103 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
103 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
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WIZARD DUEL (SNEAK PREVIEW)
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For a computer gamer, there are certain perks to living in Silicon Valley.
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Not only do most national software retailers have stores here, but several game
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developers also have their headquarters right here within easy driving
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distance. When Karl Buiter invited me to go visit him at Tsunami Productions in
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Redwood City and take a sneak peek at the new game they were working on, I
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eagerly accepted.
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Tsunami Productions is a game development company founded by Joe Ybarra. To
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anyone who follows the computer gaming industry, Joe Ybarra requires no
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introduction. He was the co-founder of the hugely successful Electronic Arts
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and was personally responsible for producing a large number of best selling
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games.
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When asked why he founded Tsunami Productions, Joe replied that he had always
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wanted to be involved in a hands-on environment in the game design end of the
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business. Tsunami will develop complex games with depth in story telling,
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strategies and simulations and will not be limited by the confines of specific
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genres. Initially Tsunami will develop games for the MS-DOS and SNES platforms,
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with other 16-bit cartridge systems and CD-ROM as potential possibilities.
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Helping Joe in his efforts are Karl Buiter, who has several successful
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role-playing games such as SENTINEL WORLDS 1 and HARD NOVA to his credit, and
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Mike Moore, who produced CIRCUIT'S EDGE for the Infocom label and was the
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designer and producer of the very popular Activision solitaire game SHANGHAI
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II. There are also several programmers and graphics artists, all working
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together on Tsunami's first product. Judging from what I was shown that day,
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this is a group of considerable talent, and Tsunami Productions will be a force
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to be reckoned with in the game design business.
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Tsunami's first game, WIZARD DUEL (working title), is the brain child of
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Joe Ybarra, who got the inspiration from an Avalon Hill board game titled
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WAR OF THE WIZARDS. In the computer game, the player has to enter six
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uniquely different arenas, or realms, and defeat the evil wizards and their
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minions that dwell in them in order to restore peace in the magic world.
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In order to succeed in defeating the evil wizards, the player must learn
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how to mix magical potions in order to cast various magic spells. There are
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five kinds of ingredients found in each potion. The actual ingredients and the
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amounts you use in mixing the potion will control the various properties of the
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resulting spell ranging from the type of spell it will cast to its duration,
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effective radius and intensity, etc. A significant part of the game (and fun)
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is going to the laboratory to experiment with various potion formulas and
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fine-tune the recipes of your favorite spells. As Mike explained, "It's like a
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giant chemistry set without the mess."
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To gather clues and ingredients, the player has to make frequent trips in
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the real world ("the mundane world," as it's known in the game). Famous
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locations such as the Stonehenge and the Sphinx appear as digitized scans of
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real photos. There are plenty of Non-Playing Characters (NPCs) for you to
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meet and interact with. I was surprised to see that NPC portraits were also
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digitized scans. And I was even more surprised when Karl told me, after a loud
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chuckle, that the portraits were actually hand-drawn paintings. They were that
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good!
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Each arena/realm has its own unique terrain and characteristics, some of which
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will even affect your selection of magic spells. For example, you will be
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overly optimistic if you try to cast fireballs and expect them to be effective
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in the water realm. I saw quite a bit of the fire and water realms, and I must
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say that the graphics were excellent. The view was presented as an oblique
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overhead, but remained fairly close to the ground. The characters were twice
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the size of those in ULTIMA VI, and they showed a lot of painstaking details.
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Supporting only 256-color VGA, the artists really made good use of the entire
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palette. Each screen was like a beautiful painting, with lush landscapes and
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realistic figures.
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The game is full of animation. Everything from the movements of all the
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characters to flowing water in a river are smoothly rendered. But what really
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stole the show for me were the many unique magical effects. You see, in this
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game, you don't just cast a spell and then read about what happens. You get to
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see the full results of all of your spells, complete with digitized sounds
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effects. The game did not have all the effects finished at the time of the
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demo, but I was _really_ impressed at what had been achieved so far. My jaw
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must have dropped a foot when they showed me the effect of the rock spell. You
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just have to try it and see for yourself.
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For the CRPG fan, this game has a complete plot, a main quest, and various
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side missions important to the story. For the strategy/war game fan, the
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program boasts individual AI for each evil wizard with full movement controls
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allowed in combat. Although magic is the main attraction here, other physical
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weapons are available and they do have certain advantages that will justify
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their use. Finally, simulation fans should not feel left out. Concocting
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various spell potions and deriving formulas for new spells promise to be an
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enchanting experience. Mike mentioned that he might decide to bury an Easter
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Egg or two in there as well.
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Karl told me that they expect the game to be released around Thanksgiving. It
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will support 256 VGA _only_ and all major sound cards. Memory requirement will
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be somewhere between 450K to 580K and expanded memory will be utilized, if
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available. A fast machine (>10MHz) is recommended to do justice to all the
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special effects in this game. Please note that all these hardware data are
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subject to change as the game is being further developed.
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I consider myself a fairly experienced player in adventures and CRPGs. I am
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not easily impressed by dazzling graphics and clever sound effects. But what I
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saw of this game really blew my socks off. While I was there, I also saw a
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self-running demo which they had used at CES. Of course, I immediately
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encouraged Karl and Mike to upload it to GAMPUB. Folks, take a look at this
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demo when it becomes available. You will _not_ be disappointed!
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