QJ Exclusive: an interview with 10tacle Studios on Elveon

Some of you guys must be asking, “Elveon? What in blazes is that?” Not much is known of the game so far, and frankly, the hype isn’t as great as any of the other current next-gen games out there. We decided to do some prodding of our own once again and managed to squeeze out all the new juicy info from 10tacles Studios about their upcoming action RPG for the 360 and PC.

If you thought that this title wasn’t worth a second glance, then you better own up. After reading the transcript of this interview with Managing Director Slavo Hazucha from Studio Slovakia, you might actually start to think that Elveon could potentially be one of the biggest games of next year.

We’re thanking our good man Slavo and the whole of 10tacle Studios for allowing us to have this interview. And if we had to some it up in one word, it’d have to be “epic.” We got to talk about Tolkien, the Unreal Engine 3, martial artists, prophecies, gods, the world of Naon, and some hints of a possible sequel in the future…

Click the “Full Article” link to see the full interview!

Some of you guys must be asking, “Elveon? What in blazes is that?” Not much is known of the game so far, and frankly, the hype isn’t as great as any of the other current next-gen games out there. We decided to do some prodding of our own once again and managed to squeeze out all the new juicy info from 10tacles Studios about their upcoming action RPG for the 360 and PC.

If you thought that this title wasn’t worth a second glance, then you better own up. After reading the transcript of this interview with Managing Director Slavo Hazucha from Studio Slovakia, you might actually start to think that Elveon could potentially be one of the biggest games of next year.

We’re thanking our good man Slavo and the whole of 10tacle Studios for allowing us to have this interview. And if we had to some it up in one word, it’d have to be “epic.” We got to talk about Tolkien, the Unreal Engine 3, martial artists, prophecies, gods, the world of Naon, and some hints of a possible sequel in the future… Here’s what went down:

QJ: One notable thing about Elveon is that it’s well-rooted into the mythology of elves. In fact, you guys have spent four years developing the whole universe of Naon – its history, culture, language, everything. This brings us to our first question. While you’ve spoken of having Tolkien and the Silmarilion as a major inspiration, what unique elements have you introduced in this game? How different will it be from what inspired it and in what way does Elveon “break free” from the stereotypes established in Tolkien’s creations?

Slavo: That’s absolutely true. It took us about 4 years to develop the whole story of Elveon. That means that we developed an entire new fantasy world and we based it on two main principles. First, instead of once more depicting all the established fantasy races, good and bad, we decided to focus on one race and depict it with a detail level yet unseen in the environment of a computer game. We took the elves because they are an ancient race, in many existing stories also the first race that emerged and they have a supernatural, mystical flair that is great for the kind of stories we wanted to put into our world. The second point results from the first – we definitely wanted to create a world which will have its own distinguishing look and feel, an atmosphere that would identify it and set it apart from other fantasy worlds known in computer games. This way we came to the conclusion to show a world at an early historic stage – the elves being still the only race, interacting with gods and aspiring to rule the world as its rightful masters instead of helping the humans deal with pesky green orks and rotting skeletons. This is a plot that is known to fantasy fans, since the elves as they are shown in most stories and games are an ancient fading race which has a rich and epic history, but which is now fading and sailing away, leaving the world for the new emerging races. In Elveon, we show the glorious and epic past of the elves – something most fans know, but what was never shown in such a way.

Talking about Elveon story-wise, the game is more similar to Silmarillion than to Lord of the Rings. We all like Tolkien’s work and much of it was a great inspiration for us. Nevertheless we donÂ’t want to be compared with Lord of the Rings or something else. Elveon goes its own way and even there are some similarities, Elveon stands for something totally new. I think you will agree, if you know the game. [smiles]

QJ: So the story is set in Naon, world of the Elves, struck asunder between warring factions of the Neamas. Given a whole host of fantasy games and stories, are there also going to be some other elements which RPG fans would find familiar? Dragons, orcs, and titans, maybe?

Slavo: Although the game focuses on the Elves, there will be many more beings shown (and there are even more that will not be shown in THIS gameÂ… [wide grin]). Monsters, Halfgods and Gods will all play an active part in the gameplay.

QJ: As mentioned, you guys worked for four years to develop the back-story for Elveon, what about other aspects of development? We understand that you have brought in martial artists to observe and motion-capture for the combat sequences. What about other specialized staffers like architects, weapons experts, voice actors, musicians, and cinematographers?

Slavo: The team around Elveon consists mostly of professional staff from all kinds of faculties. We selected this team very carefully regarding their tasks. The production of Elveon‘s visual assets is dominated by the 3 main features of the game – nature, architecture and characters. We have our own lead designer for every of these parts. That means we have a lead designer for architecture, a lead designer for the character and a lead designer for the nature environments.

The production team consists of specialists like sculptors working on the highly detailed character models, Cut-Scene directors for the In-Game animations and videos, or 3D-artists working on the level sceneries. All the members of our team were selected in order to support the highlights of the game as good as possible. We often invested long times to introduce academic artists like sculptors and painters to the production methods of a computer game, which was difficult, but it proves being worth the effort.

To achieve a combat simulation that feels realistic and is also visually appealing, we have hired our own martial arts crew to develop very unique “elvish” fighting styles which represents the honourable and powerful skills of these characters. It’s basically a mixture of medieval and modern European and Asian fight techniques.

QJ: Now on to graphics, we hear that the game is based on the Unreal Engine 3. Must be fun for you guys to work with such a powerful next-gen engine, how are you able to deal with developing a third-person RPG game based on the structure of a first-person shooter?

Slavo: You’re absolutely right the Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games is a very performant next-generation game engine in all important areas. Apart from that the engine offers a superb material editor that allows us to achieve superior visual asset quality without a radically increased effort compared to present generation asset production. Besides that we are developing our own tools and feature sets and have licensed some other solutions like for example the Speetree Technology for a living environment. The cooperation with Epic and other Unreal Engine developers is very satisfactory through the use of the Unreal developerÂ’s network. The development stage of UE3 provides us all solutions necessary for the basic game performance and allows us to concentrate on our own features and distinguishing highlights throughout the rest of the project. ItÂ’s simply perfect. [wide smile]

QJ: On the aspect of gameplay, there are going to be three other modes or gameplay styles supplementary to the main hero’s campaign: a Dragon Room to unlock the hero’s skills, a griffon-riding mode that’s built on an arcade-style rail shooter, and a “Legend” mode that allows you to play the backstory. How often do these mini-missions occur? Are there going to be other “unlockable” game modes?

Slavo: The game tells a story about the main characters journey, on which he comes on the trail of an ancient elvish legend. To explain the legend and the backgrounds, we use these special modes, where the player, instead of simply hearing or reading what has happened, will actively play the past himself and witness the events first-hand. We intend to bring the player a strong emotional experience, we let him play trough all the important events of our story and backstory. This is the use of the Legend Mode and the Dragon room.

Special gameplay modes, such as the Griffon ride serve the purpose to alter the gameplay pace at suitable moments, providing fast-paced action seen from a new perspective. They will however not occur too often and are just a supporting element of the main gameplay mode. Among others, they will also be unlockable game modes.

QJ: Combat seems to be like a very immersive aspect of the game. From battle stances to weapon classes, from inventory items to defensive blocks, it’s pretty much very tactical and fast-paced. Can you talk more about how all of these things fit into the combat system?

Slavo: Elveon focuses on the action gameplay and so it is very important to present a very attractive combat system, which is the core of the game. We have hired our own martial arts crew and they have developed a very unique “elvish” fighting style which represents the honourable and powerful skills of these characters. It’s basically a mixture of medieval and modern European and Asian fight techniques. The action gameplay of Elveon focuses mainly on thrilling and well balanced duels with equal Elvish or divine opponents, but there will be several other gameplay modes such as fights with multiple opponents, ranged combat and stealth (often combined with ranged combat) as well as exploration and puzzle solving sequences.

QJ: We understand that the game is pretty much open. You guys are even encouraging players to explore the dynamic world of Naon. If you were to divide the game into a clear-cut ratio, how much of the game would be linear, and how much would be free-reign exploration and immersion?

Slavo: Oh, I just waited for this question! [grins] You know, the player is the hero of this epic and his/her mission is to achieve the objective, the fulfilment of the prophecy – namely the liberation of the city of Nimathar. The game will take place in levels but the story covers a millennia old ancient elvish legend and will be told in a non-linear way – so that the player will have the opportunity to see some levels both in “present” time and in the past – we want to give the world a very mythical dream-like look and feel so that the player will fell like he is really walking in an ancient heroic legend

QJ: You’ve also made it clear that there will be a multiplayer mode that will root itself into the Xbox Live service with downloadable content and other features. But how exactly would this multiplayer work?

Slavo: Primarily Elveon is a story-driven, single-player action game. We will provide a basic introduction multiplayer with several different modes that will exploit the tactical possibilities of ElveonÂ’s combat mechanics, allowing player to test their skills with different weapons and different setups against other human players.

But since we see much more potential in what we could do in the multiplayer area, we are discussing some opportunities for potential add-ons. Expect some more revelations on this early next year!

QJ: Speaking of which, what of the PC platform? Surely there’s going to be some difference between the 360 and PC versions, especially in the area of controls… Can you talk about the differences?

Slavo: Sure, there will be several differences between the Elveon-Version for the Xbox 360 and the one for the PC from a specific development level. This can go quite deeply, affecting especially controls, camera setup, interface and navigation – we approach these areas separately for X360 and PC. The gameplay is also affected by changes and adapted to the respective target groups. Elveon will definitely not be a port on either platform.

QJ: And more than this, will there be unique content and/or features exclusive to their respective platforms?

Slavo: We are evaluating this question and want to put a large testing effort to determine the right balance for each platform. In general we do want to make the game feel as close as possible on both PC and X360. Content-wise, we may consider making a few details related to the RPG elements and their handling slightly different to fit more into the standards of the given platform if the tests prove it necessary.

QJ: The game’s set for a Q2 2007 release. At this point, how far are you guys into development? EverythingÂ’s going smoothly?

Slavo: At the moment, we are quite confident regarding our current development status. The technological development is completely done, as well as the development of the graphic assets. Currently our team is composing the game from its several parts. This means they are building all the levels. In addition to that we just began testing the game in order to ensure a high quality.

Once again we’d like to thank the guys and gals at 10tacle, and we hope you, our readers, enjoyed the interview.