Project Eden Interview

OK, how many of you know what Core Design's been doing for the past several years? Yeah, that's right - Ms. Croft's her name. But wait, there's more to these Brits than just working on a tank-top girl with big ti... yeah, you know. Core Design is currently working on a sci-fi action adventure game with a bladerunnerish setting, entitled Project Eden, and we were lucky enough to squeeze a few answers out of Gavin Rummery, Eden team leader for this interview.

Draw!!!

4th and 3.

FYI, Project Eden is set in the future in a city that has grown so huge that it's growing upwards all the time. Everyone wants to live as near to the top as possible, so as you go down, conditions get worse and worse until you reach the slums and City Limits. Below that, the city is officially uninhabited, though in fact cults and criminals live there. No-one much visits the lowest levels of the city except the Foundation Engineers, who go down to strengthen the bases of the buildings to allow more building to take place at the top.

The player is control of a squad of four members of the UPA (Urban Protection Agency), which is the elite security force that keeps order in the city. They are initially called in to deal with a Meat Factory that has gone haywire and to look into the disappearance of the technicians who were supposed to be repairing it. Their investigations eventually lead them down into the depths of the city...

The four-member UPA squad consists of the following characters (game protagonists):

CARTER: The squad leader. He is the only one that can access certain high security systems, and is the one who communicates with 'Control'.

MINOKO: The computer expert. She can download useful information, and gain access to remote devices such as cameras and security systems. If needs be, she can hack systems to gain access.

ANDRE: The engineer. He can repair devices that are broken, and can locate weak spots to destroy walls and machinery.

AMBER: The robot. She has the greatest firepower and can withstand extreme conditions (such as high temperatures, lack of oxygen etc).

There is also CONTROL, who gives the team instructions and provides useful information on their location etc.

You are only in direct control of one character at any time, although you can ask other team members to follow you. You can switch between characters whenever you like, and leave characters doing a specific action such as holding a lever in position, or whatever. Characters that you are not directly controlling will let you know if they are under attack and will defend themselves automatically. Unless they are ordered to follow you, they will not move from where you leave them, so you can set them up in strategic positions.

Project Eden is primarily an action game with heavy emphasis on an involving storyline. The release date is currently set for February 23 2001.

So, now that we've gotten to know Eden's basics I think it's time to get busy with the Q&As:

Action Trip: Which movie example would you use to characterize Project Eden's storyline - not the environments? Does it bear any resemblence to the ones in Final Fantasy VII or Total Recall?

Gavin Rummery: No, it doesn't bear any resemblance to either of those storylines. In fact, we can't think of a movie that has a storyline like the one in Eden.

AT: How will the level design differe from one citi level to another?

GR: You start at the top of the city and go down into its depths, so the levels start off all clean and futuristic, and get more decayed and low tech as you descend.

AT: Is project Eden more of a dialogue/story (Outcast, Omikron), or lever/jump type of an action adventure? Where would you place it in relation to these two action adventure gameplay extremes?

GR: I'd place it somewhere in the middle between those extremes. There's a story through the game, but a lot of it is exploration, puzzle solving and combat. Oh, and there's no jumping at all.