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Hunted: The Demon's Forge - Interview pt.2
The second part of our interview with inXile Entertainment, discussing their upcoming third-person co-op dungeon crawler, Hunted: The Demon's Forge.
Written by David Scammell, 16 March 2010
GZ: What were the most important things to get right? Did you put the look and feel of the fantasy world first or good cover/combat mechanics?
The first screenshots of Hunted: The Demon's Forge.MF: There are two things. We had to be able to deliver with the spell attacks and the ranged attacks to make it as good as using a gun in one of those standard games. But for us, because it was fantasy, the melee was critical, so we spent a huge amount of time and effort making that melee combat feel good, because none of those games really have that melee combat. They have that emergency thing you can do when the guy gets right on you, but this was really about building a character that was awesome at melee and kind of crap at the bow, and then another character that's vice versa. Then they have to work together and they have to use strategy, and that led to us coming up with this concept of being able to switch characters at checkpoints. That's innovative because no-one's needed to do it before because you're playing two characters who are exactly the same.
The first screenshots of Hunted: The Demon's Forge.GZ: On the subject of the game's ranged co-op, on paper, some players might take that to mean that there are simply a lot of branching paths that split the players up and make them work independently from each other. Is that the case?
MF: We encourage you to have a line of sight. To do all of the co-op spells and regeneration skills require that you can see each other. But we've built our environments in a way that there are lots of paths through them, and a lot of elevated areas for the ranged character to be able to get a bead on the enemies from, lots of good melee arenas, trying to reward the player to split up. They don't have to; you could follow each other around the entire game if that's how you want to play.
MK: If you were playing a single-player game the AI would encourage it. The ranged AI character will automatically run up those stairs. If I want to join them, fine, no problem, you can play it that way, but we're going to encourage the player to use these things.
GZ: Does the player have any control over the AI?
MF: No, we didn't want to start going down the road of a squad system and start confusing the message more than we already have.
MK: Even in a game like Gears.. I played both of those games all the way through and never used the squad commands. We don't want you to have to use squad commands. Even if we put them in they'd just be like 'help me' or 'come to me'.
MF: But because we can have the characters communicate with each other, that whole back and forth is definitely a big part of the charm of the game. In the single-player mode it's a great tool; when Caddoc charges into a room he's telling you what to do to help him. You can take that advice or you can follow him blindly if you prefer.
MK: When the AI enters the arena he's going to do something, whether it's shy back or not, it's going to be a moment right there. In the middle of some of the environments there'll be triggers that have him utilise the world to encourage this co-op at a distance. His AI will also be based a lot on your health. So if you're low on health he's going to help you, to battle charge you, so you become almost as powerful as he is by him transferring his power to you.
Hunted Issue 1
For our latest Hunted The Demons Forge coverage, click here to download Hunted Issue 1 for free.GZ: There seems to be a fair few of these innovative mechanics dotted throughout the game, even the more basic ideas like being able to throw the regeneration potion across the environment to revive the other player..
MF: Yeah. I was playing a co-op game I won't mention with someone who wasn't very good, and I kept having to run back across the room every single time, and it's like, enough already!
GZ: So where do these two characters come from, what are they doing in this world and what/who are they fighting against?
MF: We have really well developed stories for the characters and their relationship for each other. The game begins like a James Bond movie where the first scene is the climax of the last movie, so we make it clear that these are long-time friends and adventurers. They're just on the 'where can we get the next buck' adventure, and at the start of this game they think that's what this is too, but then things start to go horribly wrong. This spirit (Seraphine) gets introduced and becomes a third point in a triangle between Caddoc and E'lara. Caddoc is quick to trust her and E'lara is not and gets annoyed with Caddoc, and the relationship between the two characters changes, as well as the characters themselves, and the end is a rather big twist..
MK: Jeez, are you going to give away the whole game? (Both laugh)
GZ: Presumably if there's a background and a history between these characters, there's potential to go back and explore their previous exploits in future episodes, maybe DLC?
MF: It's entirely possible!
MK: Oh yeah, certainly we talk about those things, but I just want to touch on some other stuff. Like Matt's saying, each of the characters have their own unique personalities, they have their fears and the things that they like. That'll be displayed especially in the single-player, but in the co-op experience you'll get it through their banter and the dialogue they have. There's an artefact called the Death Stone that the player gets given at the beginning of the game, and it's a little like the compass from the Pirates of the Caribbean that allows you to talk to the spirits of the death. But the two characters' motivation is gold and adventure; they're not heroes or anything, they're doing it for a buck, but they get sucked into this whole situation where all the people are gone and Seraphine says she can make you more powerful.
MF: So as she's giving you magic and special skills and sometimes giving you not as good advice as others, you end up doing things you don't necessarily want to just to get more crystals and more power.
GZ: When are you targeting Hunted for release?
MF: Bethesda's going to announce something very soon.
We'll have more on Hunted: The Demon's Forge next week, including a first look at the game in next month's issue of P3Zine, out next Thursday, 25th March.
Hunted The Demons Forge coverage available in Hunted Issue 1 - click here to download it for free!
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