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 Features
Interview
with Fredrik Liliegren from Digital Illusions
Rising
stars? In the deep troll-filled forests of Scandinavia (and we're obviously
resorting to horrific national stereotypes here), there's a number of
very talented game development teams emerging. Companies such as Remedy
(developers of the very promising Max Payne for 3D Realms) and Housemarque
(exhibiting some amazing game engines on the 3DFX stand at this year's
E3).
Fit to be rated alongside these two teams are Digital Illusions, formerly
famous for the Pinball Dreams/Fantasies/Illusions flipper trilogy on the
Amiga and PC. They're now garnering a great deal of praise for their excellent
Playstation/PC futuristic racer, Motorhead, which is being released by
Gremlin Interactive in Europe and, judging by its presence at E3, by Fox
Interactive in the United States.
We caught up with their CEO, Fredrik Liliegren, for a chat about Motorhead,
3D engines, and what they've been eating around the office.
When
did "Motorhead" start its development, and what goals did you set out
to accomplish with it? (what type of game was it 'meant' to be?)
"Motorhead" was started in May 1996 for the Playstation. In July 1996
the PC version was started. What we wanted to do was to give both the
Playstation and PC market a real arcade-like racer, and, in our view,
the essence of that is the feeling of SPEED. We really wanted to do the
fastest racer (in framerate and feeling of speed) ever on these machines.
That meant 50/60 fps on Playstation (never done before!) and equally impressive
rates on PC.
How many people worked on the title? Did you find that having a small
core of people helped focus, or was more people concentrating on small
parts of the game a better option?
We started out with 8 people on the project, and ended it with 20. It
was a growth process, both in terms of adding the PC format as well as
hiring new people to the company, and as the only product the company
was working on was "Motorhead", they all got to work on "Motorhead". But
we had different set of people working on different areas. 2 guys did
the 3D on PC, 2 guys the 3D on PSX, 2 guys physics and collision. etc.
The graphics artists basically did one track per 3 people.
Today we see each platform as its own game, and try to not have teams
bigger than 8 people focusing on one platform. But a lot of code and graphics
get shared among the platforms for each project. So, even though the project
might have 20 people working on it, we tend to look at it as 3-5 people
in this area and this many in this area, etc, each of them focusing on
their part of the overall picture.
From your background in essentially 2D pinball games, was it tricky
to suddenly start working with 3D engines, real-time coloured lighting,
and so on?
No, not really. It is always a learning process, obviously, but if you
know your maths and know how to code 'good' code, it's all about reading
and planning and prototyping and understanding what you need and what
you can do with the technology within the development timeframe. It is
easier on the Playstation where you know the hardware is the same than
on the PC. A lot of people have asked us how we, on our first ever 3D
engine on Playstation and PC, can be so good. Well the answer is we do
not make any mistakes, we only do what is needed and do it in the most
efficient way. Quite simple, really.
One thing "Motorhead" perhaps has in common with "Extreme-G" on the
N64 is the obvious influences taken from Psynosis' "Wipeout" series of
games. Were you ever worried that it was difficult to get away from "Wipeout"
stylings if you're making a futuristic racing game? What other racing
games influenced you?
Yes, we were influenced by a lot of games, "Wipeout" included, but also
"Daytona" and "Sega Rally" (arcade versions). But we did not set out to
do "Wipeout" on wheels. We wanted to have a really fast arcade racer that
felt good to play.
The
game engine used in "Motorhead" is impressively fast and slick - do you
have any plans for further games using it?
Yes, we will use the foundation of the "Motorhead" engine in future games,
but we will most likely also soon (depending on what projects we do) write
a whole new one using the latest technology.
What
are the most difficult things, graphically, about authoring a Playstation
racing game?
Memory restrictions! You have to be very careful about texture sizes and
amount of polygons used.
Did you ever consider getting "Ace Of Spades" by the band Motorhead
as the theme tune to the game, as many magazines have suggested? :)
Yes, but it did not work out.
Scandinavia is beginning to look like a new hotbed of excellent development
teams, judging by the emergence of companies such as Remedy, Housemarque,
and yourselves. Why this sudden emergence of good teams? Or have they
been there for a long time, and just not been noticed?
I think that Scandinavia has always had really good programmers and graphics
artists, as we had a very thriving Amiga community. Most of the people
are finishing college, etc, and have now started using their talent in
the industry instead of for free. I think we will show the rest of the
world a lot of things over the next few years - we do not really have
a history in the industry but we learn fast! So look out!
What do you think about the newly announced Sega Dreamcast? Do you
think it has the strength to challenge Sony and Nintendo?
The Sega machine is an excellent piece of hardware, no doubt about that.
Sega also seem to have learned that you need a good development environment
to be able to develop good games. But we need to see if they can get the
into the mindset of the Sony generation, the 20-25 year old casual gamesplayer
with money. Will they think that the Sega machine is sexier, or just stick
with the Sony machine until the Playstation 2 comes along in 2000? Who
knows, but I'll buy one, because it will be a gamers' machine!
Is it possible to run a successful development team a long way away
from your publishers? Has this been a problem at all?
We are self-financed, after completing a IPO and getting a stock listing
here in sweden during March this year. We've got about $3 million in the
bank, so we can pretty much do whatever we want for the next 2 years,
which gives us very good leverage against the publishers - they know we
will not go away due to financial reasons, thus they are more likely to
work with us, even though we are further away. So no I do not see the
distance as a problem - we've always had too many offers anyway.
Can you reveal any of your plans for future games? Any hints?
It will be better than "Motorhead", it will be for PC and Playstation
and possibly other machines. I can't say more than that, apart from the
code name for the game - TNBT (The Next Big Thing)!
Finally, what's the favourite games/music/snacks currently hanging
around the Digital Illusions offices? :)
A lot of us have been playing "Starcraft" a lot lately. We have 4- or
5 guys that still log a few hours of internet "Quake" a week too. Music-wise,
I think the Madonna CD is a big favourite,. and food-wise - it's ice cream
time now!
Simon Carless is a game designer and team leader at a well-known
independent UK games developer. he has previously contributed to a number
of UK computer magazines, and was the co-editor of www.videogamedesign.com,
scooping interviews with such greats as Chris Crawford and Peter Molyneux.
His game credits include design on titles for Eidos and GT Interactive,
and, as a true otaku, he owns almost every console known to man (although
the FM Towns still eludes him!) In his spare time he attends philosophy
lectures at Harvard, and runs the virtual record label Mono (http://www.scene.org/mono).
He can be contacted at mono@scene.org.
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