Today GameShark talks with Raphael Colantonio: Game Director and CEO Of Arkane Studios and Julien Roby: Associate Producer on Arx Fatalis for the Xbox to learn more about this upcoming first-person action role-playing game already popularized on the PC. Here we go:

GameShark: First off, it must have been an extreme honor to be called "the spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld 2" and "Ultima Underworld 3". Was there a direct connection from an inspirational sense to Looking Glass' popular dungeon romps and Arx?



Raphael Colantonio: Extreme honor is definitely what we feel whenever Arx is mentioned as the successor to the Underworld series. We've always had a lot of admiration for the Looking Glass spirit, so the connection with Arx is not an accident at all. In fact, a few former people from the looking Glass team participated to Arx, including Paul Neurath himself (former Looking Glass CEO, and one of the creators of the original Ultima Underworld). I contacted Paul and meet with him when we had only a very early version of Arx, I was honored to see how well he reacted to the early code, as he could recognize some of the spirit of Underworld in it, then he and his team accepted to direct some of the work, including speech recording, ambient sounds, dialogue rewriting, etc...





GameShark: Let's talk about the PC version of ARX. Can you give us a brief post mortem on what happened with the game after release? Was it forced out the door too quickly? And how has the game been received post-patches as opposed to its original retail state?



Raphael Colantonio: Yes, the PC version was definitely rushed out of the door to say the least. You know, Arx was our first game, and it was very difficult for us to find a publisher, selling an original game for a starting company is always something near to impossible. We eventually signed with Fishtank, who had a great gamer spirit (this is what we needed), but not much funding power. After 1 year of development, Fishtank went bankrupt and our game was sold to Jowood without ANY testing at all. We self-funded the development of the game for a while, including some in-house testing but with a very low budget as you can imagine. The new publisher thought the game was tested enough because of some confusion with all the games they acquired, and after a month of QA the game was in stores! A major publisher would have tested such a wide RPG for at least six months, or maybe even a year: RPGs are the hardest games to test, because there are tons of ways to do things, the overall structure is partially non-linear, etc... So, I think a succession of unfortunate events explain the lack of stability and balance of the very fist PC version, despite this, we still managed to achieve the 85-95% in the reviews! Then, as you might know, we've been releasing new patches for six months (at our own expenses), listening to feedbacks, balancing the game almost 'on the fly' according to what people where saying on the forums, etc... doing this until we only read good things on the forums and until all problems were fixed. I know it's definitely not the best way to proceed, neither for us, neither for the players, but we really did our best to finish off the game once released, even if it would cost us money. Anyway, all these issues and twisted situations have lead us to achieve a great Xbox version of the Arx Fatalis: the Xbox version is not just a port: It is a polished, revamped and enhanced version of what the PC version should have been in the first place ! I'm sure people will love it even more than the PC version !!





GameShark: Now let's talk about the Xbox version of the game - how long has it been in development and when did you finally get approval to do it from Microsoft?



Julien Roby: The game has been in development for around six months. We received approval from Microsoft around March/April 2003.





GameShark: Do you find the Xbox development environment to be similar to what you used for creating the PC version of the game?



Julien Roby: Not really. Working on a PC version means developing a game which could run on thousands of different PC configurations, whereas developing for a unique console help us a lot as most of a time, when the game runs on one Xbox it runs on all Xbox units. Another different thing is the console TRCs. When developing on PC you don't have these rules to follow. On the console side, you have many different "rules", like displaying critical gameplay texts in the inner 85% of the screen, which give you constraint and which obliged us to totally redesign the original interface, etc..





GameShark: Have you been able to bring the entire PC codebase over to the Xbox version ? Have you had to omit any content to make the game work on the console?



Julien Roby: Everything you've found in the PC version is in the Xbox version, minus the bugs. We've not removed any content or gameplay features.





GameShark: What are some game enhancements will the Xbox version of the game offer over the PC? What specific Xbox technologies or features are you taking advantage of?



Julien Roby: "First of all, the interface and controls have been redone from scratch to make it more accessible and user friendly. You'll also see graphic enhancements making use of Xbox-specific pixel shaders and shadow buffering. Also, according to player feedback, we've redesigned and adapted a lot of quests and game mechanics. I can also tell you that we've added a difficulty level option to make the combat easier if the player wants. So now, everybody will be able to enjoy the adventure even if you are not familiar with real-time first-person combat."

GameShark: One of the real challenges for Arkane Studios with the Xbox version of this game has to be the control scheme. How will the Xbox version support all the world and object manipulation found in the PC version while not driving players insane?



Julien Roby: As said previously, we're redone the interface from scratch to make it fit the Xbox joypad, everything from the quest book to the object interaction has been redesigned. Talking about item manipulation, you now have instant access to your inventory ring thanks to the Dpad. Just press it to open your inventory ring. If you want to combine items just open your ring select an object and point your crosshair to an in-scene object to combine them together it's that simple!





GameShark: Okay now for the meat and potatoes of this game - for those folks that have not played the PC version: Give us an overview of where the game is set, what kind of world it set in and what the main thrust of the story is for the player.



Julien Roby: The game takes place in an old fantasy kingdom called Arx, where the sun has died many years ago. Allow me to quote an actual sentence from the game intro itself, as it provides a good answer to your question:



"In the fatal year of 226, our sun began to fall into decline and an eternal winter fell upon our world... His Majesty Lunshire, noble son of Poxsellis, decided to move the whole city of Arx underground, into one of the dwarves' abandoned mines. Not just humans, but dwarves, trolls and goblins all worked together for their common survival. All the races finally built their homes in this new underground setting. But today, evil is knocking at the gates..."

GameShark: Tell us how magic works and why it's a very unique approach to old school role-playing



Julien Roby: Magic is based on two things in Arx Fatalis. On your skill and on runes you've found.



One of your character skills is "Magic Skill". Whatever your magic skill is, you can cast all the spells. However, the success level of the spell depends on your magic skill level. For instance you can cast "Summon Demon" with a low magic skill level, but there is a big probability you'll get a chicken instead...



The second important thing in Arx Fatalis when talking about Magic is the rune system. In the game you will find rune stones. Each rune stone means something. For instance "AAM" means "Create" and "YOK" means "Fire". So if you combine the power of these two runes you will get the spell "AAM YOK" or "Create Fire".



As each spell is done by a sequence that means something, you will be able to find new and secret spells if you find a rune sequence that means something. For instance, if you find the rune "TAAR" which means "Projectile" you can add it to the sequence "AAM TAAR" to get "AAM YOK TAAR" or "Create Fire Projectile".



When you know a spell sequence, then you have to cast the spell. To do so, you will have to draw each rune of the spells directly on your TV screen with your Xbox pad, as if you were a real wizard.



We use the Xbox directional pad to draw the shape of each rune. There is one combo for each rune, corresponding to the rune drawing. For instance the rune YOK which looks like a U is drawn by the combo Down, Right, Up.



You can also pre-cast up to five spells to be able to cast them directly during fights.

GameShark: Items offer a similar gameplay experimentation element give us an overview of how that works and a few examples just for fun.



Julien Roby: Interactivity is one of Arx's strong features. Most of the objects you will see in the game can be moved or used.



You've found a fire camp place? Ignite it; drop some raw pig ribs you've taken from a pig you've killed and three seconds later you will get a tasty roasted rib. Eat it when your character is starving or you'll lose hit points.



Arx features a lot of things like this: you can repair your weapon using an anvil. If you find an unforged blade, find a blacksmith's forge and forge your own weapon: activate the bellows and hit the blade with a hammer!



You can also mix up some food to create cool recipes: bread; apple; apple pie..



Also you will find some plants in the Arx world. Grab some and use them to brew potions in a laboratory.



Some other items you will find allow you to give magic properties to a weapon, armor or a ring when used along with the "enchant object" spell.



We've tried to put as many things and interactions as we could in the game: see the dog in the street? Give him some ribs and he'll follow you then. See the mice running in he caves? Drop some cheese and they'll come to eat it. See this torch on this wall? Douse it with a water bottle to sneak in the shadows...





GameShark: ARX is very replayable on the PC. Explain how the game offers different experiences based on the type of character you play and how the Xbox version retains that wonderful quality.



Julien Roby: During the game you will really play different things depending on your character skills choice: you will take part in violent and epic combats, you will experience arx unique magic system. Then you will also visit cities and solve some puzzles.



You will also be able to play with the lights and the shadows to sneak in dangerous locations, making sure your footsteps won't be heard by your enemy if you've chosen the stealth way.



You will interact with many items in many different ways: You can light a fire camp. Cook some ribs on the fire... or if you want to, you can take some time to prepare a pie with some dough and some water.. There are a lot of possible object combinations like this as said previously.



As everything depends on your skills, replaying the game choosing different skills will allow you to see new things and features. You won't see the same things and you won't solve your problems doing the same thing. One problem always have different ways to be solved.



Also the player can try to play the game completing his quest following a different order. The game features five different endings depending on the way you have deal with people during your quest. There are also some sub-quests the player can complete and many secrets to be found while exploring the different locations.



In fact, we give a direction to follow to the player but, at any time during his quest, he can jump off from the "wagon" and do his own things. We had a hard time making the game finish-able even if you've killed every NPCs from the game so when you replay the game you can really try different things and see how the game reacts."

GameShark: Will there be any Xbox exclusive content in the game?



Julien Roby: No exclusive content.





GameShark: Did you guys consider adding co-op play via Xbox Live or is that something you want to avoid (the whole multiplayer issue) for the time being? What's the major drawback to adding multiplayer to this game?



Julien Roby: Not for the moment.





GameShark: How many skills are there in the Xbox version? Give us a few examples for folks not familiar with the PC version.



Julien Roby: In addition to the four main attributes (strength, constitution, intelligence and dexterity), the game features nine different skills which will allow you to perform different action through your quest.



Object knowledge, for instance, is the skill which rules the effects of your action when trying to repair or poison your weapon. It also determines if you're able or not brew complex potions as invisibility potion.



We've also included a stealth skill which determines how much noise you're making when walking and if you're able or not to hide in the shadows. This skill is very useful for gamers who want to play a "Thief-life" character.



Close Combat Skill and Defense skill determine your combat skill: how much damage you're doing, your chance to do make critical strike, etc... The higher these skills, the more you'll be able to equip deadly weapons as two Handed Axes.



Here is a short overview of the other skills:



Technical Skill. It allows you to succeed at tasks such as picking locked doors and disabling traps.



Intuition. A sort of sixth sense which helps you to detect hidden objects such as secret passages and traps. Intuition also improves your nose for trading, allowing you to make better deals.



Ethereal link. This link warns you of the presence of hostile creatures on the map and gives you information about your opponent's status during fights. This skill also determines your mana regain rate.



Casting. This skill grants you access to different levels of spells. There are ten levels of spells. This skill also determines ability to protect yourself from magic."



Projectile. Gives you bonuses for striking and inflicting damage when using any long-distance weapon in a fight."

GameShark: How far along is the game at this point? What are you working on at the moment?



Julien Roby: Last week we've fixed the last bugs and we've submitted our first Master Candidate version to Microsoft. We're now working on the playable demo.





GameShark: What comes after the Xbox version of the game? Are you guys working on ARX 2 as well?



Julien Roby: Yes we're working on our next game as well but I can't tell you more at the moment.





GameShark: Any final thoughts on the Xbox version of the game that you'd like to share?



Julien Roby: We really hope the game will appeal to many gamers as we've tried our best to put in it as many things as we could from adventure, action, RPG and stealth gameplay.

Thanks to Julien and Raphael at Arkane Studios for taking the time to talk with us about the Xbox version of Arx Fatalis. Look for the game to hit retailers in the United States later this year and a possible playable demo on CD cover mount discs of your favorite magazines and Exhibition Discs. In the interim, check out the game's official site for further details.