Two interviews in two days? I’m on fire. I recently had the chance to chat with Lead Designer Graham Scott from Orbital Media. If you don’t know who they are, they are the guys behind Racing Gears Advance, one of the best racing games on GBA. Let’s get this interview started.

-= Scurge Hive=-

Edgar Doiron: Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us what game you are working on and what position you hold on the team.

Graham Scott: My name is Graham Scott and I am one of the Lead Game Designers at Orbital Media up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I’ve worked on Racing Gears Advance for the GBA and Scurge:Hive for the GBA and Nintendo DS. Unfortunately I cannot reveal which project I am currently working on at the moment.

[editors note: Canadians are really invading 4cr]

Can you give us a brief overview of the game?

Scurge is an extremely action oriented adventure game which puts you in the role of Jenosa Arma, a young bounty hunter who has been hired to retrieve secretive research data from a facility that is researching something known as the Scurge. It seems that the Scurge has the ability to rapidly infect and mutate any biological, mechanical, or energy based life form. Jenosa becomes infected by the Scurge as she attempts to secure secretive research and weapons data from the facility, and it is up to her to stop the Scurge from escaping the planet, all the while stopping the Scurge from consuming her own body. It is a very intense game.

Was the game influenced by any other series? I see some similarities to Metroid

Scurge was influenced by many games, the Metroid series included. Scurge is however, a much more action oriented adventure title than just about anything else on the GBA. While exploring the massive game world the player will constantly be threatened not only by tons of enemies but also with the threat of the Scurge infection itself. Since Jenosa is infected by the Scurge, the player must continuously locate decontamination chambers to reduce the spreading of the infection in her system. This single game mechanic emphasizes a constant threat to the player that can never be escaped.

Can you tell us about the play mechanics of the game, and what will be the major differences between the GBA and DS version?

Well the player initially starts the game with the ability to basically run, jump, and shoot. She can also climb and shimmy on pipes and ledges, which really shows off the 3-dimensional nature of our game engine. As they explore the player will locate various weapon and ability upgrades which allow her to progress through the game world, all pretty basic stuff.

Where Scurge really sets itself apart is in its’ combat system with weapon upgrades that have both positive and negative effects on biological, mechanical, and energy based enemies. For example if Jenosa uses the combustion projectile on mechanical enemies which are immune to it then they will become faster and more powerful. On the other hand if she attacks a biological enemy with the same attack, the enemy will be engulfed in flames and will then ignite any other enemy nearby. This allows for massive chain reaction combos where a single shot can decimate a dozen enemies on screen. There are also abilities that allow Jenosa to slow down time, freeze enemies in cryostasis, double jump, etc.

With regards to the DS version of the game, the most apparent difference is a larger view of the game world on screen. There are also various dual screen improvements such as the ability to view the map screen at all times and also use the touch screen to adjust the map and any menus on the status screen.

Scurge Hive was originally for GBA, why did you decide on doing a DS version too?

It really came down to allowing the largest audience possible being able to enjoy what we felt was an outstanding game play experience. The dual screen of the DS really just allowed us to create something of a gold edition of the game.

How long as Scurge Hive been in development?

Scurge was a fairly big project, and a long time was spent on developing the various engines needed to pull this kind of game off on the limited GBA hardware. This is apparent when you see the game in motion. I believe we spent just under a year developing all of the core engines for the game and just under 2 from the start of the actual implementation to completion of both the GBA and DS versions.

Why was the release date pushed back, and what’s the new date?

The release date was pushed back primarily because of the holiday rush. We felt that it would be better to place as much focus on the product as possible and getting lost in the shuffle of the holidays would not have been good.

Can we expect lots of different weapons in the game?

Oh yeah! As I mentioned earlier the combat is definitely at the heart of the game. Aside from the default projectile weapon there are also modifications for each enemy type in the game, and these have effects outside of combat as well allowing the player to progress through many of the puzzles and obstacles in the environment. There are also things like the cryostasis which again can be used to freeze enemies as they surround you or to depress a pressure plate that activates a platform. There are also plasma bombs which latch onto enemies and blasts groups of them apart or blows up a boulder to uncover an underground tunnel. There is even a super powerful uber-weapon in the game but I won’t tell you how to access it.

In designing the combat I really wanted a system that allowed the player to be surrounded by dozens of enemies on all sides and be able to decimate them all. I think we nailed it!

What role do you think independent developers such as yourself have in the industry? What do you think the market is for people who want to try out new games by developers that they may not have heard of and how do you plan on appealing to that market?

The nature of the industry does make it extremely challenging to capture the attention of consumers unless you have a history of great games, so I believe that our end goal is really to create one solid title after another. We are a company of die-hard gamers who really just want to create quality titles that people enjoy as much as we do. With our first title Racing Gears Advance I believe we proved that we could do just that, and with our next titles we will continue to support that claim.

What do you like the most about the DS from a game designer perspective?

Personally I really like the different types of interaction that are possible with the system. I tend to be a bit fanatical about a game “feeling” right as you are playing it and I think that the DS provides designers with a vast amount of flexibility to achieve this.

How big is the team working on Scurge Hive?

There were 6 full-time people working on the game for the length of the project and a total of 12 people directly involved, mostly art production as the game is so big!

If you were given more time, is there anything you would like to add to or flesh out in the current model of the game?

I think that might be the single most dangerous question to ask a game designer. Of course there are many different things that would have been nice to add given more time but on the whole I think that Scurge is already a fairly huge title.

Is Scurge Hive something you would like to turn into a series or are you waiting to see how the first game does before deciding on that?

Of course we’ll have to see what happens with the first title, but yes Scurge is definitely something that I would like to revisit as a series. There are a great number of plans that the team has about where to take the series in the future and I will say that it is extremely exciting. But time will tell.

What other projects have you worked on in the past? And are you currently involved in other projects?

I worked on Racing Gears Advance and I will say for the record that I am probably the best at the game in the world. I was responsible for all of the Collision and AI implementation, a few of the track designs, the controls, balancing, and I had a part in the overall game design. Previously, I also worked on project for the N64 as I have a background in 3D animation. The project unfortunately was never revealed, too bad really as it was awesome, 4 years in development with Nintendo.

-= Racing Gears Advance=-

Racing gears advance is the first game that Orbital Media released?

Yes it was our first released title for the GBA.

How was the development for Racing Gears Advance? Encountered any problems?

We had our share of problems but we managed to overcome every one of them. The biggest challenge was probably the multi-player network system. Oh yeah and the testing was pretty brutal. With RGA we really pushed a lot of technical barriers on the GBA.

Was the game influenced by any other series? I see some similarities to RC Pro AM and Micro Machines

It was definitely influenced by many of the old school racing games, originally inspired by an old Amiga game. The initial description for the game was simple: Mix an all out racing game with James Bond style weapons.

Are you working on Racing Gears 2?

Yes. We have already begun working on Racing Gears 2.

Is Racing Gears 2 going to be for the DS?

Racing Gears 2 will be available for the Nintendo DS.

Is there anything you wanted to add in Racing Gears Advance that couldn’t make it, but you added it in Racing Gears 2?

Once we finished the first Racing Gears we already had a large list of possible additions that could be incorporated into the sequel, and yes quite a few of them have managed to sneak into the design of the sequel.

What can we expect from Racing Gears 2?

I can’t go into too much detail but I can say that we really wanted to keep the “feel” of Racing Gears intact while pushing the series in a direction that would be fun and innovative. Basically everything you loved about the first game but amplified.

Will it have online multiplayer?

We are currently looking at online multiplayer and how it would be incorporated with the current design.

Do you have release date for Racing Gears 2?

We will be releasing the date as we come closer to completion.

I’ve been following your forums really closely, and you seem to be taking lots of feedback from fans. Is that something that you want to keep on doing? I really love it that we get answers on the forums from you guys, the ones working behind each project.

As a smaller independent publisher and developer it is crucial that we develop our fan base, and really listen to what they are saying about our games. Part of evolving each series is learning directly from players not only what they enjoyed about each game but also what they would have liked to have seen. Besides we’re just a bunch of gamers too so it’s nice to talk to our peers.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions today. We wish you and the rest of the Scurge Hive and Racing Gear team all the best of luck and we cant wait to get our hands on it.

My pleasure and feel free to visit us at www.orbitalmedia.com