Myth 3: The Wolf Age Interview

It ain't much, but it's a start. We talk to Mumbo Jumbo's Mike Donges about their upcoming hotly anticipated sequel to one of the revolutionary RTS games of our times, the Myth series.

Action Trip: Give us a little background info on Mumbo Jumbo. What game do you guys like to play?

Mike Donges: Mumbo Jumbo was formed by Mark Dochtermann and Ron Dimant as a haven for talented, yet sane and reliable, developers of cross-platform games for PC, Macintosh, and Console. Right now, Mumbo Jumbo consists of the Myth 3 team and a team of Macintosh engineers working on ports of some really cool games for MacPlay. Our main offices are here in Irvine, CA, but we also have offices in Dallas, TX.

We play quite a bit of Myth (1, 2, 3) and are on a bit of a Counter Strike binge lately. Just to give them their props, Pat Hook is WAY too good at Counterstrike, and Deven Winters is WAY, WAY too good at Half-Life. Personally, I finished Giants recently which was an absolutely beautiful game ahead of it's time in terms of technology.

Nasty looking creature...

Just go ahead...

AT: What are the most important improvements in Myth III over the previous installments? Just the most important ones, in your opinion.

MD: Well, 3D units are definitely an improvement over the sprite based units of previous games and they look awesome in the environment. The game is just going to look a whole lot better and more atmospheric.

Another big plus for the Mod creation community is that we are integrating the editing tools, Fear and Loathing, into one integrated tool named Vengeance.

I also really like what we are doing to flesh out the "mythos" of Myth. Like any great epic story, the Myth universe is filled with unanswered questions, dead-ends and contradictions. We aren't shying away from the risk of people disagreeing with the direction that we are taking, but I think that Scott Campbell and crew have taken an approach that will be very satisfying for existing Myth fans and will create many new fans as well.

AT: Gives us the skinny on the 3D technology.

MD: We've got a new, much higher detail terrain and texturing system. We've got a new real-time lighting and shadowing system. We are using the Tiki animation system for our 3D characters that was developed by the programmers over at Ritual Entertainment.

AT: Any neat optimization tricks? I mean, I don't have enough dineros to buy GeForce3. I'm still saving money for GeForce2 Ultra.

MD: You shan't need a GeForce3 to play Myth 3. It looks great and pushes quite a few polys, but we also want lots and lots of people to get to play the game. Of course, if you are lucky enough to have a new G4 with the GeForce3, then you'll be doubly pleased by the performance and the high-end specific enhancements we have made to the engine.

AT: How rich in detail will the terrain be? Any examples? Lots of vegetation? Some other details?

MD: Sounds like a good reason to get yourself to E3 this year. We are refraining from releasing too much information about the game until we are closer to completion.

AT: Can you give us any details on the units? Their scale? will there be some that are a lot bigger than the others, etc. Maybe a few details on the weapons? What do you say?

MD: Sorry, can't really go into it. It doesn't make for a very interesting interview, but it will make for a more exciting game.

AT: What about the interface? Have you come up with new ways to make it even more intuitive?

MD: More to come on that as well. We do want to keep some of the same metaphors from the previous versions, but improve on them to take full advantage of the 3D world.

AT: I'd ask about AI, but I have no idea of where you are in the development process right now.

MD: We will be making improvements to the AI and scripting system which are needed to support all the new units we are adding to the game. Development is on schedule and we hope to have a great showing at this year's E3.