by Dene and Simon Carter

September 13, 2002 - When you left us, we had just followed the exit signs from Publisher Hell, and had successfully coerced otherwise sane people to join our risky endeavour. Now we had to put their money where our mouths were. As such, we looked at what we felt were the game's key features:

• Using our AI experience we would create a unique world filled with people who had real, convincing lives and personalities.
• The player's actions would have a substantial impact on the story, the world and the other people. The outcome of his/her choices would be genuinely emotive.
• The world in which this all took place would be beautiful.

This last point was particularly important for us, since we felt that pulling together our general visual style early on, and building the technology to support it, would make our lives much easier throughout development. Role-playing games set in fictional, non-technology based environments have had a tendency in the past to stick to the tried and tested 'Dungeons and Dragons' formulae that were initially adapted from the works of Tolkien, and this is something we strongly wanted to avoid. We want our game to look and feel fresh, new and different, which is why our visual influences have primarily been dark European fairy tales by the Brothers' Grimm (as both Simon and Dene are referred to occasionally).

These worlds are characterised by specific idylls of terrain:

• Dense, deep, impenetrable forests which whisper and creak in the wind.
• Great fields and lush hilltops with views over chocolate-box villages.
• Mountains so tall that they would induce vertigo in Heidi.

In contrast to this, many role-playing games in the past have fallen into two distinct camps.

Camp 1 - Box World
"Oooh, look. Nice room! Lovely candles and tables and carpet and... everything!"
(later)
"What's next door? Oh. It's a grey room. Not a blue one. That's a nice change."
(later - claustrophobia sets in)
"Why can I hear birds? I've not seen a single bloody flower in three hours. What do birds live on in this place? +3 daggers of extreme nourishment?"
(later)
"Wait a minute - I can see grass next door! Is that a vast landscape through there, urging me toward the horizon… nope. It's another walled courtyard with a green floor texture."

Camp 2 - The Vast Desert
"Woooow. This place is soooo huge! Look at the mountains! Loooook! I could explore forever!"
(later)
"Erm… now I think this place is really big, but I can't tell. Everywhere looks the same. Helloooo?"
(later)
"Bugger. Here comes that tree again. Hello tree. I'm guessing this rough collection of 8 trees is meant to represent a forest. How spooky."

We realised we'd need something new. Our lead engine programmer Martin spent a couple of months producing our first proper landscape engine, and soon we were clustered excitedly around his screen watching four kilometres of wild rock and scrubland stretch before the camera. This was a feat in itself. However, we knew dense, lush plant life was necessary to achieve 'the look'. However, placing each plant by hand would take years, so we needed another method.

Martin and our artists proposed a method of having the engine automatically look at the soil on the various sections of landscape and 'grow' the plant life relevant to each terrain type. After several weeks of clattering keys, plus the consumption of vast quantities of both of the food-groups Martin relies upon (Red Bull and cheese), people were gathered around his monitor to see the new organic landscaping system's first test.

The results were astounding. A small hill rose above a field of reeds, its grassy top soft and luxuriant against the blue sky. Bluebells shook with the wind and long grass billowed gently against the player's legs. It lent the whole scene a sense of real softness, density and true fairy tale idealism. This was going to be something special.

A developer show some months later
We've been demonstrating our game to various game developers, and some beardy chap wonders up to us:

Bloke - "Man, your game looks really fantastic! How do you get everything to look so lovely and realistic?"
Us - "Thanks! Well, we realised early on that we needed some really amazing grass."
Bloke - "Totally -- free the weed man".
Us - "Eh?"

Next month: Demo Days.