Cold War Interview

Action Trip: First off, tell us a little bit about Mindware - your background, etc.

Tomas Pluharik, Producer, Mindware Studios: Karel Papik and Andrew Bellomy founded Mindware Studios in 2001. Our goal was to concentrate talent from our land and make it to the world market through the excellent organization of projects and the company as a whole. After building the technology background, we started working on Cold War.

AT: Is the game going to stay true to the history of the Cold War, or do you plan to take the story beyond the boundaries of the USSR and the Cold War era in general?

In a few seconds, this mega-powered transmitter is going to start emitting Who's Who in Hollywood... Bet you didn't see THIS coming, fellow comrades!

Comrade Lenin, this is comrade Jack Skellington speaking... We have just stolen Christmas and it's on its way to Leningrad.

TP: We are trying to build historical fiction in ways that the best ones in the genre are doing (Frederick Forsyth, Tom Clancy, etc.). We are using historical events as our boundaries, (Chernobyl disaster, Perestroika, etc.) but are offering players alternative explanations as to why these events happened.

Our investment into this effort is our excellent knowledge of the communist regime and environment. All the team members ‘enjoyed’ the iron grip of communism more than we wanted, but now we can explain it more realistically and deeply to the people who know it from the other side of Iron Curtain.

AT: Have you actually visited (done some hands-on research) on the sites you plan to recreate in the game? Like the Ljubljanka prison for example...

TP: Of course, we have very detailed documentation and we visited some of them. What is very important is that due to the uniformity of the communist regimes, we have many "historical monuments" located near us. For example, Lenin's Tomb is very well guarded even now and it is very hard to obtain detailed shots from the interior (we have detailed ones from outside). But in Prague, we have a tomb of our former Communist leader / founder (Klement Gottwald) and it is built in the same style with the same flavor of depression when you enter.

AT: If you had to compare the game play of Cold War to any other game, what example would you use?

TP: When we started designing Cold War, we had two games in mind: Thief and Metal Gear Solid. But soon we realized that we wanted something more innovative and more exciting. We were looking for some cool and interesting twists. We found it in our main character, Matthew Carter - he is an investigative freelance journalist during the Cold War era. He is no super-killing machine agent and his success mantra is IMPROVISATION. He can pick up two ordinary things and construct deadly or useful gadgets to use to his advantage. He can find more non-standard ways inside a complex, but he has no institutional back-up, no satellites watching his progress or some deus ex machina guarding him.

AT: I understand that you’re looking to include multiple solutions to specific tasks in the game. Can you give us some examples?

TP: Yes, the gameplay is less puzzle oriented and more problem oriented - this means, that if you have a problem, it is up to you to decide on how you wish to solve it.

Let's say that you’ve entered Lenin's Tomb (our first mission). You can survey terrain around the tomb and check out the two entrances. Both of them are well guarded, but guarded in different ways, so you can choose which one you will challenge. And if you are perceptive enough, you can find a way inside through the ventilation system! Once you are inside, you have to pass a laser detection system. You can disable it, or jump through it at just the right moment (it is not working 100% properly - you know communist junk ; ) ) or just simply pass through and then try to avoid the alarmed guard.

AT: What are some of the features of the 3D engine you are particularly proud of?

TP: The key feature that we are most proud of is the flexibility and portability of our 3D engine. The same set of features is supported on all three currently supported platforms - Windows, Xbox and Linux.

The bone-based animation system allows us to combine animations with algorithmic body movement. We implemented a precise body-part damage system. Any object, including light sources, particle effects or even sound sources, can be attached to any part of a character's body.

Other interesting features include fast dynamic lighting, bump-mapped characters, complex particle and post-processing effects and much more.

AT: Tell us a bit more about the enemy AI. How aware are the enemies? Give us some insight into their behavior.

TP: The enemy AI has three aspects - It has to be playable, believable and "readable." Enemies are not just "Seek and Destroy," they are reacting very shrewdly in different situations. Reactions differ from one enemy to another - regular guards react to your presence differently than a member from the elite force. Special category characters are civilians (scientists, servicemen, secretaries) who are part of the system and the Party but they have no offensive power. They can pinpoint your location and inform other enemies however.

AT: What are some of the weapons and gadgets our main character will have at his disposal?

TP: Matthew Carter will not arrive at the missions fully equipped with top-notch super-agent gear - if he wants something - he must acquire it, he must take it from the enemy. He will start with just his bare hands, but as he proceeds through the game, he will acquire a Makarov gun, he will find a deadly silent slingshot (a deceitful weapon used by KGB special agents) or the amazing x-ray (you can not only see through walls, but you can also roast an enemy’s brains or explode fire extinguishers, etc.).

But as I mentioned before - Matthew Carter is not a super-agent, he is just a guy who is "at the wrong place, at the wrong time," and he must IMPROVISE.