Fuel or Fight, Deliver or Die – “Payload” Packs a Vehicular Combat Punch on N-Gage

by Louis Bedigian

 

“There's intrigue and drama and even some humor.”

 

In the good old days, smuggling was easy.  Cops didn’t have all the high-tech weaponry that they have today.  For the most part the government minded their own business, and the competition – what competition?  In the good old days, there were only a few, proud smugglers who ruled the roadways with an iron fist and a heavy foot.

 

Nowadays everyone wants in on the smuggling fun.  Your friend calls you up, “Hey man, I hear you’re goin’ for a drive tonight.”  You confirm, then the next thing you know your friend is telling everyone on the block that you know where some pricey goods are being kept.  Now everyone is on your tail.  Your car is being chased, your tires are being shot at, and the paint job is losing its shine.  Missiles are flying overhead; meanwhile you hold your breath waiting for the inevitable moment when one actually hits.

 

That’s no life for the weak, but it is just another day in the life of the drivers in Payload.  Combining elements of racing, driving and vehicular combat games, Payload is being designed exclusively for the Nokia N-Gage. 

 

 

 

The game has evolved since its E3 demo – Producers John Szoke and Andy Mazurek chat about the evolution, its features, gameplay mechanics, and more.

 

 

One of your previous titles, Worms World Party, was a port of a classic strategy game. Now you're doing Payload, an original game exclusively for N-Gage. Tell us about this experience, and what it has been like to go from having existing content to designing a game from the ground up.

 

John Szoke: This is every developer's dream. The mechanics of the game have floated around Tantalus for many years and was almost made into a Dreamcast game a while back. It was totally revamped and re-tooled for N-Gage.

 

Andy Mazurek: The differences are really in time and expectations. Since we were working with an existing IP, we knew exactly what we were going to get with Worms World Party since the art was already created and the gameplay tried and true. There was not a lot of room for 'new ideas' for the N-Gage version. My major function was gathering assets and distributing them to the various departments. With Payload, everything was new to us (Nokia). There was a lot of discussion on art style, look and feel of the world, game design... it was a lot more time consuming but I feel that there was more for us at the beginning to ensure that we were going to be happy with the product in the end. I think that the payoff has been well worth it!

 

Have you worked on other N-Gage titles? Have you worked on games for other platforms?

 

JS: This is our first N-Gage title and after some initial teething problems we really have a handle on the hardware. As a developer Tantalus has worked on every console since the SNES and currently have titles in development for PS2, Xbox, PSP, DS and GBA. We are a happy camp here at Tantalus and always busy :)

 

AM: I have worked on other N-Gage titles. Most notably WWE Aftershock and Atari Masterpieces Volume 1. I have been in the industry since 1992 so yes, I have worked on many other games on most of the platforms including PC, PSone, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, SNES, Palms.... I began my career at MicroProse, then went to Hasbro Interactive in 1999 who was purchased by Infogrames who then changed their name to Atari. I left Atari in 2003 and now work for Nokia. Some of the games I worked on in some capacity are many of the Civilization products, Pacific Air War, Master of Orion II, Monopoly Party, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Atari Anniversary Edition, Axis and Allies, Pac Man All Stars, X-Com... the list is endless.... 

 

 

 

For our readers who are unfamiliar with the game, how would you describe Payload's gameplay?

 

JS: You take the role of a futuristic courier piloting a super fast hover vehicle known as a skim.  It's a non-linear racing game where you blow the crap out of other players while trying to capture a lucrative fuel source all in a futuristic alternative universe. Oh, and the game is story-driven.  That's right...a racing game with dialog!

 

AM: In a word ... Intense! Like John said, you are racing around trying to secure the payload for yourself while avoiding the numerous other racers trying to do the same. Missiles are flying, skims are dodging...its all pretty damn intense.

 

The version I played at E3 was running at 23fps. You said that you were shooting for 25fps – how close are you to achieving that? The game ran smoothly, is it really necessary to get the extra two frames per second?

 

JS: It's always about the extra frames. You can't be in this industry and not want more fps.

 

AM: You always want to get the most out of the game.  I am always asking John and his team for miracles...i.e., more explosions, more crashes, more FPS, more this and more that...basically just more.  It has paid off and Payload has come a LONG way since the E3 build.

 

Last time we spoke you told me the basics of Payload's story. There's a new fuel source -- people want it and it's your job to get it. The story is going to be much deeper than that, however. Could you tell us more about it?

 

JS: If we go any deeper it would ruin the plot as there are a few twists and turns. We can say however we spent a lot of time on comic book styled cut scenes and that there are a lot of them. Way more than we originally planned.

 

AM: I think I will need to side with John on this one but I can tell you that the story is really fantastic. Yes, there is s new fuel source and like always, people want the fuel. The hard part is securing the rights to the fuel. There's intrigue and drama and even some humor. I think you and your readers will really like what Tantalus did, I know I sure do.

 

I know you guys are hoping to make this a game that anyone can pick up and play. Has this made it difficult to create AI that's fair, but challenging enough for hardcore players?

 

JS: This is always an issue. We've definitely created a game that is both easy to control and easy to blow away other skims. The AI on the other hand has been a challenge because we have large, open non-linear worlds. Therefore the AI needs to actually have some intelligence and it's been a real balancing act between making them too easy and far too difficult. We all agree that we have a nice system in place now.

 

AM: It’s always difficult to make a game that is easy for all players to pick up and play, manages to teach the novice player how to play the game and yet never manage to bore the hardcore player. Many try, few succeed. As a producer, you play the game day in and day out so you tend to get very good at the game. I rely on my fellow producers, our QA and the rest of my co-workers for exactly this type of feedback. If I could do this each and every time for all of my games and boil it down into some sort of formula, I'd be a very happy man.   

 

 

 

Do you have to get ALL the cash and ALL the kudos to advance from each mission, or is there room for imperfection?

 

JS: You do have to complete most of the missions but there are some branches in the game that are dictated by your performance.

 

AM: No, you do not have to be 100% perfect to advance as we have a branching story line.

 

At E3 I raced one of the game's 10 worlds. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere with rugged terrain and mountainous areas. What will the other worlds bring to the table?

 

JS: They are all big open areas that vary in density depending on the difficulty of the level. We've really concentrated on bringing a large, full 3D worlds to the N-Gage and hope that the players will appreciate the freedom and expansiveness.

 

AM: You raced in a world that we picked just for E3. We wanted the world in the E3 build to be fairly unpopulated so the player could concentrate more on the racing and shooting aspects of the game.

 

Is there one mission per each of the 10 worlds?

 

JS: No, there are lots more than that. There are many, many missions in this game along with a few forking paths.

 

AM: No there are numerous missions per world.

 

Weapons include mines, missiles and lasers. Any others? Are there multiple types of the mines, missiles or lasers?

 

JS: Currently each skim comes standard with 4 weapons. These are obviously different for each skim. The game has around 16 weapons at the moment with plans to possibly implement 10 more as power-ups. Therefore the final count could be as large as 26. There are 3 mine types, 7 or so missile types, 2 laser types and a few new weapons like the Tag Line that allows you to connect a cable to another skim and surf behind them.

 

AM: Yes, as we all know in games like this, weapons make the word go around...LOL.  We have numerous missile, mine and laser types. This will allow the player great range in customizing their skim weapons to suit how they like to play. Are they a close in fighter or a stand off missile fighter....

 

New content can be unlocked via the N-Gage Arena: additional vehicles, an additional single-player story mode, and other downloads. Talk about this.

 

JS: We are finalizing these at the moment but will definitely include as a minimum a whole new story mode complete with original art, a Demon skim and a heap of different skim textures (skins).

 

Approximately how many vehicles are being planned for Payload? Will these vehicles have unique traits, strengths and weaknesses, or are the vehicle choices primarily aesthetic?

 

JS: There are 10 skims all with variable settings, weapons and shield systems. Different vehicles also belong to different courier companies so it's all tied into the game and not just a different set of models and textures.

 

AM: Like John said, there are 10 skims with their own strengths and weaknesses. I really want each skim to feel different and unique.

 

George of the Jungle says: watch out for that tree!

 

 

How many multiplayer modes or options are there? Are the battles strictly competitive? What are the primary objective(s)?

 

JS: The player has the ability to configure all of the games/missions in the game including the actual mission mode, starting point, world, scan points, furium points, scan point order. The list goes on and on. There are hundreds of configurations.

 

All battles are competitive in that there is a winner and a number of losers at the end of the mission. The primary objective is based on the mission type. It could be something like a traditional race or "stacks on" i.e. everyone against the fuel cell holder. It's up to you!

 

Great.  Payload was exciting at E3, and everything you’ve said tells me the final version will be even better.

 

Thank you for your time.