Week 9 & 10
Again a huge workload these last two weeks, which explains why I didn’t have the time to write the News last week (I’m catching up this week). We had a few articles in the press this week. Amongst others, two pages in Playstation Magazine and Joystick (in France), and two pages in Edge (the famous English magazine). The Edge article was particularly pleasing since it said that the Omikron software engine is one of the best they have seen, and above all that if Omikron lives up to its promise, the game will be a true revolution in the field of adventure games ! It really delighted all of the team to have such flattering articles more than a year before the game’s release. Let’s just hope that reviews will be as good once the game is completed...
Fabien and Simon are working together on the interfacing of IAM, our intelligent adventure editor, with our 3D engine. As soon as it is ready, we will be able to start programming the Adventure part of the game, which means a considerable amount of work. As for our new graphic editor called « GEM » (Graphic Editing Manager), Hakim is adding in some new functions. Pierre has started to work with it and is really very pleased. GEM should allow us to gain a lot of time in the creation of the sets.
Antoine is continuing to make progress with light and shadows. We now have an infinite number of lights in the city, which considerablyimproves the graphic rendering and atmosphere of the game.
On the graphics side, Area 1 and the Park were finished last month on schedule. Area 1 has a surface of over 2 square km ! On foot, it takes quite a time to cross it (luckily, we are going to add the vehicles very soon...). Philippe is now working on the characters. In particular, he has converted the game's first demon into real time. The result is really impressive. It leaves you longing to fight against it.
Olivier and Eric are carrying on with the sets in the red light district, with Sex shops, dimly lit bars and sexy girls in the streets. I know players who will spend their time in this area.
As for the scenario, I’m starting to see the end at last. The main difficulty has been exploiting to the maximum the 3D world, the huge outside sets of the city, the freedom of movement and action given to the player, and the non-linear nature of the game. I have tried to arrange for the setting of the adventure to be as rich as possible, without complicating the story or disturbing the player. The other difficulty has been mastering the production resources compared to the scenario. That’s to say not telling a story with ten thousand sets and twenty thousand characters. That may not sound like much, but when you have to count up the number of objects you need and the number of sentences of dialogue, there’s plenty of work involved.
The Motion Capture rehearsals took up a lot of time, for Tony (our animator) and myself (which explains my delay with the News). We saw so many impressive movements that we’re going to have a problem selecting for the Fight sequences. The Game Play of the Combat section starts right here, which requires an impeccable conception of the game on paper. We’re working on it.
So that’s roughly what’s being going on these last two weeks. We’ve still been receiving very nice E-mail messages. Keep writing to us, your messages are posted up on a wall in the graphic artists’ room. It keeps the troops’ spirits up.
Be in touch next week.
Autor: David Cage
Source: Quantic Dream
11/01/1999 Eidos Interactive ships Omikron: The Nomad Soul
09/23/1998 September News 2
09/15/1998 September News 1
07/28/1998 July News 2
07/14/1998 July News 1
06/08/1998 Week Beginning June 8
06/01/1998 Weeks Beginning June 1
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5/26/1997 Week 2
5/19/1997 Week 1
5/19/1997 Preamble to Week 1
Monday, July 21, 1997