following comments are owned by the user that posted them. Doom 3 Files is not responsible for their content.
Total comments: 1 | Last comment: 08-29-2009 at 12:30
dherring
Joined: August 29th, 2009
Posts: 1 | I found and downloaded the AVI. Very interesting. As the Director on the 1990 VGA version of SQ1, I found my art brought to 3D very interesting... |
When posting comments, you must follow these rules:- No "Yay I got First Post!" posts, no exceptions and no matter what other content the post has!
- No Pornographic Material. Any sexually oriented imagery or links to such content will not be tolerated.
- No Warez or Illegal Software. This includes linking to software, posting about it, and suggesting to get it.
- No Cursing or Swear words. We encourage you to use our comment sections as a forum to debate files, news, etc., but please use proper adjectives to express yourself. We will not tolerate abuse upon another member or author.
- No Attacks / Retaliation of any kind against a member, or group of members.
- Please do not advertise for other sites or forums here.
- Maximum of 3 smileys per regular member.
The high interactivity of this site should be considered a luxury, not a right. If you cannot follow these simple rules, you can and will be warned or banned from the comments, site or the entire network for any period of time.
Now enjoy yourself and behave!
| |
|
|
