To Infinity and Beyond – “Space Interceptor: Project Freedom” Sends you into Battle Across the Galaxy

by Louis Bedigian

“We were trying to show the space, nebulas, asteroid fields, starships, existing and imagined planets and moons in the most attractive visual way possible.”

It’s not everyday that a game evolves over the course of its development.  You can expect to see big changes if you compare how the game looks after three months of development to how it looks after 12 months.  But rarely does a game change as drastically as Space Interceptor: Project Freedom has. 

As you can tell from this gorgeous screen, Space Interceptor is a space combat game.  The ship’s interior details are particularly noteworthy, and the explosions are just plain awesome.

Originally known as Project Freedom (and still being called that outside of the US), Space Interceptor takes you far beyond the ground battles experienced on Earth.  You’ll have to travel to many different planets with the objective of destroying your opponent.  Could be alien, could be robotic – it might even be human.  Shoot first, check the species later.

Given the changes that the game has gone through, GameZone Online had an intergalactic chat with Krzysztof Jakubowski (Project Manager/Lead Programmer, City Interactive) to find out where the game is today.

Without playing it, the most impressive thing about the game is its graphics.  Besides what we see in the screenshots, what kind of visuals will Project Freedom display?

Krzysztof Jakubowski: We were trying to show the space, nebulas, asteroid fields, starships, existing and imagined planets and moons in the most attractive visual way possible.  There are so many detailed features, that there is no point in mentioning them all. We emphasized the special effects such as explosions and the look of starships' engines. Thanks to modern technologies such as pixel shaders 2.0 the graphics are very dynamic and luminous.

In what year does the game take place?  Who are the game's leading heroes and villains?

KJ: The time of action isn't exactly defined, [but] it's about the year 2500.  The game characters are pilots from the player's squadron, their commanders and pilots from friendly or enemy corporations.  There are also two species of Aliens.

This world is on fire!

What are your attack methods in this game?  What kind of spacecraft weapons can you use?

KJ: We have the following weapons:

*Laser gun - the basic weapon of our fighter, a very fast and universal weapon

*AIR- AIR - self guided missiles used to destroy fighters

*AIR- GROUND - self guided missiles, optimized for destroying ground targets and modules of big ships. A bit slower that the AIR-AIR missiles, but also more powerful.

*PLASMA - glowing bolts of energy, very powerful, but they take more time to load and are more difficult to target since they don't have the self-guide ability.

*PROTON - huge missiles of tremendous power. They move slowly and take a long time to reload, but they can destroy virtually every object in the game.

All weapons can be upgraded by developing the ATTACK branch – their behavior, efficiency and power will change significantly.

As Yoda would say, “Small but impressive, this explosion is.”

How many spacecrafts are going to be at the player's disposal?

KJ: One, but it can develop in many different ways. The player chooses a branch of development and sets the area of scientific research. The ship improves in the following branches:

*ATTACK - weapon development.

*DEFENCE - defensive systems such as force fields, repair robots, etc.

*SPEED - engines, boosters, etc.

Is it hard to create a game that's set in space without making it feel too spacey?  How do you balance the infinity of space with the boundaries of game development?

KJ: Space Interceptor is an action game, so the player concentrates on the plot rather than exploring the space.  Traveling too far from the operation spot is impossible, because it would lead to losing the mission.

To that end, just how big is Project Freedom?

KJ: Hmm.  It has 21 missions that are quite long. It will definitely take more than one evening to finish the game, but we should not expect weeks of entertainment.

On the other hand, the game contains lots of graphics, spaceships, planets, sound effects and music.  Every mission has its surprises.
 

Has space combat ever looked this good?  I think not.

How will the different planets affect the gameplay?  What will it be like for a player to go from Earth to Mars and beyond?

KJ: Each planet is a completely different world. The mission plot, action and various terrain shapes add to the diversity. It does affect the gameplay; after all flying through deep canyons of Mars is a completely different experience than traveling over the rather flat Moon.

How has Project Freedom come together from concept to final in-game creations?  How do the ships and game worlds compare to the original vision?

KJ: Yes, it's true that the game went through a bit of evolution, that's why we can find a lot of obsolete information on the Internet, most of which comes from the first phase of production, when we still thought it will be an RTS!  Then it transformed into an action game, a relaxing shooter. This change had to affect the graphic design which became more detailed, because we see everything from a much closer distance.  The storyline was changed, as well as some of the concepts.
 
Describe the controls.  How do they differ with each ship?

KJ: The controlling is very simple, we just point the flight direction with the mouse cursor (or another device). We change the speed with the mouse roller, we use the left mouse button to shoot with the laser, the right one to shoot with a chosen secondary weapon, such as missiles or plasma. The remaining functions are:

• Boost

·         Show Objectives

·         Change Camera

·         Pause Game

·         Strafe

·         Roll

·         Weapon 1

·         Weapon 2

·         Weapon 3

·         Weapon 4

·         Quick save
 

More explosions to feast your eyes on.

Some of the screenshots from the City Interactive Web site were taken on ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro.  Are ATI's high-end offerings the preferred graphic cards for this game?  Are there any alternatives that would be just as efficient?

KJ: The recommended system requirements [are] ATI Radeon 9500 PRO (GeForce 5600FX) class gfx card, 64 MB RAM.  The game will run very smoothly with such adapters.

What kind of a threat will players face in this game?  How fierce are the enemies?  How big is their army?

KJ: Te danger comes from all sides, at the beginning we fight mostly the enemy corporations, then we meet Alien invaders who are the most fierce and ruthless of our enemies.  Fortunately we can also encounter some allies in the space.

Thank you for your time.