One Must Fall: Battlegrounds Preview

AT: Introduce us to the OMF engine, and some of the visual effects it will allow? Have you incorporated any new features, recently?

SB: Our engine has some great visual capabilities, including dynamic lighting (which looks great on projectiles), reflections (on both the arenas and robots), a versatile particle system, scaled meshes (to prevent "pop-in"), and more. We've recently added some high-detail models and some new lighting capabilities.

AT: The camera positioning is a crucial game element. Besides the 3D person over-the-shoulder view can the camera be manipulated throughout the combat?

SB: There won't be camera-movement controls that you have in a game such as Mario 64. The game is a too fast and complex for the player to worry about handling a camera, and really, the engine should be able to this properly on its own. We think we've found a perfect balance with our over-the-shoulder view. It will pan up and down to show opponents at different heights, and will move to a 45-degree overhead view when you are face-to-face an opponent, allowing you to see your opponent's moves more clearly. Best of all, the camera's distance means that you can circle behind an opponent and deliver a vicious (and satisfying) sneak attack, which adds a lot of strategic possibilities to multiplayer matches.

AT: "Players will also be able to create their own combat arenas and some special power-ups, again, only limited by their creativity." - Can you give us more details about this level editor, customizable fighting units, and so on?

SB: To begin with, I should clarify something: a player can change or add basically any game element, from robots to arenas to HUD configurations to game-types. A dedicated player could model, skin, and animate an entirely new fighter to use in the game. Or, they could create their own arena complete with new hazards and power-ups. We will be providing tools to help the players create, import, and tweak their content, along with documentation explaining concepts like our dynamic music system. We hope to see a great response from the mod-making community in terms of new content and game types.

AT: What features have you prepared for the multi-player?

SB: Our multi-player experience should be very rich. We have some innovative game-types, such as sport-based games (think "combat football"), as well as team-play, elimination matches, and more. You can have a large number of players in the arena simultaneously, and make use of team-based strategy and team-combos. People running servers can drop on "modifiers" that change the rules of the game, such as physics modifications, special power-ups, or speed multipliers. Finally, all of this is wrapped up in an attractive server-browsing package to make your favourite style of game easy to find.

AT: When players gather for a multi-player game, up to how many live opponents can they encounter?

SB: There is no technical limit to the number of players in a match, as long as you're satisfied with your framerate. We expect matches up to 8 players to be quite common. In some cases it will depend on the players' preference as well - some people enjoy the emotion of a one-on-one match, while others enjoy the chaos of an all-out brawl. The important thing is, the game will let you choose your own preference.

AT: We've heard about a strong possibility of bringing OMF to the Xbox console. Is there any truth to that at all? What are your attitudes towards Microsoft's latest game console?

SB: Well, it's safe enough for me to confirm a possibility. :^) An X-Box version of Battlegrounds is certainly a possibility. The X-Box is attractive because it should be easy to port a PC title over, and you can make assumptions about hardware that you simply can't on a PC.