Interview with Pariah
Digital Extremes' newest FPS has all the hallmarks of a stellar game. We speak with founder James Schmalz to find out what it's all about.By Douglass C. Perry.
Developer Digital Extremes today granted IGN a unique look inside its upcoming first-person shooter Pariah in this interview with company founder and creative director, James Schmalz.Schmalz is the founder and creative director of Digital Extremes. He created the Unreal franchise and was the lead designer on the original Unreal, all iterations of Unreal Tournament as well as the Xbox Live launch title Unreal Championship.For those unfamiliar with the game, Pariah is a sci-fi first-person shooter focusing on a deep storyline that weaves survival elements into a traditional first-person/action game. Pariah will use the latest version of the technologically powerful Unreal engine and as you can see in today's new trailer, it's filled with great textures, special effects and intriguing indoor and outdoor environments.IGN: What's the story behind Pariah? I don't just mean the basic outline, I mean, why is the game called Pariah, what exactly is the experiment that's so potentially devastating, what kind of beings, human or otherwise, are involved, and how does the player's role become part of that story?James Schmalz: Well, one definition of 'Pariah' is an outcast from society. That fits the theme of the game in a number of ways: The main character is a bit of a loner at a low point in his medical career. The female lead character has been a prisoner for a long time and many of the enemies are prisoners or escaped prisoners. So, Pariah is a word that fits nicely on a number of levels.As to what the devastating experiments are, well, that's for the player to find out as the story unfolds.IGN: How is the story integrated into the game? Is it purely through cutscenes, or will there be scripted events as well? And, is there more than one ending?James: It is a combination of everything. Cut scenes, in-game scripted sequences, in game dialogue and in-game events. We use what is best for each specific circumstance. We recorded the voice actors for multiple endings and we are going to do focus groups on the endings to see reactions and use what works best.IGN: This trailer, which is an excellent, high-quality video clip by the way, gives me the feeling that Digital Extremes is trying to create a game very much like Halo. There are numerous similarities: It takes place in 2520 (around the same time as Halo), there are secret weapons that could change everything (like the Flood), Earth is devastated, it's a first-person shooter with off-road vehicles, etc. How will Digital Extremes separate this game from Halo and how will it try to better Halo?James: True, there are some similarities on the surface, but it very much has a different feel and different focuses. Much like back in the day when people would say, how is UT similar to Quake 3? I think (and hope) many people thought of them as both great games and both were extremely successful. Similar in some respects, but very different and very fun in their own ways. So, hopefully people will have similar feelings about Pariah and its competition.IGN: What kinds of vehicles are rideable in the game and in what kinds of environments do they drive? Also, what is the driving mechanic like?James: We have a good variety of vehicles that can be used both in multiplayer and single-player. Single manned three-wheeled vehicles all the way up to a multi-person tank-like transport. Each vehicle has its own unique weapons.
The environments are comprised of a number of settings around the main prison, some of which you can see in the trailer. In multiplayer we have a few more settings as well, from dry blowing desert sand to deep dark forests.
IGN: Pariah's textures looks incredibly rich and detailed. With such high quality textures, how will you compensate to keep the framerate up? Smaller environments, fewer enemies on-screen, lower framerate, exciting new technology?James: We have spent a loooong time enhancing the technology. There have been a large number of great performance enhancements we have squeezed from the Xbox. We have also spent a substantial amount of time optimizing the memory as to get the highest resolution textures, most geometry and maximum animations possible in each level. The programmers are very proud about what they have achieved in this area.Overall, the environments are a good mix of very large outdoor levels and sprawling indoor levels and some that are a combination. IGN: What kinds of weapons can players wield in the game?James: The thing we are most excited about with the weapons is that we kept many of the old favorites like the rocket launcher, assault rifle and grenade launcher, but added our own twist on these weapons: We made them upgradeable. So as you play through the single player game you pick up Weapon Energy Cores or WECs which you can apply to any weapon. These enable you to upgrade your weapon. Each upgrade becomes progressively more difficult to get. Aside from the old favorites, we have several new, quite unique weapons. What are they? That is best left as a surprise.IGN: What kind of multiplayer games will there be?James: We have deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, siege and front line assault. All of these are giving a nice twist with the upgradeable weapons.
IGN: How many people can play online at once on Xbox? Will there be System Link support or online co-op play?James: We support split screen, System Link and Xbox Live, of course. The maximum players will depend on the gametype and if you are running a dedicated server. We are still optimizing this and will be right up to the end of development, so we will be able to give you more solid answers in a couple months. But it's already very good and will only get better.IGN: What haven't we asked about Pariah that you wish you would have asked?James: One of the features that people seemed most excited about is the M.A.P. (Make and Play) editor. So, on the Xbox you can modify your own levels and then host them on Xbox Live. Very very cool stuff for those that like to be creative. Plus it's a really easy editor to use, so anyone can mess around and make something.IGN: James, thanks for your time. We wish you the best of luck on this project
Developer Digital Extremes today granted IGN a unique look inside its upcoming first-person shooter Pariah in this interview with company founder and creative director, James Schmalz.Schmalz is the founder and creative director of Digital Extremes. He created the Unreal franchise and was the lead designer on the original Unreal, all iterations of Unreal Tournament as well as the Xbox Live launch title Unreal Championship.For those unfamiliar with the game, Pariah is a sci-fi first-person shooter focusing on a deep storyline that weaves survival elements into a traditional first-person/action game. Pariah will use the latest version of the technologically powerful Unreal engine and as you can see in today's new trailer, it's filled with great textures, special effects and intriguing indoor and outdoor environments.IGN: What's the story behind Pariah? I don't just mean the basic outline, I mean, why is the game called Pariah, what exactly is the experiment that's so potentially devastating, what kind of beings, human or otherwise, are involved, and how does the player's role become part of that story?James Schmalz: Well, one definition of 'Pariah' is an outcast from society. That fits the theme of the game in a number of ways: The main character is a bit of a loner at a low point in his medical career. The female lead character has been a prisoner for a long time and many of the enemies are prisoners or escaped prisoners. So, Pariah is a word that fits nicely on a number of levels.As to what the devastating experiments are, well, that's for the player to find out as the story unfolds.IGN: How is the story integrated into the game? Is it purely through cutscenes, or will there be scripted events as well? And, is there more than one ending?James: It is a combination of everything. Cut scenes, in-game scripted sequences, in game dialogue and in-game events. We use what is best for each specific circumstance. We recorded the voice actors for multiple endings and we are going to do focus groups on the endings to see reactions and use what works best.IGN: This trailer, which is an excellent, high-quality video clip by the way, gives me the feeling that Digital Extremes is trying to create a game very much like Halo. There are numerous similarities: It takes place in 2520 (around the same time as Halo), there are secret weapons that could change everything (like the Flood), Earth is devastated, it's a first-person shooter with off-road vehicles, etc. How will Digital Extremes separate this game from Halo and how will it try to better Halo?James: True, there are some similarities on the surface, but it very much has a different feel and different focuses. Much like back in the day when people would say, how is UT similar to Quake 3? I think (and hope) many people thought of them as both great games and both were extremely successful. Similar in some respects, but very different and very fun in their own ways. So, hopefully people will have similar feelings about Pariah and its competition.IGN: What kinds of vehicles are rideable in the game and in what kinds of environments do they drive? Also, what is the driving mechanic like?James: We have a good variety of vehicles that can be used both in multiplayer and single-player. Single manned three-wheeled vehicles all the way up to a multi-person tank-like transport. Each vehicle has its own unique weapons.
The environments are comprised of a number of settings around the main prison, some of which you can see in the trailer. In multiplayer we have a few more settings as well, from dry blowing desert sand to deep dark forests.
IGN: Pariah's textures looks incredibly rich and detailed. With such high quality textures, how will you compensate to keep the framerate up? Smaller environments, fewer enemies on-screen, lower framerate, exciting new technology?James: We have spent a loooong time enhancing the technology. There have been a large number of great performance enhancements we have squeezed from the Xbox. We have also spent a substantial amount of time optimizing the memory as to get the highest resolution textures, most geometry and maximum animations possible in each level. The programmers are very proud about what they have achieved in this area.Overall, the environments are a good mix of very large outdoor levels and sprawling indoor levels and some that are a combination. IGN: What kinds of weapons can players wield in the game?James: The thing we are most excited about with the weapons is that we kept many of the old favorites like the rocket launcher, assault rifle and grenade launcher, but added our own twist on these weapons: We made them upgradeable. So as you play through the single player game you pick up Weapon Energy Cores or WECs which you can apply to any weapon. These enable you to upgrade your weapon. Each upgrade becomes progressively more difficult to get. Aside from the old favorites, we have several new, quite unique weapons. What are they? That is best left as a surprise.IGN: What kind of multiplayer games will there be?James: We have deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, siege and front line assault. All of these are giving a nice twist with the upgradeable weapons.
IGN: How many people can play online at once on Xbox? Will there be System Link support or online co-op play?James: We support split screen, System Link and Xbox Live, of course. The maximum players will depend on the gametype and if you are running a dedicated server. We are still optimizing this and will be right up to the end of development, so we will be able to give you more solid answers in a couple months. But it's already very good and will only get better.IGN: What haven't we asked about Pariah that you wish you would have asked?James: One of the features that people seemed most excited about is the M.A.P. (Make and Play) editor. So, on the Xbox you can modify your own levels and then host them on Xbox Live. Very very cool stuff for those that like to be creative. Plus it's a really easy editor to use, so anyone can mess around and make something.IGN: James, thanks for your time. We wish you the best of luck on this project
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