Project Valkyrie Interview – A Metroid Inspired Half Life 2 Mod

Project Valkyrie - Image 1QJ.NET’s very own Christopher C. recently snagged an interview with the minds behind Blackened Interactive, the folks responsible for the gorgeous-looking Half Life 2 mod, Project Valkyrie. This mod’s gaining all sorts of momentum in, as Christopher C. calls it, the forumsphere, so head on over to the full article to check out the interview as well as a few sneak previews of what lies in Project Valkyrie.

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Howdy folks, what we’ve got here is an interview with Chris “Zanboo” Bailey – Project Manager and Tony “Omega” Sergi – Programmer, two of the minds behind Blackened Interactive’s intriguing Metroid-inspired Half Life 2 mod.

The project originally started out as a team building exercise with a three month deadline, however, the team soon found themselves totally sold on the concept and decided to go all out on making an addictive multiplayer experience. But enough jibber-jabber, onto the interview eh?

Can you give us a little bit of a history lesson on Blackened Interactive and its origins?

Tony: Back sometime in 1999 a couple friends (Rob & Mike) and I decided we wanted to put a name to some projects that we were working on, somehow Blackened Interactive was the chosen name. We were going to be covering both mods and other applications as well. Out first project was a Mega Man mod for Quake2, it died really quickly when Rob was sucked
into Everquest and disappeared off the face of the known world and subsequently destroying the mod and then Mike decided he wanted to do some stuff on his own so he created Naive Software. A few months later I began messing with Quake2 again and another friend Justin joined up with me to work on the Mega Man mod again. We developed MMXQ2 for a while,
moved onto Half-Life, and even Quake3. We all lost interest and I started making my own mods now such as Omega Wing and Household DEATH! which were released under the BI name. Fast forward a few years later, Chris Bailey approached me about continuing a previous project, and we’ve been working together ever since, with Project Valkyrie now our
pride and joy.

What sort of experience does the current team behind Project Valkyrie have?

Tony: Pretty much all of my experience is code related. While that I do know how to do a little bit of just about everything that is needed to create a game with the Source Engine, I try to stick with the code side as much as possible.

Chris: Tony and I worked on a retail Source-based project that unfortunately hit the bit bucket, but we also have a decent amount of professional experience within the team, with one member working as a professional concept artist and another as a tester for EA.

How hard has it been getting a group of people together over the internet to work on this project, what tools do you use for management?

Chris: Mod development is one of the hardest things to do. Time constraints, devotion, differences in time zones, etc. all contribute to making it very difficult. With Project Valkyrie, we’ve really honed down our team to a core group that excels in each area of design. As far as tools, we’ve used a mostly iterative design process, using nothing more than Skype and a forum.

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Where did the idea for Project Valkyrie come from and what prompted you to begin working on it?

Chris: Project Valkyrie was initially developed as a team-building exercise for a more extended and larger scope Unreal Engine 3 project. As the development of PV progressed, we all grew really attached to it and wanted to fully develop it. We initially chose the Metroid franchise as the base because both Tony and myself love Metroid and for our original goal it didn’t require any heavy concepts since we had something that we could simply base of of.

What kind of game is Project Valkyrie?

Chris: I’d have to summarize it as a first and third person, sci-fi deathmatch shooter in it’s current incarnation.

Tony: The first release is strictly Deathmatch, both due to our strict schedule and the features we chose right from the start to implement.

How many players will be supported at release?

Tony: Currently the game is designed around 8 player free-for-all deathmatch, this may change in subsequent patches.

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Valkyrie is set to ship initially with one map called “Twin Bridges”. Can you tell us a little about the map features?

Chris: Twin Bridges is a pretty dynamic map. The map takes place in a ‘spaceport’ of sorts, with both a hangar for larger, freight ships as well as a fighter launch bay. As players fight, the ships will be landing and taking off and flying overhead, giving a very dynamic and living feel to the map. The center piece of the map are two large bridges spanning over a lava bed, with tubes pumping the lava up into the spaceport to provide power.

How soon after release do you plan on following “Twin Bridges” up with more maps?

Chris: Our first map content patch should land within three months of first release.

On the subject of release dates, um… When can we expect a release?

Chris: Very, very soon. Everything is go for a launch. We’ve worked out permission with Valve to release with the upcoming cache files, and surprisingly, if you can run a mod, you can run Project Valkyrie, no Orange Box games are required.

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Other than map releases, what else have you got planned in the way of post-launch additions?

Chris: Weapons, game modes, new player models and customizations. We’ll really be listening to the community and planning our content releases around what they want. We’ve also got some singleplayer stuff in the works…

What are the recommended specifications?

Tony: Recommended, and in some ways almost required are the ability to run TF2 smoothly. If you can’t play TF2 with all default settings, you may have issues running Project Valkyrie. There are a few important effects/features that Require a DX9 capable video card. Granted, if you have a DX8 card there is potential for it to run a little quicker, but a lot less good looking!

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Nintendo has in the past guarded their intellectual properties very rigorously, you’ve gone on record saying that Valkyrie was at least inspired by Metroid, do you feel you’ve distanced yourself enough from Retro’s shooter?

Tony: I have to say that we’re definitely trying to distance ourselves as much as possible without eliminating the core features that we have and want to have. In the future we hope to be able to expand enough that there is only a few basics that resemble Metroid and are different enough that at first glance Metroid isn’t what you instantly think of.

The quality of what we’re seeing in the screenshots speaks for itself, are there any plans for Blackened Interactive to move onto a commercial product after this? Have you been speaking with anyone?

Chris: We’ve been told that some of the guys are Bioware have taken a look at what we’re doing, and we’ve been receiving feedback from Valve about how the game plays. Working in the retail market is something we’d love to do, but as a team. Of course, to anyone reading this, pick me!

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, we can’t wait to get our hands on Valkyrie!

Tony: It’s great that you’ve taken the time to interview us, we really appreciate it and Thanks a lot!

You can also keep an eye on Project Valkyrie’s progress at http://www.project-valkyrie.com/.

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