You're a malevolent mastermind bent on achieving global domination through the construction of the ultimate doomsday device. Build a secret base, gain notoriety by completing daring missions, repel the forces of justice in real-time combat, and develop evil super-weapons to complete your nefarious master plan.

Evil Genius is a tongue-in-cheek take on the spy thrillers of the '60s, offering you the unique opportunity to play the villain as you control a secret island fortress complete with powerful henchmen, loyal minions, ice-cold beauty queens, and a host of hilarious gizmos.

Features:

• Master all five evil gameplay elements: base building, real-time combat, minion training, techno-research, and mission deployment.
• Manage your minions as you train them to develop evil technology and super-weapons.
• Build your secret base and defend it against attacks by obnoxious action heroes and government agents in real time.
• Find and recruit talented henchmen from a variety of exotic locations. Dispatch agents to war zones in search of talent...scour universities for ideologues...launch prison breaks to free captured henchmen
• Undertake numerous missions to increase your power and notoriety, including stealing the Eiffel Tower, kidnapping pop stars, and procuring priceless treasures and art.

GCM:	Thank you for your time! Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us about the team behind Evil Genius.
Mike Rosser:	I’m Mike Rosser, assistant designer on Evil Genius. The team is a wonderful set of artists, programmers and designers, brought from all over the place into the Evil Genius melting pot that’s lazily stirred by Pete Gilbert, our resident chuckling maniac (and producer). We’re like a big family. The Manson Family, true, but a family nonetheless.

GCM:

Reading up in preparation for this Q&A, I couldn’t help but noticing a few tantalizing similarities between Evil Genius and one of my favorite—and presumed dead—series, Dungeon Keeper. Have you drawn any inspiration from that series and is some degree of comparison fair?

Mike Rosser:

At the level of high concept, comparison is certainly fair – both games involve playing the villain, and building an evil lair, after all. Trying to compare the actual games themselves is less straightforward, however – they play completely differently. After an hour or so with our game, I’m sure most players will appreciate that while there are superficial similarities to Dungeon Keeper, Evil Genius has carved out its own niche in the genre.

GCM:

Please give us some sense of the Evil Geniuses whose roles we’ll be assuming.

Mike Rosser:

Maximilian is bald, short and short-tempered. He’s spent his whole life being rejected by all around him, so now he’s getting his revenge on the world for the injustices he’s suffered. Alexis is a classic femme fatale, stunning but deadly. Her vanity knows no bounds, and she dreams of the day the whole world worships her image. Shen Yu is an enigmatic person about whom little is known. He began his career as a Triad lackey, but quickly rose through the ranks and beyond. Short of that, his reasons for craving world power are unknown.

GCM:

As for minions, how does the player influence their behavior and, in turn, what do they require from the player?

Mike Rosser:

The player influences minions indirectly. The way this works depends on the action the player wants them to perform. Certain tasks are automatic – for instance, valets will put out fires, and technicians will repair damaged objects of their own volition - to avoid micromanagement. Room and object building is also automatic, once the player has drawn out the desired room blueprint. The player can influence minion behaviour towards other characters by issuing tags; right-clicking on an agent brings up a context-sensitive tag menu. From here, the player can select whether they want this agent to be killed, knocked out or psychologically weakened. Whenever a minion sees a tagged character, they react appropriately. Minions have a number of stats that must be kept at optimum levels: health, endurance, loyalty, smarts and attention. There is a large selection of rooms and objects that help to keep these stats replenished, and the player must make sure they provide enough to keep minion efficiency up.

GCM:

When it comes to generating much-need revenue, what tools and tactics does the player have at his or her disposal?

Mike Rosser:

Money is gained through sending minions out into the world to steal. This is a simple process, but one fraught with danger. Left totally unmonitored, minions in the world may succumb to attrition applied by the forces of justice. Additional layers of strategy come into play when deciding which units to send, as all have their own specialties. Military minions will provide a higher income because they’re better at stealing, but they also produce more heat. Social minions will help to dampen this heat by concealing your nefarious activities, but they’re not very good at stealing themselves, nor at surviving attrition.

GCM:

What role do your henchmen play in Evil Genius?

Mike Rosser:

Henchmen are your right-hand men and women, and they’re extremely useful. They’re far stronger than minions in a fight, and are indispensable when it comes to taking on the super-agents. They also have unique special abilities that help in a number of different situations. Jubei’s wind walk, for example, allows you to instantly teleport him to a remote part of the island to take care of a troublesome agent. Dr Neurocide’s Hallucinogenic Powder allows you to disguise suspicious objects for a short time, which can be extremely useful for preventing high-risk items like the sentry gun getting destroyed by agents.

GCM:

When it comes to base building, what sort interface are you going for and how much freedom do you have in terms of its layout.

Mike Rosser:

There are a few ground rules in base building: most building takes place within the confines of the mountain (which can’t be expanded); some tiles are made of indestructible rock; and rooms must be at least 2 tiles wide. But apart from that, it’s up to the player – they can make their base open-plan or put every room behind doors, build rooms within rooms, whatever they see fit. The interface is, we hope, straightforward – the player drags out a blueprint in the dimensions and shape they desire, place any objects they want in it, then tell the minions to get cracking!

GCM:

Please tell us about the traps that we (as evil geniuses) will be able to set? Will we at long last have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their frickin’ heads?

Mike Rosser:

No sharks with frickin’ laser beams, I’m afraid – we couldn’t get them to survive past the prototype phase. There is, however, over 30 different traps that can either be placed on their own, or as part of a large trap system. Dunking a pesky agent in a piranha tank is fun enough, but not half as fun as sucking an agent down a corridor with a giant magnet, into the path of a fire-pit which then spews the agent out into the aforementioned piranha tank.

GCM:	What can you tell us about the notoriety system in EG in terms of both its benefits and detriments?
Mike Rosser:	Gaining notoriety is the budding Evil Genius’s raison d’etre. As notoriety increases, the player gains access to new objectives, objects, minions and henchmen. There are no real downsides to notoriety. Heat is what players will want to avoid – the higher the heat level, the more dangerous the agents will be that visit your evil lair.

GCM:

Please describe for us the meddlesome champions of justice who will no doubt be poking their noses where they don’t belong. Is there a chance that some will have useful information that the player can “extract”.

Mike Rosser:

The forces of justice are indeed a large thorn in the side of any would-be Evil Genius. There are four types of regular agent: investigators (who try and gather evidence of your wrong-doing); thieves (who try to retrieve your stolen loot); saboteurs (who try to destroy threatening objects like sentry guns); and soldiers (who attack your men ruthlessly). On top of those guys there’s also the super-agents to contend with. It’s possible to control the regular agents through non-lethal methods (such as confusing them with social minions’ psychological attacks), but super-agents are always trouble, so it’s often best to go on an all-out attack when they’re on your island. The player has the option to interrogate any agent that they capture. Sometimes this is part of an objective, in which case new information might be revealed. It’s also the way in which advanced minions are created – by interrogating a hostage, basic minions can learn new skills (for example, a basic minion who interrogates a maid will become a valet). A player can interrogate at any time, however, just to get a loyalty boost – any minions in the vicinity of an interrogation session will crowd around and cheer.

GCM:

Please tell us about Evil Genius’ graphics engine and the art style you are shooting for.

Mike Rosser:

The engine is designed to handle having tons of characters, special effects and animation on-screen. It scales neatly between more accurate (and higher polygon) effects when the camera is zoomed in, and faster implementations when zoomed out. There are all the features you'd expect from a modern game, such as a fluid animation system, particle effects, reflections, and real-time shadows. We're particularly proud that even on our minimum spec graphics cards, we can still throw around a lot of polygons without it slowing down. Lots of characters on-screen and large-scale battles are definitely part of our master plan. The Art style is based in the sixties, however we are not afraid to stray outside that period if something takes our fancy. The island, people and objects are all beautiful; everything is polished metal and reflects.

GCM:	Lastly, when would you say gamers should expect to see Evil Genius hit the shelves?
Mike Rosser:	September 28th in the US and October 1st 2004 in Europe.

GCM:	Again, thank you for your time! Would you care to close this Q&A with any last thoughts for our readers?
Mike Rosser:	If you are interested in the game and want to find out more, come and visit the official website at www.howevilareyou.com

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