Anachronox Preview

Besides having an open-ended environment many more elements are considered "a must" in the virtual world. Constant plot twists, branching storyline, and authentic citizenship... There are a lot of NPCs, all with their own agendas. There is a deeper story that you are seeing just the tip of. There are sort of two main stories that the characters are involved with, and there is a deeper historical story underlying the whole game, and there is a deeper story beyond that. People will get to Anachronox universe by layers. If we look at all the above-mentioned game design elements as necessary ingredients, then we need to master the right way, and the dynamics of mixing it all up in order to create a killer game. Remember how Half-Life had incredible gameplay dynamics, twisting and tossing the players around from one "situation" to another. It also provided players with numerous ways of interacting with the world. Similar to that, characters in a given section of Anachronox will talk to folks, use kiosks for information, have their digital assistant remind them of their goals and info they've seen, interact with machinery in the environment, possibly control a vehicle, get into several battles, and use their player-specific WorldSkills to help them along, and to find secrets. All the interaction is done in a meticulously calculated movie-like scenario, with quiet periods, followed by sudden, atmosphere-generating outbursts. As for the action sequences (i.e. combat), it will not appear randomly in the game. Rather, it will be carefully implemented to compliment the storyline. The combat system is interpreted as a mix of real-time and turn-based elements. A lot of people say the combat system will play like Final Fantasy, only with RTS elements, but it all sounds hazy. Luckily, Tom was kind enough to explain: "It's real-time turn-based, like FF7 or something. You can Beat (use normal weapons), use MysTech (once you get some), use Items, perform a Battle Skill (unique to each character), move around the environment (there's limited critical movement in some battles), or use something IN the environment. It's really easy to select things, because there are icons for the enemies and players, just click click, or you can use HotKeys. You can also set up HotKeys for certain items, so instead of choosing Use Item, scroll, select, you'll just hit Shift+"1". Boom, that character uses the Healing item.

As far as the turn-based/real-time mix, we've gone through two other paradigms, and this one is the easiest combination of quick control and flexibility. The others were a bit slow and clunky. This one's doing it right. Since battle is almost half the gameplay of one of these games, ya gotta get it right!"

Last, but not the least, a few details on the modifications made to the Quake 2 engine... It's really amazing how stunning the game looks. Especially considering it's done with what is percieved as a dated technology. (Not rightfully so -Ed.) I suspect it has A LOT to do with some very skillful level design, and an adequate usage of lighting and real-time shadows. Let's get one thing straight thou. Anachronox is in no way a slight modification of the code. Unlike most Quake 2 engined games, Anachronox is played from a third person perspective, but that's just a formality. Quake 2 engine appears to be totally rehashed. Programmers have left some of it, but the rest is just a whole bunch of new stuff. Anachronox now has 32 bit graphics (8 bits RGB, and 8 bits alpha), cool editable particle effects, lip-synching and facial deformation for expressions, shaded models... On top of all this is the wonderful 3D spline-based camera system, called Planet.

The innovations don't stop there. Anachronox programmers have found a way of letting gamers incorporate their own content into the game. Tom's very excited about this option: "There are two ways to add programming content: add you own DLLs and add your own APE programs. For DLLs, we will provide the means to hook your DLLs in, and the headers for the public API calls. Then it's up to you. Just plop your DLL in, add it to the list, and you're good to go.

APE is even easier. Write it, compile it, and Import it from the Main Menu. Done. And we provide all the tools we use (except Lightwave and Visual C++!) to make the game, so people can make their own levels, interfaces, cinematics, and more. We want folks to make their own planets...and then WE can play 'em!"

Sounds exciting let me just pimp-smack my ol' book of Visual C++ and I'm ready to go!

C'Mon, Time To Wrap It Up!

There's a whole bunch of info in this preview, so I'm not clear if I managed to get my point across. Just leave all the stories of APEs and 32-bit colors aside... The bottom line is: Anachronox is a huge world; a parallel universe in which players are supposed to get consumed by fantastic events, and strong dialogues.

We're still not there, but we will be soon...

PS: As far as the release date, Tom made an interesting post today: "There is a chart on the wall of every last thing left to do in the game (and a more detailed one in Project, of course). We're checking it off, meeting or beating our internal schedule. Once that chart's full, and the game is well-tested and tweaked, we're gonna ship it."

He also told us that the game will be out "when it's done" (umm... sounds familiar), but that they are getting closer. Tom: "It's getting quite exciting!"