“Shadowgrounds” Launches Players Into Space With One Mission: Destroy All Aliens!

by Louis Bedigian

“We don't recycle the buildings or locations at all, so every place the player visits is completely new.”

You can’t help but get excited about a game like Shadowgrounds.  “The Flamethrower has an awesome heat haze effect,” said Development Director Joel Kinnunen, describing his game’s uncanny eye candy.  “The Grenade Launcher really makes the aliens explode – look out for the chunks!”

Brings back memories of the season finale to Lost, doesn’t it?

Shadowgrounds, a game with powerful weapons, vicious adversaries (aliens), and more pulled triggers than the local shooting gallery. 

Frozenbyte is the development studio in charge of the project, and although you’d never guess it, Shadowgrounds is their first game.  Based in Helsinki, Finland, Frozenbyte opened its doors in 2001.  Years of hard work and intense programming have led to the creation of the game you see today.

Joel Kinnunen took some time away from his busy schedule to chat with GameZone Online about their exciting action shooter. 

Shadowgrounds has a very inspired look.  Were there any particular games that have been influencing its development?

Joel Kinnunen: Not really – we just wanted to recreate the old-school magic. We are huge fans of many classic PC action games, and thus it is kind of natural that Frozenbyte's first game pays a tribute to the overall feel of the games that we ourselves love so much.

The graphics are pretty intense – are these pre-rendered backgrounds we're looking at, or is everything in real-time?

JK: Everything is completely real-time. In the technological sense, Shadowgrounds could be compared to any third-person action game or first person shooter. We just wanted to make something different with the awesome technology that we have, and chose the top-down perspective for the game.

Light is being stressed as a key factor, both visually and in terms of the gameplay.  Each monster reacts differently to light, can you tell us more about that?

JK: Since the initial design, we have actually focused a bit more on the action and effects than on the light based gameplay. That said, however, we still have a lot of uses for the flashlight that the player carries. Most monsters react to the flashlight in someway – the small spider-like Scavengers run away, for example. We also have an enemy that stays in dark places and likes to sleep a lot. When the player harasses it with the flashlight, the creature wakes up and gets very, very angry. The end result is usually bad for the creature, but it could be fatal for the player if he's not alert at all times during the game.  

In what other ways is light being used to enhance the experience?

JK: We use light as a means of adding tension and creating interesting places. It also affects how the aliens move in the landscape. Many of the aliens prefer dark areas, so they try to stay away from brightly lit roads and so on.

In Shadowgrounds, light is good, darkness is bad.

We're dying to know all the gruesome details on Shadowgrounds's weapon collection.

JK: Shadowgrounds has a nice arsenal of weapons, and all of them are a joy to use. Each weapon stays useful all the way, even the pistol. You just have to use them right. I'd also like to mention that we have given a new punch to some of the stable action game weapons, like the Flamethrower or the Grenade Launcher. The Flamethrower has an awesome heat haze effect, for example, and the Grenade Launcher really makes the aliens explode – look out for the chunks!

Do the weapons have any secondary features or possible upgrades?

JK: You bet! Upgradeable weaponry is one of the biggest features of the game and has been partly inspired by RPGs. Each weapon can be modified with several upgrades, and I'm not talking about just adding more firepower and the like (you can do those too, sure). I'm talking about adding a new feature to the weapon, like Poison Grenades to the Grenade Launcher or Pinpoint Laser to the Laser Rifle. Most of the upgrades give a big boost to the original weapon or add a new functionality, which means they also give more tactical options to the player.

Tell us about the disgusting creatures we'll be battling, including the fearsome boss battles.

JK: There area good dozen of monsters, and some of them have variations as well. Some monsters are more focused on melee battles, whereas others stay at a distance and shoot at the player. Some of the harder enemies can do both, like the big Brute!

Boss battles occur a few times in the game, and the bosses are not just bigger versions of the normal aliens – they are totally different and the player has to use special tricks to beat them.  

This is an older shot from when the game was known as Preyground.

Could you describe one of the boss battles for us?

JK: One of the boss battles pits the player against a Cave Monster. It's a hard fight because the monster attacks the player vigorously, and follows him in the underground canyons. The player can trap the monster momentarily, but to kill it off for good, the player has to turn on the grinder machine by fixing the broken electrical circuits. Then he has to lure the Cave Monster to fall into the grinder by using himself as a bait!

Shadowgrounds is being touted as intense, action-heavy game – does that mean it will be free of mind-boggling puzzles?

JK: There are no puzzles in Shadowgrounds. We wanted to focus on the action – there are some elements (like the weapon upgrade system) that break the action every now and then, but we didn't want to do puzzles. Sometimes you have to find keycards or other items to progress or gain access to some cool new stuff, but that's all.

The dark graphics and violent enemies are reminiscent of a survival/horror game.  Does that mean there will shocking moments?  Example: you're walking around, minding your own business, when suddenly a monster pops out of nowhere with a loud, startling sound?

JK: Shadowgrounds is mainly an action game with a suspense twist. We are not making a horror game but we of course use some horror elements. For example, in the fourth mission of the game, the player enters a corridor that is brightly lit. His partner is monitoring the situation from a control center and is far away from the location. Suddenly the lights go out, and weird clanking noises start to appear. Soon the player will realize that the big Brutes are breaking through the metal doors! It's a very suspenseful moment – when the Brutes and other aliens get loose and start attacking the player, a great music track starts playing in the background.

Musically, what are you hoping to achieve?

JK: We have an in-house musician/sound engineer who has created a mind-blowing soundtrack for Shadowgrounds. We have a variety of different themes, and a lot of action music. The role of the music is to support the game, like in the above example. Some of the tracks are very dark and moody, but others are more cheerful, if things are going well for the characters. The music tracks are awesome, even when listened to without the context of the game. We even plan to release the soundtrack separately, too!

Shadowgrounds is set in space.  How many different locations will players get to visit?

JK: There are 14 missions in the game, each lasts about one hour. The locations vary greatly. In the beginning most of the missions happen in normal colony places, like in a power plant. In the middle of the game there is a semi-secret military vault, for example. Some missions even have a couple of different big locations and we don't recycle the buildings or locations at all, so every place the player visits is completely new.   

So you’re telling me that if I put out this flame, my flashlight is the only way I can see?

Are there going to be any online components?

JK: No. We wanted to focus on the single-player experience. However, we are planning to add a co-operative two-player game mode – it fits the old-school nature of the game, and us and our fans would love it. This is not 100% sure just yet, but I will keep you updated.

Gameplay is the most important part of any game, but Shadowgrounds promises an epic story with interesting characters.  Tell us about it.

JK: Our characters and story have evolved for a couple of years – they're great. Our main character is Wesley Tyler, a mechanic working in a Repair Base on terraformed Ganymede, Jupiter's moon. Soon after the beginning, he will hook up with Jane Arwyn, who is a mid-rank military officer and one of the few women serving in space. The story starts with a humble beginning ("What's going on?") but the action and the drama escalate mission by mission ("We must strike back!"). We use cut scenes and dialogue (spoken and text) to unfold the story.

Thank you for your time.