20 March 2003

Turner [Bulldog] Hopkinson interviews Paul Carrington (director/programmer)

Can you briefly introduce yourself and what your role in the development of Hybrid is?

I'm Paul Carrington co founder of Vulcan Software and also the programmer behind Hybrid and Mother3D

What do you mean when you claim you're "extending A.I. boundaries to new levels"?

From my experience I have found traditional AI to follow narrow guidelines, most AI is based upon impulses for action, based upon direction, such as, should I run, hide or fight. Little attention is ever paid to AI based upon environment, what I would call mobility AI. With the introduction of mobility AI, Hybrid enemies will be fully aware of their surroundings and the objects within. One example could be a 'high-back leather chair' that an enemy could use within it's mobility AI. For example, the enemy could realize they could hide behind the chair, being aware that their body bulk may be hidden from the player if remaining motionless. Or perhaps kneel and lower themselves into the chair and use their feet to slowly roll the chair (with them in it) towards the unsuspecting player. This is what I mean by extending AI boundaries.

Can you tell us a little more about the storyline beyond what's already been revealed?

The unraveling of the plot by the players progression will reveal a nasty bunch of aliens who use living organic material (in this case the crew of the Navasota cargo ship) to further their own genetic structure. One example is the removal of human female reproductive organs that are biological integrated with other species DNA. to allow the creation of genetic hybrids to further the aliens work force. The player can expect some disturbingly unpleasant findings on their journey not to mention some extraordinary enemies.

How far along in the development process is Hybrid?

The 3D engine for Hybrid has been in development for the last 4 years, 'Mother3D' which offers advanced model and world creation tools. The actual game content for Hybrid was initiated in March of this year after several weeks of fleshing out the design, plot, level progression, weaponry and enemies.

Are any beta tests planned at this time?

Not at this time, we will however release details of beta versions in the near future.

Will the game come with any type of multi-player functionality?

At this stage of development we are only concentrating on the single player aspect for Hybrid.

Why such high minimum system requirements? (1GHz)

The main reason is enjoyment, there are an awful lot of things we want Hybrid to offer the player in terms of believability, extended AI and physics being just two things that require CPU power. It's possible for us to lower the CPU requirements but this will affect the performance, resulting in lowering the enjoyment factor. Considering the current processor speeds being developed it makes sense to aim for the higher end of available hardware, this allows software and hardware to take advantage of each others progression. Apart from a fast CPU, Hybrid will require one of the latest 3d graphics cards, base development is carried out on the GeForce TI4200 from Nvidia, which so far loves any complex high polygon objects we throw at it.

What games are you personally playing right now?

Apart from DoomIII 'which I don't have', Splinter Cell has got me hooked at present.

What type of arsenal can we expect to be greeted by?

Hybrid will have a range of weaponry to suit everyone, and some fancy gadgets, the only details I can release at present is the standard issue Navasota .44, however you can expect to eventually get access to some alien weaponry which includes DNA reversal and force field implosion weapons.

Have any already released games contributed to how you've molded Hybrid?

I would say almost every game I have had the opportunity to view has contributed in one way or another, broad statement, but I'm coming form the, 'oh why don't they allow us to do that' or 'nothing happened when I did that' point of view. Of course the things that make you go, 'wow that's cool' are stored unconsciously so at later time we can convince ourselves we thought of them J

Do you plan on supporting the ever growing modding community at all?

Yes, Hybrid is built using Mother3D, when these tools are eventually released, they will allow all game content to be modified, we also plan on making a simplified world builder available for the construction of Hybrid levels.

Why, in such an overcrowded FPS market, would I want to buy your game over another?

Hybrid will offer you an environment that you can truly feel like you belong to, feel one step closer to it existing as a real location with real possibilities and ultimately making all other FPS games seem limited in interaction.

When can we expect to see the game hit store shelves?

Being an independent developer, we've always been in a nice position to set our own development schedule so we have no definite date as of yet, although we are aiming for the end of 2003 to have Hybrid at a finished state. As to when it hits the shops would be down to the Publisher for which none has been assigned at this time.

Anything else you'd like to let our readers know about?

Not really at this stage, oh if you get some time, install our Vulcan Portal application from www.vulcan-portal.co.uk, join our virtual community and send me a 3dVoiceMail J