This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Prey (2006).

2006

January 2006#

January 5th#

Prey to use PunkBuster Software Today we're announcing that we've contracted with Even Balance to include PunkBuster software into Prey. Here's a short press release from the Even Balance website..

2K Games has contracted with Even Balance, Inc. to integrate PunkBuster Anti-Cheat software into the highly anticipated PREY, currently being developed by Human Head Studios and executive produced by 3D Realms. PunkBuster Anti-Cheat features will be available "out-of-the-box" with the retail release of the game.

PunkBuster is an anti-cheat software package which has many kinds of features. Here's some of the features of the software as shown on https://web.archive.org/web/20060203163420/http://www.evenbalance.com:80/index.php?page=announce.php Even Balance's info page:

Real-time scanning of memory by PB Client on players' computers searching for known hacks/cheats

Throttled two-tiered background auto-update system using multiple Internet Master Servers to provide end-user security ensuring that no false or corrupted updates can be installed on players' computers

Frequent status reports (highly encrypted) are sent to the PB Server by all players and the PB Server raises a violation when necessary which causes the offending player to be removed from the game and all other players are informed of the violation

PB Admins can also manually remove players from the game for a specified number of minutes or permanently ban if desired

PB Servers can optionally be configured to randomly check player settings looking for known exploits of the game engine

PB Admins can request actual screenshot samples from specific players and/or can configure the PB Server to randomly grab screenshot samples from players during gameplay

An optional "bad name" facility is provided so that PB Admins can prevent players from using offensive player names containing unwanted profanity or racial slurs

Search functions are provided for PB Admins who wish to search player's keybindings and scripts for anything that may be known to exploit the game

The PunkBuster Player Power facility can be configured to allow players to self-administer game servers when the Server Administrator is not present entirely without the need for passwords

PB Servers have an optional built-in mini http web server interface that allows the game server to be remotely administered via a web browser from anywhere over the Internet

Welcome to the first installment of the Prey Weekly Update! We'll be updating this every week with juicy information about Prey and about the development behind the game. We'll be talking about anything interesting that's happened over the past week -- whether it is some new cool feature we've put into the game, or a milestone that has been reached. We're also planning some cool special features, talking about some cool highlights during the game's development. Hey, and you might even hear some interesting news about DNF from me, but probably not. :)

First, a brief history of the game since Human Head has been working on it. For a full history of Prey, check out Lon Matero's excellent Prey history page here.

Human Head started working on Prey in May 2001. We had recently finished Rune and were looking for our next project. George and Scott from 3D Realms enjoyed Rune quite a bit, and wanted to work with us on something. Prey seemed like an interesting project to resurrect.

3DR was interested in maintaining a few key elements from the original Prey design, specifically the main character (although he underwent a name change) and some elements of the plot. They gave us the freedom to rework the weapons, creatures, and levels. So our initial tasks were working with 3DR on the story and brainstorming the various features of the game.

For years, we worked on implementing our design. We went through a lot of visual iterations on creatures and levels, reworking things and throwing things out until we achieved a look and level of quality that we were happy with.

The design underwent many changes as well - mostly being streamlined into simpler systems. For example, originally Tommy had seven different spirit powers that he would gain through the game. We were concerned that the powers wouldn't be fully used, so we simplified the design to a single power: SpiritWalk. Eliminating the other powers allowed us to concentrate more heavily on SpiritWalk, and also simplified the control of the game (since a single button is needed for SpiritWalk instead of an inventory system for multiple powers).

Fast forward to May of 2005. E3. Our first public unveiling of the game. PC Gamer released an exclusive story announcing Prey. The rumors flying around were finally validated.

At E3, we showed off a 12-minute video highlighting the new gameplay we implemented in Prey. Gearing up for E3 was quite an ordeal. We knew which areas we wanted to show and roughly how to show them. It was an incredible crunch getting things ready for the first public showing -- so many things needed visual and audio polish. The programmers were crunching to get the demo playback robust and optimized.

The demo worked by recording our control input, which was then used during a real-time playback of the game. As such, we had to have perfect recordings -- Mike Flynn and I spent hours upon hours recording sequences of the game. One of the sequences was recorded over 200 times before we finally got the one we wanted. It was worth it -- response from the E3 video was overwhelmingly positive.

Expect to see much more press and previews on Prey over the next few months, as we finally start to unveil more details about the game, including information on MultiPrey, and information about the Xbox 360 version.

So just what the hell has been going on lately at Human Head? Prey is completely playable from start to finish. The team has been crunching on bug fixing and optimization. The testers have been finding tons of little bugs here and there -- ranging from clipping issues to creatures not behaving correctly, to an incorrect piece of art. Those bugs are typical for this stage in the project and we're diving in to fix these problems.

We have a major press event coming up at the end of this month. I'll be flying out to L.A. and San Francisco to demo the game for several different magazines (both print and online). Some of them will probably even get some hands-on time with the game. Tim Gerritsen (Human Head Biz Guy and internal Prey Producer) is flying out to Europe to cover the press there. More information about whom we'll be seeing will be released in the next couple of weeks. Despite this crunch, we found the time to wander out into the snowy wasteland here in Wisconsin a few weeks ago to snap this Prey team photo. Ladies, some of these guys are single, if you find any of these guys overly handsome just drop me a line and I'll set you up with them.

And, here are a few of the topics I'll be covering over the next few weeks in this weekly update series:

Voice Recording: Several months ago we recorded all the voice acting in the game. I'll be talking about the process of voice acting, how it went for Prey and put up a bunch of behind-the-scenes pictures of the session, and maybe even put up a few audio samples of the session.

Motion Capture: Prey uses motion capture for many of the humans in the game, but not the monsters (If anyone knows how to motion-capture a giant four-legged half-alien monster, please let me know). This was the first time that Human Head had used motion capture in our projects, so I'll talk about that process, and a few of the things that went right and wrong.

Focus Testing: I'll take you behind the scenes on how we do our internal focus testing for both single and multiplayer.

Anyway. My Prey to-do list is still huge, so I need to get back to it. Until next week....

Chris Rhinehart - Prey Project Lead
Human Head Software

January 20th#

⁶

Welcome to the second edition of the Prey Weekly Development Update. Last week, we talked about the history of the game. This week we're talking about some cool stuff going on with the game and here at Human Head. Lots to discuss, so let's get to it:

Head Trips: Prey Press Tour

Next week, a whirlwind press tour is planned for Prey. It's divided into two phases: American press and European Press. I'm headed to Los Angeles and San Francisco next week for the American press, and Tim Gerritsen is flying to Europe for the (surprise) European side of things. Both print and online press will be there - too many to list here (plus I wouldn't want to miss anyone and have them punch me in the neck when they see me in person).

The press will have the chance to see about 30 minutes of single-player action. For this demo, we're focusing on the earlier portions of the game - letting them see how the game ramps up in combat, puzzles, and the player's abilities.

After the single-player portion, we're going to play some MultiPrey deathmatch to give them a feel for that side of the game. We've picked out three maps for them to play - one that focuses on wallwalking, one that focuses on gravity flipping, and one that is all about spherical gravity (fighting on small planetoids). I'm looking forward to their reactions as those elements can be confusing at first, but most of our in-house testers have picked them up quickly.

The multiplayer has really come together - the weapons feel very balanced and nearly all the gameplay from the single player is available in multiplayer: spiritwalking, gravity flip, vehicles, and so forth. The only major gameplay element not in multiplayer is DeathWalk - and that was removed because it was more fun to simply respawn quickly so you can exact revenge upon the chump who killed you.

Also, I'm going to be a guest on Attack of the Show (airing on G4) next week. We'll be discussing Prey and will also probably show off some brief clips of the single player in action. Watch for it!

Deep Inside the Human Head:

This has been an especially busy week here at Human Head. Here's a brief peek into each department's recent tasks:

Programming: The programmers have been cranking on bug fixing, optimization, and working with things such as the installer and localization files (which are essentially a large file containing all the text in the game which is then translated into other languages).

Also, AMD was here helping out with game optimization for a few days this week. Big thanks to them for their help.

Here is this week's NASTY BUG OF THE WEEK*: Occasionally while playtesting multiplayer, the whole game would grind down to a halt for a few seconds before going back to normal. Crack programmer Rich Whitehouse tracked this down to an issue where one of our weapons (the three-legged crawler grenade) was causing some serious issues when it was thrown onto a switch that controls the direction of gravity.

* note that nasty bug of the week is not actually a weekly feature.

Level Designers and Level Scripters: The level designers and the scripters have also been very busy fixing bugs and tweaking parts of the levels. The tweaks range from simple lighting/texture tweaks to larger script tasks such as an ammo respawn system for boss battles.

The level designers were also charged with the task of taking single-player screenshots for the press tour next week. Screenshots are a difficult beast, because it's very tough to convey how cool the environment and creatures feel in motion just from a single static shot. As such, the designers spend hours in the game taking tons of shots - of which maybe 2 or 3 are up to the quality we want. Even though it seems like it should be simple, it's actually a very difficult job (and probably the bane of their existence).

Sound: The sound department has been working on last minute sound integrations and tweaks. Sound in games is similar to sound in movies; many sounds simply can't be done until really late in the project. Now that things such as animations and scripted sequences are getting finalized, the sound designers can go through and tweak everything without fear of having to redo work if the puzzle changes.

We've also received music from Jeremy Soule and we're integrating it into the game. We may show some progress of this sometime soon as it's very interesting to see how music changes the feel of the game and really brings out the mood in certain sequences.

Artists: The artists are still transitioning from art creation to playtesting. There's still a good chunk of art being finalized and tweaked. Despite that, many of the artists are spending their time playing through the game, looking for bugs, and giving feedback on the game balance.

Animation: The animators are reviewing all of the motion capture data we received from Red Eye, and are implementing it into the game and critiquing it and sending back the files we want updated.

So, to summarize: Tweak, polish, bug fix, repeat until When it's Done.

Well, that's it for now. Next week I'll be updating from the road (as I'll still be in San Francisco). I'll definitely be talking about my experiences on the press tour, maybe talking a bit more about the music in Prey, and a few other interesting things we haven't mentioned here yet.

Chris Rhinehart - Prey Project Lead
Human Head Software

January 27th#

⁷

Hi and welcome to the third entry in the Prey Weekly Update series. This entry will be a little different than the ones that preceeded it. This will detail some of my experiences on the press trip for Prey this past week via a couple of journal entries I made during the week - it got pretty hectic there, so there isn't a report every day, but I think most everything got covered. Enjoy!

Jan 23rd, 11 PM

Well, I arrived in Los Angeles this morning to a very welcome climate change. It's damn cold in Wisconsin (although, it has been an unseasonably warm winter. Still, it was like 20 degrees when I left). A lot of driving today. LA is too damn huge. I'd assume lots more driving tomorrow, too.

Today was a fairly busy day of demoing. The first few demos are always the most chaotic as it takes a couple of demos to get into the groove. I usually elicit enough feedback from the first few demos to shape the demos for the rest of the trip.

Today was also the first time that someone not working on the game (or testing for us) has played the multiplayer. Very cool to see people’s reactions to the gameplay in MultiPrey. They picked up the mechanics of the game very quickly - I had expected them to take longer to understand wallwalk and gravity flipping, but they were running around the levels like champs within just a few minutes.

Jan 24th, 11:30 PM

Another long day today. Didn’t have as many demos today (although I looked at the schedule and the next two days are going to be action-packed when I get to San Francisco).

Two demos this morning, which went very smoothly. The game pretty much shows it self off now. The levels are so packed full of stuff that it’s really easy to simply walk through the game and point out all the features that set Prey apart.

I was a guest on Attack of the Show today. While I haven’t yet seen the footage of the episode, it felt like it went well. We showed some live footage of the game being played as well as some footage of multiplayer in action. If I had to complain, I would only say that the segment went really fast - I wish I had more time to talk about the game!

Overall, a good experience. Big thanks to everyone involved in the show. I look forward to seeing the footage of the episode.

Flew into San Francisco today. This part of the tour is slightly different in that the journalists will be visiting us in our hotel suite. So, tomorrow morning we need to set up the machines and get everything ready.

Jan 27th, 7 AM

Set-up yesterday morning took a bit longer than we expected as we ran into some issues with a couple of the machines. Unfortunate, but that meant that we had fewer systems for the multiplayer demo than previously expected.

The demo consisted of three parts: We showed a portion of the single-player game, showed a short bit of the 360 version in action, and then a hand-on demo of Prey multiplayer deathmatch.

Nearly all the features in singleplayer (wallwalking, gravity flipping, spiritwalking, the vehicle, etc) show up in multiplayer. When designing the maps, we ran into issues where the levels became really dense and chaotic due to all of these gameplay elements. Eventually, we decided to selectively emphasis elements in each map. So, for instance, we have maps that focus on wallwalking and other maps that focus on flying around in vehicles.

We showed the journalists three of the multiplayer maps, each based around different Prey gameplay: wallwalking, gravity flipping, and spherical gravity (where the combat takes place on giant spheres). Lots of swearing and smack-talk around the table. Again, very interesting to see how quickly they picked up on the design of the maps and the mechanics of the gameplay.

Overall it was a great time, and we managed to pack in a lot of demos in a short period of time.

Now, I’m looking forward to going home and getting back to work!

Chris Rhinehart - Prey Project Lead Human Head Software

February 2006#

February 3rd#

⁸

Welcome back, everyone. This week is going to be another divergence from the usual updates. Instead of talking about specifics this week at Human Head, I'm going to talk about something that happened a few months ago - namely, the voice recording sessions.

After spending a few months listening to audition tapes for the various characters in the game, we nailed down the final list of actors in Prey.

Of course, many of the characters interact with each other in-game, so we wanted to record them at the same time. Luckily, their schedules coincided so we were able to fly all the actors out to the recording studio during the same week.

That studio we chose was one that 2K Games had used in the past - Rick Fox Studios in Cincinnati. So, last year Ed Lima (Human Head's Sound Director) and I flew out to Cincinnati to meet with the actors and go through the process of the initial sound recording session. There are several pictures in this article, and you can click on any of them for a larger image. Recording went very smoothly - all the actors were total professionals and usually nailed their lines after only a few takes. In fact, we were ahead of schedule the entire trip.

The process went like this: The actors were given the script to read through the day before. Then, at the actual session, they were given shooting scripts (which is variation of the full script, which contains each line, numbered and broken down by scene). Before recording each scene, Ed and I explained the situation and the character's motivation as well as the general reaction we'd like out of them (anger, fear, sorrow, etc). We'd then have the actors run through their lines three times. If we were happy with them, we would move on. Otherwise, we'd explain the changes we want and the process starts over again until we were happy.

Of course, the real test for the voice acting is actually getting it in game - if the recordings don't work out, then that calls for a pick-up session where we fly the actors out again (typically for a day or two) to re-record the lines and any new lines we may need.

The first evening there we met with Michael Greyeyes, who plays our hero Tommy. Over dinner we discussed the game with him (since due to secrecy, we only gave the actors small amounts of character information during their auditions) and explained how the week would play out. Since he's the main character, we'll need him to be there the whole week to interact with all the other characters. The next actor to arrive was Crystle Lightning - who plays Jen in the game. We wanted her and Tommy in right away so we had plenty of time to record their lines both apart and together. When she first showed up, we had her record some of her lines in which no other actors were needed - general comments, pain sounds, screams, etc.

In hindsight, we should have recorded her screams last, as we became worried she might blow out her voice right away. But, she has a damn good voice and was careful not to overdo it with the screams. Next, John William Galt showed up to record the voice of Grandfather. You may remember John as the voice of Lo Wang in Shadow Warrior, plus he was the original voice of Grandfather in the E3 Prey video from 1998. We searched around for other voices for Grandfather, but honestly, none were as expressive and unique as John's rendition of Grandfather. Over the next couple of days, things went pretty fast, as we quickly recorded the other characters in the game (which tie in heavily into the narrative, so I'm not going to reveal them just yet). But those characters were played by Tyne Turner, Eleni Valasis, and Lee Ernst (who you may remember as the voice of both Odin and Loki in Rune). They all did an amazing job as they nailed their lines. At the end of the week, the recording session was over. We had all the lines we needed to do a first-pass implementation in the game (up until that point we had speech synthesized robot voices and various voices of people around the office in the game!). But, before going home had to explore the fine city of Cincinnati. We wandered into a nearby bar and relaxed with a few drinks and played some pool. Until next time - stay out of trouble.

Chris Rhinehart - Prey Project Lead
Human Head Software

February 10th#

⁹

Hello again. Welcome back to the Prey Weekly Development Update.

Last week, we talked about the voice recording in the game. This week, it's back to the usual status update - with something at the end of this update talking about the plans for next week. In the immortal words of Mills Lane: Let's get it on...

First big thing to update on is the huge number of Prey previews hitting the net. These are all the results of the press tour from a few weeks ago, both when I was in Los Angeles/San Francisco and when Tim Gerritsen was touring through Europe. Joe from 3DR has set up a great page linking all the previews (as well as other Prey news).

Check them out - the response has been very positive, and each preview has different skews on the game. Some talk more on the single-player experience, while others focus on multiplayer or 360. And, if you haven’t seen the newly released single player and multiplayer videos -- well, dammit, go check them out. Here’s a link. They're also in the videos section of the Official Prey Site.

Speaking of Europe: Prey’s lead programmer, Paul MacArthur, spent some time last week in England visiting Venom. Venom, you may recall, is working on the Xbox 360 version of Prey. Paul was out there to meet with them face-to-face to discuss a host of issues, ranging from recent bugs to optimizations.

Meanwhile, back in Madison, Wisconsin. We’ve been receiving a large amount of feedback from 3DR on the game - listing bugs, tweaks, and game balance issues. In addition, 2K Games' QA department has been steadily adding bugs to the database.

Overall, it’s been business as usual around here. Everyone is cranking on the game, fixing bugs, optimizing code and levels, and tweaking things based upon 3DR’s feedback.

A number of new portal puzzles have been added to Prey, especially at the beginning. We felt that the portal usage could get even more intense earlier in the game, so we’ve been adding in even more puzzles and mind-warping portal coolness. I’d go more into the puzzles themselves, but I honestly don’t want to spoil these.

We’ve also been focusing on the combat in the game. The combat is definitely fun as it currently is, but we’re working with 3DR to tweak it to be super-fun. We aren’t doing anything radical to the monsters - the main things that we’re doing to beef them up is based around feedback and around sustained intensity.

AI Feedback relates to the information the player receives during combat:

Pain noises from the creatures

AI chatter: The creatures yelling taunts at the player and issuing commands to each other

Louder and more dramatic damage noises (sticky thuds when striking something with the wrench, or a great sizzle when hitting something with the Acid Sprayer)

More visible and satisfying effects such as blood spurts and weapon damage effects

More visible pain animations on the creatures

Sustained intensity in a fight relates to keeping the battle going for a longer period of time. Now there are a few ways this can be done, but for simplicity think of it like this: CreatureLifeTime * CreatureCount. You could fight one creature that lives a long time during the battle, or four creatures that live only 25% of the time of that one creature.

Which battle do you think would be more fun? Both can be fun, but in my opinion, the second one - you get the reward of killing four creatures instead of the one. Of course, the issue is way more complex as this doesn’t address the number you are fighting at once (is it all four at once or do they chain in one at a time? Or do they chain in two-by-two?), nor does it address how you fight those creatures. A single boss with multiple attacks and stages is a vastly different battle from a hoard of melee grunt creatures even though both may take the same amount of time.

Bottom line of sustained intensity, though: We’re adding in more creatures for you to kill.

Getting a fresh perspective from 3DR has been extremely helpful. They’ve pointed out some areas of improvement, such as the portals and combat mentioned above. I would imagine that Max Payne 1 & 2 went through very similar phases near the end of their development, too.

So, we’re still in the cycle of bug fix, optimize, and tweak. Speaking of which, I need to get back to this.

That about wraps up this week’s edition of the update. Next week, I have something planned similar to the voice recording update from last week.

And, what I’d like to do in the future is answer questions that people might have about the game. How about we do this: If you have a question, email it to 3D Realms here: askprey@NOSPAM.3drealms.com (don't forget to remove the nospam and fix the email address before sending). We will read through them and pick the top few questions and will answer them in an upcoming update. Let’s pick a deadline, too. Say, one week from today. Have your questions emailed in by February 17th and we’ll go through and answer a number of them.

Until then, stay warm. It snowed last night here in Madison (not too terribly - been a mild winter this year). Still, it’s cold enough outside. I suppose that’s a good thing, though. It keeps us inside, working on Prey. :)

Chris Rhinehart - Prey Project Lead
Human Head Studios

February 17th#

https://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2006/02/prey_weekly_dev_6.html

February 24th#

https://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2006/02/prey_weekly_dev_7.html

March 2006#

March 3rd#

https://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2006/03/prey_weekly_dev_8.html

March 10th#

https://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2006/03/prey_weekly_dev_9.html

March 17th#

https://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2006/03/prey_weekly_dev_10.html

March 24th#

https://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2006/03/prey_weekly_dev_11.html

March 31st#

https://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2006/03/prey_weekly_dev_12.html

April 2006#

April 17th#

https://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2006/04/prey_weekly_dev_13.html

May 2006#

June 2006#

June 21st#

Watch on YouTubeGamespot would publish an interview with Chris Rhinehart about the demo.¹⁰

June 22nd#

The demo releases.¹¹

June 23rd#

¹²

Eurogamer: What sets Prey apart from other first-person shooters?

Tim Gerritsen: There are several things. There's the reluctant hero who isn't a space marine or a soldier, but rather just a man put in a position where he has no choice but to survive. There's the story told from a first-person point of view, where the hero is active and talking [about] the story that unfolds around him.

There's the use of Death Walk to get you back into the game after you've died, but without requiring you to replay an entire section of the game.There's the unique level design that throws out the usual laws of physics and places you within a living organism.

There's the use of Talon, your spirit totem to assist you as you navigate through the world. There's the setting, high above Earth, where you are constantly reminded of the menace that faces your loved ones. I could go on and on...

Eurogamer: The game seems to have a bit of an Aliens feel to it - were the Alien films an influence on you? What other films have inspired you?

Tim Gerritsen: Specifically, HR Giger was a big influence on us. His ability to create a look that is at once biological and mechanical had a huge influence on us visually. We were inspired to create a unique look of our own that captured his spirit without specifically trying to ape his style.

Star Wars and its unique blending of spiritual and science fiction elements was also a big influence on us, as was Fire in the Sky, an abduction movie that finely captures the ever-present sense of fear in a totally alien environment.

Eurogamer: Where did the idea for the 'living ship' come from?

Tim Gerritsen: That came early on. We felt that by making the ship you are abducted to a living entity, it gave us more opportunities to evolve the story beyond the usual science fiction drama. Getting the right look for that ship took much longer and was far harder.

Eurogamer: Can you explain a bit about the Spirit powers? How do they work, and at what points are they likely to prove useful?

Tim Gerritsen: The spirit powers that Tommy learns during the game are Spirit Walk, which is the ability to leave his body and travel as a spirit. He leaves his body behind (leaving it defenseless and subject to attack) giving his spirit [the power] to travel semi-invisibly to by pass enemies (or sneak attack them), and to interact with key objects in the real world.

The next spirit power is Death Walk, which is what happens if your physical body is killed. Your spirit travels to a plane of existence between our world and the next and is forced to fight to return to the real world, where it can rejoin your physical body.

The final major spirit power is your spirit totem, Talon. He is a hawk that acts as your translator but also your companion, who defends you during battle by seeking to distract your enemies.

Eurogamer: What exactly is 'portal technology'? What are the portals for?

Tim Gerritsen: Portals are used in various ways. The most obvious one is as a door between two points that enemies can travel through to attack you. Other portals are more subtle - they are used to change the physical setup of the world and make it something very different from what you see in our world.

Others may be invisible to the player entirely, but I don't want to give too much away regarding that.

Eurogamer: What's your favourite weapon in the game, and how does it work?

Tim Gerritsen: My favourite weapon is the hider weapon, a sort of acid shotgun that shoots out the yellow glowing gastric juices of one of the enemies you fight. A lot of people like that gun, though I think the playtesters like the flexibility of the leech gun - a gun that sucks the power out of energy nodes on board the starship, creating different shooting effects depending on the type of power drawn upon.

Nearly all of the weapons have some sort of organic component to them as well, which creates both a visual interest and 'ick' factor when seeing them in use.

Eurogamer: Why are there only deathmatch and team deathmatch modes? Why not capture the flag, or something more original?

Tim Gerritsen: Prey is predominantly a single player game, and we didn't want to divide our focus by trying to add on a ton of half-baked modes to multiplay.

Instead we decided to focus on making Deathmatch and doing it right. We reasoned that if we did a good deathmatch mode and got it right, and released the editor and SDK, we'd be in a far better position to create or support new modes down the road.

If we delivered a bad multiplayer experience, and few people cared about it, we figured there would be no point - since future development would never happen. This is the strategy we saw Valve use with Half-Life and we feel it worked very well in their case, thus proving our theory.

I think too many developers of limited size and resources like us try to throw in everything but the kitchen sink, thus creating a multiplayer that is quickly forgotten. We didn't want to do that.

Eurogamer: How does the anti-gravity element of the gameplay affect the way multiplayer matches play out?

Tim Gerritsen: It's not really anti-gravity so much as different gravity, and it's the key to why our multiplayer is fun. By throwing out the typical rules of gravity, we created multiplayer situations where you really have to be thinking and reacting at all times.

We were very concerned early on that players would become overwhelmed by this feature, but in test it has proved to be easily adjusted to by most players and a hell of a lot of fun. Any game where you can be standing on one surface, while every other surface in the room has it's own localised gravity is a different experience to say the least.

Eurogamer: What are the main differences between the Xbox 360 version and the PC version?

Tim Gerritsen: Both versions use the same source content though some of the visuals on the 360 use the medium PC quality settings for performance reasons. The 360 version has fully integrated Live support while the PC version uses the traditional user server based play.

Of course there's the controls as well. The PC version was designed for keyboard and mouse while the 360 uses the controller, though we tried to make sure the controls on each were adjusted so as to be comfortable and feel natural to the player. Outside of these differences, however, the experiences are very similar.

Eurogamer: A lot of hardcore FPS fans would say you can never have a truly great FPS on a console, because nothing can beat the mouse and keyboard combo. How would you respond to this?

Tim Gerritsen: I believe Halo laid this to rest with a strong FPS experience on a console. For the super fast twitch style player who rules with a keyboard and mouse, however, I don't think anything will ever make them accept the controller/console experience.

For the mainstream gamer, the controller-based FPS is a lot of fun. Bad controls are bad controls, however, regardless of platform. For the 360 we worked with Venom to make sure the basic controls felt smooth and we followed the Halo setup as the guide. We also made the controls customisable with several different presets and easy adjustibility of the controller sensitivity to make the experience unique to each person who plays the game.

Eurogamer: Last time we saw the game we noticed there were two difficulty levels - 'Normal' and 'Wicked'. Are you familiar with the meaning of 'Wicked' when used within South-East London?

Tim Gerritsen: No, I'm personally not familiar, so pardon my ignorance on that. That's an unlockable version of the game that has actually been changed to Cherokee mode. The original use comes from another 3D Realms game - Max Payne - that had a similar unlockable mode.

Basically, the game has its own dynamic difficulty adjustment system that adjusts upwards or downwards on a limited scale based on how the player is doing. Once you finish the game, you unlock Cherokee mode, which is far harder - there are no health pick ups, less ammo, and everything is set to a harder level so you can really challenge yourself after you've played through the game.

Eurogamer: The PC demo has just been released? What can players expect from it?

Tim Gerritsen: It's a fairly large demo. Not necessarily in terms of size, since it clocks in at about what most demos do these days, but in terms of how much content. We've shipped with two multiplayer maps and the first five levels of the game. You get to see a fair bit of the game in action to get a feel for it.

If you buy the full game, though, the demo save games work with the final version of the game (at least on PC) so that you don't have to replay sections if you don't like.

June 28th#

¹³

Prey Has Gone Gold! It's gold!
Prey has gone gold. The game will be released publically in North America on July 11th, and in Europe on July 14th. If you haven't pre-ordered your copy already, there's still time! Check out the preorder page for full details on the different versions available, and how to get them.

If you want to read the full press release from 2K Games and 3D Realms, you can do so here.

July 2006#

July 11th#

¹⁴ ¹⁵

Q1: What was your role on Prey and what other games have you worked on in the past? I was Audio Lead on "Prey", which means I was responsible for everything you hear in the game, including sound effects, music and voiceover. I also directed the voiceover actors, and contributed some additional writing to the game. My previous titles include "DOOM 3", "007 Nightfire", and Empire Earth.

Q2: Prey has had an interesting development cycle, was there any old content you inherited from the old "Prey" that was being developed by 3D Realms? Or any direction from back then for sound design?

As with most other elements of "Prey", 3D Realms very generously gave Human Head free reign to do what was required. Since the monsters, weapons and settings were all newly created for the game, all of the audio content was similarly built from the ground up. We did use some original Grandfather voiceover in our first E3 2005 trailer for "Prey", but beyond that, every audio asset is brand new.

Q3: What were the challenges in developing a game like Prey, which has such diverse and out of this world environments?

Science fiction settings are always fun and challenging to work in for sound designers, since we basically have carte blanche to produce whatever crazy effects we can think of. "Prey" features a unique combination of science fiction, organic, and natural exterior environments, plus interesting and original enemies and biotech weapons, all of which provide a unique playground for sound.

Q4: Are there any particular effects or levels that you like the most?

I'm quite proud of the voice acting in "Prey". We were very lucky to cast such a wonderfully talented group of actors, all of which really got into "Prey's" unique premise. I think the taunting alien voice in Tommy's head and accompanying sound effects are a high point in that regard. I'm happy with how the alternate sniper fire on the Hunter rifle turned out, too.

Q5: What role does 3D audio play in Prey?

"Prey's" unique 360-degree settings and visceral gunplay happen all around Tommy all the time. 3D audio is essential to helping the player get his or her bearing in the crazy topsy-turvy world of the Sphere. OpenAL goes a long way towards accomplishing this through its tightly pinpointed 3D panning system. Sounds are much more clearly pointsourced in OpenAL than in the game's default sound system. This provides an additional benefit to multiPrey gamers, since they'll have a better bead on where their enemies are.

Q6: How was OpenAL and EAX® ADVANCED HD™ used in Prey and how does it add to the experience?

OpenAL and EAX ADVANCED HD had been implemented into Prey about a year and a half ago. This allowed us to really fine-tune and craft the 3D audio experience to suit OpenAL's and EAX's strengths. OpenAL gave us the hardware acceleration we wanted for full 3D sound effects and the EAX allowed us to add in nice Multiple Reverb effects to spice up all the sound environments in the game.

Q7: Have you tried the game on a Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ and if so, how does it sound?

Most of the sound design was created with the X-Fi™, and the entire game was mixed on an X-Fi Fatal1ty card and Gigaworks speaker system. If players want to live the true "Prey" sound experience as it was intended, the Sound Blaster X-Fi is a requirement.

August 2006#

2007

2008

References

Weekly Updates#

Other#

To do:
Incorporate/reference this information below into article.

3D Realms News Posts

References#

Prey to use PunkBuster Software - 3D Realms, January 5th 2006↩︎
Prey grinds those Gears - 3D Realms, January 10th 2006↩︎
Prey.com has been updated! - 3D Realms, January 12th 2006↩︎
Prey 360 Video on Xbox Magazine Disc - 3D Realms, January 12th 2006↩︎
Prey Weekly Update #1 (3D Realms / Prey website - January 13th 2006↩︎
Prey Weekly Development Update #2 (3D Realms / Prey website) - January 20th 2006↩︎
Prey Weekly Development Update #3 (3D Realms / Prey website) - January 27th 2006↩︎
Prey Weekly Development Update #4 (3D Realms / Prey website) - February 3rd 2006↩︎
Prey Weekly Development Update #5 (3D Realms / Prey website) - February 10th 2006↩︎
Exclusive Gamespot Demo Preview Video Available - 3D Realms, June 21st 2006↩︎
Prey Demo is available! - 3D Realms, June 22nd 2006↩︎
Prey - Eurogamer, June 23rd 2006↩︎
Prey Has Gone Gold! - 3D Realms, June 28th 2006↩︎
Mind-bending Audio in Prey - Sound Blaster, July 11th 2006↩︎
Interview with Ed Lima on Prey Audio - 3D Realms, July 11th 2006↩︎