XENUS take place on a huge territory 25x25km. Due to such size of the territory we introduce different kind of vehicles such as helicopters, different types of cars, tanks and motorboats. All of them are drivable. In the world of Xenus everything costs money, so you have to buy a vehicle you are going to use or take it for a rent. You also need to purchase weapons, ammo, gasoline, etc. For each accomplished mission for a specified force player earns some money. Considering complex interrelation between forces it becomes possible to add a strong RPG element in the game. The player has got 20 different parameters that may be enhanced during gameplay. A lot of NPC and dialogs, nearly 20 types of weapons with wide possibility to upgrade each one and nonlinear plot can also be mentioned. As for the multiplayer mode, it includes cooperative, CTF, death-match and others. Cooperative mode is a variant to play through single-player missions. You may play over LAN and Internet. The game supports in-game GameSpy browser.

Features:

• No level selection. Just playing the game on a huge level 25km x 25km without any restrictions on movement (no locations)
• There are six sides in Xenus: officials, guerrilla, narco mafia, Indian, bandits, CIA
• Driveable vehicles: helicopters, tanks, troop carriers, jeeps
• A very detailed and interactive world
• More than 25 characters
• Strong RPG element and economic system makes the game more interesting and less arcade style
• 200 thousands triangles on the screen
• Wide choice of existing arms and kits
• Skeleton animation: smooth and realistic animation of characters
• Facial animation
• Possibility of stealthy actions, sniper fire and sudden attacks
• Hit calculation algorithm, various kinds of injuries and armour
• High artificial intelligence of the rivals
• Realistic water surfaces
• A lot of 3D and ambient sounds in the world, EAX support
• Multiplayer in cooperative and team games

GCM:

Thanks for taking the time to do this Q&A. Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us about Deep Shadows.

Deep Shadows:

In spite of the fact that Deep Shadows has no games and Xenus is the first project, it doesn't mean that our team consists of the newbies. Our main programmers are the creators of Codename: Outbreak, many designers and artists were working on game projects in other developer studios, and each one has years in game industry behind himself. And, we owe our name to the electricity fault. Roman Lut and Sergey Zabaryansky just started to develop the second version of Vital Engine, and, as usual, were working with gusto. There was an accident at the electric power station, and the lights were off - but they didn't want to go home, hoping that the lights will be turned on. They were waiting, then they decided to drink some tea, and lit the candle - and the deep, intriguing shadows filled up the room... That's how the name was born.

GCM:

Who is Kevin Myers and what starts him off on his journey?

Deep Shadows:

Kevin Myers is the former soldier, who worked for Foreign legion in his past. In their youth age he and his sister became the orphans, and Kevin decided to work as the mercenary... The game begins when the main character gets to know that his sister has been lost in Colombia during her journalist trip, and Kevin goes to search for her. The unusual, hot, unpredictable Colombia meets Kevin in its full possession...

GCM:	Tell us a bit about what your NPC’s are capable of and give us a few in-game examples their intelligence
Deep Shadows:	AI is our game's neural system, and we're trying to make it very sensitive; for example, many NPCs have their own, unique style of behaviour: one wouldn't reply to your rude joke, but another one sure will do it... In the battle some of them will run to you, forgetting about their safety, some are most likely to shoot from the covers, and third will try to gain the rear or to round you up...

GCM:	As for NPC interaction, what sort of communication system are you using and just how deep can your conversations be?
Deep Shadows:	We put a lot of attention to the system of dialogues in the game. Dialogues of characters will depend on relations with you. We also use facial animation to make them express the emotions. I can add that you can speak almost to all people in Xenus world. The dialogue tree of some NPCs consists of more than 100 phrases.

GCM:

What type of vehicles will the player have access to and how will you be handling their controls?

Deep Shadows:

In Xenus world, there are very many different vehicles: these are cars, lorries, battle and cargo helicopters, ship, yacht, Indians' boat, plane, tank. All those units can be controlled by the player, used both for completing missions and for moving around. I want to say that we're not making a simulator and not going to make the controls harder by the complex set of buttons; the physics of each vehicle, however, is worked out very well. So, the clumsy old bus will not achieve the speed of "Hammer" or practicability of tank. And, the wooden Indian boat will not catch up with coca baron's modern yacht.

GCM:

Please give us a feel for the arsenal that the player will have access to?

Deep Shadows:

At the moment, many things of arsenal are already realised, like carbines, rifles, knives, pistols, grenade cup discharges, and also some different kinds of weapons which we have as a surprise for the player. Also, you can refresh your arsenal and improve it. For every kind of weapon you can improve its accuracy, reliability, size of the magazine and time of reload. You can also buy silencers, laser and optical sights. So, there will be no lack of goods to kill your enemies - it's your choice.

GCM:

What can you tell us about the engine powering Xenus’s graphics? How strong of a PC do you feel will be needed to run Xenus respectably?

Deep Shadows:

In comparison to the first version of Vital Engine, which was developed for Codename: Outbreak, the second version is a great step forward. That's why it is easy and pleasant to make the game using this engine. I'll also name the main engine possibilities: Unique technology of rendering huge (but very detailed) territory 25x25 km Skeleton animation with blending between up to 3 bones Facial animation Multilayered textures 512x512. Our technology allows to forget the times when you've seen tiles. 5000 polygons per character Lightmaps View-independent progressive mesh for models and view-dependent progressive mesh for level geometry Rigid body physics comparable with Math Engine and Havok (a set of predefined models: car, boat, helicopter, plane, box, and player). We were always thinking that good engine is not just a good render, but also the set of good libraries. Working on the engine for five years, we worked out the AI generally - the engine supports both simple geometry commands - like "move from A to B" - and complex ones, with moving through the points that are not visible to the player and to come to his rear at the end. This gives the ability of surrounding somebody. The engine can render both apartments and big well-detailed spaces, without "Loading" inscription. The rigid body physics is worked out a lot too - the things can be taken and thrown. Wonderful atmospheric sounds can help to plunge in the Colombian atmosphere, and dynamic music makes the player feel the atmosphere fully. Multiplayer modes are worked out, too. The system requirements are - 1GHz, 256 RAM, GF3.

GCM:	Finally, do you plan on releasing Xenus on any of the current “next-gen” consoles?
Deep Shadows:	The date of Xenus' release is the end of 2003. It is really interesting to port the game to one of consoles, but for the moment we're finishing it and we are fully concentrated at the PC version of Xenus. The question of port of the game will be settled by our publisher, Russobit-M.

GCM:	Thank you again for your time. Do you have any last impressions that you’d like to leave our readers with?
Deep Shadows:	We tried to answer you proudly, honestly and frankly. But, if you still have any questions or would like to discuss these - you're welcome to our official Xenus forum.

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