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Interview March!: Offworld Recon |
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Versione tradotta - Translated version
IGZ: Could you introduce HBM Team to our readers? Past experiences,
future plannings. How many people are actually developing March!:
Offworld Recon?
HBM Team: The core people of the team have been in the industry for 5 years now. But previously we had developed mainly console games, and it was only a year ago that we started developing for PC. Firstly we made one game designed only for the Russian market. It was about this time that we got the idea of making an FPS game with elements of arcade. Today the HBM team includes 10 people, and each of them took part in the development of MARCH!
IGZ: Why did you use the mysterious Martian acclimatization?
HBM Team: We chose Mars, because we wanted to put the player into a world full of surprises and unexpected situations. Besides, we had a lot of ideas ( of weapon and power-up design mainly), which would fit very well in this kind of environment. In addition, we didn’t want our monsters to be human, nor even humanoid. We prefer creatures of steel to creatures of flesh.
IGZ: Could you tell us something about the game's plot? How does it
develop?
HBM Team: The action takes place in the distant future. Limited Earth resources could no longer meet the growing demands of Earth industry and ever increasing population. And the humanity had to start colonizing the nearest planets of the solar system to solve its problems. The moon became the main source of fuel for fusion reactors on Earth while Mars was considered as the most suitable planet for terraforming. But while there were no unpleasant surprises with the moon, all man's attempts to turn Mars into a second Earth failed.
The process of planet transformation took much more time than it had been expected, and cosmic radiation, not significantly weakened by the thin Martian atmosphere, was causing hitherto unknown diseases... The most frustrating though, were constant and mysterious failures of any and all automatic equipment, which finally made any work on Mars totally impossible. People had to withdraw from Mars, leaving behind only a few uninhabited scientific complexes, which, for some unknown reasons, were not affected by this mysterious plague of mechanical failures.
For many years, Earth forgot about its failed attempt to colonize the other planets of the Solar System, until being reminded about Mars' existence in a dramatic way. All communication and observation satellites orbiting Mars suddenly failed.. A reconnaissance mission was sent to the red planet to try and find out what's happening there. It was decided that the reconnaissance team will consist only of robots, which will be controlled remotely from a scout ship. The player will control one of the robots.
IGZ: March! is an FPS with strategic elements, based on team match. How
to manage any team's element? What about single character's specialty?
HBM Team: All the time, the player is accompanied by other robots. The player might issue some commands to them but for the most part, they act on their own, providing necessary fire support. If the player's robot is destroyed, the control is switched to the next robot in the team. Thus, the person's capabilities are determined by the number of robots in the team, and naturally the condition of these robots and their weapons. Some of these parameters may be set before the game.
IGZ: The graphic engine is very detailed. Which kind of graphic engine
has been developed? Could you describe the main features?
HBM Team: We used LithTech Talon Development System. This engine was used to develop Aliens Versus Predator 2, and we decided that it would suit our purposes best.. We think that its main features are, firstly, that it allows you to make visuals quickly and easily, and secondly, that it enables you to create both long dungeons and vast open spaces on the same level.
IGZ: Which kind of weapons can be used? There will be the chance to
drive any kind of vehicle?
HBM Team: We used what we call “modular weapon principle”. The player's robot will be armed with a universal weapons module, featuring exchangeable main guns and supplementary weapon attachments. The player can choose any combination of primary and secondary weapons ( for example, your robot may have a shotgun as a main weapon and a rocket launcher as a supplementary one). To change current weapon characteristics, you can also attach to the weapons module different weapon modifier units. With these modifiers you can change the rate of fire, weapon accuracy, add different lethality factors, etc. Totally, there are six main gun types, four types of supplementary weapon attachments and six weapon modifiers for the game, which makes for a significant number of different weapon combinations.
IGZ: What about multiplayer modes?
HBM Team: Today the game supports a standard set of Free For All, Deathmatch, and Teamplay. Apart from these three, there is one more mode (Squad Deathmatch), in which every player has a fire support team ( like in the single player mode). We think, that this mode is the most interesting since in this mode the players can practice their tactical skills: thus, it includes such functions as guard mode and priority target mode for the robots.
IGZ: Have you planned any demo release?
HBM Team: No. We had no demos before release of the full version.
IGZ: Why did you prefer a team-based fps?
HBM Team: Because of this “fire support team”. It diversifies the gameplay and thus makes the game more interesting to play.
IGZ: Finally if you want to add something we didn't ask, this is
your chance.
HBM Team: First of all we’d like to thank your readers for their interest in our game. We hope that you, guys, will enjoy playing MARCH!, just as we enjoyed developing it.
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