GP: Impossible Creatures has come a long way since it was originally announced as Sigma. Did you guys expect it to change this much or has it just evolved as development progressed?
RL: We anticipated some of the change. That's just organic game design. Some ideas flesh exactly the way we plan, some don't quite work out the way we think they would. Since it's conception there have been a few design changes that stand out. Moving the combiner out of the game, during prototyping, is one I can think of right off the start. It was a big hurdle for us to get over because designing units on the fly was something from the original concept we were holding on to tightly to. Once we removed it, and got over this we found that the results were far more beneficial than what it took away. It added that element of strategy up front, combining your units and perfecting your strategies before you entered the battle. We've still got a lot of ways to succeed or counter other players tactics in the game, but a major factor will be designing that perfect army that matches the strategy you want to use during that game. There's probably as many different variations on the main strategies as their are creatures in the game.
GP: Impossible Creatures seems to primarily be an RTS game. Are there any other RTS games that the team at Relic particularly admire or were influenced by?
RL: We were influenced by many of the current, and older RTS games out there, including our own Homeworld. We love RTS's, and love to play them. We looked at what we liked about all of them, and threw away what we didn't like. We also wanted to take another step forward in this genre and really add that feature we thought every other RTS was missing. The ability to create your own fun. Create the strategy you want to play with. Most RTS's have 3 to 4 races to play, and all become fairly linear in how you end up playing them. Especially the hardcore. We've found with our extensive play testing both here and at Microsoft that the strategies keep changing, evolving. There are general "opening moves" but the way you branch off in any given game is much more evident early on.
GP: What are some of the features in Impossible Creatures that you guys are most proud of?
RL: The combiner is an obvious first. The animal models just look so good when they are combined. The morphing, texture blending and scaling of them really creates some unique looking creatures. The rescaling of the animations is incredible. Despite how long I've been doing this for, I still find myself spending equal amounts of time creating creatures just for the hell of it (to see what they look like and how the animate) as I do creating new types of units to redefine my strategies. The other features we are most proud of are the tools we created to make the game. The artist tools for getting new data in the game are extremely easy to use, and streamlined. The mission editor (which ships with the game) has an incredibly easy to use height map editor but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The mission editor is used to beautify the maps with objects, textures, decals, etc. The complex trigger system and dialog systems created are what our designers used to create the entire single player campaign. There isn't anything hard coded in the SP game, so anyone with enough time and skill will be able to create their own campaigns as complex as ours, possibly even more complex.
GP: Homeworld was very much a hardcore gamers game. Are you expecting Impossible Creatures to be more accessible for the mass market?
RL: Impossible Creatures is definitely more accessible than Homeworld was. We spent a lot of time looking what we didn't do well in Homeworld. We also looked at every other 3D RTS out there, and studied what we thought they did well in terms of controls, ease of use, and what they didn't do well. Our motto is "We want the user to spend the first 15 minutes of gameplay giggling like little girls because there having so much fun not fighting to learn new control schemes and interfaces." We did some heavy usability studies at Microsoft (They are incredible for this type of support) and really spent a lot of time tweaking the game and interface so that its very easy to use. All that said, there is an incredible amount of 'deep' gameplay there as well for the hardcore. We are anticipating a large hardcore audience for IC, simply because we've opened up the amount of strategy you have to draw on ten fold. We're also a much faster, more streamlined RTS. We took out as much of the make work, micromanagement aspects of normal RTS gameplay so the user can really focus on where the real fun of RTS gameplay is the combat and tactics.
GP: On the subject of Homeworld again. It had a very strong narrative. Will Impossible Creatures feature a detailed story? If so can you give us a few clues on what we can expect to see?
RL: As mentioned previously we did look at what we thought we did very well in Homeworld and the narrative was definitely up there at the top. We are strongly committed to continuing that avenue from a company standpoint. Impossible Creatures has a very compelling story that is set in the late 30's just prior to World War II. You actually play the 2 heroes Rex Chance and Lucy Willing, in the game (as units) in Single player. They both have some unique abilities they can draw on. This helps draw the player in and immerse them into the story as the people the meet and play are all in the game. Upton Julius has been working with Rex's father "Dr Eric Chanakov" and "Lucy Willing" on improving the Sigma technology (this is the name of the technology used to create combine animals) unbeknownst to Dr Chanakov or Lucy, Upton Julius real plans are to use the technology for evil, to take over the world. Enter Rex Chance just at the moment they are finding out that Upton is actually up to no good. You progress through the story as Rex and end up finding out more about his past and the origins of the Sigma technology as you progress through the game fighting some of Upton's more colorful side kick characters such as Whitey Hooten, Velika Le Pette, and an obscure veterinarian named Ganglion. That's about all I can tell you except that its quite a good, unique story in and of itself.
GP: The ability to mix and match animal abilities is very cool. Do you have any plans to make new animals available for download after the games release?
RL: That's a very interesting idea... sorry but we can't comment on that right now.
GP: Are there any multiplayer features in Impossible Creatures that you think differentiate it from other RTS titles?
RL: Other than some unique gamemodes, the feature that definitely sets Impossible Creatures apart from the other titles is allowing the player choice. Choice in the units they want in their armies (races), choice in what strategy they want to use based on the creatures they've chosen, choice in where you go up the technology tree based on the strategies you've chosen to use. We think there will be real longevity in the online Impossible creatures community because we've opened up these choices which is something no other RTS is doing right now.
GP: Finally, any favourite animal combinations that the Relic team want to give us a quick 'heads up' on?
RL: Sure, we'll even include a Screenshot. Our favorite animal of the week (and really this changes a lot) is: Bullornet - Why? because it's horns are great for breaking through barriers, and armor. It fly's, and has gives a nice little poison sting, everytime it delivers a blow.
